Psychological Disorders Practice
Name
Descriptions of terms you need to know.
Description
Term
1.
Recurrent, unwished-for thoughts
OBSESSIONS
2.
A mood disorder involving depression and mania
BIPOLAR
3.
OCD
4.
A category of disorder involving rigid, maladaptive behavior patterns & reoccurring
unwanted thoughts
A Freudian term no longer used in describing disorders
5.
Repetitive, ritualized behaviors
COMPULSIONS
6.
A split of consciousness or identity
DISSOCIATIVE
NEUROSIS
IDENTITY DISORDER
7.
A disorder characterized by delusions and hallucinations
SCHIZOPHRENIA
8.
A mood disorder involving disturbances in emotions, behavior, cognition, and bodily
function
Unreasonable suspiciousness or distrust
DEPRESSION
10. A disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations, incoherence, and inappropriate affect
CATATONIC
9.
PARANOIA
SCHIZOPHRENIA
11. Unrealistic fear that disrupts a person’s life
PHOBIA
12. A category of disorder in which people view parts of their activities as separate from
their personality
13. Bodily ailments that result from emotional and psychological causes
DISSOCIATIVE
14. Category of disorders in which physical symptoms appear without known physical
causes
15. Disorders characterized by constant worry and fears-category
SOMATOFORM
16. Disorder that involves both forgetting of one’s own identity as well as fleeing one’s life
situation
17. A disorder characterized by bodily ailments such as blindness or paralysis that result
from emotional and other psychological causes
18. A disorder characterized by various symptoms including delusions, hallucinations,
disorganized thinking and withdrawal from reality
DISSOCIATIVE FUGUE
19. The category of disorder in which people view parts of their activities as separate from
their personality is called. . .
DISSOCIATIVE
20. A disorder in which physical symptoms appear without known organic cause.
Symptoms such as blindness, deafness or paralysis.
CONVERSION
Case studies
21. Characterized by periods of alternating excitement and depression; often includes
elaborate ideas about past accomplishments and future ideas. May be severe
enough to be psychotic.
22. A thirty-one-year-old engineer gradually began to fear that he had a serious disease,
and was going to die of heart apoplexy. All the assurances and examinations of his
doctor could not convince him. He began consulting every possible doctor, and
took long holidays, always recovering a little, but invariably finding that his fears
returned.
23. An accountant whose life was always exceptionally well-organized, abandoned his
family and assumed a new identity in another town. Identified months later, he is
unable to recall his previous way of life.
24. A married woman suffers from insomnia, crying, and has been aware of poor
concentration and diminished interest in activities. She loves her children but has
no motivation to care for them. This has occurred for a long period of time now.
25. Ralph's suspicions about his wife's infidelity were unjustified. Nothing that Ann did
indicated that she was with other men. Ralph created an entire belief system—one
that could not be changed even with disconfirming facts about his wife's imagined
infidelities. There was no serious disorganized thinking in other areas and Ralph's
personality remained otherwise intact.
HYPOCHONDRIASIS
GENERALIZED ANXIETY
CONVERSION
DISORGANIZED
SCHIZOPHRENIA
(REPEATED)
Likely Disorder
BIPOLAR
HYPOCHONDRIASIS
DISSOCIATIVE FUGUE
MAJOR DEPRESSION
PARANOID PERSONALITY
DISORDER
26. A bright young woman becomes increasingly concerned about upcoming weather
conditions. She feels obliged to check environmental conditions several times a
day. She is unable to leave the house in the morning unless she has done all of the
following: called the weather service, checked the newspapers, listened to the radio,
and went online. She feels silly, but can't seem to go for very long without thinking
about how the weather might change.
27. An ex-soldier strictly organized his life to avoid contact with dirt and germs. He
does not touch doorknobs and holds his breath when passing a hospital.
28. A teenage girl becomes increasingly separate from her friends and family. Senior
year, she decides to quit the activities and sports she has been in. Her grades drop
with her lack of attendance. She shuts out friends who try to help.
29. Trent was raised in a rural, isolated area. Interactions with females was minimal.
Now, Trent finds he can only be sexually aroused by llamas.
30. Ken is plagued with constant worries that what he has planned will not occur as
scheduled. He makes hundreds of “to do” lists each day, and often checks these
lists to make sure they are correct. Ken incessantly reminds his colleagues of
upcoming deadlines, sometimes 15-20 times each day.
31. One day, Karl, a Hawaiian native, wakes up in Nebraska with no memory of who he
is, how he got there, or where he came from.
32. Ed believes that he is an alien who has been left behind on Earth by his “pod.” He
is difficult to understand, as he speaks frequently in rhyme and makes up his own
words.
