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Part 1: 594-601
Chapter 14: Psychological Disorders
Part 2: 601-611
Part 3: 611-621
Part 4: 621-633
What do studying psychological disorders have to do with self-recognition (2 possible reasons)?
What 2 disorders are prevalent in every culture worldwide? How many total people worldwide suffer
from psychological disorders?
Perspectives on Psychological Disorders (594-600)
Defining Psychological Disorders
1: How should we draw the line between normality and disorder?
What are the three “D’s” of psych disorders? As you read this section describe what these words mean.
What ceased to be a disorder on December 10, 1973 according to the APA?
ADHD – Normal High Energy or Genuine Disorder?
What is the gender bias for this disorder?
What is the neurological argument for it as a real disorder?
What are some correlates?
Is it heritable?
What types (general type and names) treat it and how?
What are 3 ways of assessing whether it exists in someone?
What % of medicated children are still on it as teens? As adults?
Understanding Psychological Disorders
2: What perspectives can help us understand psychological disorders?
The Medical Model
How did Philippe Pinel attempt to change the understanding of being “mad?”
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The Biopsychosocial Approach
List (and describe why) at least 2 disorders each that are better understood from:
a) The Medical Model:
b) The Bio-Psycho-Social Model:
Classifying Psychological Disorders
3: How and why do clinicians classify psychological disorders?
What are the “aims” of diagnostic classification in psychology?
What book is used to “diagnosis” people based on supposedly objective classifications? What is the next
version called and when will it be published?
What are the 5 Axes?
How many clinical syndromes are there (count them—Axis I)?
What % of American adults meet the criteria for a diagnosis in any year? In their lifetime?
Describe the “Un-DSM” of Peterson and Seligman (2004). Why did they do this?
Labeling Psychological Disorders
4: Why do some psychologists criticize the use of diagnostic labels?
Describe the troubling research of Rosenhan (1973) concerning diagnostic labels.
What did Page (1977) find out about people’s attitudes towards those with a history of psychiatric
problems?
What is the real relationship between mental disorders and violence?
How does the term “self-fulfilling prophecy” apply to this discussion?
Insanity and Responsibility (601):
- Who is Daniel M’Naughten and what did he do?
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What percent of US. jail/prison inmates have severe mental disorders?
How many psychiatric inpatients are in the country right now? Compare the number from
above to this number.
In your opinion, should insane people be put in prison or mental hospitals?
Anxiety Disorders (601-608)
5: What are anxiety disorders, and how do they differ from ordinary worries and fears?
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
What percent of those with GAD are women?
List a few symptoms of GAD. How is Freud’s “free-floating” term appropriate?
What might be a cause of GAD? At what age does it become rare?
Panic Disorder
What is the prevalence (frequency) of this disorder?
Describe symptoms.
What does smoking have to do with panic disorder?
Phobias
What’s the difference between just being very afraid and having a mental disorder called a phobia?
Define the following:
- Specific phobia
- Social phobia
- Agoraphobia
List the top 5 fears and phobias of Americans (Fig 14.2).
What famous person suffered from panic disorders and perhaps agoraphobia?
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Distinguish between the “obsessions” and the “compulsions” of this disorder.
What is the most common obsession?
Compulsion?
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At what age does it begin? What is the prevalence? What age groups are most at risk for OCD?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
What events can trigger PTSD?
What % of Vietnam war vets suffer from PTSD? Iraq War?
What’s a current problem with the diagnosis of PTSD? Why is “debriefing” potentially bad?
What % of people will experience a traumatic event? What % of women/men develop PTSD? What is
the phrase for this lack of development of PTSD called?
What is “post-traumatic growth?”
Understanding Anxiety Disorders
6: What produces the thoughts and feelings that mark anxiety disorders?
Learning Perspective (describe how the following can explain anxiety disorders):
Fear Conditioning:
Stimulus Generalization:
Reinforcement:
Observational Learning:
Biological Perspective (describe how the following can explain anxiety disorders):
Natural Selection:
Why didn’t people increase their fear responses to the air raids in Britain?
Genes:
How many genes are linked with anxiety disorder symptoms? What disorder may
have its own specific set of related genes?
What neurotransmitter is implicated?
The Brain:
What area is hyperactive in those with OCD?
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Somatoform Disorders (608-609)
7: What are somatoform disorders?
Describe the concept. What are some symptoms?
What is a conversion disorder? Describe some symptoms of it.
What is hypochondriasis? How is it different from a conversion disorder?
