Introduction to Psychological Disorders
What is a psychological disorder?
A syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior.
What is post-traumatic stress disorder? (PTSD)
A disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience.
What are psychotic disorders?
A group of disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality.
What is schizophrenia?
A psychological disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished or inappropriate emotional expression.
What is dissociative identity disorder? (DID)
A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities (formerly called multiple personality disorder).
What is the medical model?
The concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital.
What is obsessive-compulsive disorder? (OCD)
A disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions).
What is bipolar disorder?
A mood disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania (formerly called manic-depressive disorder).
What is a delusion?
A false belief, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders.
What is anorexia nervosa?
An eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) maintains a starvation diet despite being significantly (15 percent or more) underweight; sometimes accompanied by excessive exercise.
What is the DSM-5?
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.
What is generalized anxiety disorder?
An anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal.
What is mania?
It is a mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, widely optimistic state.
What are hallucinations?
False sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus.
What is antisocial personality disorder?
A personality disorder in which a person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members.
What is epigenetics?
The study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change.
What is panic disorder?
An anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations. Often followed by worry over a possible next attack.
What is major depressive disorder?
It is a mood 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 depressed mood or loss of interest/pleasure.
What is chronic (process) schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia that develops gradually and recovery is doubtful.
bulimia nervosa
An eating disorder in which a person alternates binge eating (usually of high-calorie foods) with purging (by vomiting or laxative use), excessive exercise, or fasting.
What are the 3 D's?
Deviant, Distressful and Dysfunctional.
What is agoraphobia?
It is a fear or avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide open places, where one has felt loss of control and panic.
What is rumination?
It is compulsive fretting; overthinking our problems and their causes.
What is acute (reactive) schizophrenia?
This is when the onset of schizophrenia is sudden, in reaction to stress, and the prospects of recovery are brighter
What is illness anxiety disorder?
A disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease (formerly called hypochondriasis).