Psychological Disorders Flashcards
Agoraphobia
- Intense fear of public spaces or going outside
- Commonly seen in patients who also have panic disorders
Anhedonia
- Reduced ability to experience pleasure
- Generally seen in patients with Major Depressive Disorder
Anorexia Nervosa
- Eating disorder characterized by an intense fear of weight gain, distorted body image and unhealthy attempts to lose weight
- Restrictive Type: major decrease in food consumption, sometimes to the point of starving
- Binge-Purging Type: attempts to lose weight by self-induced vomiting, laxatives or excessive exercise
- Causes gastrointestinal problems, metabolic issues, dental issues etc.
- Most anorexics are 25-30% lower than their healthy body weight
Antisocial Personality Disorder
- Personality disorder characterized by impulsive, aggressive, manipulative and irresponsible behaviour that reflects the rejection or inability to follow and abide by societal norms
- Lack guilt, empathy and affection
Anxiety Disorders
- Class of disorders characterized by excess feelings of anxiety and apprehension
- Generalized anxiety disorder, phobic disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Autism (Autistic Disorder)
- Developmental disorder which involves social and emotional deficits as well as repetitive behaviours and obsessive interests
- Autistic Aloneness: lack of social interaction and inability to form meaningful relationships with peers
- Autism is a spectrum with three subtypes
- Asperger’s disorder, autistic disorder and pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS)
- Echolia: repeating sentences exactly as they had just been told
Availability Heuristic
Estimated probability is influenced by how easily examples of the event are retrieved
Binge-Eating Disorder
- Eating disorder classified by a massive overconsumption of food in one given time (binge)
- No attempt to purge the binge is seen here
- Sufferers tend to be overweight and are disgusted with their body and struggle with self-esteem
Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depressive Disorder)
- Mood disorder characterized by intense swings between mania and depression
- Manic and depressive episodes may last a couple months, although most patients report longer depressive episodes than manic ones
Bulimia Nervosa
- Eating disorder characterized by a cycle of binge-eating and purging
- Bulimics typically keep a relatively normal body weight and are more likely to view their behaviour as unhealthy
- Causes metabolic problems, gastrointestinal problems and dental issues
Catatonic Schizophrenia
- Type of schizophrenia characterized by major motor disturbance
- Muscle rigidity or bizarre motor activity
- Catatonic Stupor: patient remains virtually motionless and unaware of the world around them
- Catatonic Excitement: patient becomes hyperactive and incoherent
Comorbidity
Existence of two or more disorders
Concordance Rate
Percentage of relatives who share the same disorder
Conjunction Fallacy
Estimates of probability of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the probability of the events happening alone
ie. What is the percentage of adult men in our study having heart attacks? Men over 55?
People may estimate men over 55 would have a higher rate, but realistically, men over 55 is a subset of adult men, the percentage would have to be lower.
Cumulative Probability
“Or” situations
ie. What is the probability of pulling out a red sock or a blue sock or a white sock etc.
Conjunctive Probability
“And” situations
ie. What is the probability of pulling out a red sock and a blue sock and a white sock etc.
Culture-Bound Disorders
Disorders found in a small number of cultural groups
ie. Koro, Windigo and anorexia nervosa
Cyclothymic Disorder
- Type of bipolar disorder
- Symptoms are chronic but cause only mild disturbances
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
- Five axis type of classification for disorders
- Axis I: Mood, anxiety, substance use, dissociative, eating, gender disorders etc.
- Axis II: Personality disorders and intellectual disability
- Axis III: Medical conditions
- Axis IV: Psychosocial / environmental stressors
- Axis V: Global assessment of functioning (GAF) scale
Delusions
- Symptom associated with schizophrenia
- May consist of delusions of grandeur, where one believes themselves to be someone of great importance, like the prime minister or a celebrity
- Belief of irrational things such as short people are all conspiring against you or giraffes are attempting to kidnap your siblings
Diagnosis
Deciding what illness or disorder one has
Disorganized Schizophrenia
- Type of schizophrenia characterized by a severe deterioration of behaviour
- Lack of emotion, incoherence, social withdrawal
Dissociative Amnesia
- Loss of memory that is too extensive to be attributed to normal forgetting
- May occur around a single traumatic event or time surrounding the event
Dissociative Disorders
- Class of disorders characterized by the patient losing contact with their memory or conscious which influences their sense of identity
- Dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue and dissociative identity disorder (DID)
Dissociative Fugue
- Complete memory loss regarding ones life and personal identity
- Can still remember things unrelated to identity such as how to skate or do maths
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
- Previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder
- Patient may have two or more personalities with very different identities
- Events that happen to one personality can only be retrieved by that personality
Dysthymic Disorder
- Type of mood disorder
- Chronic depressive episodes that are not severe enough to be classified as major depressive disorder
Eating Disorders
- Major disturbances in eating patterns
- Mostly seen in Western cultures
- Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder
Epidemiology
Study of distribution of mental or physical disorders in a population
Etiology
Cause of illnesses or disorders
Expressed Emotion (EE)
- Emotional response from a relative of a schizophrenic patient
- Critical or overinvolved attitudes lead to a relapse rate three times higher than families low in expressed emotion
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Chronic, constant states of anxiety not tied to specific events or objects
- Physical symptoms like trembling, muscle tension, diarrhea, dizziness, faintness, sweating and heart palpitations
Hallucinations
- Symptom of schizophrenia
- Perceiving stimulus without any actual sensory stimuli
- Most common is hearing voices
Major Depressive Disorder
- Mood disorder characterized by an episode of persistent sadness followed by a reduced interest in hobbies and anhedonia
- Symptoms include anxiety, changes in sleep or eating patterns, irritability, decreased self-esteem
- Average number of depressive episodes is 5-6
Medical Model
- States that abnormal behaviour should be classified as a disease
- Helped stop the belief that mental illness was caused by possession or was divine punishment
- Improved treatment for those struggling with mental illness
Mood Disorders
- Class of disorders characterized by severe emotional changes that may affect physical, social, perceptual and thought processes
- Major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder, cyclothymic disorder, seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
Negative Symptoms (of Schizophrenia)
- Part of a schizophrenia classification system started by Nancy Andreasen
- Behaviour changes such as dulled emotions, social withdrawal, lack of attention etc.
