Unit XII: Abnormal Behavior

Module 65: Introduction to Psychological Disorders

Term and Example/Application
Psychological Disorder
A syndrome marked by a clinically
significant disturbance in an
individuals cognition, emotion
regulation, or behavior.
Attention Deficit/Hyperactive
Disorder
A psychological disorder marked by
the appearance by age 7 of one or
more of three key symptoms:
extreme inattention, hyperactivity,
and impulsivity.
Medical Model
The concept that diseasessuch as
psychological disordershave
physical causes that can be
diagnosed, treated, and cured. This is
often through treatment in a hospital.
DSM-5
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders from the APA, fifth
edition.
It is used to systemize the
categorization of psychological
disorders.

Question and Answer

How do psychological disorders
impact someone? Disturbed or
dysfunctional behaviors are
maladaptive and interfere with
normal day to day life.
What are the three key
symptoms of ADHD? Extreme
inattention, hyperactivity, and
impulsivity

How has the medical model

gained credibility? Recent
discoveries that genetically
influenced abnormalities in brain
structure and biochemistry contribute
to many disorders.
What is the most common
system for describing disorders
and estimating how often they
occur? The DSM-5

What describes the idea that psychological disorders can be

diagnosed and treated? The medical model
What is the primary purpose of the DSM? Diagnosis of mental disorders
What disorders do Americans report most frequently? Mood disorders
Name and describe the two major approaches to understanding
psychological disorders. The medical model, which is an attempt to first
diagnose and then treat psychological disorders. The biopsychosocial
approach, which is an attempt to understand psychological disorders as an
interaction of biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors.

Module 66: Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD

Term and Example/Application
Anxiety Disorders
Psychological disorders characterized
by distressing persistent anxiety or
maladaptive behaviors that reduce
anxiety such as general anxiety
disorder, panic disorder, and phobias.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
An anxiety disorder in which a person
is continually tense, apprehensive,
and in a state of autonomic nervous
system arousal.
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.
Phobia
An anxiety disorder marked by a
persistent, irrational fear and
avoidance of a specific object,
activity, or situation. A phobia of
bridges would result in someone
being unable to cross a bridge
without the threat of a panic attack.
Social Anxiety Disorder
Intense fear of social situations,
leading to avoidance of such.
Agoraphobia
Fear or avoidance of situations, such
as crowds or wide open places,
where one has felt loss of control and
panic.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
(OCD)
A disorder characterized by
unwanted repetitive thoughts and or
actions such as having to check the
stove every ten minutes.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD)
A disorder characterized by haunting

Question and Answer

Which disorders are no longer
classified as anxiety disorders
under the DSM-5? Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder and
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
What are some symptoms of
generalized anxiety disorder?
Most commonplace symptom of
anxiety that persists for six months
or more.
What is one of the primary
concerns after a panic attack?
Suffering another attack.

How do people cope with

phobias? Some accept phobias and
live with them, but others are
incapacitated by their efforts to avoid
the fearful situation.

What is the modern term for

social phobia? Social Anxiety
Disorder
People who have experienced
several panic attacks may come
to develop what? Agoraphobia
What is the major distinction
between a victim of OCD and
someone who has a few quirks?
Those with OCD are incapacitated by
their obsessions or compulsions.
How long after a traumatic event
do symptoms have to continue
before being classified as PTSD?

memories, nightmares, social

Four weeks or more
withdrawal, jumpy anxiety,
numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia
that lingers for four weeks or more
after a traumatic experience. Soldiers
coming home from war-torn
territories or victims of rape.
Posttraumatic Growth
Which psychological term is
Positive psychological changes as
applicable to the popular phrase
resulting from struggles with
what doesnt kill you makes you
challenging circumstances and life
stronger? Posttraumatic Growth
crisis. When people with cancer
report increase appreciation of life.
What do we call an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent,
irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or
situation? Phobia
A person trolled by repetitive thoughts or actions is most likely
experiencing what? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
The key difference between obsessions and compulsions is that
compulsions involve repetitive behaviors.
Name the two contemporary perspectives used by psychologists to
understand anxiety disorders. Then explain how or what
psychologists study within each perspective. The learning perspective.
Psychologists using the learning perspective study fear conditioning,
observational learning, or cognitive processes. The biological perspective.
Psychologists using the biological perspective surya natural selection, genes,
or the brain.

