Chapter 15 Flashcards
Psychological Disorder
a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognitions, emotion regulation, or behavior.
To be diagnosed with one, you must experience distress and dysfunction. Deviance and danger are garbage.
Medical Model
the concept that diseases, in this case, psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital.
Epigenetics
“above” or “in addition to” (epi) genetics; the study of molecular mechanisms by which environments can influence genetic expression (without a DNA change).
Helped to prove the vulnerability-stress model, which states that individual dispositions combine with environmental factors to influence a psychological disorder.
DSM-5
the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.
The DSM is very imperfect and can be unreliable and may cast too wide of a net.
The RDoC orders disorders based on behaviors and brain activity.
Suicide Facts
People usually commit suicide when they rebound from a deep depressive episode and can follow through.
Many people choose suicide to end pain and suffering, especially older adults. They may also do this to relieve a perceived burden on loved ones.
Suicide Stats
Women are more likely to consider/attempt suicide. Men are more likely to die by suicide. This is because men use more aggressive means to kill themselves.
Native Americans die twice as often by suicide than other races in the US.
Non-Suicidal Self Injury (NSSI)
This can be a self-reinforcing process because after self-harming, people tend to feel distracted from negative thoughts, attract attention, relieve guilt through punishment, or fit in with a peer group.
NSSI does not typically lead to suicide, however, it is still a risk factor.
Immigrant Paradox
The immigrant paradox states that compared with races that were born in America, races that recently immigrated to America have less risk for mental disorders.
Risks for Psychological Disorders
Some things that increase the risk of developing a mental disorder are living in poverty, difficult childhood, and other disabilities.
Anxiety Disorders
psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal.
To be diagnosed, symptoms must persist for 6+ months.
At its highest, one can’t identify, relieve, or avoid their anxiety. As one ages, symptoms begin to mellow out.
Panic Disorder
an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person may experience terror accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations; often followed by worry over a possible next attack.
Can develop agoraphobia, which is fear or avoidance of public places that are difficult to escape.
Specific Phobia
an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both.
People can know that their thoughts are irrational
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience.
Some people have a more sensitive emotion-processing limbic system, which explains why only some people experience it. It is overdiagnosed.
Somatic Symptom Disorder
a psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a somatic (bodily) form without apparent physical cause.
