psych midterm

I. Theories of Personality (chapter 14)

1. Personality: a consistent, enduring, and unique characteristics of a person.

2. 4 purposes of personality theory

   1. To provide a way of organizing the many characteristics psychologists and you know about yourself and other people.

      1. Some personality theorists try to determine whether certain traits go together, why a certain person has some traits, and not others, and why a person might exhibit traits in different situations.

      2. There is a good deal of disagreement among these theorists as to which traits are significant. Nevertheless, all theorists look to discover patterns in the way people behave.

   2. The second purpose of any personality theory is to explain the differences among individuals. The theorists try to probe beneath the surface.

      1. Some theorists might explain different behaviors in terms of motives and how the motives were established in the first place.

      2. Others might argue that the roots of the differences can be traced back to unresolved childhood conflicts. (conflict- clash of opposing needs/wishes)

   3. A third goal of personality theory is to explain how people conduct their lives. Personality theorists try to explain why problems arise and why they are more difficult for some people to manage than others.

   4. The fourth purpose of personality theories is to determine how life can be improved.

3. Major schools of personality theory (what is the main point of it? who is the major theorist?)

   1.  psychoanalytic theory; Sigmund Freud: developed by Sigmund Freud and his followers, emphasized the importance of motives hidden in our unconscious.

      1. They believe that it is the conflict between parts of the unconscious mind that motivates our behaviors, drives, and desires.

      2. Psychoanalytic theorists have developed the view that there are 3 distinct parts of our personality as well as 5 distinct stages of our psychosexual development.

      3. Other major psychoanalytic theorists: Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Erik Erikson, and Margaret Mahler. 

   2. Behaviorism; B.F Skinner and the behaviorists focus on observable behavior and the situations in which those behaviors occur.

      1.  Behaviorists are particularly interested in how rewards and punishments shape our actions. 

      2. They believe the personality is influenced by situational and environmental variables experienced by a person, not by internal, individual variables.

   3. social learning theory; Albert Bandura: social learning theorists examine the impact of observational learning on the personality.

      1. Like behaviorists, they focus on how the situations that a person is in contribute to who that person will become.

      2. Unlike behaviorists, social learning theorists assert that personal variables, such as knowledge, expectations, and emotions, are as important as observable behavior in understanding personality.

   4. cognitive theory; Jean Piaget: cognitive theorists focus on how our thoughts, perceptions, and feelings shape our personalities. To a cognitive theorist, the development of abstract thought and the ability to assimilate into one’s environment are significant contributors to one’s personality. 

   5. Humanism; Abraham Maslow and Carl Maslow stress that a person is an active participant in their own growth, and that free will and choices one makes shape a person’s personality.

      1. People are born with the drive to become what they are capable of being, and are free to reach their goals once the basic needs for survival are met.

      2. Humans can develop their unique potential even in a hostile environment.

   6. trait theory; Gordon Allport, Hans Eysenck and Raymond Cattel: trait theorists emphasize the importance of stable internal characteristics, or traits, and how those traits influence the way we behave across most situations.

      1. Trait theory consists of a five-factor model of personality upon which human behavior and personality can be analyzed: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

      2. The acronym OCEAN is a helpful acronym to remember the five factors.

   7. sociocultural theory; Lev Vygotsky: modern psychologists have developed the sociocultural theory of personality. This perspective considers the role of a person’s ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, and gender in the development of personality.

   8. This approach suggests that the society you grow up in plays a role in the formation of your behaviors and your concept of yourself.

II. Freud

1. believed most powerful influences on human personality are things outside of our conscious control

2. Freudian slips: little verbal slips we make are not slips at all, but have a motive behind them. He also believed that dreams had unconscious meaning even though the dreamer did not know what they meant. 

3. Conscious, unconscious, preconscious

   1. Conscious: part of the mind that consists of everything inside of our awareness; feelings, thoughts, and perceptions.

   2. Unconscious: part of the mind contains material of which we are unaware, but which strongly influences our behaviors. The material in the unconscious is too disturbing for the waking or conscious mind to handle. 