Dissociative Disorders (609-611)
8: What are dissociative disorders, and why are they controversial?
Describe this category.
Describe an instance where you felt “dissociation” in your life.
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Describe it.
Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder
What thing are DID people highly susceptible to? Explain why a link between DID and this exists.
What happened to the number of cases of DID / in what years?
Describe cross-cultural data on DID.
What evidence is there for DID as a real disorder?
Explain what psychoanalysts and behaviorists believe is the purpose or function of dissociative
disorders.
Mood Disorders (611-621)
9: What are mood disorders, and what forms do they take?
Major Depressive Disorder
What % of college students reported depressive like symptoms within the last year?
Actual depression plagues what % of Americans at some point in their lives? Gender differences in a
given year?
What is the evolutionary explanation of depression?
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List the 5 signs of depression. How long must these conditions persist?
Bipolar Disorder
Opposite the depressive episode is the ____________episode. Describe symptoms of this phase of
bipolar disorder (after the pictures).
What has happened to the cases of this disorder in under 19 year olds? In what years? Gender
differences in prevalence in this age group?
What types of people/jobs seem prone to bipolar disorder? Why?
Gender differences in prevalence overall?
Understanding Mood Disorders
Describe the following points concerning the causes of mood disorders.
- Many behavioral and cognitive changes accompany depression.
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Depression is widespread.
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Women are 2x as vulnerable to major depression.
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Most major depressive episodes self-terminate.
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Stressful events related to work, marriage, and close relationships often precede depression.
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With each new generation, depression is striking earlier and affecting more people.
Biological Perspective (describe how the following can explain mood disorders):
Genetic Influences:
Describe twin research and stats for depression and bipolar disorder.
Heritability overall?
Describe linkage analysis and what it found out about the Amish.
The Depressed Brain:
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General activity level?
Specific part inactive?
Size of frontal lobe?
Hippocampus?
Norepinephrine? Serotonin?
The Social-Cognitive Perspective
Negative Thoughts and Negative Moods Interact
What type of thoughts does learned helplessness potentially lead to? Gender
differences?
Describe how Nolen-Hoesksema (2003) explains women’s higher rate of depression.
Describe the “explanatory style” in Fig 14.7.
Describe rates of depression among those with pessimistic vs. optimistic
explanatory styles in the Alloy et al. (1999) study.
Why might depression be less common in non-Western cultures like Japan?
Depression’s Vicious Cycle
Draw the cycle in Fig 14.8
Schizophrenia (621-628)
11: What patterns of thinking, perceiving, feeling, and behaving characterize schizophrenia?
What is the prevalence (frequency) of schizophrenia worldwide?
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Disorganized Thinking
What are delusions? What type of delusions are common?
What is “word salad?”
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How might cognitive psychologists explain disorganized thoughts?
Disturbed Perceptions
What are hallucinations? What type are most frequent?
Inappropriate Emotions and Actions
What is flat affect?
What is catatonia?
Onset and Development of Schizophrenia
Demographics?
Distinguish between positive and negative symptoms.
Distinguish between chronic and acute schizophrenia.
Understanding Schizophrenia
12: What causes schizophrenia?
Brain Abnormalities
Dopamine Overactivity
How was this discovered? What type of receptor? What type of symptoms might
this explain? What other NT might be involved with the other type of symptoms?
Abnormal Brain Activity and Anatomy
Low activity where?
PET scans show what?
Fluid-filled area?
Cortex?
Thalamus?
Two known risk factors?
Maternal Virus During Midpregnancy
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Give 3 pieces of evidence that a virus may be responsible.
Genetic Factors?
Your chances if…
 Sibling has it
 Identical twin has it
 Identical twins sharing same placenta
 Identical twins with separate placentas (like fraternal twins)
Besides Dopamine, what other neuronal component may be involved?
Psychological Factors
Provide 3 early warning signs of schizophrenia.
Personality Disorders (628-630)
13: What characteristics are typical of personality disorders?
Define them.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Describe what they are like before age 15. What % of these become antisocial adults?
Understanding Antisocial Personality Disorder
Genetic explanation?
Frontal lobe?
What did Deeley et al. (2006) find?
Explain the study and results from Fig 14.12.
Rates of Psychological Disorders (631-633)
14: How many people suffer, or have suffered, from a psychological disorder?
What % have a diagnosable psychological disorder in any given year?
Immigrants?
Poverty line?
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What was the median age of first symptoms for...?
 Antisocial personality Disorder
 Alcohol Dependency, OCD, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia
 Depression