Exam 5 Psych Disorders

Question 1

What is a psychological disorder?

Answer 1

“…a syndrome characterized by​ a clinically significant disterbance in an individual’s cognitive, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental process underlying mental functioning.”
“Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress in social, occupational, or other important activities.”

Question 2

What is the medical approach to psychological disorders? What are the implications of it?

Answer 2

Medical approach: In the 20th century, mental health began to be treated as a medical condition.
Psychological disorders have physical and NOT supernatural causes.
Mental illness can be diagnosed using symptoms which can then guide therapeutic treatments.
Recent research on genetically influenced brain abnormalities in brain structure and biochemistry support this approach.

Question 3

What is the biopsychosocial approach to psychological disorders? What are the implications of it?

Answer 3

Biopsychosocial approach: Today, mental health problems are also explained using biological, psychological, and social explanations
The BPA proposes that biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors play significant roles in human functioning
These factors all play a significant role in mental health
Biological = brain structures.
Psychological = cognitions.
Social = stress.

Question 4

What is a diagnosis of a psychological disorder?

Answer 4

An attempt by a professional psychologist or psychiatrist to identify a psychological disorder that you may be experiencing.
Diagnoses are made after meeting with clients or patients and giving them appropriate psychological tests

Question 5

What is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders?

Answer 5

provides a comprehensive list of all psychological disorders and criteria that must be met to diagnose someone with a disorder.

Question 6

Why do we need diagnoses?

Answer 6

We can study people with similar diagnoses in order to better understand causes or treatments of the disorder.
We can better select treatment options by using therapies that have worked with people who have the same diagnosis.

Question 7

How many people are diagnosed with psychological disorders?

Answer 7

One-in-four Americans will experience a psychological disorder this year.

Question 8

Are people with psychological disorders dangerous?

Answer 8

No! Most people with psychological disorders are generally nonviolent and unlikely to harm anyone.
People with psychological disorders are more likely to be the victums of violence, not the perpetrators.

Question 9

What defines anxiety disorders?

Answer 9

People with anxiety disorders experience persistent, distressing anxiety and often do maladaptive things to cope with it.
It can be difficult to identify what’s causing the anxiety

Question 10

What is generalized anxiety disorder?

Answer 10

Person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal
About 3 % of adults have had GAD in the past year.

Question 11

What is panic disorder?

Answer 11

An anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations.
People with panic disorder often live in fear of when the next attack might strike.
About 2.5 % of U.S. adults had panic disorder in the prior year.

Question 12

What is a phobia?

Answer 12

A phobia involves a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation.
Some phobias are harmless, but some can significantly interfere with a person’s well-being
About 10 % of adults have phobias.

Question 13

What is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?

Answer 13

Characterized by persistent and repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both.
Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors interfere with everyday life and cause distress
About 1 % of adults had OCD in the previous year.

Question 14

What’s the difference between obsessions and compulsions?

Answer 14

Obsessions - repetitive thoughts
Compulsions - actions to stop those thoughts

Question 15

What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?

Answer 15

Characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia lingering for 4 weeks or more after a traumatic experience
About 3.5 % of adults have had PTSD in the prior year.

Question 16

What are potential causes of anxiety disorders? (genetics; classical conditioning; negative reinforcement; observation)

Answer 16

Anxiety, OCD, and PTSD are partially caused by your genes.
People can be classically conditioned to experience anxiety and fear.
Operant conditioning can maintain fears through negative reinforcement
You can develop anxiety by observing other people who have anxiety.

Question 17

What is major depressive disorder?

Answer 17

intense bouts of depression that come and go.
The person experiences 2 or more weeks with five or more symptoms of depression, at least one of which must be either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure.
About 10 % of Americans experience and episode of MDD each year.
About 20 % of Americans experience episodes of MDD during their lifetime

Question 18

What is persistent depressive disorder?

Answer 18

lower levels of depression that last for years.
The person experiences mildly depressed mood more often than not for at least 2 years, along with at least two other symptoms of depression (which are less intense in PDD).
Also known as dysthymia
Double depression: Major depressive episodes can occur during persistent depressive disorder.
About 1.5 % of Americans experience PDD each year.

Question 19

What is bipolar disorder?

Answer 19

cycling between the lows of depression and the highs of mania.
People with BD experience intense shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels that can last for months
Experience periods of lethargy of depression.
Experience periods of energy and euphoria.
About 2.8 % of U.S. adults experienced BD in the past year.

Question 20

What is the manic phase of bipolar disorder?

Answer 20

A person in mania phase may talk quickly, rarely sleep, and demonstrate hyperactivity
Manic people are wildly optimistic and can experience feelings of being all-powerful and invincible.
Can lead to very poor judgements. Often associated with risky sex and other reckless behaviors.

Question 21

What are potential biological causes of depression?

