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Psychological Disorders Flashcards

1
Q

Explain the Medical Model Applied to Abnormal Behaviour

A
  • Proposes that it is useful to think of abnormal behaviour as a disease (became the dominant way of thinking about abnormal behaviour during the 18-19th centuries)
  • Medical model continues to dominate thinking about psychological disorders
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2
Q

Describe Diagnosis, Etiology and Prognosis

A

Diagnosis : Involves distinguishing one illness from another

Etiology : Apparent causation and developmental history of an illness

Prognosis : Forecast about the probable course of an illness

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3
Q

What are the 3 Key Criteria of Abnormal Behaviour?

A

1. Deviance : Deviation from society’s norms (transvestic fetishism etc.)

2. Maladaptive Behaviour : Behaviour interferes with everyday social/occupational functioning

3. Personal Distress : Based on an individual’s report of subjective pain and suffering

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4
Q

What is the Classification of Disorders? (DSM-5)

A
  • DSM-5 is the current classification system for psychological disorders (released in 2013)
  • Assumes that people can be reliably placed in discontinuous (nonoverlapping) diagnostic categories

Critics argue :
- There is significant overlap among various disorders’ symptoms and people often qualify for more than one diagnosis
- Increase in specific diagnoses medicalises everyday problems, could trivialise the concept of mental illness

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5
Q

What is Generalised Anxiety Disorder?

A
  • Psychological disorder marked by a chronic, high level of anxiety that is not tied to any specific threat
  • Constantly worry about yesterday’s mistakes and tomorrow’s problems
  • Worry about minor matters related to family, finances, work and personal illness

Symptoms : Trembling, muscle tension, diarrhoea, dizziness, fainting, sweating, heart palpitations

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6
Q

What is Specific Phobia?

A
  • Persistent and irrational fear of an object/situation that presents no realistic danger
  • Certain phobias are relatively common
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7
Q

What is Panic Disorder?

A
  • A type of anxiety disorder characterised by recurrent attacks of overwhelming anxiety that usually occur suddenly and unexpectedly
  • Accompanied by physical symptoms of anxiety, sometimes misinterpreted as heart attacks
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8
Q

What is Agoraphobia?

A
  • Fear of going out to public places
  • Experience great discomfort in public places and when using public transport
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9
Q

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?

A
  • A disorder marked by persistent, uncontrollable intrusions of unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and urges to engage in senseless rituals (compulsions)
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10
Q

What is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

A
  • An enduring psychological disturbance attributed to the experience of a major traumatic event

Symptoms : Nightmares & flashbacks, emotional numbing, alienation, problems in social relations, increased sense of vulnerability, elevated arousal, anxiety, anger and guilt

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11
Q

Etiology of Anxiety-Related Disturbances

A

1.Biological Factors :
Concordance Rate : Indicates the % of twin pairs or other pairs of relatives who exhibit the same disorder

2. Conditioning & Learning : Many anxiety responses can be acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
Preparedness : People are biologically prepared by their evolutionary history to acquire some fears more easily than others

3. Cognitive Factors : Certain styles of thinking make some people particularly vulnerable to anxiety disorders

4. Stress : High stress often helps to precipitate/aggravate anxiety disorders

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12
Q

What are Dissociative Disorders?

A
  • Class of disorders in which people lose contact with portions of their consciousness/memory, resulting in disruptions in their sense of identity
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13
Q

What is Dissociative Amnesia?

A
  • A sudden loss of memory for important personal information that is too extensive to be due to normal forgetting
  • Usually attributed to excessive stress
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14
Q

What is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)?

A
  • A disruption of identity marked by the experience of 2 or more largely complete and usually very different personalities (Multiple-Personality Disorder)
  • Individuals fail to integrate incongruent aspects of their personality into one normal and coherent whole
  • Alternate personalities display traits that are foreign to the original personality
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15
Q

What is Major Depressive Disorder?

A
  • Mood disorder characterised by persistent feelings of sadness and despair and sudden loss of interest in previous sources of pleasure
  • Anhedonia is a central feature of depression (Diminished ability to experience pleasure)
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16
Q

What is Bipolar Disorder?