   3. Preconscious:  part of the mind that consists of thoughts that can be recalled with little effort, thoughts just below the surface of awareness. 

   4. The back and forth communication between the conscious and unconscious minds make up a portion of our personalities.

4. Life Instinct (Eros): more pleasure seeking and erotic. Frued came to see them as the more important of the two instincts.

5. Death Instinct (Thanatos): all life moves toward death and the desire for a final end shows up in human personality as destruction and aggression.

6. The Tripartite Mind - Id, Ego, Superego

   1. ID: 100% unconscious, demands immediate gratification. Pleasure principle: gain pleasure, avoid pain, operates on the pleasure principle, present at birth.

   2. SUPEREGO:  mostly unconscious, our conscious, operating on moral principles, we must never do wrong or it makes us feel guilt.

   3. EGO:  mostly conscious, “the executive”,  operates on the reality principle, balances the demands of the reality while trying to meet the needs of the ID and Superego. 

7. Defense Mechanisms:

1. Rationalization: involves making up acceptable excuses for behaviors that cause us to feel anxious.

2. Repression: when a person has painful memories and unacceptable impulses that cause the ego too much anxiety, they may push those thoughts or urges out of consciousness. 

3. Denial: refusing to accept the reality of something that makes you feel anxious

4. Projection: one of the more common defense mechanisms. When inner feelings are thrown, or projected, out onto another.

5. reaction formation: replacing an unacceptable feeling or urge with an opposite one.

6. Regression: going back to an earlier and less mature pattern of behavior.

7. Displacement: when one can not take their anger or frustration on the source so it displaces it or takes it out on a less powerful personal.

8. Sublimation: redirecting a forbidden desire into a socially acceptable desire.

     H. Freud’s Contributions

1. Recognition of the tremendous forces that exist in human personality and the difficulty of controlling and handling them was Freud’s greatest contribution to understanding human life.

2. Considering the structures of the ID, Ego, and Superego and the parts they play in the human mind.

3. First psychologist to explain the development of personality and to claim that infancy and childhood are critical times for forming a person’s basic character.

4. Freud was the first person to propose a unified theory to understand and explain human behavior. His approach to personality is based on the interaction of the drives and forces within a person. Every behavior one engages in, including mistakes, can be analyzed within the structure of the ID, Ego, and Superego.

5. No other theory has been more complete, complex or controversial. 

III. Jung (1875-1961)

1. relationship with Freud - 2 major points of disagreement

   1. Was once Frued’s closest associate

   2. When Frued and Jung began to argue about psychoanalytic theory, their personal relationship deteriorated.

   3. They stopped speaking to each other entirely only 7 years after they had met.

   4. He took a more positive view on human nature, believing that people develop their potential as well as handle their instinctual urges. 

   5. He distinguished between the personal unconscious, which was similar to Freud’s idea of the unconscious, and the collective unconscious, which is a storehouse of instincts, urges, and memories, of the entire human species throughout history.

2. the Collective Unconscious - define

   1. According to Jung, the collective unconscious is made up of a collection of knowledge and imagery that every person is born with and is shared by all human beings due to ancestral experience. Though humans may not know what thoughts and images are in their collective unconscious, it is thought that in moments of crisis the psyche can tap into the collective unconscious.

   2. Deep-seated beliefs regarding spirituality and religion are explained as partially due to the collective unconscious. Jung was convinced that the similarity and universality of world religions pointed to religion as a manifestation of the collective unconscious. Similarly, morals, ethics, and concepts of fairness or right and wrong could be explained in the same way, with the collective unconscious as partially responsible.

3. Phobias: Jung used his theory of the collective unconscious to explain how fears and social phobias can manifest in children and adults for no apparent reason. Fear of the dark, loud sounds, bridges, or blood may all be rooted in this collective unconscious, which is proposed as an inherited genetic trait. 

