Transcript Psychology - Cobb Learning

As a group, consider the four following
behaviors, and then decide whether you think
they are evidence of a psychological disorder.
How did you come to your conclusion?
A man walks up to a
window carrying a chair.
He puts down the chair,
opens the window,
takes off his clothes,
and seats himself on the
chair. Why? He says he
feels the need for an “air
bath.”
Every morning, a woman
who lives in a Boston
suburb asks her husband
to bring in the morning
newspaper, which the
carrier throws just inside
their fence. She does this
because she is terribly
afraid of encountering a
poisonous snake. Her
husband, concerned
about her behavior,
repeatedly tells her that
there are no poisonous
snakes living in their
town. Nevertheless, she is
afraid to leave the house.
A teenaged boy packs a
blanket and a bottle of
water. Ignoring nearfreezing temperatures, he
climbs a nearby mountain,
spreads the blanket on the
ground, sits cross-legged
on it, closes his eyes, and
remains there throughout
the night. In the morning, he
runs home and tells his
father he has seen a vision.
A teenaged girl misses
school for three days.
She periodically breaks
into tears. She finds it
nearly impossible to
get out of bed in the
morning, though she
cannot sleep for more
than an hour or two at
a time. She has no
appetite and becomes
nauseated if her family
urges her to eat.
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Psychological disorder – a “harmful dysfunction”
in which behaviors are judged maladaptive,
unjustifiable, disturbing, and atypical.
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4 attributes of a psych disorder:
◦ Maladaptive
◦ Unjustifiable
◦ Disturbing
◦ Atypical

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destructive to oneself or others
exaggeration of normal, acceptable
behaviors

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does not have a rational basis
scenarios that meet this criteria:
◦ woman with fear of snakes
 troublesome
to other people
 Mass-murderers
 Aurora
Co
 Sandy Hook
 Dahmer

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so different from other people’s behavior
that it violates a norm (accepted behavior)
norms vary from culture to culture

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Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental
Disorders – Fourth Edition
published by the
American Psychiatric
Association
lists and describes all the
currently accepted
categories of mental
disorders

divides mental disorders into 17 major categories

includes the symptoms but not the causes of each
disease

Neurosis – disorder that is distressing but allows
one to think rationally and function socially

Psychosis – disorder in which a person loses
contact with reality, experiencing irrational ideas
an distorted perceptions
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Read pages 525 – 528
Make a 2-column list of the drawbacks
and advantages of labeling psychological
disorders
Keep this information in mind as you are
completing your project essay: Evaluate
the perception the media and our U.S.
culture poses regarding mental health
and what you discover about mental
disorders.
1.
Create a poster - list and describe each of the
four criteria used to diagnose psychological
disorders (MUDA). Draw a picture to represent
each of the four elements.
On the back of your poster:
2.
3.
For each of the four scenarios we read about
earlier, list the criteria each WOULD meet.
Based on the scenarios, which people WOULD
be diagnosed with a psychological disorder?