Psy 200 CH.12 Tucker

Paranoid personality disorder

Characterized by persistent suspiciousness but not involving the disorganization of paranoid schizophrenia.

Stupor

Condition in which the senses, thought, and movement are dulled

Acrophobia

: Fear of high places

Dissociative disorders

Disorders in which there are sudden, temporary changes in consciousness or self-identity

Biological Views

Evolutionary psychologists suggest that anxiety may reflect natural selection. Humans are genetically predisposed to fear stimuli that may have posed a threat to their ancestors. The autonomic nervous system may stimulate the production of excessive quantities of adrenaline (epinephrine) and noradrenaline (norepinephrine).These chemicals normally pump up the body in preparation for the fight-or-flight response—both sides of which can make up self- preserving responses to threats.

Delusions

False, persistent beliefs that are unsubstantiated by sensory or objective evidence.

Claustrophobia

Fear of tight, small places

Learned helplessness

Possible explanation for some depressive behavior, based on findings that organisms in aversive situations learn to show inactivity when their behavior is not reinforced.

Psychomotor retardation

Slowness in motor activity and in thought

Medical Model

The so-called medical model assumes that illnesses have physical or biological causes that can be identified and that people afflicted by them are to be cured through treatment or therapy.

Social anxiety disorder

An irrational, excessive fear of public scrutiny.

Sociocultural Views

Classic research in New Haven, Connecticut, showed that the rate of schizophrenia was twice as high in the lowest socioeconomic class as in the next higher class on the socioeconomic ladder

Dissociative identity disorder

(DID) (formerly termed multiple personality disorder): Disorder in which a person appears to have two or more distinct identities or personalities that may alternately emerge. The identities of an individual with dissociative identity disorder might have different eyeglass prescriptions and different allergic responses. In other cases, different identities within a person might show various responses to the same medicine. Or one identity might exhibit color blindness while others have normal color vision.

Schizotypal personality disorder

: Characterized by oddities of thought and behavior but not involving bizarre psychotic behaviors.

Agoraphobia

: Fear of open, crowded places

La belle indifférence

A French term descriptive of the lack of concern for their (imagined) medical problem sometimes shown by people with conversion disorders.

Conversion disorder

A disorder in which anxiety or unconscious conflicts are converted into physical symptoms that often have the effect of helping the person cope with anxiety or conflict.

Acute stress disorder

A disorder, like PTSD, that is characterized by feelings of anxiety and helplessness and caused by a traumatic event. It occurs within a month of the event and lasts from 2 days to 4 weeks.

Hallucination

A perception in the absence of sensory stimulation that is confused with reality

Major depressive disorder

A serious to severe depressive disorder in which the person may show loss of appetite, psychomotor retardation, and impaired reality testing.

Illness anxiety disorder

A somatoform disorder characterized by persistent belief that one is ill despite lack of medical findings. People with this disorder become preoccupied with minor physical sensations and continue to believe that they are ill despite the reassurance of physicians that they are healthy.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Anxiety disorder defined by recurrent, anxiety-provoking thoughts or images that seem irrational and beyond control (obsessions) and seemingly irresistible urges to engage in thoughts or behaviors that tend to reduce the anxiety (compulsions).

Biopsychosocial Views

Biological imbalances may initially trigger attacks in panic disorder. But subsequent fear of attacks may heighten discomfort and give one the idea there is nothing one can do about them. Feelings of helplessness increase fear.

Borderline personality disorder

Characterized by instability in relationships, self-image, mood, and lack of impulse control

Schizoid personality disorder

Characterized by social withdrawal

Antisocial personality disorder

Diagnosis given to a person who is in frequent conflict with society, yet who is undeterred by punishment and experiences little or no guilt and anxiety.

Depersonalization-derealization disorder:

Disorder in which one feels detached from oneself or that one's surroundings are not real

Bipolar disorder

Disorder in which the mood alternates between two extreme poles (elation and depression); also referred to as manic depression.

Dissociative amnesia

Disorder marked by loss of memory or self-identity; skills and general knowledge are usually retained

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Disorder that follows a distressing event outside the range of normal human experience and that is characterized by features such as intense fear, avoidance

Somatoform disorders

Disorders in which people complain of physical (somatic) problems even though no physical abnormality can be found.

Demonological Model

During the 17th and 18th centuries, people assumed the behaviors associated with psychological disorders were caused by possession by the Devil. The ancient Greeks believed that the gods punished humans by causing madness

Manic

Elated, showing excessive excitement

Personality disorders

Enduring patterns of maladaptive behavior that are sources of distress to the individual or others.

Ideas of persecution

Erroneous beliefs that one is being victimized or persecuted.

Waxy flexibility

Feature of catatonic schizophrenia in which people can be molded into postures that they maintain for quite some time

Generalized anxiety disorder

Feelings of dread and foreboding and sympathetic arousal of at least 6 months' duration

Psychological Views

Learning theorists consider phobias to be conditioned fears that were acquired in early childhood. Avoidance of feared stimuli is reinforced by the reduction of anxiety. Observational learning may also play a role in the acquisition of fears. Cognitive theorists note that people's appraisals of the magnitude of threats help determine whether they are traumatic and can lead to PTSD.

Psychological Views

Most learning theorists have explained schizophrenia in terms of conditioning and observational learning. Inner fantasies then become more reinforcing than social realities. Hospital staff may reinforce schizophrenic behavior by paying more attention to patients who behave bizarrely.

Psychological disorders

Patterns of behavior or mental processes that are connected with emotional distress or significant impairment in functioning.

Specific phobia

Persistent fear of a specific object or situation

Hallucinations

Person cannot distinguish from reality

Avoidant personality disorder

Person is unwilling to enter relationships without assurance of acceptance because of fears of rejection and criticism.

Neuroticism

Personality trait characterized largely by persistent anxiety

Catatonia

Psychotic condition characterized by striking motor impairment

Rapid flight of ideas

Rapid speech and topic changes, characteristic of manic behavior

Panic disorder

Recurrent experiencing of attacks of extreme anxiety in the absence of external stimuli that usually elicit anxiety

Mutism:

Refusal to talk

Positive symptoms

Schizophrenia symptoms that indicate the presence of inappropriate behavior, such as hallucinations, delusions, agitation, and inappropriate giggling.

Negative symptoms

Schizophrenia symptoms that reflect the absence of appropriate behavior, such as blank faces, monotonic voices, and motionless bodies.

Attributional style

Tendency to attribute one's behavior to internal or external factors, stable or unstable factors, and global or specific factors

Contemporary Psychological Models:

The diathesis-stress model assumes that there may be biological differences between individuals—diatheses—that explain why some people develop certain psychological disorders under stress, whereas others do not. The biopsychosocial model explains psychological disorders in terms of a combination of (a) biological vulnerability, (b) psychological factors; and (c) sociocultural factors.