Abnormal Psychology Flashcards
Psychological disorders
Any condition characterized by cognitive and emotional disturbances, abnormal behaviors, impaired functioning, or any combination of these. Such disorders cannot be accounted for solely by environmental circumstances and may involve physiological, genetic, chemical, social, and other factors.
Difference between DSM and ICD
ICD produced by the WHO, a global health agency with a constitutional public health mission. DSM produced by a single national professional association.
The ICD is approved by the World Health Assembly, composed of the health ministers of all 193 WHO member countries; the DSM is approved by the assembly of the American Psychiatric Association.
WHO’s primary focus for the classification is to help countries to reduce the disease burden of mental disorders. ICD’s development is global, multidisciplinary and multilingual; the primary constituency of the DSM is U.S. psychiatrists.
Factors in classifying disorders
- Deviation from social norm
- Level of distress to others
- Subjective distress: feelings of dissatisfaction, anxiety, etc / physiological symptoms / unwanted thoughts
- Intensity of behavior
- Impairment of adaptive functioning
- Time period
Categories in the traditional classical system of classification
- Brain syndrome: damage to brain tissue
- Psychosis: distorted perception of reality
- Neurosis: mild disorders, but reality is not grossly impaired
- Personality disorders: long-standing maladaptive personality patterns
Categories in the DSM
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
- Clinical syndromes: brain syndrome, psychosis, neurosis
- Personality disorders
Infantile Autism
Neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by markedly impaired social interactions and verbal and nonverbal communication; narrow interests; and repetitive behaviour.
Symptoms appear before age 3 but vary greatly across developmental level, language skills, and chronological age.
May include a seeming lack of awareness of the feelings of others, impaired ability to imitate, absence of social play, abnormal speech, abnormal nonverbal communication, and a preference for maintaining environmental sameness.
Causes for autism
- Abnormally high or low levels of physiological arousal
- Cerebral lateralization: Key language functions centered in the RH
- Genetic factors: Having an immediate family member with autism
5 disorders on the autism spectrum
Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs): Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, Rett’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)
Bulimia nervosa
An eating disorder involving recurrent episodes of binge eating (i.e., discrete periods of uncontrolled consumption of abnormally large quantities of food) followed by inappropriate compensatory behaviors (e.g., self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives, fasting, excessive exercise).
Abuse versus dependence
Abuse: Maladaptive use patterns of substances (being intoxicated all day)
Dependence: Physical addiction showing tolerance and withdrawal symptoms; actual alterations in body’s physiology; sometimes brain impairment.
Flat affect
Total or near absence of appropriate emotional responses to situations and events; bland lacklustre mood
Schizophrenia
A psychotic disorder characterized by disturbances in thinking (cognition), emotional responsiveness, and behavior, with an age of onset typically between the late teens and mid-30s.
Characteristics of schizophrenia
Disturbances must last for at least 6 months & include at least 1 month of active-phase symptoms comprising two or more of the following:
Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, or negative symptoms (e.g., lack of emotional responsiveness, extreme apathy), disorganized thinking
Associated with marked social or occupational dysfunction.
Catatonic schizophrenia
A relatively rare subtype of schizophrenia characterized by abnormal motor activity, specifically motor immobility (catatonic stupor) or excessive motor activity (catatonic excitement).
Extreme negativism (apparently motiveless resistance to all instructions or maintenance of a rigid posture against attempts to be moved) or mutism; peculiarities of voluntary movement, such as posturing or stereotyped movements; and echolalia or echopraxia.
Disorganized schizophrenia
A subtype of schizophrenia characterized primarily by random and fragmented speech and behavior and by flat or inappropriate affect, frequently associated with grimaces, odd or unusual mannerisms, laughter, and extreme social withdrawal.
Paranoid schizophrenia
A subtype of schizophrenia, characterized by prominent delusions or auditory hallucinations. Delusions are typically persecutory, grandiose, or both; hallucinations are typically related to the content of the delusional theme. Cognitive functioning and mood are affected to a much lesser degree than in other types of schizophrenia.
Causes for schizophrenia
Suggested reason -
Family interaction: possibly having one parent who was overcontrolling and critical
Biological factors: birth defects, dopamine hypothesis, enlarged/small cerebral ventricles
Multitheory approach - biological susceptibility combined with high stress or unhappy family history
Paranoid personality disorder
A personality disorder characterized by
(a) pervasive, unwarranted suspiciousness and distrust (e.g., expectation of trickery or harm, overconcern with hidden motives and meanings);
(b) hypersensitivity (e.g., being easily slighted or offended, readiness to counterattack); and
(c) restricted affectivity (e.g., emotional coldness, no true sense of humor).
Major depressive disorder
A mood disorder characterized by persistent sadness; poor or increased appetite with significant weight loss or gain; insomnia or excessive sleep; psychomotor agitation or retardation; loss of energy with fatigue; feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt; reduced ability to concentrate or make decisions; and recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal ideation, or attempted suicide, but without accompanying episodes of mania or hypomania or mixed episodes of depressive and manic or hypomanic symptoms.
Period of at least 2 weeks.
Causal theories of mood disorders
Life experience: reinforcement and social interaction
Cognitive processes: learned helplessness, arbitrary inference, overgeneralization, selective abstraction, and magnification & minimisation
Biological factors: low levels of norepinephrine present for info transmission
Manic episodes
A period characterized by elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, often with several of the following symptoms: an increase in activity or psychomotor agitation; talkativeness or pressured speech; flight of ideas or racing thoughts; inflated self-esteem or grandiosity; a decreased need for sleep; extreme distractibility; and intense pursuit of activities that are likely to have unfortunate consequences.
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar I disorder, in which the individual fluctuates between episodes of mania or hypomania and major depressive episodes
Bipolar II disorder, in which the individual fluctuates between major depressive and hypomanic episodes
Cyclothymic disorder
Phobia
A persistent and irrational fear of a specific situation, object, or activity, which is consequently either strenuously avoided or endured with marked distress.
Generalized anxiety disorder
Excessive anxiety and worry about a range of concerns accompanied by such symptoms as restlessness, fatigue, impaired concentration, irritability, muscle tension, and disturbed sleep. The worry is often experienced as difficult to control, and the various symptoms that accompany the worry and anxiety occur on more days than not for a period of 6 months or more.
