Chapter 12 - Psychological Disorders

Question 1

What is trephining?

Answer 1

In ancient times, holes were cut in an ill person’s head to let out evil spirits.

Question 2

What did Hippocrates believe about mental illness?

Answer 2

It came from an imbalance in the body’s four humours: phlegm, black bile, blood and yellow bile.

Question 3

In the middle ages how were the mentally ill treated?

Answer 3

They were labeled as witches

Question 4

What is situational context?

Answer 4

The social or environmental setting of a person’s behavior.

Question 5

What is subjective discomfort?

Answer 5

Emotional distress or discomfort.

Question 6

What is maladaptive thinking?

Answer 6

Anything that does not allow a person to function within or adapt to the stresses and everyday demands of life.

Question 7

What is a psychological disorder?

Answer 7

Any pattern of behavior that causes people significant distress, causes them to harm themselves or others, or harms their ability to function in daily life.

Question 8

What are the different viewpoints of psychopathology?

Answer 8

Psychodynamic theorists: Abnormal behavior stems from repressed conflicts and urges that are fighting to become conscious

Behaviorists: Abnormal behavior is learned

Cognitive theorisrs: Abnormal behavior comes from irrational beliefs and illogical patterns of thought.

Question 9

What are some of the models for abnormal behavior?

Answer 9

Biological Model: Psychological disorders have biological or medical causes. Biological changes in the chemical, stuctural or genetic systems of the body.

Sociocultural perspective: Abnormal behavior is the product of family, social, and cultural influences.

Biopsychosocial model: Incorporates biology, psychology and culture into a single explanation of abnormal behavior.

Question 10

What is cultural relativity and cultural syndromes?

Answer 10

Cultural Relativity: The need to consider the unique characteristics of the culture in which behavior takes place

Cultural Syndromes: Disorders found only in particular cultures.

Question 11

What is the DSM-5?

Answer 11

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition, A manual of psychological disorders and their symptoms

Question 12

What is the ICD?

Answer 12

International Classification of Diseases: An international resource published by the World Health Organization (WHO)

Question 13

How many Americans suffer from a mental disorder?

Answer 13

About 26.2 percent of adults over age 18. Only about 5.8 percent suffer from a sever disorder.

Question 14

What are the pros and cons of labeling disorders?

Answer 14

Pros:

• Provides a common language to professionals
• Established distinct categories of diagnosis for treatment and understanding

Cons:

• Overly prejudicial
• “Psychology student’s syndrome”

Question 15

What are anxiety disorders? What is free-floating anxiety?

Answer 15

Anxiety disorders: the main symptom is excessive or unrealistic worry and fearfulness

Free-floating anxiety: anxiety that is unrelated to any realistic, known source

Question 16

What is a phobia? What are the kinds of phobias?

Answer 16

Phobia: an irrational, persistent fear of an object, situation, or social activity. Phobias are classified as an anxiety disorder

Social phobia (social anxiety disorder): fear of interacting with others or being in social situations that might lead to a negative evaluation

Specific phobia: fear of objects or specific situations or events

Question 17

What is a panic disorder?

Answer 17

An anxiety disorder in which panic attacks occur frequently enough to cause the person difficulty in adjusting to daily life

Panic attack: sudden onset of intense panic in which multiple physical symptoms of stress occur, often with feelings that one is dying

Question 18

What is generalized anxiety disorder?

Answer 18

An anxiety disorder in which excessive anxieties and worries occur more days than not for at least six months

Question 19

What is obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Answer 19

Intruding, recurring thoughts or obsessions create anxiety that is relieved by performing a repetitive, ritualistic behavior (compulsion)

Question 20

What is ASD, what symptoms are required to diagnose ASD?

Answer 20

Acute stress disorder (A S D): a disorder resulting from exposure to a major, traumatic stressor

Symptoms include anxiety, dissociation, recurring nightmares, sleep disturbances, problems in concentration, and moments in which people seem to relive the event in dreams and flashbacks

Symptoms last as long as one month after the event.

Question 21

What is PTSD?

Answer 21

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, in which the symptoms associated with acute stress disorder last for more than one month
Symptoms of PTSD may not develop until more than six months after a traumatic event.

Question 22

How do different branches of psychology explain what causes anxiety disorders?

Answer 22

Psychodynamic explanations point to repressed urges and desires that are trying to surface, creating anxiety that is controlled by the abnormal behavior.

