chapter 13 Review

What are anxiety disorders, and how do they differ from ordinary worries and fears?

Anxiety is classified as a psychological disorder only when it becomes distressing or persistent, or is characterized by maladaptive behaviors intended to reduce it. People with generalized anxioety disorder feel persistently and uncontrollably tense and apprehensive, for no apparent reason, In panic disorder, anxiety escalates into periodic episodes of intense dread. Those with a phobia may be irrationally afraid of an object or situation. Persistent and repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and actions (compulsions) characterize obsessive-compulsive disorder. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder include four or more weeks of haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and sleep problesm following some traumatic and uncontrollable event.

What are dissociative disorders, and why are they controversial?

Dissociative disorders are conditions in which conscious awareness seems to become separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feeling. Skeptics note that dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality diorder, was rarely found before the late twentieth centruy or outsed North America, and that it may reflect role-playing by people who are vulnerable to therapists' suggestions. Others view DID symptoms as ways of handling anxiety.

What produces the thoughts and feelings that mark anxiety disorders?

Feud viewed anxiety disorders as the manifestation of mental energy associated with the discharge of repressed impulses. Psychologists working from the learning perspective view anxiety disorders as a product of fear conditioning, stimulus generalization, reinforcement of fearful behaviors, and observational learning of others' fear. Those working from the biological perspective consider the role that fears of life-threatening animals, objects, or situations played in natural selection and evolution; the genetic inheritance of a high level of emotional reactivity; and abnormal responses in the brain's fear circuits.

Why do some psychologists crticize the use of diagnostic labels?

Labels can create preconceptions that bias our perceptions of a person's past and present behavior. The insanity defense raises moral and ethical questions about how a society should treat people who have disorders and have committed crimes

What are mood disorders, and what forms do they take?

Mood disoders are characterized by emotional extremes. A person with major depressive disorder experiences two or more weeks of seriously depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest and pleasure in most activities. These feelings are not caused by drugs or a medical condition. People with the less common condition of bipolar disorders experience not only depression but also mania, episodes of hyperactive and wildly optimistic impulsive behavior.

How should we draw the line between normality and disorder?

Psychological disorders are deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions. The definition of deviant vareis with context, culture, and time, For example, some children who ight have been judged rambunctious a few decades ago now are being diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

What are somatoform disorders?

Somatoform disorders present a somatic (bodily) symptoms- some physiologically unexplained but genuinely felt ailment. With conversion disorder, anxiety appears converted to a physical symptom that has no reasonable physiological basis. Hypochondriasis is the more common interpretation of normal sensations as a dreaded disorder.

What causes mood disorders, and what might explain the Western world's rising incidence of depression among young people?

The biological perspective on depression focuses on genetic predispositions, abnormalities in brain structures and functions, and neurotransmitter imbalances. The social-cognitive perspective examines the influence of self-defeating beliefs, learned helplessness, negative attributions, and stressful experinces. The biopsychosocial approach considers the interaction of these and other influences. Increased rates of depression among young westerners may be due to the rise of individualism and the decline of commitment ot religion and family, but this is a correlational finding, so the cause-effect relationship is not yet clear.

How and why do clinicians classify psychological disorders?

The fourth edition (text revised) of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) provides diagnostic guidelines and categories that aid mental health professionals by providing a common language and shared concepts for communication and research. Most U.S. health insurance organizations require DSM-IV-TR diagnoses before they will pay for therapy.

What perspectives can help us understand psychological disorders?

the medical model assumes that psychological disorders are mental illnesses that can be diagnosed on the basis of their symptoms and cured or treated through therapy, sometimes in a hospital. The biopsychosoical approach assumes that disorders arise from genetic predispositions and physiological states; inner psycholoical dynamics; and social-cultural circumstances