4. Jung’s Archetypes - according to Jung, the archetypes are “symbolic keys to truths about human condition and to the path of personal enlightenment. They can reveal the workings of the world, as to how it affects the human psyche, and what man should do to accomplish something or, for that matter, ward something off. They are learning tools, lessons from primordial times, answers included”. Archetypes are universal inherited concepts. All humans are controlled by inherited beliefs. 

   1. the Shadow: consists of the sex and life instincts. The shadow exists as a part of the unconscious mind and is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts, and shortcomings. This archetype is often described as the darker side of the psyche, representing wildness, chaos, and the unknown. These latent dispositions are present in all of us, Jung believed, although people sometimes deny this element of their own psyche and instead project it onto others. It may take over direct physical action when the person is confused, drugged, or dazed, the goal is integration. We must integrate the rejected, inferior parts of ourselves and take responsibility for them.

      1. Images of the Shadow: wilderness, woods, urban jungle, prejudice, snakes, monsters, demons, dragons, or other wild exotic creatures. 

   2. the Self: an archetype that represents the unification of the unconsciousness and consciousness of an individual. The creation of the self occurs through a process known as individuation, in which various aspects of personality are integrated. Also thought to be integration of the Human Self/Divine Self (God).

      1. Symbols of the Self: circles, squares, mandalas, wind, breath, doves.

   3. Anima/Animus (soul): the anima is the feminine image in the male psyche and the animus is the male image in the female psyche. The anima/animus represents the “true self” rather than the image we present to others and serves as the primary source of communication with the collective unconscious. It is our inner opposite- we need both parts to be whole. 

      1. Symbols of the Anima: cow, cat, tiger, cave, water, ship, and most importantly, the damsel in distress.

      2. Symbols of the Animus: eagle, bull, lion, spear, and tower.

   4. the Persona: how we present ourselves to the world. The word “persona” is derived from a Latin word that literally means “mask”. It is ont a literal mask however. The persona represents all the different social masks that we wear among different groups and situations. It acts as a mask to shield the ego from negative images. According to Jung, the persona may appear in dreams and take a number of different forms. 

      1. Symbols of the Persona: scarecrow, desolate landscape, or social outcast.

   5. the Child: related to hope and the promise of new beginnings. It promises Paradise can be regained. Examples of the Child are Baby New Year and Baby Jesus. 

      1. Symbols of the Child: golden ring, golden ball, flowers, and circles.

   6. the Great Mother: the personification of the feminine and represents the fertile womb out of which all life comes and the darkness of the grave to which it returns. Its fundamental attribute is the capacity to nourish. As infants, we can not survive without a nurturer. If we do not have a nurturing mother, we seek one and project this archetype upon that person. If no real person is available, we personify the archetype. If the Great Mother nourishes us, she is good. However, if she threatened to devour us, she is bad. In psychological terms, the Great Mother corresponds to the unconscious, which can nourish and support the ego or can swallow it up in psychosis or suicide. 

      1. Symbols of the Great Mother: anything hollow, concave, or containing, like bodies of water, the earth, caves, dwellings, and containers of all kinds.

   7. the Father: pertains to light, spirit, consciousness, and fertilizing forces. The positive aspects of the father archetype convey law, order, discipline, rationality, understanding, and inspiration. Its negative aspect is that it may lead to alienation from concrete, physical reality.

IV. The Neo-Freudians

1. Alfred Adler: like Jung, Adler broke away from Frued to develop his own theory of personality.

1. Adler believed the driving force in people’s lives is a desire to overcome their feelings of inferiority.

2. Everyone struggles with inferiority according to Adler. He describes a person who continuously tries to compensate for their weakness and avoid feelings of inadequacy as having an inferiority complex.

3. Children first feel inferior because they are so little and so dependent on adults, gradually, they learn to do things older people can do. The satisfaction that comes from learning to do things like walking or using a spoon sets up a pattern of overcoming inadequacies. Adler called these patterns lifestyles. 

      B. Erich Fromm: “Love is a decision, it is a judgement, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgement and decision”. The Art of Loving.

