Chapter 15 psychology

• Psychological disorder


  A syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning. Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress in social, occupational, or other important activities.
• Psychopathology


  The study of psychological disorders, including their symptoms, etiology (causes), and treatment.
• In Western societies, visions or inner experiences that violate cultural expectations are readily labeled as psychologically disordered, while in other cultures they may be regarded as normal and positively valued
• Mental illness


  A "myth that justifies psychiatric intervention in socially disapproved behavior"
• Thomas Szasz argued that the notion of mental illness was invented by society to stigmatize and subjugate people whose behavior violates accepted social and legal norms
• Szasz proclaimed that "disease or illness can only affect the body; hence, there can be no mental illness"
• Szasz's views have influenced the mental health community and society in several ways, such as referring to mental illness as mental health "problems" and challenging the idea that same-sex attraction represented a form of mental illness
• Harmful dysfunction


  A psychological disorder is defined as a dysfunction in an internal mechanism that leads to negative consequences for the individual or others, as judged by the standards of the individual's culture
• Psychological disorder


  • Significant disturbances in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
  • Disturbances reflect some kind of biological, psychological, or developmental dysfunction
  • Disturbances lead to significant distress or disability in one's life
  • Disturbances do not reflect expected or culturally approved responses to certain events
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)


  • Classification system used by most mental health professionals in the United States
  • Published by the American Psychiatric Association
• First edition of the DSM published

  1952
• The DSM has undergone numerous revisions and editions, with the most recent being the DSM-5 published in 2013
• DSM-5


  • Includes many categories of disorders
  • Describes each disorder in detail, including diagnostic features, criteria, prevalence, and risk factors
• Comorbidity


  The co-occurrence of two disorders
• 41% of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) also meet the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder
• 6 out of 10 people who have a substance use disorder also suffer from another form of mental illness
• Around 10 percent of individuals seeking treatment for substance use disorder have serious mental illnesses
• When people with a mental illness are also habitual drug users, their symptoms can be exacerbated and resistant to treatment
• Beliefs in supernatural causes of mental illness are still held in some societies today, such as in modern-day Nigeria
• Between the 11th and 17th centuries, a curious epidemic swept across Western Europe known as dancing mania
• Dancing mania


  Groups of people would suddenly begin to dance with wild abandon
• Explanation of dancing mania

  • Psychological distress, social contagion, and belief in supernatural forces
• Homosexuality


  Listed as a disorder in the first two editions of the DSM, but removed in 1973
• Heritability


  Measure of the degree to which a trait is influenced by genetic factors
• Ego-dystonic homosexuality


  A new diagnosis introduced in the DSM-III that emphasized same-sex arousal that the patient viewed as interfering with desired heterosexual relationships and causing distress for the individual
• The diagnosis of ego-dystonic homosexuality was removed from the DSM-III-R in 1986
• The diathesis-stress model integrates biological and psychosocial factors to predict the likelihood of a disorder
• Diathesis


  An underlying predisposition for a disorder
• DSM-I included 106 diagnoses and was 130 total pages, whereas DSM-III included more than 2 times as many diagnoses (265) and was nearly seven times its size (886 total pages)
• Although DSM-5 is longer than DSM-IV, the volume includes only 237 disorders, a decrease from the 297 disorders that were listed in DSM-IV
• The diathesis-stress model suggests that people with an underlying predisposition for a disorder are more likely to develop a disorder when faced with stress
• The DSM-IV specified that the symptoms of major depressive disorder must not be attributable to normal bereavement (loss of a loved one), but the DSM-5 has removed this bereavement exclusion
• International Classification of Diseases (ICD)


  A second classification system, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), that is used for clinical purposes as well as to examine the general health of populations and to monitor the prevalence of diseases and other health problems internationally
• Worldwide the ICD is more frequently used for clinical diagnosis, whereas the DSM is more valued for research
• Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)


  A disorder characterized by a constant pattern of inattention and/or hyperactive and impulsive behavior that interferes with normal functioning
• ADHD occurs in about 8% of children
• For about 60% of children with ADHD, the disorder continues into adulthood
• On average, boys are 3 times more likely to have ADHD than girls
• Children with ADHD


  • Face severe academic and social challenges
  • Have lower grades and standardized test scores
  • Have higher rates of expulsion, grade retention, and dropping out
  • Are less well-liked and more often rejected by their peers
• Nearly 81% of those whose ADHD persisted into adulthood had experienced at least one other comorbid disorder, compared to 47% of those whose ADHD did not persist