CHAPTER 15 Flashcards
Mental disorder
A persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behaviour, thoughts or motions that causes significant distress or impairment
- Have problems with perception, memory, motivation, learning, thinking and social processes
Medical model
An approach that conceptualizes abnormal psychological experiences as illnesses that, like physical illness have biological and environmental causes, defined symptoms and possible cures
Diagnosis
signs and symptoms
signs
objectively observed indicators of a disorder
symptoms
subjectively reported behaviours, thoughts and emotions
disorder
Is a common set of signs and symptoms
Disease
Is a known pathological process affecting the body
Diagnosis
Is a determination as to whether a disorder or disease is present
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorder (DSM)
Produced by APA
a classification system that describes the symptoms used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicates how the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems.
22 major categories, more than 200 mental disorders
Another established system to classify mental disorders
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) produced by the World Health Organization
Comorbidity
The co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual
Biopsychosocial perspective
that explains mental disorders as the result of interactions among biological, psychological, and social factors
On the biological side, the focus is on genetic and epigenetic influences, biochemical imbalances, and abnormalities in brain structure and function. The psychological perspective focuses on maladaptive learning and coping, cognitive biases, dysfunctional attitudes, and interpersonal problems. Social factors include poor socialization, stressful life experiences, and cultural and social inequities
Diathesis- stress model
*the pic
suggests that a person may be predisposed to a psychological disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress
Research domain criteria project (RDoc)
a new initiative that aims to guide the classification and understanding of mental disorders by revealing the basic processes that give rise to them
Anxiety disorder
the class of mental disorders in which anxiety is the predominant feature.
Phobic disorders
characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations.
Specific phobia
an irrational fear of a particular object or situation that markedly interferes with an individual’s ability to function
- Animals, natural environments, situations, blood/ injections/injury, other phobias
social phobia
involves an irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed.
Preparedness theory
which maintains that people are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears.
Martin E.P Seligman - can be conditioned to fear certain stimuli and not others
People with phobias have higher levels of activity in the amygdala
Panic disorder
characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror
Agoraphobia
a specific phobia involving fear of public places
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
in which repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviours (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts interfere significantly with an individual’s functioning.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
characterized by chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and avoidance of things that call the traumatic event to mind.
Heightened activity in the amygdala, decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex, a smaller hippocampus (memory place) - causation problem
mood disorder
Mental disorders that have mood disturbance as their predominant feature and take two main forms: depression and bipolar disorder