Ch.15 Psychological Disorders Flashcards
Mental Disorder
Persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behavior, thoughts or emotions that causes significant distress or impairment
History of Disorders
Result of religious or supernatural forces; people are feared and ridiculed for deviating from the normal
Medical Model
Abnormal psychological experiences conceptualized as illnesses that, like physical illnesses have biological and environmental causes, defined symptoms, and possible cures
Diagnosis
First step to determining the nature of the problem, assessing signs and symptoms
Signs
Objectively observed indicators
Symptoms
Subjectively reported behavior, thoughts and emotions
Disease
Known pathological process affecting the body
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Standardized system for classifying mental disorders, describing features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicating how the disorder can be distinguished from another
Comorbidity
Co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual
Etiology
Pattern of causes
Prognosis
A typical course over time and susceptibility to treatment and cure
Biopsychosocial Perspective
Explains mental disorders as the result of interactions among biological, psychological and social factors
Diathesis-Stress Model
Person may be predisposed for a psychological disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress
Research Domain Criteria Project (RDoC)
Guide to classification and understanding of mental disorders by revealing the basic processes that give rise to them
Anxiety Disorder
Class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant feature
Phobic
Marked, persistent and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities or situations
Specific Phobia
Irrational fear that interferes with an individual’s ability to function
Social Phobia
Irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed
Preparedness Theory
People are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears
Panic Disorder
Sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror
Agrophobia
Phobia of public places
Sodium Lactate
Chemical that produces rapid, shallow breathing and heart palpitations
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Unrelenting worries not focused on any particular threat; restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension and sleep disturbace
OCD
Repetitive, intrusive thoughts and ritualistic behaviors designed to fend off those thoughts interfere significantly with an individual’s functioning
PTSD
Chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and avoidance of things that call the traumatic event to mind
Mood Disorders
Mood disturbance as predominant feature
Depressive Disorder
Severely depressed mood and inability to experience pleasure that lasts 2 or more weeks, accompanied by feelings of worthlessness, lethargy and sleep and appetite disturbance.
Dysthymia
Same cognitive and bodily problems as in depression are present, but they are less severe and last longer, persisting for at least two years
Double Depression
Moderately depressed mood that persists for at least two years and is punctuated by periods of major depression
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern
Helplessness Theory
Individuals who are prone to depression automatically attribute negative experiences to causes that are internal (their own fault), stable (unlikely to change), global (widespread)
Negative Schema
Biases in interpretations of information, attention, memory
Bipolar Disorder
Cycles of abnormal, persistent, high mood and low mood
Expressed Emotion
Measure of how much hostility, criticism and emotional over-involvement are used when speaking about a family member with a mental disorder
Schizophrenia
Profound disruption of basic psychological processes; distorted perception of reality; altered or blunted emotion; disturbances in thought
Positive Symptoms
Not seen in those without the disorder: Hallucinations, Delusions, Disorganized speech & behavior
Negative Symptoms
Deficits to normal emotions and behaviours
Cognitive Symptoms
Deficits to cognitive abilities
Dopamine Hypothesis
Idea that schizophrenia involves an excess of dopamine activity
ASD
Beginning in early childhood in which a person shows persistent communication deficits as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities
ADHD
Persistent pattern of severe problems with inattention and hyperactivity or impulsiveness that cause significant impairments in functioning
Conduct Disorder
Persistent pattern of deviant behavior involving aggression to people or animals, destruction to property
Personality Disorders
Enduring patterns of thinking, feeling or relating to others
Types of Personality Disorders
odd/eccentric
dramatic/erratic
anxious/inhibited
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others
Suicide
Intentional self-inflicted death
Suicide Attempt
Intention of dying
Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
Direct, deliberate destruction of body tissue in the absence of any intent to die
[Lecture] Andrea Yates
Murdered all four of her children and drowned them one by one, and called the police
[Lecture] Bedlam Hospital
One of the first major asylums for mental illnesses
[Lecture] Phillip Pinel
To understand these people, we must interact with these people
[Lecture] Nosology
Classification of diseases, dividing the world of illnesses to different types
[Lecture] Medical Student Syndrome
Medical students have a conviction that they have the disorder they discuss in class. Symptoms can be confusing; they can mean different things.
[Lecture] Physical VS Mental Illnesses
Mental illnesses differ from physical illnesses because physical illnesses can be tested—there are tests for that—while there is none for mental illnesses. Thus you’re left with just looking at the symptoms = problematic.
[Lecture] Problems of Classification
1) Basis of symptoms
2) Continual vs discrete nature
3) Comorbidity
4) Ethnic / cultural considerations
[Lecture] GAD
Worry about future
[Lecture] Panic
Worry about body
[Lecture] Phobia
Worry about specific object
[Lecture] OCD
Worry about thought
[Lecture] PTSD
Worry about past experience
[Lecture] Etiology
Causes
[Lecture] Neuropsychology vs Psychopathology
Neuropsychology examines how overt brain injury affects cognition. Psychopathology examines how covert brain injury affects cognition. This is the difference. The latter is more complicated, because we suspect that there are underlying issues, but instead we end up having to work with symptoms instead.
[Lecture] Diathesis-Stress Model
Preexisting risk or propensity to possess something, but this is not enough. There must be a stressor that makes risk factor manifest.