      C. Karen Horney

1. Stressed the importance of basic anxiety, which a child feels due to helplessness, and basic hostility, a feeling of resentment towards one’s parents that generally accompanies this anxiety.

2. Horney disagreed with Frued on several basic beliefs. She believed that a child raised in an atmosphere of love and security could avoid Freud’s psychosexual parent-child conflict.

3. Horney suggested that a person’s social surroundings and environment upbringing contribute to that person’s personality.

      D. Erik Erikson: accepted Frued’s basic theory, but outlined eight psychosexual stages that every person goes through from birth to old age and the importance of interacting with other people. Erikson’s theories describe the development of the complex parts of our personalities. Our feelings develop at a young age and can affect the development of personality.

1. trust vs. mistrust: if needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust.

2. autonomy vs. shame/doubt: toddlers learn to exercise will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities.

3. initiative vs. guilt: preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or they feel guilty about efforts to be independent. 

4. industry vs. inferiority: children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior.

5. identity vs. confusion: teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they become confused about who they are.

6. intimacy vs. isolation: young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated.

7. generativity vs. stagnation: the middle-aged discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose.

8. integrity vs. despair: when reflecting on his or her life, the older adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure.

V. Behaviorism

1. John Watson

1. American psychology has long been dominated by the study of human behavior and animal learning. John Watson  believed that the proper subject patter of psychology ought to be observable  behavior and not the unconscious. He believed that if something could not be seen, it could not be studied.

2. Impact of behavior on personality: Behaviorists believe that as individuals acquire different learning experiences, they acquire different behaviors and, hence, different personalities. 

       B. B.F. Skinner

1. Skinner saw no need for a concept of personality structure. He focused on what caused a person to act in a specific way. It was a pragmatic approach, one that is less concerned with understanding behavior than with predicting it and controlling it. He was interested in how aspects of one’s personality are learned. 

2. Contingencies of Reinforcement: the occurrence of rewards or punishments following particular behavior. 

3. Behaviorism Today

   1. Skinner’s approach has become very popular among psychologists, partly because it is so action-oriented. Followers of Skinner have applied his techniques to a wider range of behaviors from teaching pigeons to play table tennis to teaching severely mentally challenged people to dress themselves and other activities once believed to be beyond their abilities. 

   2. Other human behaviors can be changed by using reward and punishment. The success of behaviorists with most people is limited because our reinforcers are so complex.

   3. To behaviorists, behavior in general is a combination of behaviors to be reinforced, or learned. To change behavior, you change the reinforcer. 

   4. Therapies have been devised to help people with specific behavioral problems, such as phobias and obsessive-compulsive behavior. 

VI. Individual Interactions (chapter 18)

1. social psychology: the study of how our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, and behaviors are influenced by our interactions with others.

2. social cognition: a subfield of psychology, is the study of how we perceive, store, and retrieve information about social interactions. 

3. physical proximity: the closer two individuals are to one another geographically, the more likely they are to become attracted to each other. Has to do with the fears and embarrassment in talking/meeting with strangers. When two people live next to each other, are in the same class, or work together, they get used to each other and talk without embarrassment.

4. reward value: how an individual evaluates the rewards he/she gets from a friendship factors into how much he/she likes/loves the individual.

1. stimulation value: the ability of the person to interest you or expose you to new ideas and experiences.

2. utility value: the ability of a person to help another achieve his/her goals

3. ego-support value: the ability of a person to provide another person with sympathy, encouragement, or approval. 

    E. physical appearance: the physical attractiveness influences with whom people choose to have relationships. That is true of same sex as well as opposite sex relationships and of friends as well as romantic interests.  

1. Longo/Ashmore study: we consider those with physical beauty to be more responsive, interesting, sociable, intelligent, kind, outgoing, and poised. People who do not meet society’s expectations of attractiveness are often viewed in an unfavorable light.

2. Dion, Berscheid, and Walster: found that an unattractive child is more likely to be judged bad or cruel for an act of misbehavior than is an attractive peer.