- Negative = removal of emotions, attention and withdrawal from social circle
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Type of anxiety disorder classified by obsessive behaviour
- Patient may be consistently checking clocks, washing their hands, cleaning and recleaning their house etc.
Panic Disorder
- Type of anxiety disorders classified by overwhelming feelings of anxiety that come on suddenly and don’t last long
- Attacks can come at any time
- Often seen with agoraphobia as people become afraid of having an attack in public
Paranoid Schizophrenia
- Type of schizophrenia characterized by delusions and hallucinations
- Most often delusions of grandeur, which lead to the patient believing people are trying to assassinate them or that they have many enemies because they are extremely important
Personality Disorders
- Class of disorders characterized by extreme personality traits that can cause deficits in social interactions, occupation and distress
- Three clusters, ten personality disorders
- Anxious/Fearful: Avoidant personality disorder, dependent personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
- Odd/Eccentric: Schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder
- Dramatic/Impulsive: Histrionic personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder
Phobic Disorder
- Type of anxiety disorder characterized by an intense fear of a specific event or object
- May be gained through observational learning or classical and operant conditioning
ie. Child sees fathers overwhelming fear of dogs, child gains a dog phobia = observational learning
John becomes scared of snow after getting trapped under snow in an avalanche. He now avoids snow, a behaviour that is negatively reinforced by the removal of anxiety = classical and operant conditioning
Positive Symptoms (of Schizophrenia)
- Part of a schizophrenia classification system created by Nancy Andreasen
- Symptoms including delusions and hallucinations
- Positive = added perceived stimulus or thoughts
- Patients showing a higher number of positive symptoms tend to respond better to treatment
Postpartum Depression
- Type of depression that occurs after childbirth
- Can contain both manic and depressive episodes
Prevalence
Percentage of a population that has a disorder during any specific time period
Prognosis
Prediction regarding the future course an illness or disorder will take
Representativeness Heuristic
Estimated probability of an event is influenced by how similar the event is to the typical prototype
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Type of depression that comes with seasonal changes
Schizophrenic Disorders
- Class of disorders characterized by delusions, hallucinations, incoherence and deterioration of behaviour
- Paranoid, catatonic, disorganized and undifferentiated
Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
Mixture of all symptoms from the paranoid, catatonic and disorganized types of schizophrenia
Nancy Andreasen
- Created a new classification of schizophrenia based on positive and negative symptoms
- Most people have both symptoms but vary in the degree to which they express them
Martin Antony and Karen Rowa
- Experts on anxiety disorders, specifically panic disorders and phobias
- Estimates 1-5% of Canadians suffer from extreme anxiety regarding driving
- Most of these people are good drivers
Aaron Beck
- Two personality styles that create vulnerability to depression
- Sociotropy: overconcerned with pleasing people and avoiding interpersonal problems
- Autonomy: too focused on one’s own achievement and independence
- Depressed people have a negative cognitive triad
- Negative views of themselves, their future and their world
Martin Seligman
- Learned helplessness model and hopelessness theory
- Learned helplessness model: depression is caused by “giving up” and letting negative events take over
- People with pessimistic explanatory styles are more vulnerable to depression
- Hopelessness theory: pessimistic explanatory styles along with stress, low self-esteem etc contribute to a feeling of hopelessness which leads to depression
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema
- Depressed people ruminate about their depression which leads them to experience depressive episodes for longer periods of time
- Rumination is associated with binge eating, anxiety, and binge drinking
- Women are more likely than men to ruminate, which is the cause of women experiencing more severe depressive episodes
Robert Hare
- Believes people with antisocial personality disorder begin a life of crime at an early age
- Expert on antisocial personality disorder, or psychopathy
- Created Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)
Regina Schuller
- Expert in Canadian law and interface of psychology
- Researches cases involving violence against women
Thomas Szasz
- Critic of the medical model
- Believes the mind cannot be sick, and abnormal behaviour is simply deviation from societal norms
David Rosenhan
- Did a study showing how mental health professionals struggle to identify normal and abnormal behaviour
- Sent mentally stable people to the doctor to report hearing voices as their only symptom
- These people were hospitalized, proving that the line between abnormal and normal is unclear