Behaviorists believe that disordered behavior is learned through both positive and negative reinforcement.

Cognitive psychologists believe that excessive anxiety comes from illogical, irrational thought processes. Such as:

• Magnification: the tendency to interpret situations as far more dangerous, harmful, or important than they actually are
• All-or-nothing thinking: the belief that one’s performance must be perfect or the result will be a total failure
• Overgeneralization: the interpretation of a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat and failure
• Minimization: the tendency to give little or no importance to one’s successes or positive events and traits

Biological Explanations of Anxiety Disorders

• Chemical imbalances in the nervous system
• Genetics
• More activity in amygdala and limbic systems

Question 23

What are dissociative disorders? What are some dissociative disorder?

Answer 23

Disorders in which there is a break in conscious awareness, memory, the sense of identity, or some combination.

Dissociative amnesia: loss of memory for personal information, either partial or complete

Dissociative fugue: traveling away from familiar surroundings with amnesia for the trip and possible amnesia for personal information

Dissociative identity disorder (D I D): disorder in which an affected person seems to have two or more distinct personalities within one body

Depersonalization/derealization disorder: dissociative disorder in which sufferers feel detached and disconnected from themselves, their bodies, and their surroundings

Question 24

How do different branches of psychology explain what causes dissociative disorders?

Answer 24

Psychodynamic explanations point to repression of memories, seeing dissociation as a defense mechanism against anxiety.

Cognitive and behavioral explanations see dissociative disorders as a kind of avoidance learning.

Biological explanations point to lower than normal activity levels in the areas responsible for body awareness in people with dissociative disorders.

Question 25

What is a mood disorder? What are some mood disorders?

Answer 25

Mood disorders: disorders in which mood is severely disturbed

Major depressive disorder: severely depressed mood that comes on suddenly and seems to have no external cause

• May include thoughts of death or suicide
• It is the most common of the diagnosed disorders of mood.

Seasonal affective disorder (S A D): a mood disorder caused by the body’s reaction to low levels of sunlight in the winter months

Manic episode: a period of excessive excitement, energy, and elation or irritability

Bipolar disorder: periods of mood that may range from normal to manic, with or without episodes of depression (bipolar I disorder), or spans of normal mood interspersed with episodes of major depression and episodes of hypomania (bipolar II disorder)

Question 26

How do different branches of psychology explain what causes mood disorders?

Answer 26

Behavioral theories link depression to learned helplessness.

Cognitive theories see depression as the result of distorted, illogical thinking.

Biological explanations of mood disorders look at the function of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine systems in the brain. Genetic origins.

Question 27

What are some eating disorders?

Answer 27

Anorexia nervosa (anorexia): a condition in which a person reduces eating to the point that his or her body weight is significantly low, or less than minimally expected. In adults, this is likely associated with a BMI <18.5.

Bulimia nervosa (bulimia): a condition in which a person develops a cycle of “binging,” or overeating enormous amounts of food at one sitting, and then using unhealthy methods to avoid weight gain

Binge-eating disorder also involves uncontrolled binge eating but differs from bulimia primarily in that individuals with binge-eating disorder do not purge.

Question 28

What are the causes of eating disorders? How does culture affect eating disorders?

Answer 28

Eating disorders are less common in non-Western cultures.

In different cultures, different values are placed on eating and on starvation for socially recognized reasons.

Question 29

What is sexual dysfunction?

Answer 29

Problem with sexual functioning, or with the actual physical workings of the sex act. Can relate to:

• Sexual interest
• Arousal
• Response

Can be organic (physical cause), or psychogenic (psychological cause)

Question 30

What is schizophrenia?

Answer 30

A severe disorder in which the person suffers from disordered thinking, bizarre behavior, and hallucinations, and is unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality

Question 31

What are some of the symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 31

• Psychotic: the break away from an ability to perceive what is real and what is fantasy
• Delusions: false beliefs held by a person who refuses to accept evidence of their falseness
  
  • Delusions of persecution
  • Delusions of reference
  • Delusions of influence
  • Delusions of grandeur (or grandiose delusions)
• Speech and thought disturbances
• Hallucinations: false sensory perceptions, such as hearing voices that do not really exist
• Flat affect: a lack of emotional responsiveness
• Catatonia: either wildly excessive movement or a total lack thereof

Question 32

What is a personality disorder?

Answer 32

A disorder in which a person adopts a persistent, rigid, and maladaptive pattern of behavior that interferes with normal social interactions