Unit 5
Module 65: Introduction to Psychological Disorders
Psychological Disorders: a syndrome (collection of symptoms) marked by a “clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior.”
Dysfunctional: interfere with normal day-to-day life
Medical Model: a mental illness (also called psychopathology) needs to be diagnosed on the basis of its symptoms. It needs to be treated through therapy which may include time in a psychiatric hospital (diagnose, treat, and cure a disease).
Diathesis-stress model: the concept that genetic predisposition (diathesis) combine with the environmental stressors (stress) to influence psychological disorders.
Epigenetics: “above” or “in addition to” genetics; the study of the molecular mechanisms by which environments can influence genetic expression
DSM-5: the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical manual of mental disorders. Most common tool for describing disorders and estimating how often they occur
Criticism: for casting too wide a net and beginning “almost any kind of behavior within the compass of psychiatry.”
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a psychological disorder marked by extreme inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity.
Hyperactivity: excessive movement and restlessness
Impulsivity: acting without thinking or considering consequences
Module 66: Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD
Anxiety disorder: marked by distressing, persistent anxiety or by dysfunctional anxiety-reducing behaviors.
Social Anxiety disorder: intense fear and avoidance of social situations where others might judge them (Ex: parties, class presentations).
Generalized anxiety disorder: a person is unexplainably and continually tense and uneasy. People with this are often jittery, agitated, and sleep-deprived.
Panic disorder: a person experiences panic attacks – sudden episodes of intense dread – and fears the next episode’s unpredictable onset. Irregular heartbeat, chest pain, shortness of breath, choking, trembling
Phobias: a person is intensely and irrational afraid of a specific object, activity, or situation
Agoraphobia: fear of avoidance of public situations from which escape might be difficult. where one has felt the loss of control and panic.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both
Obsessive thoughts: unwanted repetitive thoughts it seems they’ll bever go away
Compulsive behaviors: responses to those thoughts
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: a disorder characterized by the haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for 4 weeks or more after a traumatic experience.
Trauma-and stress-related disorders: a group of disorders in which exposure to a traumatic or stressful event is followed by a psychological distress
Survivor Resiliency: recovering after severe stress
Posttraumatic growth: positive psychological changes that can often occur after experiencing a traumatic event.
Stimulus generalization: occurs when a person experiences a fearful event and later develops a fear of similar events
Reinforcement: helps maintain learned fears and anxieties. Anything that enables us to avoid or escape a feared situation can reinforce maladaptive behavior.
Module 67: Depressive Disorders, Bipolar Disorders, Suicide, and Self-Injury
Major depressive disorder: a disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or another medical condition, 2 or more weeks with 5 or more symptoms at least one of which must be either 1) depressed mood or 2) loss of interest or pleasure
Persistent depressive disorder: experience a mildly depressed mood more often than not for 2 years or more. Display signs of at least 2 of the following: difficulty with description making and concentration, feeling hopeless, poor self-esteem, reduced energy levels, problems regulating sleep, problems regulating appetite.
Bipolar disorder: people bounce from one emotional extreme to the other (week to week, rather than day to day or moment to moment).
Mania: overly talkative, wildly energetic, and extremely optimist state that comes after a depressive episode ends. Dangerously poor judgement is common. Little need for sleep. Symptom of bipolar disorder
Bipolar 1: more severe form, in which people experience a euphoric, talkative, highly energetic, and overly ambitious state that lasts a week or longer.
Bipolar 2: a less severe form in which people move between depression and a milder hypomania
Norepinephrine: increases arousal and boosts mood, is scarce during depression and overabundant during mania
Serotonin: hormone in the brain and body that plays a crucial role in mood regulation, sleep, appetite, and other bodily functions, also scarce/inactive during depression
Rumination: compulsive dretting (constantly worried/anxious)/ overthinking problems and their causes.
Schizophrenia: a disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished, inappropriate emotional expression.
Psychotic disorder: a group of disorders marked by irrationality, distorted perceptions, and lost contact with reality.
Positive behaviors: inappropriate behaviors are present
Ex: hallucinations, talk in disorganized and deluded ways, and exhibit inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage.
