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.