Chapter 14 -- Psychological Disorders Flashcards
What are the characteristics of abnormal behaviour?
Abnormal behaviour is DEVIANT: not conforming to social norms
Abnormal behaviour is MALADAPTIVE: interfering with a person’s ability to function effectively in the world.
Abnormal behaviour involves PERSONAL DISTRESS: the person engaging in the behaviour finds it troubling.
What is the biological approach to psychological disorders?
Medical model: psychological disorders are medical diseases with a biological origin.
- psychological disorders are attributed to organic, internal causes
- focus on brain, genetics and neurotransmitter functioning as the sources of abnormality.
- Abnormal behaviour is a mental illness that affects a person’s brain and the way they think, behave and interact.
What is the psychoanalytical approach to psychological disorders?
- Emphasizes contributions of experiences, thoughts, emotions and personality
- focus on childhood experiences in the development of psychological disorders
- Rewards and punishments in environments determine abnormal behaviour
- Social cognitive psychologists focus on observational learning, cognitions and beliefs that foster/maintain behaviour.
What is the sociocultural approach to psychological disorders?
- Sociocultural factors characterize deviant behaviours and abnormality
- Sometimes those who challenge social order face being labelled as “mentally ill”
- Culture influences the understanding and treatment of psychological disorders and the intensity depend on social contexts.
What is the vulnerability-stress hypothesis or diathesis-stress model?
Theory suggesting that pre-existing conditions—such as genetic characteristics, personality dispositions, or experiences—may put a person at risk of developing a psychological disorder.
What is the DSM-5-TR?
The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Major classification of psychological disorders in North America.
What are criticisms of the DSM?
- Psychological disorders treated like medical illness
- Focuses strictly on problems; when emphasizing strengths and weaknesses may helps destigmatize psych disorders
- Relies too much on norms
- Too many new categories of disorders have been added even if they lack consistent supporting research, making more people categorized as having a mental disorder.
- Loosening standards for some existing diagnoses
What is Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
A neurodevelopmental psychological disorder in which the individual exhibits: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
A range of neurodevelopmental disorders involving impaired social interaction/communication, repetitive behaviour, and restricted interests. There is no single identified cause for the disorder.
What is somatic symptom disorder?
A psychological disorder in which a person experiences one or more bodily (somatic) symptoms and experiences excessive thoughts and feelings about these symptoms that interfere with everyday functioning.
What are anxiety disorders and the 4 most common?
Psychological disorders characterized by excessive fear of or apprehension about real or perceived threats, leading to altered behaviour and often to physical symptoms.
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Panic Disorder
- Specific Phobia
- Social Anxiety Disorder
What is generalized anxiety disorder?
An anxiety disorder marked by persistent anxiety for at least six months, and in which the individual is unable to specify the reasons for the anxiety.
Biopsychosocial factors:
- genetic predisposition, deficiency in neurotransmitter GABA, difficulties regulating SNS.
- harsh self-standards
- History of uncontrollable traumas or stressors.
What is panic disorder?
An anxiety disorder in which the individual experiences recurrent, sudden onsets of intense terror, often without warning and with no specific cause.
What is the criteria for a panic attack?
Discrete period of intense fear/discomfort in which at least 4 symptoms developed abruptly and reached a peak within 10 minutes
- palpitations, pounding/racing heart
- sweating
- trembling/shaking
- shortness of breath/smothering sensations
- feeling of choking
- chest pain/discomfort
- nausea or abdominal distress
- feeling dizzy, unsteady, faint or lightheaded
- derealization or depersonalization
- fear of losing control or going crazy
- fear of dying
- paresthesias (numbness or tingling sensations)
- chills or hot flushes
What is Agoraphobia?
- phobia anxiety about being in places/situations from which
escape might be difficult or embarrassing in the event of a panic attack - situations are avoided or endured with marked distress or anxiety about having a panic attack OR require the presence of a companion
What are Specific Phobia - Types?
- Animal
- Natural Environment (e.g., heights, water)
- Blood-Injection-Injury Type
- Situational (e.g., planes, elevators, driving)
- Other (e.g., choking, vomiting)
What is Social Anxiety Disorder or social phobia?
An anxiety disorder in which the individual has an intense fear of being humiliated or embarrassed in social situations.
What are Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders?
Psychological disorder in which the individual has anxiety-provoking thoughts that will not go away and/or urges to perform repetitive, ritualistic behaviours to prevent or produce some future situation.
- Active frontal cortex or basal ganglia, causing numerus impulses to reach thalamus.