  F. Just World Bias: the misconception that the world should be a fair and just place. In reality, good people may very well be mistreated and those who mistreat them may get away with their actions with no consequences.

1. People usually seek out others whom they consider their equals on the scale of attractiveness.

  G. Approval: people tend to choose friends who provide ego support.

  H. Similarity: people tend to choose friends with similar backgrounds, attitudes, or interests. 

   I. Complementarity: at times, people are attracted to others who are the opposites of themselves.

   J. Mere Exposure Effect aka “familiarity principle” - Robert Zajonc: initiated a series of experiments in which people were repeatedly exposed to the same stimulus. Over time, a preference was shown for that stimulus over new objects. This has been exhibited across cultures. It can explain why and how relationships are formed.

1. For example, you may meet someone at work or school with whom you have nothing in common. Day after day, your familiarity grows. Repeated exposure may cause positive feelings. Over time, you may create common experiences and memories, allowing a friendship to form. 

   K. Stanley Schacter: social psychologist, best known for his work on emotions. Developers (with Jerome Singer) a two factor theory of emotion.

1. 2 factor theory of emotion: emotions are the result of both a physiological state and a cognitive interpretation of that state. 

2. 1962 experiment

   1. Schachter and Singer put their theory to the test. A group of 184 male participants were injected  with epinephrine, a hormone that produces arousal including increased heartbeat, trembling, and rapid breathing. All of the participants were told that they were injected with a new drug to test their eyesight. However, one group of participants was informed of the possible side-effects that the injection might cause while the second group of participants were not.

   2. Participants were then placed in a room with another participant who was a confederate in the experiment. The confederate acted in either one of 2 ways: euphoric or angry. Participants who had not been informed about the effects of the injection were more likely to feel happier or angrier than those who had been informed.

  L. Karen Rook: social psychologist

1. A 1987 study found that having friends who offer support helped very high stress, were no significant help in dealing with average amounts of stress, and actually hindered people’s ability to deal with low amounts of stress. Rook theorized that reviewing problems again and again with your friends may actually increase your sensitivity to those problems. 

  M. primacy effect: the tendency to form opinions about others based on first impressions. It takes less than 30 seconds to form a first impression.

  N. schema: the knowledge or set of assumptions that we develop about any person or event. The schemas associated with people are judgements about the traits people possess or the job they perform. In terms of events, schemas allow us to organize information so that we can respond appropriately in social situations. 

  O. stereotype: a set of assumptions about people in a given category summarizing our experiences and beliefs about groups of people. 

  P. Theories/Attributions

1. attribution theory: the process by which we interpret and explain others’ behavior.

2. internal attribution: attributions based on personal characteristics.

3. external attribution: attributions based on the situation. 

4. fundamental attribution factor: an inclination to over attribute others’ behaviors to internal causes (dispositional factors) and discount the situation factors contributing to their behavior.

Q. Assumed Similarity Bias: the tendency to think of someone as similar to ourselves (often based on same race, gender, or socioeconomic status).

R. the Halo Effect (Psychologist Edward Thorndike): the effect is a bias that states that our judgements of a person’s character are influenced by the way we perceive them in other respects. 

S. Actor-Observer Bias: tendency to attribute one’s behaviors to outside causes, but attribute the behaviors of others to internal. When we are the actor and judge our own behavior, we tend to take situational factors more into account than we do when we are the observer and judge others’ behaviors. 

T. Self-Serving Bias: a tendency to claim success is due to our efforts while failure is due to something beyond our control.

U. Nonverbal communication: the process through which messages are conveyed using space, body language, and facial expression.

V. parent-child relationships

1. Erikson: early and persistent patterns of parent-child interaction influence people’s later adult expectations about their relationships with significant people in their lives. 

   1. If a child’s first relationship with a caregiver is loving, responsive, and consistent, the child will develop a trust in others to meet his/her needs. The trust will encourage the person to be receptive to others. 

   2. If the child’s first relationship with a caregiver who is unresponsive, inconsistent, and unaffectionate, the child will most likely grow to be wary or mistrustful of others.

