Handout Chapter15

Mental Disorder: Any behaviour or emotional state that causes an individual great suffering,

is self-destructive, seriously impairs the person’s ability to work or get along with others, or
endangers others or the community.
The DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders. It is the standard reference
manual used to diagnose mental disorders. It lists the symptoms of each disorder. Using DSM
for diagnosis has some drawbacks: danger of over diagnosis, power of diagnostic labels, the
confusion of serious mental disorders with normal, the illusion of objectivity.
Culture-bound syndromes: Symptoms or mental disorders that are specific to particular
cultural contexts and practices. By comparing mental and emotional symptoms across
different cultures, researchers can distinguish universal disorders from those that are culture-
bound
Projective test: a projective test is a personality test designed to let a person respond to
ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts projected by
the person into the test.
Objective test: a standardized questionnaire that asks about test-takers’ behaviour and
feelings. More reliable than either projective test or subjective clinical judgments.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): persistent and excessive worry about a number of
different things. People with GAD may anticipate disaster and may be overly concerned
about money, health, family, work, or other issues. Individuals with GAD find it difficult to
control their worry. They may worry more than seems warranted about actual events or may
expect the worst even when there is no apparent reason for concern.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: PTSD, an anxiety disorder, is a serious potentially debilitating
condition that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a natural disaster,
serious accident, terrorist incident, sudden death of a loved one, war, violent personal assault
such as rape, or other life-threatening events.
Panic disorder: a type of anxiety disorder. It causes panic attacks, which are sudden feelings
of terror when there is no real danger. You may feel as if you are losing control. You may
also have physical symptoms, such as
 Fast heartbeat
 Chest or stomach pain
 Breathing difficulty
 Weakness or dizziness
 Sweating
 Feeling hot or a cold chill
 Tingly or numb hands
Panic attacks can happen anytime, anywhere, and without warning. You may live in fear of
another attack and may avoid places where you have had an attack.
Phobia: an extreme or irrational fear of a specific situation, activity, or object.
Agoraphobia: A set of phobias, often set off by a panic attack, involving the basic fear of
being away from a safe place or person.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic and long-lasting disorder in
which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors
(compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.
Major depression: A mood disorder involving disturbances in emotion (excessive sadness),
behaviour (loss of interest in one’s usual activities), cognition (thought of hopelessness), and
body function (fatigue and loss of appetite).
Bipolar disorder: previously known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that
causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day
tasks.
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder with a long-term pattern of
abnormal behavior characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, excessive need
for admiration, and a lack of empathy.
Psychopathy is defined as a mental (antisocial) disorder in which an individual manifests
amoral and antisocial behavior, shows a lack of ability to love or establish meaningful
personal relationships, expresses extreme egocentricity, and demonstrates a failure to learn
from experience and other behaviors associated with the condition.
Antisocial personality disorder is a particularly challenging type of personality disorder
characterised by impulsive, irresponsible and often criminal behaviour.

Antisocial Personality Disorder:

* Personality disorders are characterized by maladaptive traits that cause distress or an

inability to get along with others, such as narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders.
* The term psychopath describes people who lack conscience and empathy; they do not feel
remorse, shame, guilt, or anxiety over wrongdoing, and they can con others with ease.
Antisocial personality disorder (APD) applies to people with a pattern of aggressive, reckless,
impulsive and often criminal behavior. Abnormalities in the central nervous system and
prefrontal cortex are associated with lack of emotional responsiveness and with impulsivity.
A genetic predisposition also plays a role in these disorders, but it usually must interact with
stressful or violent environments to be expressed.
Drug abuse and Addiction
* Signs of substance abuse include impaired ability to work or get along with others, use of
the drug in hazardous situations, recurrent arrests for drug use, and conflicts with others
caused by drug abuse.
* According to the biological model of addiction, some people have a genetic vulnerability to
the kind of alcoholism that begins in early adolescence and is linked to impulsivity, antisocial
behavior, and criminality. Genes also affect sensitivity to alcohol, which varies across ethnic
groups as well as among individuals. But heavy drug abuse also changes the brain in ways
that make addiction more likely.
* Advocates of the learning model of addiction point out that addiction patterns vary
according to cultural practices and values; that policies of total abstinence tend to increase
addiction rates and abuse because people who want to drink fail to learn how to drink in
moderation; that many people can stop taking drugs without experiencing withdrawal
symptoms; and that drug abuse depends on the reasons for taking a drug.
* The biological and learning models are polarized on many issues, notably that of abstinence
versus moderation. People who are most likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs have a
genetic vulnerability or prolonged drug use has damaged their brains; they believe they have
no control over the drug; their culture or peer group promotes drug abuse; and they rely on
the drug to cope with problems.
Dissociative Identity Disorder
* In dissociative identity disorder (formerly called multiple personality disorder, or MPD),

two or more distinct personalities and identities appear to split off (dissociate) within one
person. Some clinicians think the disorder is legitimate and originates in childhood
trauma. But most clinicians hold a sociocognitive explanation—that MPD is an extreme form
of the ability to present different aspects of our personalities to others. In this view, the
disorder emerges from pressure and suggestion by clinician who believe in its prevalence.
Media coverage of sensational alleged cases of MPD greatly contributed to the rise in the
number of cases after 1980.
Schizophrenia
* Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder involving delusions, hallucinations, disorganized

speech (called “word salads”), inappropriate behavior, and severe cognitive impairments.
Other symptoms, such as loss of motivation to take care of oneself and emotional flatness,
may appear before a psychotic episode and persist even when the more dramatic symptoms
are in remission. Some people with schizophrenia fall into a catatonic stupor. Contrary to
stereotype, however, many people with schizophrenia recover.
* Schizophrenia is a brain disease that involves certain structural brain abnormalities. In the
“relay” that produces the disorder, genetic predispositions interact with prenatal problems
(such as the mother’s malnutrition or a prenatal viral infection) or birth complications, and
excessive pruning of synapses during adolescence.
The diagnosis of mental disorder raises important questions about the degree to which
mentally ill people responsible for illegal or destructive behavior and how the criminal justice
system should treat them.

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What are some common anxiety disorders discussed?

What are some personality disorders mentioned?

Mental Disorder: Any behaviour or emotional state that causes an individual great suffering,

Antisocial Personality Disorder:

* Personality disorders are characterized by maladaptive traits that cause distress or an

Drug abuse and Addiction

Dissociative Identity Disorder

* In dissociative identity disorder (formerly called multiple personality disorder, or MPD),

* Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder involving delusions, hallucinations, disorganized

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