Unit 5: Mental & Physical Health

Abnormal Psychology

Study of unusual patterns of behavior, emotion, and thought, which may or may not be understood as precipitating a mental disorder. This field explores the causes, symptoms, and treatments of psychological disorders to understand and improve mental health

Clinical Psychology

The branch of psychology that assesses, diagnoses, treats, and prevents mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, utilizing various therapeutic methods and interventions to improve individuals’ mental health and well-being

Psychology Student Syndrome

Psychology students studying abnormal behavior can also become convinced that they have some mental disorder

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR)

Comprehensive classification system used by mental health professionals to diagnose and categorize mental disorders, providing standardized criteria and descriptions for consistent use across clinical settings

International Classification of Mental Disorders (ICD)

Global standard for reporting and categorizing diseases. Including mental and behavioral disorders, used by healthcare professionals to diagnose conditions and track health trends worldwide

Deviation

Significant departure from accepted social behaviors and cultural expectations, used as a criterion to identify and diagnose abnormal behaviors and psychological disorders in clinical settings

Distress

Intense and prolonged emotional suffering that impairs an individual’s ability to function in daily life, often used as a key criterion for diagnosis

Dysfunction

The disruption in cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning that significantly impairs an individual’s ability to perform normal daily activities

Stigma

The negative stereotypes and social disapproval directed at individuals with mental disorders, often leading to discrimination and barriers to seeking or receiving mental health care

Biological Perspective

Mental disorders are caused by physiological and genetic factors, focusing on how brain function, neurochemistry, and genetics contribute to psychological conditions

Behavioral Perspective

Suggests that mental disorders arise from maladaptive learned behaviors and associations, focusing on how inappropriate conditioning and reinforcement of behaviors contribute to psychological issues

Psychodynamic Perspective

Mental disorders stem from unresolved unconscious conflicts and impulses, often originating in childhood, that influence current behavior and emotional states

Humanistic Perspective

Emphasizes that mental disorders arise when individuals’ innate potential for self-fulfillment and personal growth is blocked, often due to failures in achieving self-acceptance and meaningful personal goals

Cognitive Perspective

Proposes that mental disorders are caused by maladaptive thought patterns, including dysfunctional beliefs, attitudes, and emotional responses, which negatively affect behavior and emotional well-being

Evolutionary Perspective

Suggests that mental disorders can arise from behaviors and mental processes that are maladaptive, reducing an individuals chances of survival and reproduction in a given environment

Sociocultural Perspective

Mental disorders stem from maladaptive social and cultural relationships and dynamics, emphasizing the influence of societal norms and interactions on mental health

Eclectic Approach

Combining Techniques and theories from multiple therapeutic orientations to tailor treatment to the unique needs of individual clients, enhancing flexibility and effectiveness in therapy

Biopsychological Model

Psychological disorders result from a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors, emphasizing the comprehensive and interconnected nature of influences on mental health

Diathesis-Stress Model

Psychological disorders arise from a predisposing genetic vulnerability (diathesis) combined with stressful environmental factors (stress), triggering the onset of mental health issues

Anxiety Disorders

Excessive and persistent fear or anxiety that significantly interferes with daily functioning

Specific Phobia

An anxiety disorder marked by intense, persistent, irrational fear of a specific object/situation (like spiders, heights, needles) that’s disproportionate to actual risk, causing extreme avoidance and significant distress/impairment. Even though the person often knows the fear is excessive

Acrophobia

Intense, irrational fear of heights

-Specific Phobia

Arachnophobia

Intense, irrational fear/avoidance of spiders causing significant distress, often linked to evolutionary preparedness

-Specific Phobia

Agoraphobia

An anxiety disorder defined by intense fear or anxiety about situations where escape might be difficult or help is unavailable

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder marked by unexpected, intense panic attacks (sudden fear, heart racing, shortness of breath, dizziness, sense of doom) and persistent worry abut having more attacks, leading to behavioral changes like avoidance

Ataque de nervios “Attack of Nerves”

Clinical Diagnosis that doesnt seem to correspond to any specific diagnosis within Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Symptoms: Often triggered by a stressful event such as divorce, includes crying, trembling, and uncontrollable screaming, sense of being out of control, person may become physically or verbally agressive

Person may faint or experience a seizure-like fit. Once the ataque de nervios is over, the person may promptly resume his or her normal manner, with little or no memory of the incident

Taijin Kyofusho

An anxiety disorder that is common in Japan. Involves a marked fear that one’s body, body parts, or body functions may offend, embarrass, or otherwise make others feel uncomfortable

