Chapter 13 Flashcards
Medical model
Abnormal psychological experiences are conceptualized as illnesses that, like physical illnesses, have biological and environmental causes, defined symptoms, and possible cures.
Mental disorder
A persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behavior, thoughts, or emotions that causes significant distress or impairment.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
A classification system that describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicates how the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems.
Comorbidity
The co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual.
Biopsychosocial perspective
Explains mental disorders as the result of interactions among biological, psychological, and social factors.
Research Domain Criteria Project (RDoC)
A new initiative that aims to guide the classification and understanding of mental disorders by revealing the basic processes that give rise to them.
Anxiety disorder
The class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant feature.
Phobic disorders
Disorders characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations.
Specific phobia
A disorder that involves an irrational fear of a particular object or situation that markedly interferes with an individual’s ability to function.
Social phobia
A disorder that involves an irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed.
Preparedness theory
The idea that people are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears.
Panic disorder
A disorder characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror.
Agoraphobia
A specific phobia involving a fear of public places.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
A disorder characterized by chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
A disorder in which repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts interfere significantly with and individual’s functioning.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
A disorder characterized by chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and avoidance of things that call the traumatic event to mind.
Mood disorder
Mental disorder that have mood disturbance as their predominant feature.
Major depressive disorder (or unipolar depression)
A disorder characterized by a severely depressed mood and/ or inability to experience pleasure that lasts 2 or more weeks and is accompanied by feelings of worthlessness, lethargy, and sleep and appetite disturbance.
Dysthymia
The same cognitive and bodily problems as in depressions are present, but they are less severe and last longer, persisting for at least 2 years.
Double depression
A moderately depressed mood that persists for at least 2 years and is punctuated by periods of major depression.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
Recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern.
Helplessness theory
The idea that individuals who are prone to depression automatically attribute negative experiences to causes that are internal (I.e. their own fault), stable (i.e. unlikely to change), and global (i.e., widespread).
Bipolar disorder
A condition characterized by cycles of abnormal, persistent high mood (mania) and low mood (depression).
Expressed emotions
A measure of how much hostility, criticism, and emotional over-involvement are used when speaking about a family member with a mental disorder.
Schizophrenia
A disorder characterized by the profound disruption of basic psychological processes; a distorted perception of reality; altered or blunted emotion; and disturbances in thought, motivation, and behavior.
Positive symptoms
Thoughts and behaviors presented in schizophrenia but not seen in those without the disorder, such as the delusions and hallucinations.
Hallucination
A false perceptual experience that has a compelling sense of being real despite the absence of external stimulation.
Delusions
A patently false belief system, often bizarre and grandiose, that is maintained in spite of its irrationality.
Disorganized speech
A severe disruption of verbal communication in which ideas shift rapidly and incoherently among unrelated topics.
Grossly disorganized behavior
Behavior that is inappropriate for the situation or ineffective in attaining goals, often with specific motor disturbances.
Catatonic behavior
A marked decrease in all movement or an increase in muscular rigidity and overactivity.
Negative symptoms
Deficits or disruptions to normal emotions and behavior (e.g., emotional and social withdrawal; apathy; poverty of speech; and other indications of the absence or insufficiency of normal behavior, motivation, and emotion).
Cognitive symptoms
Deficits in cognitive abilities, specifically executive functioning, attention, and working memory.
Dopamine hypothesis
The idea that schizophrenia involves an excess of dopamine activity.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
A condition beginning in early childhood in which people show persistent communication deficits as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities.
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
A persistent pattern of severe problems with inattention and/or hyperactivity or impulsiveness that cause significant impairments in functioning.
Conduct disorder
A persistent pattern of deviant behavior involving aggression to people or animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness or theft, or serious rule violations.
Personality disorder
Enduring patterns of thinking, feeling, or relating to others or controlling impulses that deviate from cultural exceptions and cause distress or impaired functioning.
Antisocial personality disorder (APD)
A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.
Suicide
Intentional self-inflicted death.
Suicide attempt
When a person engages in potentially harmful behavior with some intention of dying.
Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI)
Direct, deliberate destruction of body tissue in the absence of any intent to die.
