Explaining and Classifying Psychological Disorders

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Last updated: 8/16/2025

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM): manual for classification and diagnosis for disorders

Perspectives on Causes of Psychological Disorders

  • Psychodynamic: Sigmund Freud (unconscious conflicts); Carl Jung (collective unconscious); Alfred Adler (inferiority complex, self); Karen Horney (female perspective)
  • Humanistic: a lack of social support and inability to fulfill one's potential
  • Cognitive: maladaptive thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, or emotions
  • Evolutionary: behaviors or mental processes that reduce the likelihood of survival
  • Sociocultural: maladaptive social and cultural relationships and dynamics
  • Biopsychosocial: a combination of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors

Eclectic approach: using more than one psychological perspective when diagnosing and treating clients (most psychologists employ this approach)

Diathesis-stress model: biological tendency + environmental stress -> onset of disorders

Classification of Disorders

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

  • ADHD: lacks attention, distractable; sometimes hyperactive
  • Autism (ASD): difficulty in communicaiton
  • Alzheimer's: decay of memory and other neural functions

Schizophrenic Spectrum Disorders

  • Delusion (false beliefs; paranoia - someone's gonna harm me; positive symptom)
  • Hallucination (false perceptions; most commonly auditory; positive symptoms)
  • Disorganized thinking/speech (positive symptoms; word salad - stringing together words in nonsensical ways)
  • Negative symptoms: flat affect (a lack of emotions), catatonic stupor (a lack of movement)
  • Psychosis: previous general nomination of schizophrenia

Mood Disorders

  • Depressive Disorders: major depressive disorder (intense; unable to go to work, etc), persistent depressive disorders (long-lasting, milder than major)
  • Bipolar Disorder: mania + depressive; Bipolar I and Bipolar II
  • Learned Helplessness: behavioral explanation for depression (past hostile environment)
  • Pessimistic Explanatory Style: cognitive explanation for depression (I can't overcome)
  • Dopamine hypothesis: imbalances of certain neurotransmitters cause schizophrenia

Anxiety Disorders

  • Panic Disorder: sudden onset, intense sympathetic nervous system reactions
  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): prolonged feeling of anxiety, no specific target
  • Agoraphobia: fear of open spaces and social situations)
  • Specific Phobia: fear of specific object or situation; acrophobia - heights; arachnophobia - spiders)
  • Social Anxiety Disorder: intense fear of being judged or watched by others; Taijin kyofusho is a culture-bound anxiety - Japanese fearing others judge their bodies as undesirable or offensive

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Obsession (unwanted, intrusive thoughts) + Compulsion (repeated, ritualistic behavior)

Dissociative Disorders (Dissociated Amnesia with/out Fugue; Dissociative Identity Disorder): dissociations from consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, body representation, motor control, behavior; "split personality"

PTSD: repeated nightmares, intrusive reliving of traumatic events, change in temper

Eating Disorders

  • Anorexia nervosa: eating disorders, starving oneself to lose weight, common in teenagers
  • Bullimia nervosa: eating disorders, eating too much and then throwing up/laxatives/exercising

Substance Abuse Disorder: Alcohol Dependence Disorder

Personality Disorders: long-lasting patterns, doesn't necessarily affect life or normal functioning, but often is damaging to interpersonal relationship

  • Cluster A: Odd/Eccentric
    • Paranoid (suspicious, mistrust, sensitive)
    • Schizoid (cold)
    • Schizotypal (odd; suspicious, hostile)
  • Cluster B: Dramatic/Emotional/Erratic
    • Histrionic (seek attention, overreact)
    • Narcissistic (grandiose/self-important, expects special treatment, can't take criticism)
    • Borderline (unstable emotions, impulsive)
    • Antisocial (no empathy, no remorse, violent)
  • Cluster C: Anxious/Fearful
    • Avoidant (sensitive to rejection, withdrawn)
    • Dependent (lacks confidence, wants others to make decisions)
    • Obsessive-Compulsive (preoccupied with rules and schedules, conventional, insensitive)

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