Chapter 14: Psychological Disorders

Question 1

Medical Model

Answer 1

the conceptualization of psychological disorders as diseases that, like physical diseases, have biological causes, defined symptoms, and possible cures

Question 2

DSM-IV-TR

Answer 2

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

• Three key elements that must be present for a cluster of sysmptoms to qualify as a potential mental disorder
  
  • disorde ris manifested in symptoms that involve disturbances in behavior, thoughts, or emotions
  • The symptoms are associated with significant personal distress or impairment
  • The symptoms stem from an internal dysfunction

Question 3

Comorbidity

Answer 3

the co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual

• relatively common in patients seen within the DSM diagnostic system

Question 4

Diathesis-Stress Model

Answer 4

a person may be predisposed for a psychological disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress

• the diathesis is the internal predisposition, which could be genetic
• the stress is the external trigger
• For example: most people were able tocope with their strong emotional reactions to the terrorist attack of 9/11. However, for some who had a predisposition to ngeative emotions or were already contending with major life stressors, the horror of the events may have overwhelmed their ability to cope, thereby precipitating a psychological disorder

Question 5

Anxiety Disorder

Answer 5

the class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant feature

• people commonly experience more than one type of anxiety disorder at a given time, and there is significant comorbidity between anxiety and depression
• Some recognized anxiety disorders are:
  
  • anxiety disorder
  • phobic disorders
  • panic disorder
  • obsessive-compulsive disorder

Question 6

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Answer 6

a disorder characterized by chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigues, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance

• about 5% of North Americans suffer from GAD
• occurs more frequently in lower socioeconomic groups than in middle and upper-income groups
• twice as common in women as in men
• both biological and psychological factors contribute to the risk of GAD

Question 7

Phobic Disorders

Answer 7

disorders characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities or situations

Question 8

Specific Phobia

Answer 8

an irrational fear of a particular object or situation that markedly interferes with an individual’s ability to function

• Five Categories of specific phobias
  
  • Animals
  • Natural Environments (heigts, darkness, water, etc.)
  • Situations (elevators, tunnels, etc.)
  • Blood, injections, and injury
  • Other phobias, including Sillness and death
• Specific phobias are much more common among women than among men, with a ratio of about 4 to 1

Question 9

Social Phobia

Answer 9

an irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed

Question 10

Preparedness Theory

Answer 10

maintains that people are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears

• phobias are particularly likely to form for objects taht evoluution has predisposed us to avoid

Question 11

Panic Disorder

Answer 11

a disorder characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror

Question 12

Agoraphobia

Answer 12

a specific phobia involving a fear of venturing into public places

Question 13

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Answer 13

a disorder in which repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts interfere significantly with an individual’s functioning.

• Causes
  
  • Caudate nucleus (part of basal ganglia dsyfunction
  • Basal ganglia involved in impulse suppression (limbic system/impulses; prefrontal cortex overly activated)
  • impulses leak into consciousness and prefontal cortex becomes overactive (strep infection relevant)

Question 14

Mood Disorders

Answer 14

mental disorders that have mood disturbance as their predominant feature

• Take two main forms
  
  • Depression
  • Bipolar Disorder

Question 15

Major Depressive Disorder

Answer 15

A disorder characterized by a severely depressed mood that lasts 2 or more weeks and is accompanied by feeling of worthlessness and lack of pleasure, lethargy, and sleep and appetite disturbances

Question 16

Dysthymia

Answer 16

the same cognitive and bodily problems as in depression are present, but they are less severe and last longer, persisting for at least 2 years

Question 17

Double Depression

Answer 17

a moderately depressed mood that persists for at least 2 years and is punctuated by periods of major depression

Question 18

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Answer 18

depression that involves recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern

• in most cases, the episodes begin in fall or winter, and remit in spring

Question 19

Helplessness Theory

Answer 19

a theory that maintinas that individuals who are prone to depression automatically attribute negative experiences to caues that are internal (i.e., their own fault), stable (i.e., unlikey to change), and global (i.e., widespread)

Question 20

Bipolar Disorder

Answer 20

an unstable emotional condition characterized by cycles of abnormal, persisten high mood (mania) and low mood (depression)

• has the greatest rate of heritability

Question 21

Dissociative Disorder

Answer 21

a condition in which normal cognitive processes are severely disjointed and fragmented, creating significant disruptions in memory, awarness, or personality that can vary in length from a matter of minutes to many years

• for example, research on implicit memory shows that we often retain and are influenced by information that we do not consciously remember

Question 22

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Answer 22

A disorder characterized by the presence within an individual of two or more distinct identities that at different times take control of the individual’s behavior

Question 23

Dissociative Amneisia

Answer 23

the sudden loss of memory for a significant personal information

• typically for a traumatic specific event or period of time, but can involve extended period of a person’s life

Question 24

Dissociative Fugue

Answer 24

A sudden loss of memory for one’s personal history, accompanied by an abrupt departure from home and the assumption of a new identity

• the fugue state is usually associated with stressful life circumstances and can be brief or lengthy

Question 25

Schizophrenia

Answer 25

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

• schizophrenia is diagnosed when two or more of the following symptoms emerge during a continuous period of at least 1 month with signs of the disorder persisting for at least 6 months
  
