Psychology Part I: Psychological Disorders

These flashcards cover key vocabulary from the lecture notes on psychological disorders, including definitions and explanations to aid in study and understanding.

Clinical Psychology

The specialty in psychology that involves the scientific investigation of the cause, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illnesses.

Etiology

The study of the causes or origins of a particular disorder.

Diagnosis

The process of determining if a mental illness is present in an individual by assessing signs and symptoms.

Prognosis

The likely course and outcome of a particular disorder, including duration and expected treatment effectiveness.

Statistical Model

Defines abnormality as thoughts or behaviors that are rare, though this is an incomplete model.

Medical Model

The perspective that views mental illness as a physical disease, focusing on symptoms and humane treatment.

Psychopathology

The study of mental disorders and abnormal behaviors.

Signs vs. Symptoms

Signs are objective indicators of illness that are visible or measurable, while symptoms are perceptible changes reported by the patient.

Prevalence

The total number or percentage of people in a population diagnosed with a specific mental disorder.

Diathesis-Stress Model

Concept describing how psychological disorders result from interactions between predisposition and stressful life events.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

A disorder involving unreasonable thoughts (obsessions) that lead to anxiety and specific behaviors (compulsions) performed to reduce anxiety.

Personality Disorders

Long-lasting patterns of thought, behavior, and emotion that are inconsistent with cultural expectations and cause distress.

Social Anxiety Disorder

An anxiety disorder characterized by intense fear of being scrutinized or embarrassed in social situations.

Bipolar Disorder

A mood disorder marked by alternating periods of depression and mania.

Schizophrenia

A severe disorder characterized by major disturbances in thought, emotion, perception, behavior, and speech.

Tardive Dyskinesia

A serious side effect of some antipsychotic medications involving involuntary movements.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Characterized by overly emotional, dramatic, and attention-seeking behaviors.

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Excessively shy and uncomfortable in social situations, leading to avoidance of relationships due to fear of rejection.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Disorders diagnosed early in life that impair social, personal, and academic functioning, such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder.

Neurocognitive Disorders (NCD)

Cognitive disorders affecting adults characterized by a decline in previously acquired cognitive abilities.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

A disorder with excessive worry about daily, and any events without any specific cause. Free floating anxiety is not anxiety directed towards only one object or event. It is hard to control the worries

Specific Phobia

An intense fear of an object or an situation. Individuals tend to fear and avoidance towards the object.

Arachnophobia

Fear of spiders

Acrophobia

Fear of heights

Agoraphobia

Fear of not receiving help. Tend to avoid empty spaces, crowded areas and public areas.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Fear of social interactions and what others might think. Fear of embarrassment.

Taijin Kyo Fusho

A Japanese culture-bound anxiety about social interactions or fear of being offensive to others.

Hoarding disorder

A disorder where individuals cannot throw away or discard items.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Experiencing a traumatic event which cause insomnia, flashbacks, and anxiety about the event.

Biological, Behavioral, Cognitive causes of PTSD, OCD, Anxiety Disorders

• Genetics play a role in anxiety, OCD, and related disorders(GABA, Serotonin, thalamus, cortex, striatum

• Classical(development), operant(strengthening), and observational learning

• Irrational thoughts or worry which changes their levels of autonomic nervous system arousal

Panic Disorder

repeated, sudden of intense terror and inexplicable panic attacks

Ataque de Nervios

Dissociative Disorders

Disorders that are linked to memory, identity, consciousness

Dissociative Amnesia

Memory loss of personal information or any experiences due to trauma

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Having 2 or more personalities in the same individual

Psychodynamic, Cognitive, Behavioral, Personality, Biological, Sociocultural cause of Dissociative Disorder

• repression of memories and events that are painful

• Thinking about negative memories that causes pain or punishment

• Fantasy-prone personality

• Inhibited activity in hippocampus or prefrontal cortex areas

• Created or maintained by the social reinforcement

Depressive Disorders

Symptoms including extreme sadness and a loss of interest in activities

Major Depressive Disorder

Extreme sadness, loss of interest, movement disturbances, guilt, thought of death

• lasts for 2 weeks

Persistent Depressive Disorder

Sad mood, sleep or eating disturbances that are milder and lost longer

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Sad mood, sleep and eating disturbance particular time of the year

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Premenstrual syndrome that can be seen as mood swings, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts

Bipolar and related disorders

Bipolar Cycling

Episodes of depression and Mania

• changing mood states

• Mania

• Hypomania

• Elevated mood by mental and physical hyper activity, insomnia, poor judgement

• Milder form of mania, marked by elevated mood, increased energy, creativity, productivity

Flight of ideas

Rapid and sudden thoughts

Bipolar 1

Bipolar 2

• major depressive disorder +episodes of mania (requires hospitalization)

• Major depressive disorder+ episodes of hypomania

Biological, cognitive causes of mood disorders

Heritibality rates come from family. Disturbances in serotonin, norepinephrine

• low levels of serotonin and norepinephrine linked to depression

• High levels of norepinephrine linked to mania

Maladaptive thoughts that disturb mood

• Pessimistic explanatory style

• Optimistic explanatory style

• setbacks, failures as internal global. Associated with higher chances of getting depression

• Negative events in terms of external and unstable. Resistant to depression