Psychological Disorders Flashcards
(28 cards)
4 criteria on the continuum of abnormal behaviour
- Statistical infrequency (how rare is the behaviour?)
- Disability or dysfunction (is there a loss of normal functioning?)
- Personal distress (is the person unhappy?)
- Violation of norms (is the behaviour culturally abnormal?)
Abnormal behaviour
Patterns of emotion, thought, and action considered pathological (diseased/disordered)
Insanity
Legal term applied when people cannot be held responsible for their actions, or are judged incompetent to manage their own affairs because of mental illness
Medical model
Perspective that assumes diseases (including mental illness) have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and possibly cured
Psychiatry
Branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Classification system developed by the American Psychiatric association used to describe abnormal behaviours
Neurosis
Outmoded term for disorders characterized by unrealistic anxiety and other associated problems
Psychosis
Serious mental disorders characterized by extreme mental disruption and loss of contact with reality
6 categories in the DSM
- anxiety disorders
- mood disorders
- schizophrenia
- substance-related disorders
- dissociative disorders
- personality disorders
Anxiety disorder
Type of abnormal behaviour characterized by unrealistic, irrational fear
Generalized anxiety disorder
Persistent, uncontrollable, and free-floating anxiety
Panic disorder
Sudden and inexplicable panic attacks; symptoms include difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, dizziness, trembling, terror, and feelings of impending doom
Phobia
Intense, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation
Ocd
Intrusive, repetitive fearful thoughts (obsessions), urges to perform repetitive, ritualistic behaviours (compulsions) or both
Factors explaining why people develop anxiety disorder, depression, and schizophrenia
- psychological
- biological
- sociocultural
Major depressive disorder
Long-lasting depressed mood that interferes with the ability to function, feel pleasure, or maintain interest in life
Bipolar disorder
Repeated episodes of mania (elation and activity) and depression
Learned helplessness
Seligman’s term for a state of helplessness or resignation in which human or nonhuman animals learn that escape from something painful is impossible and depression results
Schizophrenia
Group of psychotic disorders involving major disturbances in perception, language, thought, emotion, and behaviour - the individual withdraws from people and reality into a fantasy life of delusions and hallucinations
Hallucinations
Imaginary sensory perceptions that occur without external stimuli
Delusions
Mistaken beliefs based on a misrepresentation of reality
Substance related disorders
Abuse of, or dependence on, a mood or behaviour altering drug
Comorbidity
Co-occurrence of 2 or more disorders in the same person at the same time, as when a person suffers from both depression and alcoholism
Dissociative disorder
Amnesia, fatigue, or multiple personalities resulting from a splitting apart of experience from memory or consciousness
