pysch exam 4

• Medical model


  Proposes that it is useful to think of abnormal behaviour as a disease
• Being labelled as psychotic, schizophrenic, or mentally ill carries a social stigma that can be difficult to shake
• Those characterized as mentally ill are viewed as erratic, dangerous, incompetent, and inferior
• The stigma associated with psychological disorders prevents many people from seeking the mental health care they need and could benefit from
• According to Szasz, the medical model's disease analogy converts moral and social questions about what acceptable behaviour into medical questions
• Medical model


  • The criticism of the medical model has some merit, and it is important to recognize the social roots and ramification of the medical model
  • Medical concepts such as diagnosis, etiology and prognosis have been proven valuable in the treatment and study of abnormality
• Criteria of abnormal behaviour

  • Deviance (different than social norms)
  • Maladaptive behaviour (Everyday adaptive behaviour is impaired)
  • Personal distress (Troubled by depression or anxiety disorders)
• Diagnoses of psychological disorders involve value judgments about what represents normal or abnormal behaviour
• Judgments about mental illness reflect prevailing cultural values, social trends, and political forces, as well as scientific knowledge
• It is often difficult to draw a line that clearly separates normality from abnormality
• Stereotypes about psychological disorders

  • Psychological disorders are incurable
  • People with psychological disorders are often violent and dangerous
  • People with psychological disorders behave in bizarre ways and are very different from normal people
• The vast majority of people who are diagnosed as mentally ill eventually improve and lead normal, productive lives
• Only a modest association has been found between mental illness and violence prone tendencies
• This stereotype (people with psychological disorders behave in bizarre ways and are very different from normal people) is true only in a small minority of cases, usually involving relatively severe disorders
• Categories of psychological disorders in the DSM-5

  • Neurodevelopmental disorders
  • Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders
  • Bipolar and related disorders
  • Depressive disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders
  • Trauma and stressor related disorders
  • Dissociative disorders
  • Somatic symptom and related disorders
  • Feeding and eating disorders
  • Elimination disorders
  • Sleep-wake disorders
  • Sexual dysfunctions
  • Gender dysphoria
  • Disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders
  • Substance-related disorders
  • Neurocognitive disorders
  • Personality disorders
  • Paraphilic disorders
  • Other mental disorders
  • Medication-Induced movement disorders and other adverse effects of medication
  • Other conditions that may be the focus of clinical attention
• Due to problems with these classifications, such as overlapping within different categories, some theorists argue that the traditional categorical approach to diagnosis should be replaced by a dimensional approach
• Dimensional approach


  Describe disorders in terms of how people score on a limited number of continuous dimensions, such as the degree to which they exhibit anxiety, depression, agitation, anger, hypochondria, rumination, paranoia, and so forth
• The DSM is not the only diagnostic system available for use in classifying mental illness, it is however the system the most widely employed because of its significance, impact and worldwide adoption
• One major alternative to the DSM was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is an agency of the United Nations
• Prevalence


  The percentage of a population that exhibits a disorder during a specified time period
• Studies published in the 1980s and early 1990s found psychological disorders in roughly one-third of the population
• Subsequent research suggested that about 44 percent of the adult population will struggle with some sort of psychological disorder at some point in their lives
• Most common types of psychological disorders across North America

  • Substance (alcohol and drugs) use disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Depression
• One in ten Canadians over the age 15 reported symptoms consistent with one of the categories of disorder in the past year
• One in three Canadians met the criteria for a psychological disorder at some point in their life
• One-fifth of those surveyed met the diagnostic criteria for a mood disorder, with major depressive disorder being the most common
• Anxiety disorders


  A class of disorders marked by feelings of excessive apprehension and anxiety
• Types of anxiety disorders

  • Generalized anxiety disorder
  • Specific phobias
  • Panic disorder
  • Agoraphobia
  • Selective mutism
  • Social anxiety disorder
  • Separation anxiety disorder
• Studies suggest that anxiety disorders are quite common, they occur in roughly 19 percent of the population
• Generalized anxiety disorder


  A chronic, high level of anxiety that is not tied to any specific threat
• Generalized anxiety disorder is more frequently seen in females than males
• Examples of specific phobias

  • Trypophobia (fear of visual stimuli that consists of configurations of holes)
  • Acrophobia (fear of heights)
  • Claustrophobia (fear of small, enclosed places)
  • Brontophobia (fear of storms)
  • Hydrophobia (fear of water)
  • Mysophobia (fear of germs)
• Around 10 percent of people with phobias are female
• Panic disorder


  Characterized by recurrent attacks of overwhelming anxiety that usually occur suddenly and unexpectedly
• About two thirds of people diagnosed with panic disorder are female, and the onset of the disorder typically occurs during late adolescence or early adulthood
• Agoraphobia


  A fear of going out in public places
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)


  Marked by persistent, uncontrollable intrusions of unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and urges to engage in senseless rituals (compulsions)
• Full-fledged OCD occurs roughly in 2-3 percent of population
• OCD is seen equally in men and women
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)


  The trauma and stress related disorder