Andrea Yates Case Study Psychology

739 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Major depressive disorder essay

I would diagnose Andrea Yates with major depressive disorder (MDD). This disorder is a serious clinical mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, frustration, loss or anger interfere with a person’s everyday life. The exact cause of major depressive disorder is not known, however many researchers believe it is linked to chemical changes in the brain, problems with a person's genes, or a combination of both. It tends to run in families, but can also occur in those with no family history of the disease. As stated in the case study, Andrea’s mother and 3 of her siblings were diagnosed with serious mood disorders or alcohol abuse. Symptoms of MDD may include: irritability, difficulty with concentration, fatigue or lack of energy, feelings of hopelessness and/or helplessness, feelings of worthlessness, guilt, or self-hate, social isolation, loss of interest in once pleasurable activities, sleep problems (insomnia or excessive sleeping) and suicidal ideation or behavior. In more severe cases of MDD, patients may experience psychotic symptoms such as delusions or hallucinations. Andrea shows signs of many of these symptoms. She is having hallucinations of people being stabbed and being possessed by the devil. She is …show more content…

Andrea was initially charged with capital murder: “intentionally and knowingly” causing the deaths of her children. Although she knew that killing her children was wrong, she had done so believing that it was the only way that she could save them from Hell. In her second trial, it was recognized how she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and had lost her grip from reality. Andrea was in Kohlberg’s pre-conventional level of reasoning. In level one, actions are determined to be good or bad depending on the reward or punishment. Andrea’s reasoning was the reward for her decision of killing her children would be her children wouldn’t go to Hell and they would be

Show More
Related

  • Ben Selkow's A Summer In The Cage

    1410 Words  | 3 Pages

    Within this definition are the three D’s. The three D’s are distress, dysfunction, and deviant. Distress is symptoms or experiences that are troubling, confusing, or out of the ordinary to ones self or others. While Ben, the filmmaker and Sam are filming the documentary on street basketball; Sam had his first manic episode. He became very elevated as a whole. Selkow talked about how Sam would call and leave multiple messages all throughout the night. This showed that Sam wasn’t getting the sleep he needed. A troubling symptom Sam had was when he had thoughts of suicide. This was brought on when Sam was at his depressed stage in his disorder. Towards the end of the documentary, he admits to Ben that he did have thoughts of suicide and at one of those times he almost went through with it. Sam’s dad committed suicide after struggling with bipolar disorder. Sam didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of his father, which may have given him the upper hand when having to deal with those thoughts. If Sam didn’t have this psychological disorder he wouldn’t have these troubling or confusing symptoms. Dysfunction is the inability to function as expected in social and occupational activities. When Sam was in his depressed state, he found it hard to hold a job. He would lose interest and was also fatigue. In Sam’s manic state,

    Read More

  • Disco Di Case Study

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    Disco Di have shown these symptoms during her time when she ran away from her parents because they would not pay attention to her. She got into drugs use, had many promiscuous relationships with boys. Her relations with these boys were full off passion and chaotic with many violent arguments. She would seek out excitements such as getting drunk and go dancing where she would leave with strange men then have intercourse. After being admitted to a hospital, she would always expect and demanded that people would always have to pay attention to her. Also, I believe this because in the journal “Histrionic Personality Disorder” it stated “Histrionic PD is indicated when people exaggerate their emotions and go to excessive lengths to seek attention” (Crawford et al, 2007) and this is indicated when Disco Di ran away from home because she believed her parent did not pay enough attention to her. Next, the diagnostic feature of her other disorder, borderline personality disorder, is that mark of instability of mood, unstable relationships, chronic feeling of emptiness and recurrent threats of

    Read More

  • Parental Filicide Case Study

    1537 Words  | 4 Pages

    The reasons or categories for committing filicide include: altruistic filicide, acutely psychotic filicide, unwanted child filicide, accidental filicide, and spousal revenge filicide. The cases that will be discussed in this paper will fall under the altruistic filicide, acute psychotic filicide, and unwanted child. One case that was highly publicized and brought filicide to the forefront of America’s minds was Andrea Yates. Andrea murdered all five of her children by drowning them in the bathtub in her home. Prior to this incident, Andrea had been in and out of hospitals and mental health institutions for depression and psychosis (West).

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Tandolfo The Great

    1257 Words  | 3 Pages

    depression” as presented by the National Institute of Mental Health these are all actions and symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder, DID,.

    Read More

  • Bipolar Disorder: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

    2011 Words  | 5 Pages

    Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks, which can impair the individual's ability to function in ordinary life. Symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They are different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through from time to time (Bressert, 2006). Bipolar disorder symptoms can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. But bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives. Treatment commonly includes mood stabilizing medication and psychotherapy (Smith & Segal, 20...

    Read More

  • Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD):

    1444 Words  | 3 Pages

    MPD has been called many different things from split personality to what is it referred to in this century as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). When you research all of the categories associated with MDP, they still calculate to MPD. MPD is a mental illness or disorder caused from abuse. The abuse may be emotional, mental, or physical. The abuse may be from someone the individual knows or someone that has kidnapped them. To cope with the abuse a person will create an alter personality that will take all the pain and abuse the individual is feeling or seeing. Alters can have different ages, likes, and dislikes, names, races, and gender. Millions feel MPD does not exist. Including twenty-five-year old G.L. Seeking help with, some problems G.L. therapist proved her wrong about MPD by diagnosing her with MPD. Like most, that have MDP G.L. thought she was crazy and even had thoughts of committing suicide. She did not know what was happening so she finally decided to seek professional help. She found she had six other alter selves, five women and one man. As a child, G.L. was being sexual abused from the age of three to eleven ...