  • Delusion, Hallucination, disorganized speed, grossly disorganized behavior or catatonic behavior, and negative symptoms

Question 26

, Delusion

Answer 26

a patently false belief system, often bizarre and grandiose,that is maintained in spite of its irrationality

• ex: an individual with schizophrenia may believe that he or she is Jesus Christ, Napoleon, Joan of Arc, or some other famous person

Question 27

Hallucination

Answer 27

a false perceptual experience that has a compelling sense of being real despite the absence of external stimulation

• can include; hearing, seeing, or smelling things that are not there or having tactile sensations in the absence of relevant sensory stimulation
• Often auditory
• ex; hearing voices that no one else can hear

Question 28

Disorganized Speech

Answer 28

a severe disruption of verbal communication in which ideas shift rapidly and incoherently from one to another unrelated topic

• for example, asked by her doctor, “can you tell me the name of this place?” one patient with schizophrenia responded, “I have not been a drinker for 16 years. I am taking a mental rest after a a ‘carter’ assignment of ‘quill.’ You know, a ‘penwrap.’ I had contracts with Warner Brothers Studios and Eugene broke phonograph records but Mike protested. I have been with the police department for 35 years. I am made of flesh and blood—see, Doctor”.

Question 29

Grossly Disorganized Behavior

Answer 29

behavior that is inappropriate for the situation or ineffective in attaining goals, often with specific motor disturbances

• a patient might exhibit constant childlike silliness, improper sexual behavior, disheveled appearance, or loud shouting or swearing.

Question 30

Catatonic Behavior

Answer 30

a marked decrease in all movement or an increase in muscular rigidity and over overactivity

• patients with catatonia may actively resist movement, or become completely unresponsive and unaware of their surroundings in a catatonic stupor

Question 31

Negative Symptoms

Answer 31

emotional and social withdrawal; apathy; poverty of speech; and other indications of the absence or insufficiency of normal behavior, motivation, and emotion

• negative symptoms may rob people of emotion
• example: leaving them with flat, deadpan responses. Or their ability to act willfully may be reduced, theier interest in people or events underminded, or their capacity to focus attention impaired

Question 32

Types of Schizophrenia

Answer 32

Question 33

Dopamine Hypothesis

Answer 33

the idea that schizophrenia involves an excss of dopamine activity

• however, considerable evidence suggests that this hypothesis is inadequate
• for example, many individuals with schizophrenia do not respond favorably to dopamine blocking drugs, and those who do seldom show a complete remission of symptoms

Question 34

Personality Disorders

Answer 34

disorders characterized by deeply ingrained, inflexible patterns of thinking, feeling, or relating to others or controlling impulses that cause distress or impaired functioning

Question 35

Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)

Answer 35

a disorder that is a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood

• typically have problems with agression, destruction of property, rule violations, and deceitfulness, lying or stealing
• APD is given to individuals who show three or more of a set of seven diagnostic signs: illegal behavior, deception, impulsivity, physical aggression, recklessness, irresponsibility, and a lack of remorse for wrongdoing

Question 36

Narcissism

Answer 36

pervasive patter of grandiosity (fantasy/behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy; beginning by early adulthood, present in variety of contexts (indicated by 5 or more of following)

1) grandiose sense of self-importance
2) preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

3) believes he/she is special and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people

4) requires excessive admiration
5) has sense of self-entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
6) is interpersonally exploitative
7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

8) is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him/her
9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

Question 37

Lykken’s Low Fear Hypothesis

Answer 37

people born with LOW fear levels; poor fear conditioning and insensitive to punishment cues

• socialization (b/c no fear), poor attachment b/c don’t need comfort, don’t respond in normal ways to disgust/fear
• don’t care much about punishments/ affects of socialization

Question 38

Newman’s Response Modulation Hypothesis

Answer 38

low fear b/c don’t pay attention to fear cues (don’t realize psychopathy cues)

• more specific than Lykken’s
• Insensitive to punishment cues when they’re peripheral (not focus)
• Insensitive to emotionally neutral cues and fear
• Immediate acting on urges… lack of response modulation (behavior not regulated)
• Amygdala differences b/c not attend to cues no activation present
• PEOPLE WITH HIGH PSYCHOPATHY HAVE HIGHLY STIMULATED BRAIN REGIONS AND PROCESS INFORMATION DIFFERENTLY

Question 39

Stroop Test

Answer 39

high psychopathic people go really fast and don’t hesitate

Question 40

The Value and Danger of Labels

Answer 40

• Facilitates professional communication
• Leads to shorthand description, implied meaning,
• Can stigmatize and lead to self-fulfilling prophecies
• example: professor who pretended to have symptoms and was admitted into the hospital, was treated as though he was crazy even after he stopped showing signs.
• Even has he was released, he was said to still be in remission

Question 41

Diathesis-Stress Model

Answer 41

Suggest person may be predisposed for psychological disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress

• integrates multiple perspectives (social and biological)
• With disorder = switch turned on, without disorder = not turned on
• Diathesis = predisposing factors (genetics)
• Stress = precipitating factors
• Genetics and stressful life events; some people are more vulnarable to stress factors