Psychological Disorders

Question 1

What are the three D’s?

Answer 1

Deviance
Distress
Dysfunction

Question 2

What is Diathesis-Stress?

Answer 2

The theory that everyone has a predisposition to certain psychological disorders, and that they can be provoked due to life stresses.

Question 3

What is the current diagnostic manual?

Answer 3

DSM-5.

Question 4

How many classes of disorders are in the DSM-5?

Answer 4

20

Question 5

Why do we feel anxious?

Answer 5

Perceiving a threat.

Question 6

What turns anxiety into an anxious disorder?

Answer 6

People perceive a threat, even when one isn’t present, such as in non-threatening situations.

Question 7

What is the anxious cycle?

Answer 7

Thought > Emotion > Behaviours

Question 8

What are the 5 specific anxiety disorders?

Answer 8

Specific Phobia
Panic Disorder
Agoraphobia
Social Phobia
GAD - Generalised worry about everyday things.

Question 9

What is an obsession?

Answer 9

Persistent, unwanted intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that cause distress or anxiety (DSM-5).

Question 10

What is a compulsion?

Answer 10

Repetitive behaviours or thoughts that the person feels driven to perform in response (usually) to an obsession.

Question 11

What is the interaction between obsession and compulsion?

Answer 11

Vicious cycle, obsession causes compulsion, which stops you from disconfirming the obsession and makes you repeat the compulsion to reduce anxiety.

Question 12

What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)?

Answer 12

A body-image disorder characterised by persistent and intrusive preoccupations with an imagines or slight defect in one’s appearance.

Question 13

What is Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)?

Answer 13

Prolonged - very severe depression.

Question 14

What is the Cognitive-Behavioural Model of Depression?

Answer 14

Depression driven by unrealistic negative automatic thoughts and faulty beliefs.

Question 15

What is Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia)?

Answer 15

Similar symptoms to MDD, however less severe. Depressed mood for at least 2 years, but still with the ability to function, albeit at a reduced capacity.

Question 16

What is Bipolar Disorder?

Answer 16

Previously known as Manic-depressive disorder. Characterised by extreme mood swings (manic to depressive).

Question 17

What is mania?

Answer 17

Excessive happiness, elation or irritability. Grandiosity, euphoria, decreased need for sleep.

Question 18

What is Dissociative Disorder?

Answer 18

A disruption in the normally integrated functions of identity, memory, and consciousness.

Question 19

What are the lease severe forms of dissociative disorders?

Answer 19

“Depersonalisation”
“Derealisation”

Question 20

What is dissociative amnesia?

Answer 20

Sudden loss of memory of personal information. Usually still know identity and most of past, aside from the last couple of days. Also includes dissociative fugue, which can mean sudden wandering, new identity.

Question 21

What is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)?

Answer 21

Formally Multiple Personality Disorder. 2 or more personality states, that are distinct from the primary personality.

Question 22

What is a personality disorder?

Answer 22

An enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviours that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture, is pervasive and flexible, has onset in adolescence, is stable overtime, and leads to distress or impairment.

Question 23

What are the three personality disorder clusters?

Answer 23

Odd-Eccentric - Paranoid, Schizoid and Schizotypal Personality Disorder.

Drama-Erratic (impulsivity) - Anti-social (psychopath), Borderline, Histrionic, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Anxious-Fearful - Avoidant, Dependent and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Question 24

What are the 4 criteria sub-categories for BPD?

Answer 24

Disturbed Self
Behavioural Dyscontrol
Interpersonal Hypersensitivity
Affective/Emotion Disregulation

Question 25

What diagnostic information is used to diagnose children with APD?

Answer 25

Callous unemotional traits
No amygdala arousal.
Child doesn’t care about consequences and doesn’t care to change behaviour after learning from experience.

Question 26

What is psychosis?

Answer 26

The presence of delusions, hallucinations (usually auditory), disorganised speech, disorganised or chaotic behaviour, or negative symptoms.

Question 27

What is Schizophrenia?

Answer 27

Severe disturbances in cognitive and emotional functioning, including perception, language and communication, affect, behavioural monitoring, motivation, attention, and many more.

Question 28

Symptom: Delusion.

Answer 28

False beliefs; no evidence to support
Delusions of influence (e.g. the CIA is controlling my mind)
Delusions of grandeur: Superiority, God-complex, megalomania
Delusions of persecution: “They’re out to get me”, “I’m being followed”, panaoia

> Paranoid Schizophrenia

Question 29

Symptom: Disturbance in perception: Hallucinations

Answer 29

Perceptual experience in the absence of stimuli
Often auditory
Often critical or commanding
Brain activity

Question 30

Symptom: Disturbances in language

Answer 30

Indicate disturbed thinking
Neologisms (invented words or sounds)
Loose associations: Jump between ideas
Clang associations: sounds of words
Word salad: Chaotic/non-sensical
Paralogic: seems logical, but severely flawed. (e.g. Jesus was a man and bad a beard, I’m a man and have a beard, therefore I am Jesus.)

Question 31

Symptom: Disorganised/abnormal motor behaviour

Answer 31

Disorganised: behaviour inappropriate for current situation, reduced goal-driven behaviour, silliness, agitation.
Catatonic: Unresponsiveness to environment, immobility for extended periods, flat affect, inappropriate or exaggerated affect.

Question 32

Negative symptoms of Schizophrenia

Answer 32

Flattened affect
Lack of speech (but not complete refusal to talk)
Avoilation - lack of goal-orientated action.
Anhedonia - lack of pleasure.

Question 33

Associated problems for Schizophrenia

Answer 33

Sleep
Depression, anxiety, anger, anhedonia
Substance use
Cognitive difficulties (concentration, memory)
Poor insight into own problems
Motor deficits
High suicide risk
Violence (mainly younger males with substance abuse or not medicated)