Dissociative and Somatoform Disorders

Question 1

What is dissociative identity disorder?

Answer 1

When a person has two or more distinct or alternate personalities

Question 2

How is dissociative identity disorder controversial?

Answer 2

Considered rare
The existence of the disorder is debated
Possibly not a distinct disorder but a form or role playing

Question 3

What is dissociative amnesia?

Answer 3

Person experiences memory losses in the absence of any identifiable organic cause
General knowledge and skills are usually retained
Forget trauma but this is reversible

Question 4

What is malingering?

Answer 4

Faking illness to avoid or escape work or other duties or to obtain benefits
Falsely claiming amnesia as a way of escaping responsibility

Question 5

What is depersonalization?

Answer 5

Feelings of unreality or detachment from one’s self or one’s body as if a robot or observing oneself from outside

Question 6

What is derealization?

Answer 6

Episodes feature the sense that one’s surroundings have become strange or unreal

Question 7

What is depersonalization/derealization disorder?

Answer 7

Disorder characterized by persistent or recurrent episodes of depersonalization
Can distinguish reality from unreality
Out of body experience

Question 8

What is the psychodynamic perspective of dissociative disorders?

Answer 8

Involves the massive use of repression
The ego protects itself from anxiety by blotting out disturbing memories or by dissociating threatening impulses of a sexual or aggressive nature

Question 9

What are the learning and cognitive view of dissociative disorders?

Answer 9

Not thinking about these mattes is negatively reinforced by relief from anxiety or removal of feelings of guilt or shame

Question 10

According to the diathesis-stress model, what makes an individual more likely to experience dissociative disorder?

Answer 10

Proneness to fantasize

High ability to be hypnotized

Question 11

What does psychoanalysis try to achieve in regards to dissociate disorder?

Answer 11

Uncovering early childhood traumas

Question 12

What does CBT try to achieve in regards to dissociative disorders?

Answer 12

Uncovering maladaptive cognitions

Question 13

Are recovered memories believable?

Answer 13

Evidence suggests we are susceptible to suggestibility and probing
Our memories are constructivist in nature

Question 14

What are somatic symptoms and related disorders?

Answer 14

Disorders in which people complain of physical problems although no physical abnormality can be found

Question 15

What is conversion disorder

Answer 15

Functional neurological symptom disorder

Characterized by symptoms or deficits that affect the ability to control voluntary movements

Question 16

What are the classic symptoms of conversion disorder?

Answer 16

Paralysis 
Epilepsy 
Problems in coordination 
Blindness and tunnel vision 
Loss of hearing, smell, or feeling of a limb

Question 17

What is illness anxiety disorder?

Answer 17

Characterized by a preoccupation with the fear that one has a serious medical illness, but no medical basis for the complaints can be found

Question 18

What are the two subtypes of illness anxiety disorder?

Answer 18

Care-avoidant

Care-seeking

Question 19

What is the care-avoidant subtype?

Answer 19

People who avoid medical visits because of high levels of anxiety about what might be discovered

Question 20

What is the care-seeking subtype?

Answer 20

People who jump from doctor to doctor in the hope of finding the medical professional to confirm their fears

Question 21

What is somatic symptom disorder?

Answer 21

Disorder involving one or more somatic symptoms that cause excessive concern

Question 22

What is a factitious disorder?

Answer 22

Characterized by the intentional fabrication of psychological or physical symptoms for no apparent gain

Question 23

What are the two subtypes of factitious disorder?

Answer 23

Factitious disorder on self

Factitious disorder imposed on another

Question 24

What is Munchausen syndrome?

Answer 24

Person fakes being ill or makes themselves ill

Question 25

What is Munchausen by proxy syndrome?

Answer 25

Often a parent who feigns or induces illness in a child
Can be associated with severe and deadly child abuse
Represents an extreme need for nurturance or attention