2. DeGenova and Rice: parents may be your first model of marriage. If your parents had a happy marriage, you will most likely seek to duplicate it. Studies (DeGenova and Rice 2005) also suggest that being part of a violent family increases the likelihood of someone using violence against his/her/their spouse or children.

W. Generational Identity

1. The theory that people of different ages tend to think differently about certain issues because of different formative experiences

2. Flashbulb Memory: a vivid, long-lasting memory of a surprising or emotional event. More likely to be retained than everyday memories. 

X. Zick Rubin’s theory: Americans believe in marrying for love. For most Americans, it seems unfortunate to marry for convenience, companionship, or financial security without love. According to Ruboin, that is why it is difficult to adjust to the reality of love and marriage.

1. Types of Love:

   1. passionate love: very intense, sensual, and all consuming. Usually fades with time. Fear that it might be endangered and suddenly disappear. 

   2. companionate love: more stable, includes commitment, intimacy, friendship, mutual trust, and the desire to be with one another.

   3. Liking: based primarily on respect for another person and the feeling that he/she is probably similar to you.

2. Components of Love:

   1. need or attachment

   2. caring or the desire to give

   3. Intimacy: special knowledge of each other derived from uncensored self-disclosure.

   4. balance between needing and giving

      1. One may have a greater emotional need for, or attachment to, their partner

      2. oe=ne may tend to be more giving of themself

      3. Over time, an imbalance may become apparent that makes one or both feel lighted, unappreciated, or misunderstood.

      4. The one who gave more might feel used, but be seen as manipulative or controlling. 

3. behavior of love - results of Rubin’s experiments

   1. Rubin conducted a number of experiments to test common assumptions about the way people who are in love feel and act.

      1. Couples who rated high on the “love scale” spent more time gazing into each other’s eyes while waiting for the experimenter.

      2. No proof that romantic partners sacrifice their own comfort for that of their partners.

      3. Women expressed the same degree of love for their male partners as they did for them.

      4. Women like their boyfriends- respected and identified with them- more than their boyfriends liked them.

      5. Women tend to specialize in the social and emotional dimensions of life in our society.

      6. Men carry out more romantic gestures. 

Y. Sternberg’s triangular theory of love: intimacy, passion, and commitment. The various parts of the triangle account for the ways love is expressed.

Z. Marriage

1. Chances are good that a couple will live happily ever after if they come from a similar culture and economic background, have the same level of education, practice (or reject) the same religion. 

2. There are even better if their parents were happily married, they had happy childhoods, and have good relationships with their families.

3. Endogamy: refers to the tendency to marry from within one’s social group. Marriages are more likely to be successful when we marry someone similar to us. 

4. Homogamy: identifies our tendencies to marry someone who has similar attributes: physical attractiveness, age, and physique. People tend to marry someone who looks similar to themselves.

AA. Divorce

1. impact on partners

   1. In many ways, adjusting to divorce is like adjusting to death.

   2. Friends may have to choose sides.

   3. Dating may make a person feel like an adolescent.

   4. May have more free time than he/she knows how to fill.

2. impact on children

   1. Usually for more difficult for children than parents.

   2. Do not want it to occur, it’s their parents’ conflict, not theirs.

   3. Rarely have any control over the outcome.

   4. Adolescents may redefine their identities by breaking family ties.

3. Berger’s study

   1. May have behaviors: outbursts, depression, rebellion.

   2. Longevity of behaviors based on the harmony of the parents’ ongoing relationships, stability of a child’s life, and caregiving arrangements.

   3. Most come to terms with the divorce.

BB. Defining Psychological Disorders - (Chapter 16)

CC. defining abnormality

1. There are a number of ways to define abnormality, none of which entirely satisfactory.

2. We will look at the most popular ways of drawing the line between normal and abnormal behavior in terms of deviance, adjustment, and psychological health.

3. We will look at the application of these principles in legal definitions of abnormality.

4. Finally, we will consider the criticism that in all of these models, people are arbitrarily labeled mentally ill.

DD. Deviation from Normality

1. One approach to defining abnormality is to day that whatever most people do is normal, Abnormality, then, is any deviation from the average or form the majority.