Module 67: Mood Disorders

Term and Example/Application
Mood Disorders
Psychological disorders characterized
by emotional extremes, such as
major depressive disorder, mania,
and bipolar disorder.
Major Depressive Disorder
A mood disorder in which a person
experiences, in the absence of drugs
or another medical condition, two or
more weeks with five or more
symptoms, at least one of which

Question and Answer

What are the two principle forms
of mood disorders? Major
depressive disorder and bipolar
disorder.
Which of the following is not a
symptom of major depressive
disorder? Anything other than:
depressed mood for most of the day,
diminished interest in activities,
significant unregulated weight loss or

must be either depressed mood or

loss of interest or pleasure.

Mania
A mood disorder marked by a
hyperactive, wildly optimistic state
Bipolar Disorder
A mood disorder in which a person
alternates between the hopelessness
and lethargy of depression and the
overexcited state of mania.
Rumination
Compulsive fretting, overthinking
about our problems and their causes.

gain, insomnia or sleeping sickness,

physical agitation or lethargy, fatigue
or loss of energy, feelings of
worthlessness or inappropriate guilt,
problems related to think or
concentrating or making decisions, or
reoccurring thoughts of death and
suicide.
What is the rebound phase called
in bipolar disorder following
depression? Mania
What is the new term for manicdepressive disorder? Bipolar
Disorder
When does rumination become
negative? When it is relentless and
self-focused, and diverts us from
thinking about other life tasks, and
produces a negative emotional
inertia.

What is NOT a system of a major depressive disorder? Auditory

hallucinations
What is true of depression? Compared with men, nearly twice as many
women have been diagnosed with depression.
What is true of suicide? In the United States, suicide is more common
among Whites than Blacks.
Based on brain scans, what is true of brain function and mood? The
brain is more active during manic episodes and less active during depressive
episodes.
Xavier, who has a negative explanatory style, is most likely to get
depressed after failing a math test if he believes that he failed
because he is not good at math and he never will be.
Christina became depressed after being laid off from her job. Her
therapist thinks it's because she has as stable, global, and internal
explanatory style. Illustrate each of these three attributes by
writing a possible thought Christina might have for each one. Stable
thought: I have always had trouble holding down a job. Global though:

everything in my life is messed up. Internal thought: it's all my fault I lost this
job.
Identify and describe the two major symptoms of bipolar disorder.
Mania is a state of euphoria, hyperactivity, or wild optimism that rebounds
from depression. Depression is which is a period of depressed mood,
diminish interest in most activities, significant unregulated weight loss or
gain, insomnia or sleeping sickness, lethargy, fatigue, etc.

Module 68: Schizophrenia

Term and Example/Application
Schizophrenia
A psychological disorder
characterized by delusions,
hallucinations, disorganized speech,
and/or diminished or inappropriate
emotional expression.
Psychosis
A psychological disorder in which a
person loses contact with reality and
experiences irrational ideas and
distorted perceptions.
Delusions
False beliefsoften of persecution or
grandeurthat may accompany
psychotic disorders, such as claiming
to be a popular public figure or an
inanimate object.
Hallucination
False sensory experience, such as
seeing something in the absence of
an external visual stimulus.

Question and Answer

What does the translation split
mind refer to? Schizophrenia

What is the chief example of a

psychosis? Schizophrenia

People with what type of

tendencies are more prone to
delusions? Paranoid Tendencies

What is the term for sensation

without stimulation? Hallucination

What is the best term or phrase for a false believe, often of

persecution, that may accompany psychotic disorders? Delusion
Which of the following is true? Fetuses exposed to flu virus are more
likely to develop schizophrenia later in life
According to research, what has been identified as an early warning
sign of schizophrenia? Poor peer relations and solo play
Name and explain two brain abnormalities that help us understand
schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia have higher dopamine receptors,

which may intensify brain signals, creating positive symptoms such as

hallucinations and paranoia. They also may have large, fluid-filled cavities in
the brain, as well as shrinkage and thinning of the cerebral tissue. The
greater the shrinkage, the more severe the disorder.

