Recitation Sections Learning Objectives

Recitation Section #10 (Psychological Disorders) – April 19-20th

Homework #9 (homework questions are highlighted)
1. What is the biopsychosocial perspective? Why is it important in understanding
our psychological disorders?

2. How do generalized anxiety disorder, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder

differ?

3. What are the symptoms of the dissociative disorders? Why are some critics
skeptical about the existence of dissociative identity disorder (aka multiple
personality disorder)?

4. What does it mean to say that “depression is the common cold of psychological
disorders?” What are the facts that an acceptable theory of depression must
explain?

5. Summarize the contributions of the biological perspective to the study of

depression. What are the differences between major depression and bipolar
disorder?

6. What are the symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? Why

is there debate about whether ADHD is a genuine disorder?

7. Name and describe the five subtypes of schizophrenia. Name and describe the
symptoms of schizophrenia.

8. Discuss evidence for and against a link between prenatal viral infection and
schizophrenia.

9. Civil libertarians defend the right of schizophrenia patients not to be hospitalized

against their will. E. Fuller Torry, a psychiatrist who views schizophrenia as a
brain disorder objects: “If a person with Alzheimer’s wanted to go outside with no
shoes in the winter, we wouldn’t say, ‘That’s fine, he should have free choice.’”
Do you think patients with schizophrenia should be hospitalized and treated
against their will? Or do they always have the right to live free, even if in subway
stations, in parks, or in shelters?

10. What is the evidence for a genetic contribution to the development of

schizophrenia?

11. Describe the behaviors and brain activity associated with antisocial personality
disorder. Is antisocial personality disorder an inherited condition? How would
 you evaluate the relative contributions of nature and nurture to antisocial
personality disorder?

12. How would you decide whether to send a disturbed criminal to prison or to a
mental hospital? Would the person’s history (for example, having suffered child
abuse) influence your decision?

13. Does poverty cause psychological disorder? Explain.

14. Do you have a family member or friend who has experienced a psychological
disorder? If so, has anything that you heard or read in this section of the course
increased your understanding of the challenges that the person is facing?