12.3 Mood Disorders: Emotions as Illness

Question 1

mood

Answer 1

• the positive or negative feelings that are in the background of our everyday experiences

Question 2

Mood (or affective) disorders

Answer 2

• psychological disorders in which the person’s mood negatively influences his or her physical, perceptual, social, and cognitive processes

Question 3

dysthymia

Answer 3

• a condition characterized by mild, but chronic, depressive symptoms that last for at least 2 years

Question 4

Major depressive disorder (clinical depression)

Answer 4

• a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities

Question 5

bipolar disorder

Answer 5

• a psychological disorder characterized by swings in mood from overly “high” to sad and hopeless, and back again, with periods of near-normal mood in between