Clinical Psychology: Psychological disorders (CH14)

Question 1

Medical model

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

Answer 2

Classification system that describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicates how the disorder can be distinguished from others, similar problems

Question 3

Comorbidity

Answer 3

Co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual

Question 4

Global assessment of functioning

Answer 4

Rating of the person from 0 to 100; one with more severe disorders is indicated by lower numbers and more effective functioning by higher numbers

Question 5

Diathesis-stress model

Answer 5

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

• Diathesis: internal predisposition, which could be genetic
• Stress: external trigger/environment

Question 6

Intervention-causation fallacy

Answer 6

Involves the assumption that if a treatment is effective, it must address the cause of the problem

Question 7

Anxiety disorder

Answer 7

The class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant factor

Question 8

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Answer 8

A disorder characterized by chronic excessive worry accompanied by 3 or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension and sleep disturbance
*non-specific anxiety

Question 9

Phobic disorders

Answer 9

Marked, persistent and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities or situations

Question 10

Specific disorders

Answer 10

Disorder that involves an irrational fear of a particular object of situation that markedly interferes with an individual’s ability to function
5 categories:
1. Animals (dogs, cats, rats, snakes, spiders, etc.)
2. Natural environments (heights, darkness, water, storms, etc.)
3. Situations (bridges, elevators, tunnels, enclosed places, etc.)
4. Blood, injections, injury
5. Other phobias (illness, death, etc.)

Question 11

Social phobia

Answer 11

Disorder that involves an irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed

Question 12

Preparedness theory

Answer 12

People are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears (ex. snakes, spiders but not flowers or toy bunnies)

Question 13

Panic disorder

Answer 13

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

• Feel that you’re going to die
• False interpretation of bodily state (arousal) *2 factor theory

Question 14

Agoraphobia

Answer 14

An extreme fear of venturing into public places

Question 15

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Mood disorders

Answer 16

Mental disorders that have mood disturbance as their predominant feature

Question 17

Major depressive disorder

Onset mid-20’s

Answer 17

Disorder characterized by severely depressed mood that lasts 2 weeks or more and is accompanied by feelings of:

• Sadness (profound/deep)
• Anhedonia (no longer pursue enjoyable activities)
• Change in sleep (far more/less)
• Change in appetite (far more/less)
• Psychomotor agitation/retardation (feel antsy/weak/lethargic)
• Fatigue and loss of E.: cannot power up
• Worthlessness, guilt (feel far less value, take ownership in things that are not their fault)
• Decreased ability to concentrate (cannot focus, reframe, not productive)
• Suicidal

Question 18

Dysthymia

Early, insidious, chronic

Answer 18

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 19

Double depression

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

Answer 20

Recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern

Question 21

Postpartum depression

Answer 21

Depression in women following childbirth due to changing hormone balances

Question 22

Helplessness theory

Answer 22

Individuals who are prone to depression automatically attribute negative experiences to causes that are internal (their own fault), stable (unlikely to change) and global (widespread, all of future)

Question 23

Symbolic loss (Freud)

Answer 23

States that the “worst” possible situation is loss of parents; an individual with depression equates all negative situations to the “worst” situation thus making their experience of depression even worse

Question 24

Biological underpinnings of depression

Answer 24

Neurotransmitters
-Catecholamine & Indoleamine theory: low levels of NE and serotonin
Brain dysfunction
-Left frontal: less active than expected
-Right frontal: more active than expected thus causing rumination (think the same negative thoughts over and over)

Question 25

Bipolar disorder

Onset 20’s but childhood BPD may have different symptoms due to comorbidity

Answer 25

An unstable emotional condition characterized by cycles of abnormal, persistent high mode (mania) and low mood (depression)

1. BPD-I (mania):
   - inflated self-esteem, grandiosity
   - decreased need for sleep
   - flight of ideas, racing thoughts
   - distractibility
   - increase in goal-directed behaviour
   - excessive involvement in pleasurable activities

Question 26

Biological underpinnings of bipolar disorder

Answer 26

Neurotransmitters
-High levels of NE (mental arousal)
Permissive theory: Serotonin levels are low thus dysfunctional for NE thus, NE swings from high to low for mania to depression

Question 27

Cyclothymia

Onset adolescence, may or many nor develop into full bipolar disorder

Answer 27

Same cognitive and bodily problems as in bipolar disorder are present but they are less severe and last longer (persisting for at least 2 or more years)

Question 28

Dissociative disorder

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

Answer 29

Presence within an individual of 2 or more distinct identities that at different times take control of the individual’s behaviour
-Most DID patients have experienced tough physical and/or psychological trauma earlier in life; the only way to manage the stress was to create 2/+ personalities that were better able to cope with the situation (Freud)

Question 30

Schizophrenia

Answer 30

Profound disruption of basic psychological processes; a distorted perception of reality; altered or blunted emotion; disturbances in though, motivation and behaviour
DSM: at least 6 months
-delusion, hallucination, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized behaviour or catatonic behaviour and negative symptoms

Question 31

Delusion

Answer 31

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

ex. may think he/she is Jesus Christ, Napoleon, Joan of Arc, etc.
ex. think CIA, demons, ET’s, etc. are conspiring to harm them or control his or her mind

Question 32

Hallucination

Answer 32

False perceptual experience that has compelling sense of being real despite the absence of external stimulation
ex. hearing, seeing, smelling things that are not there or having tactile sensations in absence of relevant sensory stimulation

Question 33

Disorganized speech

Answer 33

Sever disruption of verbal communication in which ideas shift rapidly and incoherently from one to another unrelated topics

Question 34

Grossly disorganized behaviour

Answer 34

Behaviour that is inappropriate for the situation or ineffective in attaining goals, often with specific motor disturbances
ex. improper sexual behaviour, loud shouting/swearing, constant childlike silliness

Question 35

Catatonic behaviour

Answer 35

Marked decrease in all movements or an increase in muscular rigidity and overactivity

Question 36

Negative symptoms

Answer 36

Emotional and social withdrawal; apathy; poverty of speech; other indications of absence or insufficiency of normal behaviour, motivation and emotion
-Symptoms that are missing in people with schizophrenia that appear more in people WITH schizophrenia than other people

Question 37

Positive symptoms

Answer 37

Symptoms that you expect to find in people with schizophrenia and not in others

Question 38

Types of schizophrenia

Answer 38

1. Paranoid: prominent delusions, hallucinations
2. Disorganized: speech, behaviour and/or affect
3. Catatonic: marked psychomotor disturbance
4. Undifferentiated: residual, do not fall cleanly into first 3

Question 39

Schizophrenia onset & course

Answer 39

Onset

• more common in males
• early onset is less frequent
• rarely childhood onset
• may/may not have prodromal phase (transitional stage, warning stage before full schizophrenia)

Course (quarter system)

• 25% complete recovery
• 25% much improved, relatively independent (some help for daily functions), still on therapy and medication
• 25% improved but require extensive support network
• 15% unimproved, hospitalized
• 10% dead (mostly suicide)

Question 40

Biological underpinnings in schizophrenia

Answer 40

Heritability estimates
-not wholly heritable though, environment also contribute
Biochemical factors
-dopamine hypothesis: idea that schizophrenia involves an excess of dopamine activity (aggravates symptoms)
Neuroanatomy
-extensive neuronal loss
-larger ventricles (hollow areas filled with CSF deep within the core of the brain)

Question 41

Psychological underpinnings

Answer 41

Development in a stressful environment
ex. Individual starts to show odd symptoms -others start to treat individual differently -increase stress -individual start to treat others differently -socially isolated -increase more stress