Chapter 15: Psychological Disorders

Question 1

Dr. Thurman has been asked to assess a young man who was found wandering the streets and acting strangely. When Dr. Thurman questions him, he cannot remember who he is or any information about his past. Dr. Thurman believes the woman is experiencing ________.

a) depersonalization disorder

b) fugue

c) dissociative identity disorder

Answer 1

b) fugue

Question 2

Psychodynamic theorists believe that dissociative disorders are caused by ________.

a) repression

b) displacement

c) regression

d) projection

Answer 2

a) repression

Question 3

Zuri did not do well on her history test. If Zuri makes internal, stable, and global statements about her poor test performance, she is at risk for developing ________. This would support the ________ theory.

a) bipolar disorders; learned helplessness

b) depression; learned helplessness

c) bipolar disorder; attribution-helplessness

d) depression; attribution- helplessness

Answer 3

b) depression; learned helplessness

Question 4

________ involves drawing broad negative conclusions on the basis of a single insignificant event.

a) Overgeneralization

b) Cognitive dissonance

c) Magnification

d) Selective perception

Answer 4

a) Overgeneralization

Question 5

According to the concept of ________, individuals can start out from very different places and yet, over time, because of life experiences, eventually function (or dysfunction) in similar ways.

a) selective perception

b) overgeneralization

c) multifinality

d) equifinality

Answer 5

d) equifinality

Question 6

Giovanni believes that he is the pope of the Catholic church. He has told his family that he is only living in their house because he needed a break from his duties and insists that he will go back to Vatican City shortly. This is an example of ________.

a) a delusion of reference

b) a delusion of fame

c) a delusion of grandeur

d) a delusion of persecution

Answer 6

c) a delusion of grandeur

Question 7

Learned helplessness may lead to depression if a person attributes failure to ________.

a) socio-cultural factors that are outside of the person’s control

b) a lack of control over the rewards and punishments in their lives and hold themselves responsible for this helpless state

c) their intelligence level and their inability to anything about it

d) their personality characteristics and their lack of emotional control

Answer 7

b) a lack of control over the rewards and punishments in their lives and hold themselves responsible for this helpless state

Question 8

Mehdi is having trouble sleeping, has lost his appetite, is too tired to go to work, and CANNOT concentrate on simple television shows. It is most likely that Mehdi is experiencing a ________.

a) bipolar disorder

b) dysthymic disorder

c) major depressive disorder

d) cyclothymic disorder

Answer 8

c) major depressive disorder

Question 9

Declan had two public incidents of becoming intensely fearful to the point where he was dizzy, shaking, and hyperventilating. Once an adventurous thrill-seeker, he is now cautious and avoidant of any experiences that he perceives as potentially distressing. Declan is exhibiting characteristics of ________.

a) acrophobia

b) generalized anxiety disorder

c) panic disorder

d) agoraphobia

Answer 9

c) panic disorder

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT one of the somatoform disorders?

a) conversion disorder

b) hypochondriasis

c) somatization disorder

d) bipolar disorder

Answer 10

d) bipolar disorder

Question 11

Abnormal Psychology

Answer 11

Scientific study of psychological disorders
No universal definition of what is abnormal behavior
* Deviance: Behaviour, thoughts, emotions are highly unusual,
deviate from social norms
* Distress: Distress felt by the person or others
* *Dysfunction: Interference with daily living
* *Danger: May put themselves at risk

Question 12

Is eccentricity abnormal?

Answer 12

• An eccentric is a person who deviates
  from common behaviour patterns or
  displays odd or whimsical behaviour.
• Eccentrics do not typically suffer from
  psychological disorders, and
  eccentricity is not an absolute but a
  continuum.

Question 13

What is abnormal behaviour?

Answer 13

Abnormal behaviour is characterized by behaviour that is
atypical or statistically uncommon within a particular culture or
that is maladaptive or detrimental to an individual or to those
around that individual.

Question 14

Deviance

Answer 14

Deviance: Behaviour, thoughts, and emotions are considered abnormal when
they differ from a society’s ideas about proper functioning. Judgments of
deviance and abnormality vary from society to society.

Question 15

Distress

Answer 15

Distress: To be considered abnormal, behaviours, ideas, or
emotions usually must also cause distress or unhappiness.

Question 16

Dysfunction

Answer 16

• Abnormal behaviour also tends to interfere with daily
  functioning, as opposed to behaviour that is simply eccentric
  but a part of a person’s life.
• When behaviour upsets people so that they cannot take
  proper care of themselves, interact well with others, or work
  effectively, then it is referred to as abnormal.

Question 17

Danger

Answer 17

Danger: Some people with psychological dysfunction are more likely to
become dangerous to themselves but are less likely to harm others.

Question 18

How is a psychological disorder classified?

Answer 18

A symptom is a physical, behavioural, or mental feature that helps indicate a
condition, illness, or disorder. Fatigue is often a symptom of depression, for
example. Similarly, poor concentration can be a symptom of anxiety, and
hallucinations may indicate schizophrenia (Ernst, 2006).

Question 19

International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10)

Answer 19

System used by most countries to classify psychological disorders;
published by the World Health Organization and currently in its tenth
edition.

