Explaining & Classifying Psychological Disorders

Psychological Disorder

A syndrome marked by clinically significant disturbance in cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior.

3 D's of Psychological Disorders

Dysfunctional, deviant, and distressing.

Dysfunctional

Interfering with normal day-to-day functioning.

Deviant

Behavior that is abnormal.

Distressing

Behavior that causes significant psychological, emotional, physical, or social harm.

DSM

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, used for describing and estimating the prevalence of mental illness.

Comorbidity

The presence of more than one psychological disorder simultaneously.

Stigma

Negative perceptions associated with a diagnostic label, leading to feelings of being tainted or weak.

Criticism of DSM-V

It diagnoses too many people as 'disordered' and has arbitrary borders between diagnoses.

Medical Model

Concept that psychological disorders have physical causes that can be diagnosed and treated.

Psychopathology

An illness of the mind; the study of psychological disorders.

Culture-bound Syndromes

Disorders that only seem to exist within specific cultures.

Diathesis-Stress Model

Theory that stress can trigger mental disorders in predisposed individuals.

Stress Vulnerability Model

Suggests that individual characteristics combine with environmental stressors to influence the likelihood of developing a psychological disorder.

Epigenetics

The study of environmental influences on gene expression without a DNA change.

Psychological Perspectives

Different viewpoints on the causes of psychological disorders, including Psychoanalytic, Humanistic, Behavioral, Cognitive, Sociocultural, and Biomedical.

Suicide Risk Factors

Increased risk associated with anxiety, depression, age, race, and gender differences.

Cultural Differences in Suicide Rates

Variations in suicide rates observed among different countries and racial groups.

Humanistic

Failure to strive to one’s potential or being out of touch with one’s feelings.

Behavioral

Reinforcement history, the environment.

Cognitive

Irrational, dysfunctional thoughts or ways of thinking.

Sociocultural

Dysfunctional Society

Biomedical/Neuroscience

Organic problems, biochemical imbalances, genetic predispositions.