Phycology
Jack just turned 22 years. He was born in New York but his parents relocated with him to suburban area of Pittsburgh in the last 10 years. Jack has been enjoying the area, especially the sea and its port, the sight of gigantic and tiny ships, and the multicultural environment aspect of the city. In his early teenage years, Jack would walk up and down the streets of Pittsburgh, happily singing, playing, and greeting even unfamiliar pedestrians who would lovely glance back at him over their shoulders. He had many friends both in his neighborhood and in the schools he had attended. He was believed to be more mature than the children about his age. For example, he used to interrogate his parents and teachers on subject topics they deemed too complicated for themselves to comprehend, let alone a child. His dad was yet very proud of him as a potential successor. So were his mom and his grandma who lived with them.
By the age of 18 Jack was still very friendly, handsome and tall in his late adolescence. He was easy going, sociable, humble and affectionate. As a child he learned to clean and organize his bedroom and his belongings. Grandma usually tease Jack by saying that he inherited his carefulness and well-known good manners and discipline from her. As she admired him she wondered whether Sara (the girl whose mother grandma has been talking to on behalf of Jack) would do better than her grandson when it comes to house chores. Grandma expected to meet her great grand-children as she grows old. She particularly expect to have healthy grand and great grand-children. She knows the history of the family better than anyone else. It had not been easy on her. As a happy spouse in her forties, her husband (Jack’s Grandpa) was diagnosed with a condition which caused him to take his own life right in front of her. Grandpa had gradually displayed disillusions, disorganized speech, and inappropriate emotional expressions among other symptoms. Grandma could not forget that. It all started when Grandpa found and read a letter destined to her. Grandpa became emotionally affected suddenly and a few months later, he committed suicide after several unsuccessful attempts. Ever since Grandma has been affected and has started to observe her own folks in case she would diagnose some characteristics of the disorder.
There were no signs however that Jack had some mental problems. Grandma couldn’t be happier. Her worries grew one day when Jack who just graduated from College had an argument with his dad. He locked himself up in his bedroom for two days and did not talk to anyone, not even to her. Jack never refused his adorable grandmother anything. This time she believed that something was wrong with him.
You are required to do the following Exercises, your answers should be based on the three chapters attached.
1. Three characters in the text are Jack, his grandmother and his grandfather. Identify their personalities by naming and describing them in details.
2. For each of the three characters, show the possible psychological disorders that affect them and justify your diagnoses.
3. Show the appropriate psychotherapies that you consider to be most effective for every disorder that you have reported.
4. Explain the symptoms and the possible problems associated with Jack’s psychological disorder that got his grandma to be so worried.
5. Why do you think that grandma is concerned about her grand and great grand- children’s mental health?
6. Explain how a place in which someone lives can affect the emotions, thinking patterns, and behaviors.
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Chapter Fifteen: Psychological Disorders
Overview
Introduction to Psychological Disorders
Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD
Depressive Disorders and Bipolar Disorder
Schizophrenia
Dissociative, Personality, and Eating Disorders
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Introduction to Psychological Disorders
According to psychologists and psychiatrists, psychological disorders
Are marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior (APA, 2013)
Disturbed or dysfunctional thoughts, emotions, or behaviors are maladaptive.
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Biopsychosocial Approach to Psychological Disorders
Today’s psychology studies how biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors interact to produce specific psychological disorders.
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ADHD-Normal High Energy or Disordered Behavior?
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
11 percent of American 4- to 17-year-olds receive this diagnosis after displaying its key symptoms (extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity); 2.5 percent have ADHD symptoms.
Symptoms can be treated with medication and other therapies.
Debate continues over whether normal high energy is too often diagnosed as a psychiatric disorder, and whether there is a cost to the long-term use of stimulant drugs in treating ADHD.
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Rates of Psychological Disorders
Psychological disorder rates vary, depending on the time and place of the survey.
Poverty is a risk factor.
Conditions and experiences associated with poverty contribute to the development of psychological disorders.
But some disorders, such as schizophrenia, can drive people into poverty.
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Percentage of Americans
Reporting Selected Psychological
Disorders in the Past Year
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What Increases Vulnerability To Mental Disorders?
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Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and PTSD
Anxiety disorders are marked by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety.
Generalized anxiety disorder
Person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal
13-5 What are the main anxiety disorders, and how do anxiety disorders differ from the ordinary worries and fears we all experience?
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Terms to Learn: Anxiety Disorders
Panic disorder
Person experiences sudden episodes of intense dread and often lives in fear of when the next attack might strike
Phobias
Person experiences a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation
Panic disorder: an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations. Often followed by worry over a possible next attack.
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Characterized by persistent and repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both
Occurs when obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors interfere with everyday life and cause distress
Is more common among teens and young adults than older people
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COMMON OBSESSIONS AND COMPULSIONS AMONG CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER
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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Is disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia lingering for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience
Often involves battle-scarred veterans (7.6 percent of combatants; 1.4 of noncombatants) and survivors of accidents, disasters, and violent and sexual assaults (two-thirds of prostitutes)
Has higher risk for women
Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include four or more weeks of haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or sleep problems following some traumatic experience.
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Depressive Disorders and Bipolar Disorder
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Understanding Depressive Disorders and Bipolar Disorder
Findings that any theory of depression must explain
Behaviors and thoughts change with depression.
Depression is widespread.
Women’s risk of major depression is nearly double men’s.
Most major depressive episodes end on their own.
Stressful events related to work, marriage, and close relationships often precede depression.
With each new generation, depression is striking earlier in life and affecting more people.
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Understanding Depressive Disorders and Bipolar Disorder
The depressed brain
Brain activity slows during depression
Left frontal lobe less active
Scarcity of norepinephrine and serotonin
Depressive disorders and bipolar disorder run in families. Heritability estimated at 37 percent; linkage analysis suggests many genes work together to produce a mosaic of small effect which interact with other factors and increase risk.
Diminished brain activity occurs during depression and is more active during manic periods; other brain differences have been found.
Neurotransmitter systems influence depressive and biopolar disorder: norepinephrine and serotonin gene
Diets associated with inflammation and excessive alcohol use correlates with depression.
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Understanding Depressive Disorders and Bipolar Disorder
Psychological and social influences: Social-cognitive perspective
Depressed people view self and world negatively
Learned helplessness may exist with self-defeating beliefs, self-focused rumination, and self-blaming and pessimistic explanatory style
Social-cognitive perspective
Explores how people’s assumptions and expectations influence their perceptions:
Self-defeating beliefs and negative explanatory style contribute to cycle of depression
Views depression as an ongoing cycle of stressful experiences (interpreted through negative beliefs,…