    Read More

  • Schizoaffective Disorder Essay

    2430 Words  | 5 Pages

    I’m sure you’re thinking that you’re more confused now than when you started but not to worry! What all of this means is the person exhibits symptoms of Schizophrenia and also has symptoms of a mood disorder like major depression and/or mania. Some describe Schizoaffective Disorder as Schizophrenia with Bi-polar Disorder. Although it is a little more complicated than that, it is a good overall generalization of the disorder. The symptoms of Schizophrenia include hallucinations such as hearing voices and seeing things that are not there, delusions, disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, and the decrease or lack of speech, movement, or emotion. Along with these symptoms the patient will have periods of depression (disinterest in l...

    Read More

  • Types Of Personality Disorder In The Movie Mommie Dearest

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first disorder is bipolar disorder, also known as “manic depression”. Bipolar disorder is when someone experiences dramatic ups and downs in moods, periods of mania or extreme excitement characterized by hyperactivity and chaotic behavior (Rathus, 2010). Studies show that biological factors create vulnerability to the disorder and experiences such as sleep deprivation can

    Read More

  • Dissociative Identity Disorder

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sexual molestation, beating, neglect, burning, and verbal abuse. All of these horrible happenings are believed to be linked to a condition known as Multiple personality disorder (MPD). Multiple personality disorder, also known as dissociative identity disorder, is a mental illness in which a person has two or more identities or personalities. Single personalities randomly take control of the individual's behavior. Usually, the sufferer gives the personalities their own names. These multiple personalities almost always have characteristics that greatly differ from the person's primary identity. A person with this disorder always experiences some amount of amnesia. Most of the time the individual forgets what each personality has done or said.

    Read More

  • Road to recovery

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...h with their own symptoms, causes, and solutions. In anxiety disorders, the affected person will experience dread or fear in response to certain situations or places. In severe cases, the person cannot regulate these feelings, which could possibly result in an attack. In mood disorders, the affected person feels fluctuating emotions in extremes. Among these, the most common include bipolar disorder and depression. In psychotic disorders, the victim has a distorted perception of reality, involving thinking and the five senses. The most common symptoms include visual hallucinations, hearing voices or other delusions, and the person cannot decipher these hallucinations from reality. In eating disorders, the person experiences compulsions involving food, weight, and self image. Among these disorders, the most common include bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating disorder.

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Case of Andrea Yates

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    When viewed from a strictly medical, psychological aspect, Andrea Yates medical history indicates that after the birth of her first child, she began to suffer from various forms of depression and suicide attempts. If one only examines the paper trail and doesn’t think beyond what the medical history does or does not indicate, then perhaps, Andrea would be innocent by reason of mental insanity as the 2006 acquittal suggest. However, when viewed form a legal aspect there are several inconstancies that challenge if this former nurse was insane or if she in fact premeditated the murder of her children as well as her acquittal.

    Read More

  • Postpartum Psychosis Essay

    835 Words  | 2 Pages

    Further, the sufferer experiences frequent hallucinations, becomes paranoid, and suspicious. In other cases, the individual becomes unable to sleep and has difficulties communicating coupled with rapid mood swings.

    Read More

  • Psychology Applied to John Q. Archibald

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    This case study explores how a sudden life change affects certain behaviors and psychological changes in an individual. In the film, “John Q.”, the main character, John Q. Archibald, who is played by Denzel Washington, experiences a sudden life change when his son, Michael Archibald, is suddenly diagnosed with cardiomegaly. Cardiomegaly is an abnormal enlargement of the heart and requires a heart transplant for long term survival. In the beginning of the movie, John Q. Archibald’s wife’s car was repossessed due to non-payment, his hours were reduced at work, and he could not find a second job to support his family.

    Read More

  • The Many Causes Of Depression: What Is Depression?

    1393 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some symptoms are Feeling of guilt, hopelessness, worthlessness, pessimism, and/or Irritability. There’s also having difficulty concentrating, making decisions, remembering details, sleeping, having become uninterested in hobbies and activities. Overeating, major appetite loss, sad/empty feelings, anxiety, fatigue, decrease energy, and thoughts/actions of suicide are also a symptom.

    Read More

  • Essay On Mental Illness

    2939 Words  | 6 Pages

    condition that changes a person’s thinking, feelings or/and behavior which causes said person difficulty along with difficulty in functioning. Mental illness can be severe in some cases while mild in others, making one appears to not be sick at all. The ones that are severe, displays more explicit symptoms such as confusion, agitation and/or withdrawal. There are many different forms of mental illness such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism depression, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Each of these mental illnesses alters a person’s thoughts, feelings and or behavior in distinctive ways. For example a person with ADHD has such features as being disorganized, a depressed person experience feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt and a person with schizophrenia may have delusions which is false beliefs such as conspiracies, mind control, or persecution (NIH, 2013). Often society calls for individuals with severe cases of mental illness to be locked away and be out of sight. However sadly in most cases they are locked away in jails or prison.

    Read More

More about Andrea Yates Case Study Psychology

Open Document