Module 69: Other Disorders

Term and Example/Application
Somatic Symptom Disorder
A psychological disorder in which the
symptoms take a somatic form
without apparent physical cause such
as conversion disorder and illness
anxiety disorder. When a patients
illness cannot be explained by
medical reasons.
Conversion Disorder
A disorder in which a person
experiences very specific genuine
physical symptoms for which no
physiological basis can be found.
Going into the doctor because you
lost sensation in an arm, but there is
nothing psychically wrong.
Illness Anxiety Disorder
A disorder in which a person
interprets normal physical sensations
as symptoms of a disease. Visiting a
doctor for a headache, believing its a
brain tumor. Cant be persuaded
otherwise.
Dissociative Disorders
Disorders in which conscious
awareness becomes separated from
previous memories, thoughts, and
feelings. Three Faces of Eve.
Dissociative Identity Disorder
(DID)
A rare dissociative disorder in which
a person exhibits two or more distinct
and alternating personalities.
Anorexia Nervosa
An eating disorder in which a person
maintains a starvation diet despite
being significantly underweight.

Question and Answer

One person may have a variety of
complaintsvomiting, dizziness,
blurred vision, and difficulty
swallowing. Another may
experience sever and prolonged
pain. What is this an example of?
Somatic Symptom Disorder
What is the more common term
for functional neurological
symptom disorder? Conversion
Disorder

What is the modern term for the

disorder called
hypochondriasis? Illness Anxiety
Disorder.

How prevalent are dissociative

disorders today? Rare

What is the new term for

multiple personality disorder?
Dissociative Identity Disorder
What demographic is most prone
to anorexia nervosa? Adolescent
females

Bulimia Nervosa
An eating disorder in which a person
alternates binge eating of usually
high-calorie foods with purging by
vomiting or laxatives, excessive
exercise, or fasting.
Binge-Eating Disorder
Significant binge-eating episodes,
followed by distress, disgust, or guilt,
but without the compensatory
purging or fasting that marks bulimia
nervosa.

Personality Disorders
Psychological disorders characterized
by inflexible and enduring behavior
patterns that impair social
functioning such as avoidant
personality disorder.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
A personality disorder in which a
person exhibits a lack of conscious
for wrongdoing, even toward friends
and family members. May be
aggressive and ruthless or a clever
con artist.

What is a result of Bulimia

Nervosa? Bouts of depression and
anxiety

What family environments may

provide a fertile ground for
eating disorders? Mothers of girls
with eating disorders tend to focus on
their own weight and on their
daughters weight and appearance,
high-achieving, competitive,
protective, other bulimic family
members.
What are the three qualifying
behaviors that describe
personality disorders? Disruptive,
inflexible, and enduring.
Which demographic is most
commonly inflicted with
antisocial personality disorder?
Adult males

Adela regularly interprets ordinary physical symptoms like stomach

cramps and headaches as serious medical problems. Her doctor is
unable to convince her that her problems are not serious. Adela
suffered from illness anxiety disorder.
What is the diagnosis given to people with multiple personalities?
Dissociative identity disorder.
What is a defining characteristic of antisocial personally disorder?
Lack of conscious
Dissociative identity disorder is among the most controversial of all
psychological disorders. Describe the disorder. Then, provide one
piece of evidence that supports the existence of the dispersed and
one piece of e oxen s that would indicate the disorder might not be
genuine. Dissociative identity disorder is a rare disorder in which a person
exhibitors two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Formerly called

multiple personality disorder. This was the case for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as
well as Kenneth Bianchi who was accused of being the Hillside Strangler.
Critics claim that the disorder is imposed onto subjects, and is more or a