33. While Brian appears to be a mild-mannered twenty-something, he sometimes
believes he is a teenage female named Suzy who is a member of the high school
dance team. At these times, he dresses in various matching outfits, carries pom
pons, and practices various routines constantly. Brian is confused about why he
sometimes awakens dressed in strange clothing.
34. Driving back from a Prince concert, Geri fell asleep at the wheel and crashed her
Jaguar convertible. Her best friends perished in the crash. Ever since, even though
doctors cannot find anything physically wrong, Geri has been paralyzed in the arm
with which she was steering.
35. Christy is terrified of speaking in public. While highly knowledgeable and
competent, whenever she has to address a gathering of adults, her heart pounds and
her mouth gets dry.
36. Meg has been arrested on a number of occasions for disturbing the peace and for
illegally producing and selling alcohol and drugs to minors. Although a number of
his “clients” have died from overdoses, she feels no remorse.
37. While on a visit to the Midwest, Sam’s residence was demolished by a tornado.
Ever since, she has been plagued by terrible nightmares and occasional flashbacks.
38. Don goes through periods when he feels that he just cannot lose. He goes on
gambling sprees, launches new get-rich-quick schemes, and engages in promiscuous
behavior. At other times, he feels so down that he can’t even get out of bed and that
life seems purposeless.
39. Jimmie, a 15-year-old boy feels the need to touch a glass exactly 16 times before he
can drink from it without anxiety.
40. Andrea, a 24-year-old woman is afraid of enclosed spaces such as elevators and
walk-in closets, and being surrounded by people.
41. Dr. Smithers is a college instructor who is constantly anxious and often suffers from
attacks that make it difficult to breath and has feelings of dying and insanity.
42. Ricardo is unable to straighten his body, which is bent forward at a 45-degree angle,
even though there is no evidence of orthopedic or neurological damage.
43. A 32-year-old woman, named Rabbit, has severe headaches and periods of
blackouts when she has no recollection of where she has been or who she has
spoken to. People who she believes are strangers often try to talk with her.
44. Luther, a retiree, is preoccupied with any slight irregularity in bodily functioning
and enjoys discussing every symptom.
OCD
OCD
MAJOR DEPRESSION
PARAPHELIA
OCD PERSONALITY
DISORDER
DISSOCIATIVE FUGUE
DISORGANIZED
SCHIZOPHRENIA
DID
CONVERSION DISORDER
SOCIAL PHOBIA
ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY
PTSD
BIPOLAR
OCD
PHOBIA
PANIC DISORDER
CONVERSION
DID
HYPOCHONDRIASIS
45. Edna, age 20, a sophomore in college, had a pronounced fear of being left alone with a man,
whether a fellow student, professor, relative or acquaintance. She refused all dates and never
allowed herself to placed in situations where it was necessary for her to go home with
someone of the opposite sex. She could give no good reason for this fear, but recognized her
problem; yet, there seemed to be nothing that she could do about it. Recently, when it
appeared inevitable that she must go home from a party with a boy, she trembled, her hands
became clammy and she became very faint. As a result, her hostess invited her to remain for
the night.
46. George T., age 35, an auto mechanic, on several occasions found himself in a motion picture
theatre after having left home to report for work. He would "come to" in a bewildered
fashion and would go to a bar for a few drinks. Eventually he would go home.
47. As a child, George had a pattern of wandering away from home. He came from a very
unhappy family; his parents were divorced, and he was left at home with housekeepers. His
father was very harsh with him and on several occasions gave him such severe whippings
that the neighbors called the police. His mother was a highly emotional person and tried to
discipline George by screaming at him and threatening to place him in a boarding home.
48. In adolescence, he twice found himself going off to school and eventually "coming to" in a
park about two miles from home. In school, George got along well with the teachers and
other students. He was a poor student and failed both the second and seventh grades. He
quit school at 16.
49. An 11-year-old- boy had instituted the following ceremony before going to bed. He did not
sleep until he had told his mother in the minutest details of all the events of the day; there
must be no scraps of paper or other rubbish on the carpet of the bedroom; the bed must be
pushed right to the wall; three chairs must stand by it and the pillows must lie in a particular
way. In order to get to sleep he must first kick out a certain number of times with both legs
and then lie on his side.
50. A married woman, whose life was complicated by her mother's living in the home,
complained that she felt tense and irritable most of the time. She was apprehensive lest
something happen to her mother, her husband or herself. She had no definite idea what it
was that she was worried about. She suffered from occasional attacks in which her heart
pounded and was irregular. She often experienced severe migraines, especially at times of
great stress.
51. Fred K. is a 50-year-old married man who developed a marked contracture of his left hand,
and a partial paralysis of his arm. He held his arm bent in front of him, as if in a sling, and
his fingers were curled toward the palm of his hand. He could raise his arm to the level of
his shoulder, and there was a slight movement in his fingers.
