psychology chapter 15

Abnormal behavior

behavior that is deviant, maladaptive, or personallly distressful over a long period of time

Biological approach

Attributes disorders to organic, internal causes. Primarily focuses on the brain, genetic factors, and neurotransmitter functioning

Psychological Approach

Emphasizes contributions of experiences, thoughts, emotions, and personality characteristics in explaining disorders

Sociocultural Approach

Emphasizes the social contexts in which a person lives, including gender, ethnicity, economic status, family relations, etc.

Biopsychosocial Approach

Biological, psychological, and social factors all interact with each other to produce normal or abnormal behavior

DSM-IV

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Current (DSM-IV-TR[Text Revision]) Split up into 5 axes

Anxiety Disorders

involve fears that are uncontrollable, disproportionate to the actual danger the person might be in, disruptive of ordinary life

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Experience persistent anxiety for at least six months with no apparent reason for anxiety;

caused by deficiency in neurotransmitter GABA

Panic Disorder

Experience recurrent, sudden onsets of intense apprehension or terror, often without warning or cause

Phobia

Persistent fear of a particular object or situation

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

anxiety-provoking thoughts that will not go away and urges to perform repetitive behaviors

Mood disorders

Prolonged emotion that colors the individual's entire emotional state

Depressive disorders

Mood disorders in which the individual suffers from depression; an unrelenting lack of pleasure in life

Major depressive disorder (MDD)

involves significant depressive episode and depressed characteristics, such as lethargy and hopelessness for at least two weeks.

Dysythymic Disorder

More chronic; Individual is in a depressed mood for most days at least two years as an adult or at least one year as a child/adolescent. To be classified as having this, individual must not have experienced a major depressive episode

Biological Factors

Depression likely involves problems in the body's regulation of a number of neurotransmitters

Bipolar disorder

mood disorder that is characterized by extreme mood swings that include one or more episodes of mania, an overexcited, unrealistically optimistic state

Dissociative Disorders

psychological disorders that involve a sudden loss of memory or change in identity due to the dissociation of the individual's conscious awareness from previous memories and thoughts

Dissociative Amnesia

Type of amnesia characterized by extreme memory loss that stems from extensive psychological stress

Dissociative Fugue

Dissociative disorder in which the individual not only develops amnesia but also unexpectedly travels away from home and sometimes assumes a new identity

Dissociative Identity Disorder

AKA Multiple Personality Disorder; individual has two or more distinct personalities or identities, each with its own memories, behaviors, and relationships

Schizophrenia

Sever psychological disorder characterized by highly disordered thought processes, referred to as psychotic because they are so far removed from reality

hallucinations

sensory experiences in the absence of real stimuli

delusions

false, unusual, and sometimes magical beliefs that are not part of an individual's culture

referential thinking

Ascribing personal meaning to completely random events

cataonia

State of immobility and unresponsiveness lasting for long periods of time

flat affect

the display of a little or no emotion -- a common negative symptom of schizophrenia

Positive Symptoms

Adding unusual behaviors

Negative Symptoms

Taking away normal behaviors

Personality Disorder

Chronic, maladaptive cognitive-behavioral patterns that are thoroughly integrated into an individual's personality

Antisocial Personality Disorder

characterized by guiltlessness, law-breaking, exploitation of others, irresponsibility, and deceit; more common in men

Borderline Personality Disorder

Instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotion, and of marked impulsitivity; More common in women