This study guide is intended to supplement studying the lectures, readings, and other assignments. It is not intended as a replacement for them. The final will lean more on the textbook readings than the midterms did, but there will be information from both.

From the material covered in Chapter 14 and the lectures on Psychological Disorders

• What is the DSM? 

(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) The DSM is how psychological disorders are classified and helps diagnose patients. 

• How are its subsections used? 

Contains the descriptions, symptoms, and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders, and a guide for future psychopathology research, which includes conditions not yet officially recognized as disorders.  

• What is the difference between the categorical and dimensional approaches to psychopathology? 

The categorical Approach means a person either has a psychological disorder or does The dimensional Approach considers psychological disorders along a continuum.  

• What does the term ‘etiology’ refer to? 

Factors that contribute to the development of a disorder. 

• What is the diathesis-stress model?

A model that proposes that a disorder may develop when an underlying vulnerability is coupled with a precipitating event.

• What is the difference between the categorical and dimensional approaches to mental health diagnosis?

The categorical approach considers illness as being either present or absent, and similarity with a prototypical description of a disorder is taken as a marker for the disorder. The dimensional approach regards that symptoms of disorder exist on a continuum from normal to severely ill.

• What is borderline personality disorder? 

A personality disorder characterized by disturbances in identity, affect, and impulse control.

• What kind of disorder is this and what are the symptoms and characteristics that best describe it?

Personality Disorder in cluster B (dramatic, emotional, or erratic behavior), and is characterized by problems with identity, affective disturbances, and impulse control.

• What are the symptoms of schizophrenia? 

Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, negative symptoms (diminished emotional response or lack of motivation)

• What’s the difference between positive and negative symptoms? 

Positive symptoms are excesses in functioning including delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, or behavior. Negative symptoms are deficits in functioning including apathy, lack of emotion, and slowed speech and movement. 

• What are the best methods for treating it? 

Antipsychotic medications

• What are the different kinds of bipolar disorder and how are they different from one another? 

Bipolar I disorder is characterized by extremely elevated moods during manic episodes and, frequently, depressive episodes as well. Bipolar II disorder is characterized by alternating periods of extremely depressed and mildly elevated moods. 

• What is known about dissociative identity disorder?

(Multiple personality disorder) Involve disruptions of identity, memory, or conscious awareness. Occurrence of two or more distinct identities in the same individual. Most women are diagnosed. 

• What are the symptoms of a panic attack? 

Panic attacks typically last for several minutes. Victims sweat, tremble, and feel their hearts racing; experience shortness of breath and chest pain; and feel dizziness and light-headedness with numbness and tingling in their hands and feet.

• What are the characteristics of obsessive-compulsive disorder? 

Recurrent, intrusive, and unwanted thoughts or ideas or mental images. Anxiety, Compulsion, Relief, and Obsession 

• What is the difference between internalizing disorders and externalizing disorders? 

Internalizing disorders: characterized by negative emotions (e.g., major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder) Externalizing disorders: characterized by disinhibition (e.g., alcoholism, conduct disorders, antisocial behavior).

• Which disorders show large biological sex differences in diagnosis? 

Alcohol dependence is much more likely in males, whereas anorexia nervosa is much more likely in females. 

• Which are more equal? 

Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. 

• What makes an assessment evidence-based? 

It includes self-reports, psychological testing, observations, interviews, and sometimes neuropsychological testing. 

• What is an example we talked about of a type of assessment test that is popular in pop culture but not evidence-based? 

Projective Testing, such as the Rorschach Ink Blot Test

• What kind of disorder is Schizophrenia? 

Personality Disorder

• What are thought to be the primary causes of it? 

Genetics and sometimes environmental factors. 

• What is anti-social personality disorder? 

A personality disorder in which people engage in socially undesirable behavior, are hedonistic and impulsive and lack empathy. 

• What are the main characteristics of this disorder? 

Behave in socially undesirable ways, such as breaking the law, being deceitful and irresponsible, and feeling a lack of remorse for their behavior.

• What is the most common name for this disorder used outside of psychology? 

Psychopath

• What came of the study linking autism to the MMR vaccine? 

The Wakefield study was disapproved and included altered medical records and lies. The fraudulence of the study concluded that vaccines do not cause ASD. 

• What were the problems and how do researchers think of it now? 

Wakefield's study was fraudulent. Wakefield altered medical records and lied about several aspects of his study, including a financial conflict of interest. Vaccines do not cause ASD. 

From the material covered in Chapter 15 and the lecture on Treatments of Psychological Disorders