Chapter 14: Psychological Disorders

What are the heritability estimates for depression?

59% for identical twins and 30% for fraternal twins

What is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)?

A disorder characterized by chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance.

Be familiar with the symptoms of schizophrenia including delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized behavior, and negative symptoms.

Delusion is a patently false belief system, often bizarre and grandiose, that is maintained in spite of its irrationality. Hallucination is a false perceptual experience that has a compelling sense of being real despite the absence of external stimulation. Disorganized speech is a severe disruption of verbal communication in which ideas shift rapidly and incoherently from one to another unrelated topic. Grossly disorganized behavior is behavior that is inappropriate for the situation or ineffective in attaining goals, often with specific motor disturbances. Negative symptoms include emotional and social withdrawal; apathy; poverty of speech; and other indications of the absence or insufficiency of normal behavior, motivation, and emotion

What seems to be a common feature of personality disorders?

Failure to take other people's perspectives, particularly on the self.often blame others, society, or the universe for their difficulties

Be familiar with some of the possible causes of schizophrenia including genetics, the dopamine hypothesis, and brain tissue loss.

Identical twins (48%) fraternal twins (17%). Dopamine hypothesis the idea that schizophrenia involves an excess of dopamine activity. progressive tissue loss beginning in the parietal lobe and eventually encompassing much of the brain

How does the study by Rosenhan (p. 411) show that labels need to be used carefully?

May affect how the person see themselves.

What are peer nominations and why are they used?

People with personality disorders won't admit. Peer nomination are reports by others who know the person.

What pattern of brain activity do depressed people show (Figure 13.2).

Reduced activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (blue) and increased activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (red) have been found to be linked with depression in several studies.

How do a specific phobia and social phobia differ?

Specific phobia: irrational fear of a particular object or situation that interferes with an individual. Social phobia is irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed.

What is comorbidity?

The co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual

Do men or women experience depression more often?

Women are diagnosed with depression at a rate twice that of men

What is the DSM-IV-TR?

a classification system that describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicates how the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems

What are dissociative disorders?

a condition in which normal cognitive processes are severely disjointed and fragmented, creating significant disruptions in memory, awareness, or personality that can vary in length from a matter of minutesto many years.

What is major depression?

a severely depressed mood that lasts 2 or more weeks and is accompanied by feelings of worthlessness and lack of pleasure, lethargy, and sleep and appetite disturbances.

What are psychological disorders?

abnormalities of the mind that result in persistent behavior patterns that can seriously affect your day-to-day function and life.

What is bipolar disorder?

an unstable emotional condition characterized by cycles of abnormal, persistent high mood (mania) and low mood (depression).

What is schizophrenia?

disorder characterized by the profound disruption of basic psychological processes; a distorted perception of reality; altered or blunted emotion; and disturbances in thought, motivation, and behavior.

What are personality disorders? Review the personality disorders in Table 13.2 paying particular attention to antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic.

disorders characterized by deeply ingrained, inflexible patterns of thinking, feeling, relating to others, or controlling impulses that cause distress or impaired functioning.

What are the three key elements needed to qualify as a disorder?

disturbances in behavior, thoughts, or emotions. personal distress or impairment. internal dysfunction.

What is positive psychology? (Box on p. 430)

emphasizes an approach that seeks to understand what makes our lives pleasant, good, and meaningful.

What have theorists proposed cause DID?

history of severe childhood abuse and trauma

What is helplessness theory and how does it explain depression?

individuals who are prone to depression automatically attribute negative experiences to causes that are internal (i.e., their own fault), stable (i.e., unlikely to change), and global (i.e.,widespread). student at risk for depression might view a bad grade on a math test as a sign of low intelligence (internal) that will never change (stable) and that will lead to failure in all his or her future endeavors (global).

What are mood disorders?

mental disorders that have mood disturbance as their predominant feature

Understanding psychological disorders may require an integrated framework- what things need to be considered (p. 410)?

ncorporates biological, psychological, and environmental factors

Low levels of what neurotransmitters might be involved in depression?

norepinephrine and serotonin,

What is preparedness theory?

people are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears

What is seasonal affective disorder (SAD)?

recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern

What is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?

repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts interfere significantly with an individual's functioning

What is agoraphobia and why does it often co-occur with panic disorder?

specific phobia involving a fear of venturing into public places.

What is panic disorder?

sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror

What is the diathesis-stress model?

suggests that a person may be predisposed for a psychological disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress

What are anxiety disorders?

the class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant feature

What is the medical model and how did it improve on earlier conceptualizations of mental illness?

the conceptualization of psychological disorders as diseases that, like physical diseases, havebiological causes, defined symptoms, and possible cures

What are some criticisms of DID?

the possibility that individuals who exhibit both trauma and DID may be responding to their therapists' expectations that the two are linked

What is dissociative identity disorder (DID)?

the presence within an individual of two or more distinct identities that at different times take control of the individual's behavior.

What is dissociative fugue?

the sudden loss of memory for one's personal history, accompanied by an abrupt departure from home and the assumption of a new identity

Dissociative amnesia?

the sudden loss of memory for significant personal information.