Often people with this disorder are afraid of blushing or upsetting others by their gaze, facial expression, or body odor

Social Anxiety Disorder

An intense, persistent fear of social situations involving potential scrutiny or negative judgement by others. It is more than shyness and significantly impairs daily life, work, or school

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Chronic Condition marked by excessive, uncontrollable worry about everyday things (work, health, future) for at least 6 months, accompanied by symptoms like restlessness, fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep issues. Stems from a mix of genetics and brain chemistry (serotonin, amygdala)

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Involves intrusive obsessions (unwanted, distressing thoughts/images like contamination, harm) and repetitive compulsions (behaviors/rituals like washing, checking) performed to neutralize obsession-related anxiety, often explained by learning (conditioning), biology (neurotransmitters, brain areas), and genetics, treated with therapies like CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and medications

Hoarding Disorder

A mental health condition in which individuals experience persistent difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their actual value, leading to cluttered living spaces that compromise their intended use

Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders

Conditions triggered by experiencing or witnessing traumatic/stressful events including PTSD, Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), and Adjustment Disorders, characterized by symptoms like intrusion (flashbacks), avoidance, negative mood/cognition changes, and hyperarousal, with specific disorders like Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and Disinhibited Social Engagement (DSED) seen in childhood neglect

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Triggered by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event involving actual or threatened death or serious injury. Symptoms must last for month than a month. Leading to severe anxiety, nightmares, flashbacks, and uncontrollable thoughts about the event

Depressive Disorders

Persistent sadness, loss of interest (anhedonia), low energy, and disruptions in sleep / appetite

• 2 types Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia)

Major Depressive Disorder

Involves persistent sadness, loss of interest (anhedonia), sleep / appetite changes, fatigue, guilt, concentration issues, and suicidal thoughts, lasting at least 2 weeks, causing significant distress or dysfunction, and diagnosed by criteria like the DSM-5

-Requiring 5+ symptoms from areas like mood, interest, sleep, energy, etc

Persistent Depressive Disorder

Chronic lower-intensity depression where someone experiences a depressed mood most of the day, nearly everyday, for at least 2 years (1 yr for kids), along with 2+ symptoms like poor appetite, sleep issues, fatigue, low-self esteem, poor concentration, or hopelessness, making it less severe but longer-lasting than Major Depressive Disorder

Bipolar Disorders

A serious mood disorder marked by extreme emotional highs (mania/hypomania) and lows (depression), causing significant shifts in energy, mood, activity levels, and concentration, disrupting daily life

Bipolar II Disorder

Involves cycling between major depressive episodes (significant sadness, low energy) and hypomanic episodes (less severe elevated mood, increased energy, irritability, but no full mania)

-At least 1 manic episode and 1 depressive episode

Bipolar I Disorder

Extreme mood swings with at least one full manic episode (intense euphoria / irritability, increased energy, racing thoughts, decreased need for sleep, impulsive risky behaviors) that significantly impairs functioning, often followed by depressive episodes, requiring mood stabilizers like Lithium and therapy for management

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Brain-based conditions that begin in childhood, involving impaired brain development effecting cognition, communication, motor skills, and behavior

Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

A neurodevelopmental disorder marked by persistent inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, causing significant impairment in daily life, diagnosed by criteria in the DSM-5 (e.g. difficulty focusing, fidgeting, interrupting) originating in childhood and often continuing into adulthood

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A neurodevelopmental disorder marked by persistent deficits in social communication / interaction (like eye contact, emotional shaming) and restricted / reptitive patterns (behaviors, interests, sensory issues), stemming from early development

Feeding and Eating Disorders

Group of mental disorders characterized by persistent disturbances in eating or eating-related behaviors that negatively impact physical health or psychosocial functioning

Anorexia Nervosa

-Severe obsession with weight loss; phobic anxiety of weight gain

-distorted perception of body image

-self imposed starvation & purging

-BMI below 15% normal range

Bulimia Nervosa

-lack of self control & guilt with over eating

-cycles of binge eating, purging & fasting

-purging as a guilt reflex to prevent weight gain, not necessarily to lose weight

-average to above average BMI (with fluctuations)

Schizophrenic Spectrum Disorders

Involve significant disruptions in thought, perception, and behavior, characterized by core symptoms like delusions (false beliefs), hallucinations (false perceptions), disorganized thinking / speech, disorganized motor behavior, and negative symptoms (like apathy or lack of emotion)

Schizophrenia

A chronic psychotic disorder involving distorted reality, marked by positive (hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech / behavior) and negative symptoms (flat affect, lack of motivation)

