Myers Exploring Psychology Chapter 14

No. Her behavior is not disabling or dysfunctional.

Anna is embarrassed about taking several minutes to parallel park her car. She usually gets out of the car once or twice to inspect her distance both from the curb and from nearby cars. Should she worry about having a psychological problem?

What behaviors and brain activity characterize the antisocial personality?

Antisocial personality disorder (one of those in the third cluster) is characterized by a lack of conscience and, sometimes, aggressive and fearless behavior. genetic predispositions may interact with the environment to produce the altered brain activity associated with antisocial personality disorder.

norepinephrine; Serotonin

Depression can often be alleviated by drugs that increase supplies of the neurotransmitters ... and ...

What are the two main eating disorders and how do biological, psychological, and social cultural influences make people more vulnerable to these disorders?

In those with eating disorders (usually women or gay men), psychological factors can overwhelm the body's tendency to maintain a normal weight. Despite being significantly underweight, people with anerexia nervosa (usually adolescent females) continue to diet and exercise excessively because they view themselves as fat. Those with bulimia nervosa (usually females in their teens or twenties) secretly binge and then compensate by purging, fasting, or excessive exercise. Cultural pressures, low self esteem, and negative emotions interact with stressful life experiences and genetics to produce eating disorders.

Obsessive Compulsive

Marina became consumed with the need to clean her entire house and refused to participate in any other activities. Her family consulted a therapist, who diagnosed her as having ...

Lower than normal activation in the frontal lobes.

PET scans of murders' brains have revealed ...

What are the three clusters of personality disorders?

Personality disorders are disruptive, inflexible, and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning. This disorder forms three clusters, based on main characteristics: 1. anxiety, 2. eccentric or odd behaviors, and 3. dramatic or impulsive behaviors.

What prenatal events are associated with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia?

Possible contributing factors include viral infection or famine conditions during mothers pregnancy; low weight or oxygen deprivation at birth; and maternal diabetes and older paternal age.

How many people currently have, or have had, a psychological disorder? Is poverty a risk factor?

Psychological disorders vary, depending on the time and place of survey. In one multinational survey, rates for any disorder ranged from less than five percent (Shanghai) to more than twenty five percent (US). Poverty is a risk factor: conditions and experiences associated with poverty contribute to the development of psychological disorders. But some disorders, such as schizophrenia, can drive people into poverty.

What are the schizophrenia subtypes, and what patterns of thinking, perceiving, feeling, and behaving characterize schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a group of disorders that typically strike during late adolescence, affect men very slightly more than women, and seem to occur in all cultures. Schizophrenia's subtypes are paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual. Symptoms are disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions. Delusions are false beliefs; hallucinations are sensory experiences without sensory stimulation. Schizophrenic symptoms may be positive (the presence of inappropriate behaviors) or negative (the absence of appropriate behaviors).

What factors affect suicide and self-injuring, and what are some of the important warning signs to watch for in suicide prevention efforts?

Suicide rates differ by nation, race, gender, age group, income, religious involvement, marital status, and (for gay and lesbian youth) social support structure. those with depression are more at risk for suicide than others are, but social suggestion, health status, and economic and social frustration are also contributing factors. Non suicidal self injury NSSI does not usually lead to suicide but may escalate to suicidal thoughts and acts if left untreated. People who engage in NNSI do not tolerate stress well and tend to be self critical, with poor communication and problem solving skills. Environmental barriers (such as jump barriers) are effective in preventing suicides. Forewarning of suicide may include verbal hints, giving away possessions, withdrawal, preoccupation with death, and discussing ones own suicide.

How and why do clinicians classify psychological disorders, and why do some psychologists criticize the use of diagnostic labels?

The American Psychological Associations DSM-IV-TR contains diagnostic labels and descriptions that provide a common language and shared concepts for communications and research. Some critics believe the DSM editions have become too detailed and extensive. Most US health insurance organizations require an ICD/DSM diagnosis before paying for therapy. Other critics view DSM diagnosis as arbitrary labels that create preconceptions which bias perceptions of labeled persons past and present behavior. One such label "insanity" raises moral and ethical questions about whether a society should hold people with disorders responsible for violent actions. Most people with disorders are nonviolent and are more likely to be victims than attackers.

How do conditioning, cognition, and biology contribute to the feelings that mark anxiety disorder?

The learning perspective views anxiety disorders as a product of fear conditioning, stimulus generalizing, fearful behavior reinforcement, and observational learning of others' fear and cognition's (interpretations, irrational beliefs, and hypervigilence). The biological perspective considers the role that fears of life threatening animals, objects or situations played a part in natural selection and evolution; genetic predisposition for high levels of emotional reactivity and neurotransmitter production; and abnormal responses in the brains fear circuits.

What are Dissociative Disorders

They are conditions in which conscious awareness seems to become separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings. Skeptics note that dissociative disorder, (formerly multiple personality disorder) increased dramatically in the twenty first century, is rarely found outside of North America, and that it may reflect role-playing by people who are vulnerable to therapists suggestions. Others view the disorder as a manifestation of feelings of anxiety, or as a response learned when behaviors are reinforced by anxiety reduction.

No. Schizophrenia does not typically involve rapid change of mood or identity.

Victor exclaimed "the weather has been so schizophrenic lately: its hot one day and cold the next". Is his comparison accurate?

Why is there controversy over attention-deficit-disorder?

a child who by age 7 displays extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity may be diagnosed with this disorder and treated with medication or therapy. The controversy centers on whether the growing number of cases reflects over diagnosis or increased awareness of the disorder. Long term effects of the stimulant drug treatment are not yet known.

