Explaining & Classifying Psychological Disorders

A psychological disorder is a syndrome (collection of symptoms) marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior. This loose definition of disorders is broken down into the 3 D’s: dysfunctional, deviant, and distressing.

• Dysfunctional: interfering with normal day-to-day functioning

• Deviant: behavior is abnormal

• Distressing/Maladaptive: behavior causes significant psychological, emotional, physical, or social harm 

In the United States, the most common tool for describing and estimating the prevalence of mental illness is the American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM, which is currently in its fifth edition. Each edition is edited to provide more information and update existing disorders.

• Comorbidity:  the presence of more than one psychological disorder, often because they are linked Ex. Anxiety & depression

Stigma & Stereotypes

Many people think a diagnostic label means being seen as tainted, weak, and weird. Because of this, many psychologists believe we should use extreme caution in diagnosing and labeling.

However, negative views/stigma come from popular cultural views of mental illness, and not from the DSM. [Does a diabetes diagnosis create stigma? No. Bipolar diagnosis? Yes.]

The DSM may contain the information to correct inaccurate perceptions of mental illness. 

Criticisms of DSM-V

• The DSM calls too many people  “disordered.”

• The border between diagnoses, or between disorder and normal, seems arbitrary.

• Decisions about what is a disorder seem to include value judgments; is depression necessarily deviant?

• Diagnostic labels direct how we view and interpret the world, telling us which behavior and mental states to see as disordered.

  • Disorders don’t equal danger

The discovery that the disease of syphilis causes mental symptoms (by infecting the brain) suggested a medical model for mental illness. 

• Medical model: concept that psychological disorders have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured often through treatment in a hospital

Psychological disorders can be seen as psychopathology,  an illness of the mind. Disorders can be diagnosed, labeled as a collection of symptoms that tend to go together. People with disorders can be treated, attended to, given therapy, all with a goal of restoring mental health. Clinical psychologists work with physicians to understand the mind and body link. 

Although the medical model views  a mental illness as a physical condition. Other areas also influence our behavior, thoughts and feelings.

• Biological

• Psychological

• Social-Cultural

Depression and schizophrenia occur worldwide, while other disorders vary from culture to culture. Culture-bound syndromes are disorders which only seem to exist within certain cultures; they demonstrate how culture can play a role in both causing and defining a disorder.

• Susto: (Latin America) severe anxiety, restlessness and a fear of black magic.

• Tajin-kyofusho: (Japan)social anxiety about one’s appearance leading to social withdrawal.

• Eating Disorders: (USA) Bulimia and Anorexia

• Amok: (Malaysia) sudden outburst of violent behavior. 

Diathesis-Stress Model - theory that stress can cause onset of mental disorders in people who are predisposed.

Major Life event (loss of a loved one, job loss)

Chronic stressors (poverty, discrimination)

Daily hassles (arguments, traffic, homework)

The biopsychosocial approach gave way to the stress vulnerability model, which suggests that individual characteristics combine with environmental stressors to increase or decrease the likelihood of developing a psychological disorder.

• Epigenetics: the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change

For example, schizophrenia has a genetic component, but the gene can lay dormant unless switched on by environmental factors, like a traumatic event. This is often why schizophrenia doesn’t present itself until adolescence or early adulthood. 

Each year, over 800,000 despairing people worldwide will elect a permanent solution to what might have been a temporary problem. For those that have been anxious, the risk of suicide is tripled. For those that have been depressed, the threat is quintupled. Contrary to popular belief, the risk of suicide is greatest is not when they are in the depths of depression, but rather when people begin to rebound.

National Differences

• In Britain, Italy, & Spain, suicide rates are half of what is seen in the US, Canada, and Australia.

Racial Differences

• In the US, whites and native Americans are twice as likely to commit suicide as African Americans and Hispanics.

Age Differences

• The risk of suicide is highest among people 45-64 years of age. (85+ is 2nd.)

Gender Differences

• Women are more likely to attempt suicide, while men are more likely to end their lives.

Time Differences

• Suicide rates are highest on Wednesdays and during the months of April and May.