unit 8 vocab

• psychological disorder


  a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior
• medical model 


  the concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital
• epigenetics

  the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change
• DSM-5

  the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders
• attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

  a psychological disorder marked by extreme inattention and / or hyperactivity and impulsivity
• anxiety disorder


  psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety
• social anxiety disorder


  intense fear and avoidance of social situations
• 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 may experience terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations; often followed by worry over a possible next attack
• agoraphobia

  fear or avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide open places, where one has felt loss of control and panic
• phobia

  an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation
• obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)


  a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts, actions, or both
• posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

  a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience
• major depressive disorder

  a 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 must be either 1.)depressed mood or 2.)loss of interest or pleasure
• bipolar disorder

  a disorder in which a persona alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania
• mania


  a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously poor judgement is common
• rumination


  compulsive fretting; overthinking our problems and their causes
• schizophrenia


  a disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished, inappropriate emotional expression
• psychotic disorders

  a group of disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality
• hallucinations


  false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus
• delusion


  a false belief, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders
• chronic schizophrenia

  also called process schizophrenia; a form of schizophrenia in which symptoms usually appear by the late adolescence or early adulthood; as people age, psychotic episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten
• acute schizophrenia

  also called reactive schizophrenia; a form of schizophrenia that can begin at any age; frequently occurs in response to a traumatic event
• somatic symptom disorder

  a psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a bodily form without apparent physical cause
• conversion disorder

  also called functional neurological system disorder; a disorder related to somatic symptom disorder in which a person experiences very specific, physical symptoms that are not compatible with recognized medical or neurological conditions
• illness anxiety disorder


  a disorder related to somatic symptom disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease
• dissociative disorders

  controversial, rare disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings
• dissociative identity disorder (DID)


  a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities
• personality disorders


  inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functiong
• antisocial personality disorder


  a personality disorder in which a person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members; may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist
• anorexia nervosa


  an eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) maintains a starvation diet despite being significantly underweight; sometimes accompanied by excessive exercise
• bulimia nervosa


  an eating disorder in which a person's binge eating (usually of high-calorie foods) is followed by inappropriate weight-loss promoting behavior, such as vomiting, laxative us, fasting, or excessive exercise
• binge-eating disorder


  significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory behavior that marks bulimia nervosa