Psychological Disorders

Perspectives on Psychological Disorders

Psychological disorders fascinate us, partly because most of us will at some time experience or witness them close at hand.

Defining Psychological Disorders
Between normality and abnormality there is not a gulf but a somewhat arbitrary line. Where we draw this line depends on how atypical, disturbing, maladaptive, and unjustifiable a person’s behavior is.

Understanding Psychological Disorders
The medical model’s assumption that psychological disorders are mental illnesses displaced earlier views that demons and evil spirits were to blame. However, critics question the medical model’s labeling of psychological disorders as sicknesses. Most mental health workers today adapt a biopsychosocial perspective. They assume that disorders are influenced by genetic predisposition, physiological states, psychological dynamics, and social circumstances.

Classifying Psychological Disorders
Many psychiatrists and psychologists use the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) for naming and describing psychological disorders in treatment and research. Diagnostic labels facilitate mental health professionals’ communications and research, and most health insurance policies in North America require DSM-IV diagnoses before they will pay for therapy.

Labeling Psychological Disorders
Critics point out the price we pay for these benefits of classifying disorders: Labels also can create preconceptions that unfairly stigmatize people and bias our perceptions of their past and present behavior.

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety is part of our everyday experience. It is classified as a psychological disorder only when it becomes distressing or persistent or is characterized by maladaptive behaviors intended to reduce it.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder
Those who suffer generalized anxiety disorder may for no clear reason feel persistently and uncontrollably tense and uneasy. Anxiety escalates into periodic episodes of intense dread for those suffering panic disorder.

Phobias
Those with a phobic disorder may be irrationally afraid of a specific object or situation. The fear can disrupt behavior and lead to incapacitating efforts to avoid the situation or object.

Phobia phobia

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Persistent and repetitive thoughts and actions characterize obsessive-compulsive disorder. The thoughts and behaviors are so persistent that they interfere with daily living and cause the person distress.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Experiencing a traumatic event can, for a small percentage of the population, lead to this disorder. The symptoms are four or more weeks of memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and sleep problems.

Explaining Anxiety Disorders
The psychoanalytic perspective viewed anxiety disorders as the discharging of repressed impulses. Psychologists now tend to consider these disorders from the learning and biological perspectives. The learning perspective sees anxiety disorders as a product of fear conditioning, stimulus generalization, reinforcement, and observational learning. The biological perspective considers possible evolutionary, genetic, and physiological influences.

Mood Disorders

Mood disorders are characterized by emotional extremes. The two principal forms are major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.

Major Depressive Disorder
In major depression, the person—without apparent reason—descends for weeks or months into deep unhappiness, lethargy, and feelings of worthlessness before rebounding to normality. Although less disabling, dysthymic disorder is marked by chronic low energy and poor self-esteem.

Bipolar Disorder
In the less common bipolar disorder, the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the hyperactive, wildly optimistic, impulsive phase of mania.

Genetic Link to Bipolar

Explaining Mood Disorders
Current research on depression is vigorously exploring two sets of influences. The first focuses on genetic predispositions and neurotransmitter abnormalities. The second views the cycle of depression from a social-cognitive perspective, in light of cyclic self-defeating beliefs, learned helplessness, negative attributions, and aversive experiences.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia typically strikes during late adolescence. It affects men and women about equally, and it seems to occur in all cultures.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia shows itself in disorganized thinking (nonsensical talk and delusions, which may stem from a breakdown of selective attention); disturbed perceptions (including hallucinations); and inappropriate emotions and actions. It is rarely a one-time episode.

Subtypes of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a set of disorders that emerges either gradually from a chronic history of social inadequacy (in which case the outlook is dim) or suddenly in reaction to stress (in which case the prospects for recovery are brighter).

Understanding Schizophrenia
Multiple factors converge to create schizophrenia. As they have for depression, researchers have linked certain forms of schizophrenia with brain abnormalities, in this case, with enlarged, fluid-filled cerebral cavities or increased receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine, known to be a major player in schizophrenia. Twin and adoption studies also point to a genetic predisposition that, in conjunction with environmental factors, may bring about a schizophrenia disorder.

Personality Disorders

Antisocial Personality Disorder
Personality disorders are enduring, maladaptive patterns of behavior that impair social functioning. For society, the most troubling of these is the remorseless and fearless antisocial personality. A person with antisocial personality (typically a male who displays a lack of conscience before age 15) can be violent or a charming con artist.

Understanding Antisocial Personality Disorder
Both genetics and environment influence Antisocial Personality Disorder. People with the disorder have reduced activity in the frontal lobe, an area of the cortex. They may also be more sensitive to maltreatment as children.

Rates of Psychological Disorders

Recent survey findings revealed that one in seven Americans have experienced a clinically significant psychological disorder in the prior year. Among them, the three most common were phobic disorder; alcohol abuse or dependence (with men outnumbering women five to one); and mood disorder (with women outnumbering men two to one). Poverty is a predictor of mental illness but it can also be the result of mental illness due to inability to function effectively in society and thus being driven into poverty.