Question 20

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V)

Answer 20

*Manual used to diagnose mental disorders in North America.
*Provides a categorical list of symptoms for all 400 mental disorders.

Question 21

The Neuroscience Model

Answer 21

• Neuroscientists have also linked some mental disorders to deficient or
  excessive activity of different neurotransmitters.
• For example, Depression seems to be related to insufficient activity of the
  neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and serotonin (Beck & Alford, 2009).
• In addition to focusing on neurotransmitters, neuroscience researchers have
  learned that mental disorders are sometimes related to abnormal hormonal
  activity in the body’s endocrine system. Abnormal secretions of the hormone
  cortisol, for example, also have been tied to depression (Qin et al., 2016;
  Vrshek-Schallhorn et al., 2013).

Question 22

Reductionist perspective

Answer 22

Reductionist perspective: reduce complex phenomenon to a single cause.
Reductionist views such as biomedical models neglect the complex interplay of
biological and non-biological factors, including a person’s environmental
experiences.

Question 23

Biopsychological perspective

Answer 23

recognizes the links between each of these
important areas (biological, social, psychological, and cultural variables) of human
development (Wade & Halligan, 2017). Biological (e.g., genes), Psychological (e.g.,
personality, ability to cope) and Social components (e.g., cultural and social
interactions).

Question 24

Diathesis-stress model

Answer 24

Disorders arise from an interaction of internal and external
causes. A person may inherit a genetic predisposition (a diathesis) for a disorder,
but that it will remain undeveloped unless triggered by an external (stressful) life
event

Question 25

The Cognitive- Behavioural Model

Answer 25

Mental Disorders are the result of maladaptive learned
behaviours and problematic thinking.
* Behaviour and thinking interact and influence each other.
* Acknowledge that emotions and biological factors also interact with
behaviour and cognition.

• To more fully understand the cognitive-behavioural model, it is
  useful to first examine the behavioural and cognitive components
  separately.
• At one time, the behavioural model stood alone, and behaviourists
  used only principles of conditioning and modelling to explain
  abnormal functioning

Question 26

The Psychodynamic Model

Answer 26

Underlying, perhaps unconscious psychological forces cause conflict.
* Rooted in Freudian theory.
* Fixation - being trapped at an early stage of development due to
traumatic childhood experiences.

Question 27

The Socio-cultural Model

Answer 27

A society’s characteristics create stressors for some of its members.
* Widespread social change.
* Socio-economic class.
* Cultural factors.
* Social networks and supports.
* Family systems.

Question 28

Social Change

Answer 28

When a society undergoes major change, the mental health of its
members can be greatly affected. Societies undergoing rapid urbanization,
for example, usually show a rise in mental disorders (Anakwenze & Zuberi,
2013).
* Unemployment and poverty are strongly linked to psychological dysfunction

Question 29

Cultural factors

Answer 29

• Many theorists believe that human behaviour, including abnormal
  behaviour, is understood best by examining an
  individual’s unique cultural context, including the values of that
  culture and the external pressures faced by members of the culture
  (Matsumoto & Juang, 2016; Alegria et al., 2009, 2007, 2004).
  e.g., groups such as LGBT+ individuals, economically disadvantaged groups,
  ethic and racial minority groups, women face special pressures in society
  which may produce feelings of stress and abnormal functioning.

Question 30

Social networks and Supports

Answer 30

• Many theorists focus on the social networks in which people operate,
  including their social and professional relationships. How well do they
  communicate with others? What kind of signals do they send to or receive
  from others?
• Researchers have often found ties between deficiencies in a person’s
  social networks and that person’s functioning (Liu, Gou, & Zuo, 2016; Lee,
  Chung, & Park, 2016; Santini et al., 2016; Bryant et al., 2016).
• They have observed, for example, that people who are isolated and lack
  social support or intimacy in their lives are more likely to become
  depressed when under stress and to remain depressed longer than are
  people with supportive spouses or warm friendships.

Question 31

Family systems

Answer 31

• Family systems theory: a theory holding that each family has its own implicit rules,
  relationship structure, and communication patterns that shape the behaviour of the
  individual members.
• How was Diane Markos’s family structured? She was required to be a third parent
  in the family, which in many ways deprived her of normal childhood experiences
  and emotions. In turn, she came to view her life as one of “servitude, rejection,
  and failure,” and she experienced ongoing depression.
• Structure and communication patterns of certain families actually force individual
  members to react in ways that otherwise seem abnormal. If the members were to
  behave normally, they would severely strain the family’s usual manner of operation
  and would actually increase their own and their family’s turmoil.

Question 32

The Developmental Psychopathology Model

Answer 32

• This model studies how problem behaviours evolve as a function of
  a person’s genes and early experiences and how these early issues
  affect the person at later life stages.
• Risk factors - Biological and environmental factors that contribute to
  problem outcomes.

Question 33

Equifinality

Answer 33

The idea that different children can start from different
points and wind up at the same outcome.

Question 34

Multifinality

Answer 34

The idea that children can start from the same point and
wind up at any number of different outcomes.