Psych 10 Study Guide: Ch. 14 - Psychological Disorders

Social-cognitive perspective of depression

**Explores how people's assumptions and expectations influence what they perceive. Depressed people see life through the dark glasses of low-self esteem.: - They have intensely negative views of themselves, their situation, and their future. Expecting the worst, depressed people magnify bad experiences and minimize good ones.: - Their self-defeating beliefs and negative explanatory style feed depression's vicious cycle.

Figure 14.13 - international comparisons of psych disorder rates:

**The lowest rate of reported mental disorders was in Shanghai, the highest rate in the United States. U.S.: 26% and 8% Ukraine: 20% and 5 % France: 19% and 3% Colombia: 18% and 6% Lebanon: 17% and 5%

Generalized anxiety disorder

**an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal. - person is often worried and uneasy for no apparent reason. - People w/ this condition (⅔ women) worry continually, are often jittery, on edge, and sleep deprived. - Concentration is difficult as attention switches from worry to worry.

What percentage of people have a psych disorder in any given year?

*26% of all adults meet those criteria for having a psych disorder in any given year.

What percent of people have a psych disorder at some point in their life?

*46% of all adults have met criteria for psych disorder at some point in their life.

PTSD

*Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder *an anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social w/drawal, jumpy anxiety, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after traumatic experience.

Antisocial personality disorder

*a personality disorder in which a person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist.

ADHD

*attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder *a psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. - 5% of children - 3% of adolescents who display at least one of symptoms - 2.5% of adults

Brain and Depression

- During depression, brain activity slows; during mania, it increases. - Left frontal lobe and an adjacent brain reward center, which are active during positive emotions, are less active during depressed states. - In one study of people w/ severe depression, MRI scans found frontal lobes were 7% smaller than normal. - Hippocampus is vulnerable to stress-related damage. - Norepinephrine, which increases arousal and boosts mood, is scarce during depression. - Serotonin is also scare or inactive during depression. - Drugs that relieve depression tend to increase serotonin or norepinephrine supplies by blocking either their reuptake or their chemical breakdown. - Repetitive physical exercise such as jogging, reduces depression as it increases serotonin: - Boosting serotonin may promote recovery from depression by stimulating hippocampus neuron growth.

Age differences and trends in suicide

In late adulthood, rates increase, peaking in middle age and beyond. In last half of 20th century, global rate of annual suicide deaths almost doubled.

Generational differences in rates of depression

With each new generation, depression is striking earlier (now often in the late teens) and affecting more people, w/ highest rates in developed countries among young adults. - Has been true in Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, and the U.S. In one study of Australian adolescents, 12% reported symptoms of depression. - Most hid it from parents and almost 90% of parents perceived depressed teen a not suffering depression. In North America, today's young adults are 3x more likely than grandparents to report having recently - or ever - suffered depression. Today's young people are more willing to talk openly about their depression. Psychological processes may also be at work. - we tend to forget about many negative experiences over time - older generations may overlook depressed feelings they had in earlier years.

Gender differences in suicide

Women are much more likely than men to attempt suicide. Men are two to four times more likely to actually end their lives. Men use more lethal methods (firing bullet into head) → method of choice in 6 of 10 U.S. suicides.

DID

dissociative identity disorder *a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Formerly called, multiple personality disorder.

Relation b/n psychological disorders and violence

- In real life, mental disorders seldom lead to violence. -- Few who do commit violent acts tend to be those experiencing threatening delusions and hallucinated voices commanding them to act, or those whose dysfunctionality includes substance abuse. - In real life, people w/ disorders are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators. - Although most people w/ psychological disorder are not violent, those who are create a moral dilemma for society.

Day of week (suicide)

25% of suicides occur on Wednesday's.

National differences in suicide

Britain's, Italy's, and Spain's suicide rates are little more than half those of Canada, Australia, and the U.S. Austria's and Finland's are about double. W/in Europe, people in the most suicide-prone country have been 16 times more likely to kill themselves than those in the least.

Key points of suicide and self-injury

Risk of suicide is at least 5 times greater for those who have been depressed than for general population. People tend to commit suicide while in depths of depression. Those w/ alcohol dependence are roughly 100 times more likely to commit suicide; some 3 percent of them do. Environmental barriers can reduce suicides. Suicide may be triggered by social suggestion. Suicide is usually a way for elderly to get away from current or future sufferin.

Cultural differences/similarities in psychological disorders

Some psychological disorders are culture-specific. For example, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa occur mostly in North American and other Western cultures. In Malaysia, amok (sudden outburst of violent behavior) may occur. In Latin American culutres, people may display symptoms of susto, condiiton marked by severe anxiety, restlessness, and fear of black magic. In Japanese culture, people may experience taijin-kyofusho (social anxiety about appearance or even extreme withdrawal of hikikomori. **Other disorders such as schizophrenia occur in all cultures.

Other group differences in suicide

Suicide rates are much higher among those who are rich, not religious; single, widowed, or divorced.

Racial differences in suicide

W/in the U.S., Whites and Native Americans kill themselves twice as often as Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.

Personality disorders

psychological disorders characterized by flexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning. tend to form three clusters, characterized by: - anxiety → avoidant personality disorder - eccentric or odd behaviors → schizoid personality disorder - dramatic or impulsive behavior → attention getting histrionic personality disorder, the self-focused and self-inflating narcissistic personality disorder, and the anti-social personality disorder.