Psychological Disorders
Psychological Disorders
Chapter 12
- This chapter covers various psychological disorders, including:
- PTSD
- ADHD
- Depression
- Schizophrenia
- Bipolar Disorder
- Dementia
- Agoraphobia
- Delusion
- Stress
- Arachnophobia
- Narcissistic Personality Disorder
- OCD
- Hypochondriasis
- Anorexia
- Hallucination
- Anxiety
- Manic
- Antisocial Personality Disorder
- Delirium
- Panic
- Psychosomatic
Learning Objectives
- Defining Psychological Disorders
- Categories of Disorders
- The Rosenhan Study: The Influence of Labels
Overview of Abnormal Psychology
- Abnormal psychology is the study of people who suffer from psychological disorders.
- These disorders may manifest in a person’s behavior and/or thoughts.
- Abnormal psychology encompasses the study of common problems like depression, substance abuse, and learning difficulties, as well as rare and severe disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Defining Psychological Disorders
- Defining a psychological disorder is surprisingly difficult.
Common Characteristics of Disorders
- Common characteristics of disorders include:
- Maladaptive behavior: Harmful and/or disturbing to the individual. For example, agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) can prevent someone from leaving their home.
- Disturbing to others: A shoe fetish may disturb others.
- Unusual behavior: Not shared by many members of the population. Having visions is atypical in the United States but more common in some other cultures.
- Irrational behavior: Does not make sense to the average person. Prolonged depression due to virtually any situation is seen as irrational.
Important Considerations for Diagnosis
- People may be diagnosed with a psychological disorder even if they are not experiencing all or even most of the typical symptoms.
- The term