- Patterns of avoidance learning
What are the stessor related disorders?
PTSD
Adjustment Disorder
Reactive Adjustment Disorder
What are obsessions and what are compulsions?
OBSESSIONS
- persistent and intrusive thoughts, impulses, images
- inappropriate, cause marked anxiety or distress
- person usually attempts to ignore or suppress them
or neutralize them with compulsions
COMPULSIONS
repetitive behaviors or mental acts to prevent or reduce anxiety/distress
What is Trichotillomania
An OCD disorder where a person compulsively pulls at their hair from all over their body.
What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder?
An OCD disorder involving a preocupation with imagined flaws in one’s physical appearance.
- Comparing to others, checking themselves in the mirror, compulsive exercise/body building, repeated cosmetic surgery.
What is post-traumatic stress disorder?
Psychological disorder that develops through exposure to a traumatic event.
- Flashbacks, emotional numbing, repression, anxiety, irritability and impulsiveness, memory and concentration issues, exaggerated startle response.
- The event itself causes PTSD but individuals are more vulnerable given: psychological disorders and previous trauma,
What are depressive disorders?
Psychological mood disorders in which the individual suffers from depression—an unrelenting lack of pleasure in life.
What is Major Depressive Disorder?
Psychological disorder involving a significant depressive episode and depressed characteristics, such hopelessness, for at least two weeks.
- Depressed mood, reduced interest in activities, weight loss/gain, trouble sleeping, thoughts of death and suicide
- NO HISTORY of Manic, Hypomanic or Mixed Episodes?
What is Persistent Depressive Disorder (DYSTHYMIA)
The diagnosis for individuals who experience less extreme depressive mood for over 2 years
- Hopelessness, lack of energy, poor concentration, sleep problems
What are the biological, psychological and social factors of depression?
- Issues in neurotransmitter regulation: serotonin, norepinephrine
- Learned helplessness, pessimistic attribution
- Low SES, different experiences for genders
What is Bipolar Disorder? What is the difference between Bipolar I Disorder and Bipolar II Disorder?
Psychological mood disorder characterized by extreme mood swings that include a cycle of manic episodes and depressive episodes.
Bipolar I Disorder
* Manic or Mixed Episodes (manic episode everyday for at least 1 week – could lead to psychosis).
* Often individuals have also had one or more Major Depressive Episodes
* Need antipsychotic medication.
Bipolar II Disorder
* Presence (or history) of one or more Major
Depressive Episodes
* Presence (or history) of at least one
Hypomanic Episode (milder manic episode)
* No real fear of psychosis
* NO Manic or Mixed Episodes
- Increased metabolic activity in cerebral cortex during mania, shifting high levels of norepinephrine and low levels of serotonin
What is disruptive mood dysregulation disorder?
A depressive disorder in children who show persistent irritability and uncontrollable behaviour.
- Are children mentally ill or just children?
What are dissociative disorders?
Psychological disorders that involve a sudden loss of memory or change in identity due to the dissociation (separation) of the individual’s conscious awareness from previous memories and thoughts.
What is dissociative amnesia?
Dissociative disorder characterized by extreme memory loss that is caused by extensive psychological stress.
- Dissociation protects the individual by creating amnesic barriers
What is dissociative identity disorder (DID)?
Dissociative disorder in which the individual has two or more alternative personalities, with its own memories, behaviours, and relationships.
- Child psychologists believe that children develop alternative selves as protectors when they’ve gone through CSA.
- Some cases are explained by social construction, fraud, or therapist suggestion.
- Treatment: process trauma and dissociative defenses, build therapeutic alliance, integration therapy.
What is schizophrenia and the 4 former categories?
Severe psychological disorder characterized by highly disordered thought processes
CATEGORIES: Paranoid, Catatonic, Disorganized, Undifferentiated – NO MORE LABELS
What are the “Positive” symptoms of schizophrenia?
Distortions or excess of normal function. “Positive” because they add above normal behaviour.
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
- Referential thinking: Ascribing personal meaning to completely random events.
- Thought disorders: The unusual, sometimes bizarre thought processes that are characteristic positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
- Movement disorders: The unusual mannerisms, body movements, and facial expressions that are characteristic positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
- Catatonia immobility and unresponsiveness lasting for long periods of time
What are the “Negative” symptoms and Cognitive Symptoms of schizophrenia?
Social withdrawal, behavioural deficits, and the loss of normal function.
- flat affect: display of little or no emotion.