Positive Symptoms (+)

Added or excess behaviors / experiences not present in healthy individuals

-Including hallucinations (seeing / hearing things), delusions (false beliefs), and disorganized speech / thinking, shows a loss of contact with reality

Negative Symptoms (-)

Absence or reduction of normal behaviors / functions, common in schizophrenia, including flat affect (no emotion), alogia (little speech), avolition (no motivation), anhedonia (no pleasure), and ascoiality (no social drive)

Delusions

Firmly held, false beliefs not based in reality

Hallucinations

False sensory perceptions (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting things not there) that feel real, unlike delusions (false beliefs)

Disorganized Thinking or Speech

Incoherent, illogical, or jumbled speech patterns, like jumping topics or making up words, common in schizophrenia. Reflecting fragmented thoughts that are hard to follow, disrupting communication and indiciating issues with reality perception and cognitive function

Disorganized Motor Behavior

Bizarre, unusual, or purposeless physical movements, often a positive symptom of schizophrenia, appearing as childlike silliness, unpredictable agitation, repetitive actions (rocking, rubbing), odd postures, or even catatonic states (immobility or excitement) that disrupt daily life

Flat Affect

A key term describing the absence or near-absense of emotional expression (facial, vocal, gestural) in response to situations that typically evoke feeling, making someone appear expressionless, cold, or detached

Dopamine Hypothesis

States that schizophrenia involves excess dopamine activity, particularly linking to positive symptoms like hallucinations and delusions, supported by antipsychotic drugs (dopamine blockers) reducing these symptoms

Dissociative Disorders

Involve disruptions in consciousness, memory, identity, or perception, typically stemming from trauma (abuse, disasters) as a coping mechanism

Dissociative Amensia

Disorder where you forgot crucial personal info (usually traumatic) due to stress, not brain injury, featuring memory gaps (localized, selective, generalized) often leading to a fugue state (leaving, new identity), acting as a defense mechanism against overwhelming emotions

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Involves experiencing two or more distinct, alternating personality states (alters) with memory gaps, often stemming from severe childhood trauma as a coping mechanism

Personality Disorders

Pervasive, inflexible patterns of inner experience and behavior that significantly differ from cultural expectations, beginning in adolescence, causing distress / impairment

Cluster A Personality Disorders

Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal are defined by odd, eccentric behavior, thinking, and beliefs, leading to social detachment, distrust, and difficulty forming relationships, often seeming peculiar to others and showing signs related to schizophrenia spectrum

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Odd / Eccentric personality disorder marked by pervasive. unwarranted distrust and suspicion, misinterpreting others’ motives as malevolent, hindering relationships, and often preventing help-seeking

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Personality disorder marked by a pervasive pattern of detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of emotional expression, individuals prefer solitary activities, lack of interest in close bonds (even family), find few things pleasurable, and are indifferent to praise or criticism

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Personality Disorder marked by odd-thinking, eccentric behavior, and severe social anxiety / discomfort, involving magical thinking, unusual perceptions, paranoid ideas, odd speech, and few close friends

Cluster B Personality Disorders

Dramatic, emotional, or erratic group, including Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, and Narcissitic, characterized by impulsivity, unstable relationships, intense emotions, and attention-seeking, making social functioning difficult

Antisocial Personality DIsorders (ASPD)

A pervasive pattern of disregarding others’ rights, marked by deceit, impulsivity, aggression, lack of remorse, and law-breaking, often stemming from conduct problems before age 15, diagnosed in adults 18+, and difficult to treat due to the lack of distress in sufferers

-Key traits, superificial charm, manipulation, irresponsibility, and disregard for safety

Histronic Personality Disorders

Cluster B personality Disorder marked by pervaisive, excessive emotionally and attention-seeking, where individuals feel uncomfortable if not the center of attention, use physical appearance to draw-focus, have shallow and rapidly emotions, speak impressionistically, and may misinterpret relationships as more intimate than they are

Narcissitic Personality Disorders

Cluster B personality disorder marked by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy, causing significant life impairment, with key traits including inflated self-importance, entitlement, exploitative behavior, fragile self-esteem, masking insecurities

Borderline Personality Disorders

Cluster B Disorder marked by unstable self-image, relationships, and emotions, plus impulsivity, intense anger, chronic emptiness, and frantic fear of abandonment

Cluster C Personality Disorders

Anxious, fearful, and clingy behaviors, encompassing Avoidant PD (fear of rejection / criticism), Dependent PD (excessive need to be cared for, submissive), and Obsessive-Compulsive PD (Perfectionism, control issues, unlike OCD)

