Psychological Disorders: A Psychological Analysis

Mental illness is a condition characterized by emotions, thoughts, or behavior that are substantially abnormal for a given time and place in history (p. 514). Historically, it has been broadly been defined by self-harm, unrealistic thoughts and perceptions (delusions, hallucinations, magical thinking, etc.), inappropriate emotions, and rapid shifts in moods or beliefs. All these criteria compare the

Psychologists have tried to define abnormality in several different ways by using the following definitions:

Psychological disorders are stated to be abnormalities of the mind, known as mental disorders (Klasco, 2011). Abnormalities of the mind cause persistent behaviors that affect an individual’s daily function and life (Klasco, 2011). The different types of psychological disorders include mood disorders, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders (Klasco, 2011). The causes of these disorders are unknown, but factors that contribute to these disorders include childhood experiences, chemical imbalances in the brain, illnesses, heredity, stress, and prenatal exposures (Klasco, 2011). Psychological disorders can be serious and can be life-threatening

The purpose of this assignment was to accurately diagnose Marla and to find causes and prospective treatments for her disorder. Marla is a 42 year old Hispanic female who comes to the mental health clinic complaining of having trouble sleeping, feeling “jumpy all the time,” and experiencing an inability to concentrate. (Joan Rachmel, syllabus description of final assignment) These symptoms are causing problems for her at work where she is an accountant. Upon first look at her case a few different disorders come to mind like ADHD, PTSD, and depression with mania.

What about your social life? Do you have a lot of friends and stay closely connected to your family?

. I believe that this type of behavior might be abnormal, however; it does seem to appear normal. According to the textbook, it states that, “Anxiety disorders have in common the physical, cognitive, behavioral symptoms” (Chapter 4, page 117). It also states that, “Each disorder, the anxiety is expressed differently and how some people are anxious about public speaking, some do not like to travel on planes” (Chapter 4, page 117). Regarding what the textbook says, this behavior is considered normal since it is not affecting him mentally, physically and how he is not harming himself or harming others. However; it is was affecting him then it would be considered abnormal. My personal opinion would be that it appears to me that Tom might have anxiety

Pulling up to Grand Valley’s gymnasium, I start to feel butterflies in my stomach. I am both excited and nervous for this week. I quickly replay the meeting we had the week before in my head. During the meeting, Deb, the leader of the camp told us about the background history of the camp, what to do, and what the rules are for camp. Wheelchair camp is held at GVSU and is ran by the Mary Freebed. I was told that this camp is for kids who are in wheelchairs that want to play sports. She said there are two main rules for camp. Rule one: Always have another volunteer with you when you take a camper to the bathroom. Rule two: When lifting a camper from one chair to another, make sure one person holds the campers’ arms while the other person moves

Psychological disorders are often a taboo subject in our society. Many find themselves to be the subject of ridicule and/or a social pariah from their peers at the simple hint of a mental disorder. This stems largely from simple ignorance to the cause and actual effects of the problems. Many of the same people that spend most of the day complaining about others that have psychological disorders could potentially find themselves and their behavior defined as such. Psychological disorder are an, “ongoing patter of thoughts, feelings or actions that are deviant, distressful and dysfunctional.” (Comer, 2004). Deviancy is defined as being different from other people who share your culture. For behavior to be distressful it must distress either the individual or others around the individual. Finally behavior must cause dysfunction in the individuals’ daily life. For someone to be diagnosed with a psychological disorder their behavior must have all the components of deviancy, distressfulness and cause dysfunction. Numerous people are completely unaware that they are being affected by a psychological disorder verse simply having mood swings or reacting to certain stimuli.

Before doing the module eight readings, I thought that a psychological disorder is a behavior that impacts an individual’s way of thinking negatively and is not socially accepted. I felt that psychological disorders cannot be cured but prevented. I was troubled to see people who were unhappy about themselves. I felt sad for people with psychological disorder because they were in a situation in which they do not want to find themselves in. In addition, I thought that psychological disorders were cause by nerves malfunctions and supernatural powers. Nevid and the reading in module eight “When It Comes to Depression, Serotonin is Not the Whole Story” made it clear that psychological disorder such as schizophrenia can be caused by biochemical imbalances,

Many people believe that psychological disorders are unique, however they are becoming more common, in fact around 26.2% of people suffer from a psychological disorder in a given year. (Rathus, 2010) Psychological disorders are behavior patterns or mental processes that cause serious personal problems and interferes with daily life. Disorder types expand beyond only psychological, many other disorders fall under the category of being personality disorders, which are defined by patterns of uncompromising traits that affect and disrupt one’s ability in everyday life. When looking at disorders it is important to be able to detect the difference between psychological and personality disorders. Psychological disorders are illnesses a person

Deception is often portrayed in various instances. Patients may feign an illness to get quick medical attention, receive compensation, or to evade going to work. Individuals sometimes even pretend to have physical or psychological illnesses to avoid reporting to military duty. Psychologists and psychiatrists often find themselves in the position to determine whether or not a criminals alleged symptoms are real or exaggerated. Malingering, according to the American Psychological Association is defined as the premeditated fabrication of deception and inflated physical or psychological symptoms, driven by outside motivations.

Research is an on-going process in which a scholar contributes his part through an adopted methodology and adds new knowledge to the pool of existing information. Keeping in view his constraints, the limitations of study are defined which at later stages, become the hypothesis for new researchers.

Abnormal psychology looks at Atypical behaviour compared to the majority or “Norm” in any given society. The definition of the word abnormal is “deviating from what is normal or usual, typically in a way that is undesirable or worrying.” Applying this term to psychology is a complex problem, for example what is normal? Normal for what age? Normal for what culture?

Normal psychology is the study of the behaviors that fit within the bounds of socially accepted normalities while abnormal psychology, on the other hand, covers human behavior that falls contrary to the norms of society (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Normal is a very subjective term, and the classification of abnormal can vary greatly from culture to culture. There are a set of labels concerning different ways of classifying abnormal behavior known as the 4 D’s; deviance, dysfunction, danger, and discomfort. The label used to identify a behavior that is socially unacceptable is called a deviant behavior. When these behaviors have the capacity to negatively affect an individual’s well-being they are known as dysfunctional behaviors. Dangerous behaviors are abnormal behaviors that can be

Deviation from these criteria would mean that the health of an individual is “abnormal”. The criteria includes absence of mental illness, realistic self perception and contact with reality, a strong sense of identity and positive self esteem, autonomy and independence, ability to maintain healthy interpersonal relationships, ability to cope with stressful situations and capacity for personal growth and self actualization.