- Lack of ability to plan, initiate, and engage in goal-directed behaviour
- Sustaining attention, holding memory, inability to interpret info
What are the causes of schizophrenia?
- Partially explained by genetic factors
- Abnormal brain structures: Enlarged ventricles, smaller prefrontal cortex, prenatal development issues
- Problems regulating dopamine. Dopamine activity contributes to positive symptoms, while too little dopamine is associated with negative symptoms. Drugs reducing positive psychotic symptoms often block dopamine.
- Problems regulating glutamate cause dopamine imbalances. Drugs increase glutamate.
What are the DSM-IV Specifiers?
A specifier is an extension to a diagnosis that provides more detail and allows for a more specific diagnosis.
- Chronic - more than two years
- Psychotic - psychotic episode has occurred
- Melancholic - Sadness
- Atypical - Unusual due to belief system or stigma
- Catatonic - abnormal movements, unresponsive to stimuli
- Postpartum Onset - Immediately after childbirth
- Seasonal Pattern -
- Rapid Cycling Pattern
What is a Somatoform Disorders and what are some examples?
A group of psychiatric conditions that cause physical symptoms that can’t be explained by other medical conditions.
– Hypochondriasis
– Somatization Disorder
– Conversion Disorder
– Factitious Disorder
- Not many people get diagnosed with this and get assessed for major disorders.
What is Hypochondriasis?
Preoccupation with the belief that one has a serious disease.
- Preoccupation persists despite medical evaluation and reassurance
- Not delusional
- Exhibits distress or impairment
- Lasts at least 6 months
What is Somatization Disorder? What are the causes? What is its treatment?
Physical impairment due to anxiety or secondary gain (attention). Symptoms cannot be fully explained by a known medical condition, and are not intentionally produced or pretend.
Each of the following criteria must have been met:
1. Four pain symptoms
2. Two gastrointestinal symptoms
3. One sexual or reproductive symptom
4. One neurological symptom
Treatment: gatekeeper physician, getting the individual to work, treatment
for anxiety and depression
What is Conversion Disorder?
One or more symptoms or deficits affecting voluntary motor or sensory function that suggests a neurological or general medical condition
Causes: stressful or traumatic events, Psychiatric disorders, and Psychological or physical trauma.
- Not intentionally produced
- Cannot be fully explained by a medical condition
- Significant distress or impairment or warrants
medical evaluation
What are personality disorders?
Chronic, maladaptive cognitive-behavioural patterns that are thoroughly integrated into an individual’s personality.
- Paranoid personality disorder
- Schizoid personality disorder
- Shizotypal personality disorder
- Antisocial personality disorder
What is Paranoid personality disorder?
Characterized by a pervasive pattern of distrust and suspicion of others, believing that their motives are malevolent, even without reason
- Hypersensitivity to criticism, grudges, preoccupation with betrayal.
- Psychotherapy or medication treatment
What is Schizoid personality disorder and how is it different from Shizotypal personality disorder?
Schizoid personality disorder: Extreme lack of interest in interpersonal relationships. Emotionally cold and apathetic.
Schizotypal personality disorder: Socially isolated and prone to odd thinking that attribute unusual meanings to life events and experiences.
What is Antisocial personality disorder?
Psychological disorder characterized by guiltlessness, law-breaking, exploitation of others, irresponsibility, and deceit.
What is Borderline personality disorder?
Psychological disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotions and by marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts.
What are 5 physical complications of eating disorders?
- Menstrual Dysfunction
- Constipation
- Headaches
- Hypotension
- Hypothermia
What are 5 psychological complications of eating disorders?
- Food Preoccupation
- Sleep Disturbances
- Self-Esteem Deficits
- Anxiety
- Depression
What is the diagnostic criteria for Bulimia Nervosa?
Binge eating
Inappropriate compensatory behavior
Both occur, at least 2 weeks for 3 months
Weight-related self-evaluation
PURGING TYPE
NON PURGING TYPE
What is the diagnostic criteria for Anorexia Nervosa?
Low body weight
Fear of gaining weight or becoming fat
Weight-related self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the low body weight
Amenorrhea
RESTRICTING TYPE
BINGE
EATING/PURGING TYPE
What is Cyclothymic Disorder?
Less severe but more chronic than Bipolar
Disorder
- Symptoms of hypomania and depression are
milder but remain unchanged over long
periods of time - People can live with this
what is psychosis and a psychotic break?
PSYCHOSIS is a psychological state in which a person’s perceptions and thoughts are fundamentally removed from reality. They aren’t with reality.
A psychotic break is a sudden onset of psychosis.