Avoidant Personality Disorders

Cluster C personality disorder marked by intense fear of rejection, criticism, or disapproval, leading to extreme social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and avoidance of relationships or activities outside the family, even when desiring connection

Dependent Personality Disorders

Cluster C (Anxious, fearful) PD characterized by an excessive heed to be cared for, leading to submissive, clinging behavior, and fears of separation, making individuals unable to function independently or make decisions without others’ reassurance, often stemming from overprotective or authoritarian parenting

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorders

Cluster C (anxious / fearful) personality disorder marked by excessive Perfectionism, orderliness, control, ridgity, and devotion to rules / lists, impacting relationships and flexibility

Deinstitutionalization

Mid-20th century movement to close large mental hospitals, releasing patients into community-based care due to new medications (like antipsychotics) and a focus on patient rights, aiming for less restrictive treatment; however led to negative outcomes like increased homelessness and incarceration for many due to underfunded community support, creating a shift in mental health care from institutions to outpatient services, group homes, and even jails

Evidence-Based Interventions

Therapeutic techniques and strategies proven effective through rigorous scientific research (like randomized controlled trials) and combined with clinical expertise and patient values to guide treatment for mental health issues, ensuring care is reliable, effective, and tailored toward individual needs. With examples like CBT or Exposure Therapy

Therapeutic Alliance

The crucial, collaborative bond between therapist and client, built on mutual trust, shared goals (like reducing anxiety), and agreement on therapy tasks (like practicing skills), which significantly predicts successful treatment outcomes by fostering open communication and engagement

Cultural Humility

A lifelong commitment to self-reflection and self-critique, recognizing one’s own biases, and approaching others with openness to learn about their unique cultural identities, fostering respectful relationships and challenging power imbalances, rather than aiming for mastery of another culture

Nonmaleficence

Ethical principle that obligates psychologists to do no harm, meaning they must actively avoid causing physical, psychological, or emotional damage to clients, research participants, or others, ensuring safety and minimizing risks even when dealing with unavoidable negative consequences, like recalling painful memories in therapy

Fidelity

Ethical principle of being trustworthy, loyal, and faithful in professional relationships, emphasizing keeping promises, maintaining confidentiality, and acting in the client’s best interest to build essential trust, while also relating to the accurate, consistent implementation of treatments (treatment fidelity) in research

Integrity

Ethical consistency, honesty, and truthfulness in research, teaching, and practice, meaning psychologists avoid fraud, misrepresentation, and strive for accuracy

Respect for People’s Rights & Dignity

Psychologists value all individuals, protecting their rights to privacy, confidentiality, and self-determination (making their own choices) while being sensitive to cultural, age, gender, and other differences, ensuring fair, unbiased treatment, and taking extra care with vulnerable populations

Psychodynamic Therapies

A talk therapy focusing on how unconscious processes, unresolved childhood conflicts, and past experiences shape current emotions and behaviors, aiming to bring hidden thoughts into awareness (insight) to resolve distress and promote personal growth

Free Association

A core psychoanalytic technique where a patient speaks whatever comes to mind, without censoring thoughts, to reveal unconscious conflicts, repressed memories, and underlying feelings, providing insight into their mental processes and helping to uncover hidden meanings

Dream Interpretation

Analyzing dreams to uncover unconscious desires, fears, and conflicts, distinguishing between the literal manifest content (what you remember) and the symbolic latent content (hidden meanings)

Person-Centered Therapy

A humanistic approach by Carl Rodgers that creates a supportive, non-judgemental space using unconditional positive regard, empathy, and genuineness (congruence) to help clients achieve self-acceptance, self-awareness, and personal growth by trusting their innate drive towards self-acutalization

Active Listening

A core communication technique where the listener fully concentrates, understands, responds to, and remembers what a speaker is saying, going beyond just hearing words to grasp emotion and meaning

Unconditional Positive Regard

Showing total, non-judgemental acceptance and support for another person, regardless of their actions, thoughts, or feelings, fostering a safe space for self-acceptance and personal growth

Group Therapy

Form of psychotherapy where a trained therapist leads a small group of people with similar issues to share experiences, gain insights, and learn coping strategies, offering social support, reducing feelings of isolation, and observing interpersonal dynamics in a safe setting to foster personal growth and problem-solving

Individual Therapy

A one-on-one treatment where a client meets with a mental health professional to address personal struggles, promote self-awareness, and foster growth, using various techniques (like CBT, psychodynamic) to challenge negative patterns and develop healthier coping strategies for emotional, behavioral, or psychological issues