Negative behaviors: appropriate behaviors are absent
Ex: an absence of emotion in their voices, expressionless face, or moving. Mute and rigid-bodies
Hallucinations: see, feel, taste, or smell things that exist only in the mind
Delusions: distorted false beliefs
Word Salad: jumbled ideas that make no sense even within sentences
Catatonia: abnormal movements, behaviors, and withdrawal
Chronic schizophrenia: slow-developing process, symptoms usually come by late adolescence. As people age, psychotic episodes last longer and recovery period shortens. Recovery is doubtful.
Acute Schizophrenia: well previously well-adapted people develop schizophrenia rapidly following particular life stresses or traumatic events
Impaired theory of mind: difficulty perceiving facial expressions and reading others’ states of mind.
Module 69: Other Disorders
Somatic Symptom Disorder: distressing symptoms take a somatic (bodily) form without apparent physical causes
Ex: vomiting, dizziness, blurred vision
Dissociative disorders: a person’s conscious awareness decorations (separates) from painful memories, thoughts, and feelings.
Can result in fatigue state: a sudden loss of memory or change in identity, often in response to an overwhelmingly stressful situation
Dissociative Identity disorder: two or more distinct identities – each with its own voice and mannerism – seem to control a person’s behavior at different times
Conversion disorder: anxiety is converted into a physical symptom. A person experiences very specific physical symptoms not compatible with recognized medical or neurological conditions.
Illness Anxiety disorder: a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease.
Personality disorder: inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functions
Cluster A (Odd or Eccentric)
Paranoid Personality Disorder: Distrust and suspicion of others without justification.
Schizoid Personality Disorder: Detachment from social relationships and limited emotional expression.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Discomfort in close relationships, odd behavior, and eccentric beliefs.
Cluster B (Dramatic, Emotional, Erratic)
Antisocial Personality Disorder: Disregard for others' rights, impulsivity, and lack of remorse.
Histrionic Personality Disorder: Excessive emotionality and attention-seeking.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy
Borderline Personality Disorder: Instability in relationships, self-image, and emotions; fear of abandonment.
Cluster C (Anxious or Fearful)
Avoidant Personality Disorder: Extreme social inhibition and feelings of inadequacy.
Dependent Personality Disorder: Excessive need to be taken care of, leading to submissive behavior.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder: Preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and control (distinct from OCD).
Anorexia nervosa: a person maintains a starvation diet dispute being underweight. Sometimes characterized by excessive exercise
Bulimia Nervosa: binge-eating followed by inappropriate weight-loss promoting behavior such as vomiting, laxatives, fasting, excessive exercise.
Module 70: Introduction to Therapy, and Psychodynamic, and Humanistic Therapies
Psychotherapy: a trained therapist uses psychological techniques to assist someone seeking either to overcome difficulties or to achieve personal growth
Biomedical therapy: Prescribe medications or procedures that act directly on the person's physiology
Eclectic: using a blend of therapies
Freud’s Psychoanalysis: Freud believed the patient's free associations, resistance, dreams, and transferences– and the therapists interpretation of them– released previously repressed feelings allowing the patient to gain self insight
Free Association: a technique where a patient is encouraged to express whatever comes to mind without censorship or editing
Transferring: The patient's transferred to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for someone)
Resistance: The blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material
Interpretation: The analysts noting supposed dream meanings, resistance, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight
Psychodynamic therapy: Therapy driving from the cycle analytic tradition: views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences and seeks to enhance self
Insight therapies: Therapy driving from the cycle analytic tradition views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences and seeks to enhance self insight
Client-centered therapy: Non directive therapy where the client leads the discussion. The therapist listens without judgment or interpreting and refrained from directing the client towards certain insights
Active listening: empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies
Unconditional positive regard: A caring accepting nonjudgmental attitude which Carl Rogers believed would help clients develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.