Answer 21

Depressive disorders are partially caused by genes.
Depressed brains are less active, and norepinephrine and serotonin levels decline.

Question 22

How can thoughts lead to feeling depressed? (all-or-nothing thinking; explanatory style; rumination)\

Answer 22

All-or-nothing thinking: everything is either fantastic or terrible
Explanatory style: how do you explain good and bad events?
Rumination: repeated, negative thinking that can fuel depression.

Question 23

What is schizophrenia?

Answer 23

Psychological disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished, inappropriate emotional expression
Schizophrenia usually emerges in people in their late teens to early 30’s.
About .5 % of U.S. adults have Schizophrenia.

Question 24

Positive symptoms or schizophrenia

Answer 24

(those abnormally present) hallucinations, such as hearing voices or seeing things that do not exist, paranoia and exaggerated or distorted perceptions, beliefs and behaviors.

Question 25

negative symptoms or schizophrenia

Answer 25

(those abnormally absent) A loss or a decrease in the ability to initiate plans, speak, express emotion or find pleasure.

Question 26

Disorganized syptoms of schizopjrenia

Answer 26

Confused and disordered thinking and speech, trouble with logical thinking and sometimes bizarre behavior or abnormal movements.

Question 27

Chronic schizophrenia (process schizophrenia).

Answer 27

Form of schizophrenia in which symptoms usually appear by late adolescence or early adulthood .
As people age, psychotic episodes last longer, and recovery periods shorten.

Question 28

Acute schizophrenia (reactive schizophrenia).

Answer 28

Form of schizophrenia that can begin at any age
Often a response to an emotionally traumatic event
Has extened recovery periods.

Question 29

What are potential causes of schizophrenia? (genes; brain characteristics)

Answer 29

Schizophrenia is one of the most genetically influenced psychological disorders.
However, genes are not enough If your identical twin had Schizophrenia, there’s only a 50 % chance that you’ll develop it.

Question 30

What is the diathesis-stress model of Schizophrenia?

Answer 30

people develop Schizophrenia when they have the genes for it and experience certain events.

Question 31

What are personality disorders?

Answer 31

Psychological disorders marked by inflexible, disruptive, and enduring behavior patterns that impair social and other functioning – whether the sufferer recognizes that or not.
These are chronic and enduring syndromes that create noticeable problems that can range from harmless to severe.

Question 32

Ego-dystonic disorders

Answer 32

those who have them are aware they have a problem and tend to be distressed by their symptoms.

Question 33

Ego-syntonic disorder

Answer 33

the person experiencing them doesn’t necessarily think they have a problem
Most personality disorders are ego-syntonic which makes therapy for people with this disorder challenging.

Question 34

What are the personality disorder clusters?

Answer 34

Cluster A: Odd or eccentric personality characteristics.
Cluster B: Dramatic, emotional, or impulsive personality characteristics.
Cluster C: Anxious, fearful, or avoidant personality characteristics.

Question 35

What is borderline personality disorder?

Answer 35

A complicated set of learned behaviors and emotional responses to traumatic or neglectful enviroments particularly in childhood.
Use dysfunctional and unhealthy ways to have their psychological needs satisfied.

Question 36

What is antisocial personality disorder?

Answer 36

A personality disorder in which a person (usually men) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing even towards friends and family members.
Destructive behavior surfaces in childhood or adolescence, beginning with excessive lying, fighting, stealing, violence, or manipulation.
People with ASP can end up in one of two situations as adults.
Clever con artist or hard-driven businessman
criminal who can’t keep a job.

Question 37

What are the potential causes of antisocial personality disorder?

Answer 37

Lack of impulse control and empathy may be related to deficits in brain structures.
Had reduced activity in the frontal lobes which regulated impulse control and aggression.
Brains respond less to facial displays of distress or anquish

Question 38

What are dissociative disorders?

Answer 38

“Involve experiencing a disconnection and lack of continuity between thoughts, memories, surroundings, actions and identity.”
They “escape reality in ways that are involuentary and unhealthy and cause problems with functioning in everyday life.”

Question 39

Dissociative amnesia

Answer 39

when a person may block out specific information or have no memory of a particular event

Question 40

Dissociative fugue:

Answer 40

during when a person may suddenly just set out on a journey for hours or months, and travel around with no awareness of their identity.

Question 41

Dissociative Identity Disorder:

Answer 41

when a person exhibits more than one distinct and alternating personality. (aka “Multiple Personality Disorder”)

Question 42

What are the potential causes of dissociative disorders?

Answer 42

“Dissociative disorders usually develop as a way to cope with trauma.”
“The disorders most often form in children subjected to long-term physical, sexual or emotional abuse or, less often, a home environment that’s frightening or highly unpredictable.”
“A child who learns to dissociate in order to endure a traumatic experience may use this coping mechanism in response to stressful situations throughout life.”