52. The symptoms came on suddenly, and before he was referred for psychological treatment,
the patient had undergone medical and neurological workups by local physicians as well as
by specialists at Rochester, Cleveland, Baltimore and Boston. Many different diagnoses
were made and many medical treatments were tried, but the patient did not respond, and the
symptoms remained unaltered.
53. A man, aged 32, was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Two months before commitment,
the patient began to talk about how he had failed, had spoiled his whole life, and that it was
now too late. He spoke of hearing someone say, "You must submit." One night his wife was
awakened by his talking. He told her of having several visions but refused to describe them.
He stated that someone was after him and trying to blame him for the death of a certain man.
He said he had been poisoned. In the admission office of the hospital he showed many
mannerisms; laid down on the floor, pulled at his foot, made undirected violent striking
movements, again struck attendants, grimaced, assumed rigid postures, refused to speak, and
appeared to be having auditory hallucinations. He was at once placed in a continuous bath,
where, when seen later in the day, he was found to be in a stuperous state. His face was
without expression, he was mute and rigid, and paid no attention to those about him or to
their questions. His eyes were closed and the lids could be separated only with effort. There
was no response to pinpricks or other painful stimuli. For five days he remained mute,
negativistic, and inaccessible, at times staring vacantly into space, at times with his eyes
tightly closed.
PHOBIA
DID
DISSOCIATIVE
FUGUE
DID
OCD
PANIC DISORDER
CONVERSION
HYPOCHONDRIASIS
PARANOID
SCHIZOPHRENIC
CATATONIC
SCHIZOPHRENIC
54. The patient was hospitalized at the age of 18. During the preceding year there had been a
gradual disintegration of personality, evidenced by inappropriate giggling, bizarre
conversation, and failure in school. The patient's illness began soon after her father departed
from home. As described by the patient's mother, "My husband left and she began to think
about him all the time. She used to talk funny - say funny things all the time. She used to
hear an airplane and stand on the kitchen table looking at the ceiling. She would look out the
kitchen window at children who were playing at school about a mile away and ask if the
other children could see her. She would stay home from school and wouldn't help with the
housework but stood outside staring at nothing. She would say, 'I don't know whether I am a
boy or a girl. Do you think I will ever get married and have a baby?' And she would say,
'You are staying young and I am growing old.'"
55. During an interview, the 50 year-old female patient expressed beliefs covering almost the
entire range of delusions. She felt that her niece was in on a plot with other relatives to take
away the property she owned in 106 countries which she was planning to use, after training
religious missionaries, to establish missions to convert the heathens. In spite of the fact that
her husband was alive and visited her weekly, she maintained that he was dead and that he
had been killed by the FBI. The FBI had six agents assigned to her alone and had killed her
husband. She had learned of their spying and talking about her from the television where
they were portraying her life in several of the continuing series programs. She had learned
other things about the plot from the voices that came between the television programs and
the commercials. She was convinced that the hospital attendants were in on the conspiracy
and that poison was being placed in her food. She was also concerned about the electrical
waves that were "messing up" her mind.
56. This case deals with a woman of 75 who believed that her son-in-law planned to assault and
kill her. Her reaction to this idea was expressed in many letters sent to friends and relatives,
mailed surreptitiously, and causing the daughter and son-in-law much embarrassment. Aside
from this idea, the woman behaved normally and at no time did she show any tendencies to
violence. When interviewed in her son-in-law's home she was somewhat suspicious at first,
conversed logically about impersonal matters, showed no defects in memory or orientation.
As she became friendly with the examiner, she began to verbalize her delusion, explaining
that she based her idea on the fact that articles in her room were sometimes disarranged, that
the son-in-law walked past her door unnecessarily or looked at her in a strange manner. The
patient was "clear" aside from the one delusion, and her ideas were consistently organized
and acted on. Insight was lacking only in one area of functioning, as she kept busy with
gardening.
57. N.M. was first admitted to a state hospital at the age of 38. Since childhood she had been
characterized by mood swings, some of which had been so extreme that they had been
psychotic in degree. At one point she became so depressed and asked to return to the
hospital where she had been a patient. She then became overactive and exuberant in spirits
and visited her friends, to whom she outlined her plans for reestablishing different forms of a
lucrative business. She purchased many clothes, bought furniture, pawned her rings, and
wrote checks without funds in the account. For a period thereafter she was mildly depressed.
In a little less than a year, Mrs. M. again became overactive, played her radio until late into
the night, smoked excessively, and took out insurance on a car that she had not yet bought.
Contrary to her usual habits, she swore frequently and loudly, creating a disturbance in a club
to which she did not belong, and instituted divorce proceedings. On the day prior to her
second admission to the hospital, she purchased 57 hats.
DISORGANIZED
SCHIZOPHRENIA
PARANOID
SCHIZOPHRENIC
PARANOID
PERSONALITY
DISORDER
BIPOLAR