Module 71: Behavior, Cognitive, and Group Therapies
Behavior Therapy: Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behavior. Doubt the healing power of self-awareness. Assumes behaviors are the problem
Counterconditioning: Behavior therapy procedures that use classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors. including exposure therapy
Exposure therapies: Behavior techniques that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imaginary or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid
Systematic desensitization: A type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety triggering stimuli
Virtual reality exposure therapy: A counter conditioning technique that treats anxiety through creative electronic simulations in which people can safely face their greatest fears such as airplane, flying, spiders, or public speaking
Aversive conditioning: creates a negative (aversvie) response to a harmful stimulus (such as alcohol). Helps you learn what you shouldn't do. Its a type of counterconditioning
Behavior Modification: Reinforce behaviors they consider desirable and they fail to reinforce – or sometimes punish – behaviors they consider undesirable
Token economy: An operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange tokens for privileges or treats
Cognitive therapies: Therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking. Based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions. Assumes that our thinking colors our feelings
Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT): Vigorously challenges people's illogical self-defeating attitudes and assumptions
Self-inoculation training: Teaching people to restructure their thinking and stressful situations and talk back to negative thoughts
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): Therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior).
Group therapy: Therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, providing benefits from group interaction
Catastrophizing: relentless, overgeneralized, self-blaming behavior
Dialectal behavior therapy: helps change harmful and suicidal behavior patterns
Module 72: Evaluating Psychotherapies
Meta-analysis: A statistical procedure that combines the conclusions of a large number of different studies
Effort Justification: Tendency for people to place a higher value on goal after they exerted a lot of effort to achieve it
Evidence-based practice: Clinical decision making that integrates the best available researchers clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences. Clinicians apply therapies suited to their own skills and their patient’s unique situations
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMPR): Patients talked about their trauma while therapists wave fingers in front of their eyes. Eye movement relax and distract patients allowing memory-associated emotions to extinguish
Light Exposure therapy: Exposing people to light for longer to reduce disorders
Therapeutic alliance: Emotional bond between therapist and client
Tardive Dyskinesia: involuntary movements of the facial muscles
Module 73: The Biomedical Therapies and Preventing Psychological Disorders
Psychopharmacology: The study of drug effects on mind and behavior
Antipsychotic drugs: Drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder. It calms hallucination and delusions
Antianxiety drugs: Drugs used to control anxiety and agitation that depressed central nervous system activity
Antidepressant drugs: Drugs used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, OCD, PTSD. It lifts people up from the state of depression. They increase availability of neurotransmitters such as the norepinephrine or serotonin
Electroconvulsive therapy: And biomedical treatment for severely depressed people that manipulates the brain by shocking it. A brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient
Neurostimulation therapies:
Transcranial electrical stimulation: Psychiatric applies a weak current to the scalp
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: Psychiatric sends a painless magnetic field through the school to the surface of the core text to alter the brain activity. It's performed on wide awake patients over several weeks
Deep-brain stimulation: Psychiatrist stimulates electrodes implanted in “sadness centers” to calm those areas
Psychosurgery: Surgery that removes or destroys brain tissues. Because it's irreversible it's the most drastic and least used biomedical intervention
Lobotomy: A procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cuts the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion controlling-centers of the inner brain
Resilience: The ability to cope with stress and recover from adversity
Posttraumatic growth: Positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crisis
OTHER TERMS:
Ataque de nervios: a culturally-bound syndrome, primarily found in Hispanic cultures, characterized by an intense emotional upset or panic attack triggered by stressful events
Taijin kyofusho: a culture-specific social phobia, primarily found in Japan, characterized by an intense fear that one's body parts, functions, or facial expressions might be embarrassing or offensive to others
APA ethical principles for therapists:
Nonmaleficence: emphasizes the duty to "do no harm"
Fidelity: establish and maintain trust with their clients, uphold professional standards, and be accountable for their actions
Integrity: guides therapists to promote accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness in their practice
Dialectical behavior therapy: beneficence, non-maleficence, fidelity, integrity, justice, and respect for people's rights and dignity
Tend-and-Befriend Theory: A stress response more common in females, involving nurturing behaviors (“tend”) and seeking social support (“befriend”) as a way to cope.
Problem-Focused Coping: A strategy for dealing with stress by addressing the problem directly (e.g., creating a study schedule to manage exam stress).
Emotion-Focused Coping: A strategy that involves managing the emotional response to stress (e.g., venting, seeking support, or distraction).