Psychology · Ch 4 — Psychological Disorders
Key Terms
Key Terms
- Psychological disorder: A clinically significant disturbance in cognition, emotion regulation, or behaviour that reflects dysfunction in psychological, biological, or developmental processes.
- Abnormality: Deviation from statistical norms, social norms, or ideal mental health, or a failure to function adaptively.
- DSM-5: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition — a standard classification system used in India and globally.
- ICD-11: The International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision — the WHO’s official system for coding mental disorders.
- Anxiety disorders: Conditions marked by excessive fear, worry, and related behavioural disturbances (e.g., generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias).
- Phobia: An intense, irrational fear of a specific object or situation, leading to avoidance behaviour.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): Presence of obsessions (recurrent, intrusive thoughts) and/or compulsions (repetitive behaviours performed to reduce anxiety).
- Trauma- and stressor-related disorders: Disorders triggered by exposure to a traumatic or stressful event, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Somatic symptom disorder: Excessive distress and preoccupation with physical symptoms that may or may not have a medical cause.
- Dissociative disorders: Disruption in consciousness, memory, identity, or perception (e.g., dissociative identity disorder, dissociative amnesia).
- Depressive disorders: Conditions characterised by persistent sadness, loss of interest, and impaired functioning (e.g., major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder).
- Bipolar disorder: Alternating episodes of mania (elevated mood, increased energy) and depression.
- Schizophrenia: A severe disorder involving hallucinations, delusions, disorganised speech/behaviour, and negative symptoms (e.g., flat affect, social withdrawal).
- Delusion: A fixed, false belief that is not culturally shared and persists despite contradictory evidence.
- Hallucination: A sensory perception (e.g., hearing voices) without an external stimulus.
- Neurodevelopmental disorders: Conditions that begin in childhood, affecting brain development (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, intellectual disability). …