Schizophrenia

a group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and behaviors.

Mania

a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously poor judgement is common.

Bipolar Disorder

a mood disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania.

Major Depressive Disorder

a mood disorder in which a person experiences, in absence of drugs or another medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods or diminished interest or pleasure in most activities, along with at east four other symptoms.

Delusions

a person with positive symptoms of schizophrenia is most likely to experience ...

Enduring and inflexible behavior patterns that impair social functioning.

a personality disorder, such as antisocial personality, is characterized by ...

Psychosis

a psychological disorder in which a person loses contact with reality, experiences irrational ideas and distorted thinking.

Attention Deficit Disorder

a psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Psychological Disorder

a significant dysfunction in a person's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.

Medical

a therapist says that psychological disorders are a sickness and people with these disorders should be treated as patients in a hospital. This therapist believes. the ... model.

Women and Men Equally

although bipolar disorder is maladaptive as depression, it is much less common and affects ...

Schizophrenia

although some psychological disorders are culture-bound, others are universal. For example in every known culture people have ...

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

an anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmare, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, an/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience.

Obsessive compulsive disorder

an anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal.

Phobia

an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational, fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation.

Panic Disorder

an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes long, episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations.

A Panic Attack

an episode of intense dread, accompanied by trembling, dizziness, chest pains, or choking sessions and by feelings of terror is called ...

Phobia

anxiety that takes the form of an irrational and maladaptive fear of a specific object, activity, or situation is called a ...

What are the main anxiety disorders, and how do they differ from the ordinary worries and fears we all experience?

anxious feelings and behaviors are classified as an anxiety disorder only when they form a pattern of distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety. People with generalized anxiety disorder feel persistently and uncontrollable tense and apprehensive, for no apparent reason. In the more extreme panic disorder, anxiety escalates into periodic episodes of intense dread. Those with a phobia may be irrationally afraid of specific objects or situations. Persistent and repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and actions (compulsions) characterize OCD. Symptoms of PTS disorder include four or more weeks of haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and sleep problems following a traumatic experience.

Onset is sudden, in response to stress.

chances for recovery from schizophrenia are best when ...

It is almost never reported outside of North America.

dissociative identity disorder is controversial because ...

Delusions

false beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany pyschotic disorders.

How do chronic and acute schizophrenia differ?

in chronic (or process) schizophrenia, the disorder develops gradually and recovery is doubtful. In acute (or reactive) schizophrenia, the onset is sudden, in reaction to stress, and the prospects for recovery are brighter.

Is marked by weight fluctuations within or above normal ranges.

is true of bulimia nervosa.

Biopsychosocial

many psychologists reject the "disorders as illness" view and instead contend that other factors may also be involved - for example - the persons bad habits and social skills. the view represents the ... approach.

What are mood disorders? How does major depressive disorder differ from bipolar disorder?

mood disorders are characterized by emotional extremes. a person with major depressive disorder experiences two or more weeks of seriously depressed moods and feelings of wholeness, and takes little interest in, and derives little pleasure from, most activities. A person with the less common condition of bipolar disorder experiences not only depression - but also periods of mania.

The DSM-IV-IR

most psychologists and psychiatrists have used ... to classify psychological disorders.

Poverty

one predictor of psychiatric disorders that cross ethnic and gender lines is ...

Structured Interview

one study found that psychologists using DSM-IV agreed on a diagnosis for more than 80% of patients. The DSM-IV's reliability stems in part from its reliance on ...

What brain abnormalities are associated with schizophrenia?

people with schizophrenia have increased dopamine receptors, which may intensify brain signals, creating positive symptoms such as hallucinations and paranoia. Brain abnormalities associated with schizophrenia include enlarged, fluid filled cerebral cavities and corresponding decreases in the cortex. Brain scans reveal abnormal activity in the frontal lobes, thalamus, and amygdala. Interacting malfunctions in multiple brain regions and their connections may produce schizophrenia's symptoms.

Hallucination

people with schizophrenia may hear voices urging self-destruction, an example of a/n ...

Anxiety Disorders

psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety.

Mood Disorders

psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes.

DSM-IV-TR

the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition, with an updated "text revision"; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.

How should we draw the line between normal behavior and psychological disorder?

the DSM-5 Task Force defined a psychological disorder as a significant dysfunction in an individuals cognition's, emotions, or behaviors, reflecting a disturbance in psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning. Dysfunctional behaviors are maladaptive and often distress the person with the disorder.

How do the biological and social cognitive perspectives explain mood disorders?

the biological perspective on depression focuses on genetic predispositions and on abnormalities in the brain structures and function (including those found in neurotransmitter systems). The social cognitive perspective views depression as an ongoing cycle of stressful experiences (interpreted through negative beliefs, attributions, and memories) leading to negative moods and actions and fueling new stressful experiences.

Medical Model

the concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physiological causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital.

Conditioned Fears

the learning perspective proposes that phobias are ...

How is our understanding of disorders affected by whether we use medical model or biopsychosocial approach?

the medical model assumes that psychological disorders are mentall illnesses with physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured through therapy, sometimes in a hospital. The biopsychosocial perspective assumes that three sets of influences - biological (evolution, genetics, brain structure, and chemistry), psychological (stress, trauma, learned helplessness, mood-related perceptions, and memories), and social cultural circumstances (roles, expectations, definitions of normal and disorder) - interact to produce specific psychological disorders.

Increasing

the rate of depression is ... among young people.

Phobias; Major Depression

the symptoms of ... appear around the age of ten; ... tends to appear later, around age twenty five.

schizophrenia; Depression

two disorders are found world wide,