A
  • Mood disorder marked by experience of both depressed and manic episodes
  • Symptoms seen in manic periods generally are the opposite of those seen in depression
17
Q

Explain Mood Dysfunction & Suicide

A
  • Problem associated with mood disorders is suicide
  • Majority of people who complete suicide suffer from some type of psychological disorder
18
Q

Etiology of Depressive & Bipolar Disorders

A

1. Genetic Vulnerability : Evidence suggests that heredity can create a predisposition to mood dysfunction

2. Neurochemical and Neuroanatomical Factors : Correlations found between mood disorders and abnormal levels of 2 neurotransmitters in the brain (norepinephrine and serotonin)
- Correlations between depression and reduced hippocampal volume

3. Hormonal Factors
- Hormonal changes in response to stress may contribute to the development of depression

19
Q

What is Schizophrenia?

A
  • Disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations, disorganised thinking and speech and deterioration of adaptive behaviour
  • Individuals suffering from schizophrenia show an increased risk for suicide and early death from natural causes

Symptoms : Delusions (false beliefs that are maintained even thought they are clearly out of touch with reality) and irrational thought, deterioration of adaptive behaviour (quality of person’s routine functioning), hallucinations (gross distortions of perceptual input) and disturbed emotion (normal emotional tone disrupted)

20
Q

Etiology of Schizophrenia

A

1. Genetic Vulnerability : Genetic factors may account for as much as 80% of the variability in susceptibility to schizophrenia

2. Neurochemical Factors : Dopamine hypothesis asserts that excess dopamine activity is the neurochemical basis for schizophrenia
- Marijuana use during adolescence and methamphetamine use may be associated with schizophrenia

3. Structural Abnormalities : Enlarged brain vesicles and schizophrenia are correlated, reductions in both gray and white matter may be seen

4. Neurodevelopment Hypothesis : Asserts that schizophrenia is caused in part by various disruptions in the normal maturational processes of the brain before or at birth

21
Q

What is Autism Spectrum Disorder (AD)?

A
  • Childhood psychological disorder characterised by profound impairment of social interaction and communication, severely restricted interests in activities (apparent by age 3)

Symptoms : Greatly impaired verbal communication, preoccupation with objects or repetitive body movements and extreme inflexibility

22
Q

Etiology of AD

A
  • Genetic factors make a major contribution to AD
  • AD is associated with generalised brain enlargement
  • Children with autism have 67% more neurones in the prefrontal cortex than other children do
23
Q

What are Personality Disorders?

A
  • Class of disorders marked by extreme, inflexible personality traits that cause subjective distress or impaired social and occupational functioning
  • Grouped into 3 clusters : anxious-fearful, odd-eccentric and dramatic-impulsive
24
Q

What is Antisocial Personality Disorder?

A
  • Marked by impulsive, callous, manipulative, aggressive and irresponsible behaviour
  • People with this disorder lack an adequate conscience
  • Rarely experience genuine affection for others
  • Can tolerate little frustration, pursue immediate gratification
25
Q

What is Borderline Personality Disorder?

A
  • Marked by instability in social relationships, self-image and emotional functioning
  • People with this disorder tend to have turbulent interpersonal relationships marked by fears of abandonment
26
Q

What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

A
  • Marked by the grandiose sense of self-importance, sense of entitlement and excessive need for attention and admiration
  • People with this disorder think they are unique and superior to others
27
Q

Etiology of Personality Disorders

A
  • Personality disorders involve interactions between genetic predispositions and environmental factors (cognitive styles, coping patterns, exposure to stress)
  • Personality disorders are influenced by heredity, data from twin & family studies support these findings
28
Q

What are Eating Disorders?

A
  • Severe disturbances in eating behaviour characterised by preoccupation with weight concerns and unhealthy efforts to control weight
29
Q

What is Anorexia Nervosa?

A
  • Eating disorder characterised by intense fear of gaining weight, disturbed body image, refusal to maintain normal weight and use of dangerous measures to lose weight
30
Q

What is Bulimia Nervosa?

A
  • Eating disorder characterised by habitually engaging in out-of-control overeating, followed by unhealthy compensatory efforts (self-induced vomiting, fasting, abuse of laxatives and diuretics)
31
Q

What is Binge-Eating Disorder?

A
  • Characterised by distress-inducing eating binges that are not accompanied by the purging, fasting and excessive exercise seen in bulimia
32
Q

Etiology of Eating Disorders

A

1. Genetic Vulnerability : Some people may inherit a genetic vulnerability to eating disorders

2. Personality Factors : Anorexia nervosa victims tend to be obsessive, rigid and emotionally restrained
- Bulimia nervosa victims tend to be impulsive, overly sensitive and low in self-esteem

3. Cultural Values : Social ideas promoted by the media stress the importance of being thin to be attractive

FPsych (7 decks)

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