Chapter 3

Question 1

assessment

Answer 1

An assessment is a procedure
through which information is gathered systematically in the evaluation of a condition; this assessment procedure yields information that serves as the basis for a diagnosis.

• A mental health assessment may include interviews with the patient
  or the patient’s family, medical testing, psychophysiological or psychological testing, and the completion of self-report scales or other report rating scales

Question 2

diagnostic systems

Answer 2

A diagnostic system provides a number of criteria for a disorder. If a certain number of these criteria or indications are present, the person is diagnosed as having that particular disorder

Question 3

reliability

Answer 3

must give the same measurement for a
given thing every time

• needed for a useful diagnostic system

Question 4

Inter-rater reliability

Answer 4

refers to the extent to which two clinicians agree on the diagnosis of
a particular patient

Question 5

validity

Answer 5

validity is determined by whether a diagnostic category is able to predict behavioural and psychiatric disorders accurately

Question 6

Concurrent validity

Answer 6

the ability of a diagnostic category to estimate an individual’s present standing on factors related to the disorder but not themselves part of the
diagnostic criteria

eg. For example, although significant academic underachievement and a downward drift in socioeconomic status are not diagnostic items for schizophrenia, they are clearly found in most people with schizophrenia.
If an assessment of siblings without schizophrenia of people diagnosed with schizophrenia revealed that they had better education and higher income, this would be an indication of
concurrent validity

Question 7

predictive validity

Answer 7

the ability of a test to predict the
future course of an individual’s development.

Question 8

atheoretical

Answer 8

that is, they (DSM) moved away from
endorsing any one theory of abnormal psychology, becoming more pragmatic as they moved to more precise behavioural descriptions

Question 9

polythetic

Answer 9

meaning that an individual could be diagnosed with a certain subset of symptoms without having to meet all criteria. It also introduced a multiaxial requirement

Question 10

Neurodevelopmental disorders

Answer 10

• attention deficit hyperactive disorder - maladaptive levels of inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity, or a combination of these
• intellectual disability - deficits in intellectual and adaptive functioning with impairments in social adjustment, identified at an early age
• autism spectrum disorder - in
  which the child shows severe impediments in several areas
  of development, including social interactions and communication
• learning disorder - in which the person’s functioning in particular academic skill areas is significantly below what is expected based on his or her intelligence
• communications disorder - in which the individual experiences significant difficulty with the reception, expression, or social use of language
• motor skills disorder - the individual
  experiences developmental problems with coordination and which include the tic disorders, in which the body moves
  repeatedly, quickly, suddenly, and/or uncontrollably

Question 11

Scizophrenia (psychotic disorder)

Answer 11

marked by severe debilitation in thinking and perception. People with schizophrenia suffer from a state of psychosis, often characterized by delusions (false beliefs, such as believing that people are trying to hurt
them when there is no evidence of this) and hallucinations (false perceptions, such as hearing voices that comment on ongoing activity)

Question 12

major depressive disorder (mood disorder)

Answer 12

characterized by the occurrence of depressive mood episodes in which a person is extremely sad and discouraged, and displays a marked loss of pleasure in usual activities

people with clinical depression can:
- have severe problems sleeping
- experiencing weight loss or gain
- lack energy to do things
- difficulty concentrating
- feeling worthless, hopeless and suicidal

Question 13

thought disorder (psychotic disorder)

Answer 13

demonstrated by incoherent speech, loose associations (unconnected pieces of thought), inappropriate affect (such as smiling and laughing while watching an upsetting or violent scene in a movie), and disorganized behaviour (such as public masturbation).

Question 14

Mania (mood disorder) (mood episode)

Answer 14

in which a person is extremely elated,
more active, and in less need of sleep, and displays flights of somewhat disconnected ideas, grandiosity (an illusion of personal importance), and impairment in functioning

Question 15

bipolar disorders

Answer 15

mania, and often depression, is exhibited. Moreover, severity of mood disorders can vary. Less severe variants of these mood disorders include Persistent Depressive Disorder (or dysthymia), which is a more chronic low-grade depression, and cyclothymia, in which the person fluctuates between more mild bouts of mania and less severe depressive symptoms

Question 16

Anxiety

Answer 16

Individuals who suffer from an anxiety disorder experience excessive fear, worry, or apprehension; the excessive fear usually produces a maladaptive pattern of avoidance

Question 17

phobia

Answer 17

A person can have an intense fear
of a specific object or situation, which is referred to as a phobia. . Some individuals have an extreme fear of social situations (social phobia); experience panic attacks and fear that they will go crazy, have a heart attack, or die (panic disorder); or have difficulty controlling excessive worry (generalized anxiety disorder).

Question 18

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Answer 18

characterized by obsessions
(recurrent, unwanted, and intrusive thoughts) and compulsions
(strongly repetitive behaviours), which, when not performed, cause overwhelming distress.

Question 19

body dysmorphic disorder

Answer 19

overly preoccupied with an imagined defect in their appearance.

