Psychological Disorders Flashcards
What are some examples of psychotic disorders?
- Delusional disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Brief Psychotic Disorder
What are characteristic of psychotic disorders?
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Disturbed thought and/or speech
- Disturbed motor behavior
- Social/emotional isolation.
What is the primary feature of psychoses?
Loss of contact with shared views of reality
What are some examples of mood disorders
- Depressive disorders
- Bipolar disorders
What is the primary feature of mood disturbances?
Major disturbances in emotions
What are the characteristics of mood disorders?
- May experience long periods of extreme happiness, extreme sadness, or both.
- General emotional state or mood may be distorted or may be inconsistent with your circumstances and interferes with your ability to function. You may be extremely sad, empty or irritable (depressed), or you may have periods of depression alternating with being excessively happy (mania).
What are the criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (Clinical Depression)?
5 or more of the above symptoms within a two-week period
1 of the symptoms MUST be: diminished interest/pleasure in anything
What are the symptoms of depression?
- Depressed most of the day
- Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all or almost all activities, nearly every day (anhedonia)
- Significant weight loss OR weight gain (For children: - - – Could be failure to achieve expected weight gain)
- Insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
- Psychomotor agitation or retardation (inappropriately over-active or under-responsive)
- Fatigue or loss of energy nearly everyday
- Diminished ability to think or concentrate; indecisiveness
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly everyday
- Recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation without specific plan, or a suicide attempt or specific plan for committing suicide
What is the difference of anxiety disorder and anxiety-related disorder?
Anxiety disorder: key feature is anxiety itself (e.g. phobias, generalized anxiety disorder)
- Anxiety comes up ….
- The anxiety response to a situation or problem is …..
- Experience a lot of ….
- Anxiety may last for ….
- Anxiety feels ….
- May avoid …..
Anxiety-related disorders: something else causes anxiety (e.g. PTSD – post traumatic stress disorder)
- Is related to ….
- Lasts …
- Is proportional to…
- Is a realistic response to …..
What are some examples of personality disorders?
- Antisocial
- Borderline
- Narcissistic
What is the key feature of personality disorder?
Inflexible ways of behaving that create a variety of problems
What are the characteristics of personality disorders?
Personality disorders are long-term patterns of behavior and inner experiences that differs significantly from what is expected. The pattern of experience and behavior begins by late adolescence or early adulthood and causes distress or problems in functioning. Without treatment, personality disorders can be long-lasting.
Personality disorders affect at least two of these areas:
(i) Way of thinking about oneself and others
(ii) Way of responding emotionally
(iii) Way of relating to other people
(iv) Way of controlling one’s behavior
Is there a need for labels and why? (usefulness or not-usefulness of labelling someone with a mental health disorder)
PROS
- Provides a name to a problem
- Quick reference point
- Suggests a direction to start treatment
CONS
- Becomes a “label”
- Individual becomes stuck in a classification
- Superficial and limited understanding of underlying issues (e.g. purpose of the behaviour, how person is coping with the problem)
What are the criteria for diagnosis of psychological disorders?
The DSM approach allows a systematic assessment of the patient, taking into account the mental disorder in question, the patient’s medical condition, psychological and cultural factors, and the way the patient functions in everyday life.
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/12-1-psychological-disorder-what-makes-a-behavior-abnormal/
Key: Maladaptive behaviours: behaviour arising from an underlying psychological or biological dysfunction that makes it difficult to adapt to the environment and meet the demands of (a functional) life
Maladaptive behaviour: What are some things to consider when someone has a disorder?
- Frequency and intensity of certain behaviours
- Impact on self and others’ safety
- Impact on individual’s social relationships
- Impact on ability to cope with daily self-care, or daily activities of living
Elaborate more on the stress-vulnerability (diathesis-stress model).
Mental illness is caused by a COMBINATION of (i) biological weakness / vulnerability and (ii) environmental factors
Model accounts for:
- Difficulty in accounting for why some people develop a mental illness while others don’t, even though they may experience similar environmental conditions
- Explains how psychological, social factors, environmental and biological factors influence the development of illness
- Effectiveness of treatments are also affected by these factors – not everyone will respond to treatment the same way