2. The deviance approach, as commonly used as it is, has severe limitations.

3. If most people cheat on their taxes, does that make it normal? If most people are not creative, was Shakespeare abnormal?

4. Different cultural norms need to be taken into consideration.

5. Because the majority is not always right or best, the deviance approach by itself, is not a useful standard.

EE. Problems with Classification

1. In 1952 the American Psychiatric Association agreed upon a system for classifying abnormal symptoms, which it published in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This book has been revised several times. The newest version, the DSM-5,-TR was published in 2022.

2. Before 1980, the 2 most commonly used diagnostic distinctions were neurosis and psychosis. Although these terms have been replaced by more specific ones, they are still used by many psychologists.

3. The conditions originally identified under neurosis and psychosis were expanded into more detailed categories including anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, dissociative disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenia. 

FF.  Categorization of Mental Illness

1. DSM-5

   1. The publication of the current DSM-5 was a major event in the field of mental health.

   2. Includes new categories for learning disorders, behavioral addictions like gambling, improved criteria for gender and eating disorders, and suicide scales for adolescents and adults to help clinicians identity those at most risk.

   3. Attempts to address the ways in which a person’s gender, race, and ethnicity affect the diagnosis of mental illness. It includes a Cultural Formation Interview (CFI) that helps take into consideration a person's cultural background. 

   4. essential features: characteristics that define the disorder.

   5. associated features: additional features that are usually present.

   6. information and differential diagnoses: how to distinguish this disorder from others it might be confused with.

   7. diagnostic criteria: a list of symptoms that must be present to give a patient a certain diagnostic label.

2. The Axes: the DSM recognizes the complexity of classifying people on the basis of mental disorders. Often a person may exhibit more than one disorder or may be experiencing the other stresses that complicate the diagnosis. It was difficult to give a patient more than one label. The DSM-III-R and DSM-IV overcame this problem by using five major dimensions or axes to describe a person's mental functioning. Each axis reflects a different aspect of a person’s case.

   1. Axis I: used to classify current symptoms into explicitly defined categories. These categories range from disorders that are usually first evident in infancy, childhood, or adolescence (such as conduct disorder) to substance use disorders (such as alcoholism) to schizophrenia. 

   2. Axis II:

      1. Used to describe developmental disorders and chronic personality disorders or maladaptive traits such as compulsiveness, over-dependency, aggressiveness.

      2. Axis II is also used to describe specific developmental disorders for children, adolescents, and, in some cases, adults. Examples include language disorders, reading or writing difficulties, mental retardation, autism, and speech problems.

      3. It is possible to have a disorder on both Axis I and Axis II. For example, an adult may have a major depression noted on Axis I and a compulsive disorder noted on Axis II.

   3. Axis III: used to describe physical disorders or general medical conditions that are potentially relevant to understanding or caring for the person. A physical disorder, such as brain damage or a chemical imbalance, may be causing the symptoms diagnosed in Axis I or Axis II. 

   4. Axis IV: a measurement of the current stress level at which the person is functioning. The rating of stressors (such as death of a spouse or loss of a job) is based on what the person has experienced in the last year. The prognosis may be better for a disorder that develops following a severe stressor than one that develops after no stressor. 

   5. Axis V:

      1. Used to describe the highest level of functioning present within the last year. Adaptive functioning refers to 3 major issues:

         1. Social relation- refers to the quality of a person’s relationship with family and friends.

         2. Occupational functioning- involves functioning as a worker, student, or homemaker and the quality of the work accomplished.

         3. Use of leisure time- includes recreational activities or hobbies and the degree of involvement and pleasure a person has in them.

3. Critiques: 

   1. Although it is helpful, the DSM labels a person, which may have a negative influence in the long run. When the label of a mental disorder is applied, it can reduce that person’s sense of responsibility for his or her own actions.

   2. It also affects how others, including mental health professionals, regard that person.