Question 20

acute stress disorder and post traumatic stress disorder

Answer 20

Individuals may also experience long-standing anxiety subsequent to extraordinarily traumatic events

Question 21

dissociative amnesia

Answer 21

may forget their entire past or, more selectively, lose their memory for a particular time period and may suddenly and unexpectedly leave their
home and travel to a new locale, start a new life, and forget their previous identity

Question 22

dissociative identity disorder

Answer 22

possess two or more distinct personality states, each
with unique memories, behaviour patterns, preferences,
and social relationships

Question 23

Depersonalization/derealization disorder

Answer 23

involves a severe and disruptive feeling of self-estrangement or unreality

Question 24

Somatic symptom disorder

Answer 24

characterized by the experience
of one or more persistent physical symptoms accompanied
by excessive thoughts, feelings, or behaviours related to the
symptom(s)

Question 25

conversion disorder

Answer 25

the person reports the loss of motor or sensory function, for example, a paralysis or blindness.

Question 26

Illness anxiety disorder

Answer 26

involves extreme anxiety about health in the absence of somatic symptoms; individuals become preoccupied with the fear that they have a serious illness

Question 27

Factitious disorders

Answer 27

diagnosed when individuals intentionally produce or complain of either physical or psychological symptoms, due to a psychological need to assume the role of a sick person.

Question 28

Eating disorders

Answer 28

characterized by disturbances in eating behaviour. This can mean eating too much, not eating enough, or eating in an extremely unhealthy manner

Question 29

anorexia nervosa

Answer 29

a, the individual refuses to maintain a minimally normal weight for her or his age and height. Such people avoid eating and become emaciated, often due to an intense fear of becoming fat.

Question 30

bulemia nervosa

Answer 30

frequent episodes of binge eating coupled with compensatory activities such as self-induced vomiting or the use of laxatives.

Question 31

binge-eating disorder

Answer 31

there are frequent episodes of eating large amounts of food in a discrete period of time.

Question 32

elimination disorders

Answer 32

These disorders are usually diagnosed in childhood or adolescence. Enuresis involves the repeated voiding of urine in inappropriate places, and encopresis is the repeated passage of feces in inappropriate places. Both can occur voluntarily or involuntarily.

Question 33

sleep-wake disorders

Answer 33

insomnia (not getting enough sleep) hypersomnolence (excessive sleepiness) narcolepsy (suddenly lapsing into sleep) breathing-related sleep disorders (disorders relating to the amount, quality and timing of sleep) Parasomnias (abnormal behaviour or physiological events that occur during the process of sleep or sleep–wake transitions eg. sleepwalking)

Question 34

Sexual disorders

Answer 34

sexual dysfunction - characterised by disturbance in sexual desire or in the psychophysiological changes that accompany the sexual response cycle. paraphilic disorders - characterized by sexual urges, fantasies, or behaviours that involve unusual objects or activities, such as exhibitionism, voyeurism, sadism, and masochism; and that cause significant distress or impairment gender dysphoria - feel extreme and overwhelming distress associated with their anatomical sex and an incongruity between their biological sex and expressed gender.

Question 35

disruptive, impulse-control and conduct disorders

Answer 35

This category involves disorders characterized by failure or extreme difficulty in controlling impulses, despite the negative consequences - intermittent explosive disorder, the person has episodes of violent behaviour that result in the destruction of property or injury to others - oppositional defiant disorder, there is a recurrent pattern of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behaviour toward authority figures - conduct disorder, children persistently violate societal norms, rules, or the basic rights of others. - trichotillomania experience intense urges to pull out their own hair

Question 36

substance related and addictive disorders

Answer 36

These disorders are brought about by the excessive use of a substance, which can be defined as anything that is ingested in order to produce a high, alter one’s senses, or otherwise affect functioning.

Question 37

Neurocognitive disorders

Answer 37

The Neurocognitive Disorders refer to conditions in which there is a decline in cognitive functioning - delirium - clouding of consciousness

Question 38

personality disorders

Answer 38

characterized by an enduring, pervasive, inflexible, and maladaptive pattern of behaviour that has existed since adolescence or early adulthood, markedly impairs functioning, and/or causes subjective stress

Question 39

categorical approach

Answer 39

an individual is deemed to either have a disorder or not have a disorder, with no in-between historical reason - this is also done by physicians for physical problems

Question 40

dimensional approach

Answer 40

based on a continuum for mental disorders from non-existent or mild to severe

Question 41

Clinical utility

Answer 41

the extent to which a diagnostic system assists clinicians in performing functions such as communicating clinical information to patients, their families, and other health care providers; selecting effective interventions; and predicting the course of a disorder

Question 42

against classification: medical model

Answer 42

A substantial number of professionals argue that the whole diagnostic endeavour is flawed because of its adherence to the medical model. - Medical disorders are legitimate, they argue, because they have a clear indication, such as a lesion, that serves as a recognizable deviation in anatomical structure, whereas most mental disorders involve no such anatomical deviations

Question 43

against classification: stigmatization

Answer 43

Another argument against diagnosis is that it unfairly stigmatizes individuals

Question 44

against classification: loss of information

Answer 44

A frequent charge against diagnosis is that inherent in any label is a loss of information - an individual with depression is characterized by many other qualities, not just her or his depression. The label alone can give us a false sense of confidence in understanding the person and making assumptions about his or her personhood and life that are not valid.