Module 65: Introduction to Psychological Disorders

psychological disorder

a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior.

distress

refers to the negative stress response, often involving negative emotions and physiological reactivity, resulting from being overwhelmed by demands, losses, or perceived threats

moral treatment

boosting patients’ spirits by unchaining them and talking with them

biopsychosocial approach

assumes that three sets of influences— biological, psychological, and social-cultural—interact to produce specific psychological disorders.

stress vulnerability model (also called the diathesis-stress mode

This model suggests that individual characteristics combine with environmental stressors to increase or decrease the likelihood of developing a psychological disorder

epigenetics

the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change.

DSM-5

the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.

autism spectrum disorder

The conditions formerly called “autism” and “Asperger’s syndrome” were combined under the label autism spectrum disorder.