PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Mental Disorder, Personality Disorder, Dsm-5
12 Jun 2018
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Week 21: Clinical Psychology I: Mental Disorders
Topic 01: Characteristics of Mental Disorders
• Subjective Distress: Is it harmful?
o Ex. If a person is affected for a longer period of time-losing appetite, cannot sleep, no
joy in normal activities for no apparent reason, a clinically significant issue could be
present
• Impaired Functioning: Is it dysfunctional?
o Ex. Mental illnesses can adversely affect their life to some extent-for example,
preventing from riding in elevators, socializing with friends or attending university
• Distress and Diagnosing Mental Illness:
o At times, a person suffering from a mental disorder may not feel distress ex. After using
cocaine or avoiding a feared situation
o At this time, the individual may not report distress, but their functioning would still be
impaired, thus possibly meeting the criteria for a mental disorder (over the long term,
they would probably also experience distress as a result of a mental disorder)
o A lack of subjective distress is also a characteristic of some personality disorders, as one
may not report personal distress, but their behavior may cause harm or distress to those
around them.
• Genetic or Environmental?
o It is commonly accepted that most mental disorders have a genetic basis but that our
environment, in utero and while growing up can affect significantly whether, to what
degree, and how this genetic disposition is manifested
o Biological, psychological and socio-cultural risk factors including genetic predisposition,
family history, family experiences and aspets of a persos life that ake hi/her ore
or less likely to have trouble coping with problems, such as lack of a support system,
lower socioeconomic status and living in a violent neighbourhood
• Purpose of Clinical Questions:
o Looking for genetic disposition
o Assessing clinical significance in terms of duration
o Assessing if this is voluntary action
o Ruling out external causes
o Assessing clinical significance in terms of severity
• Important to look at:
o How behaviours interfered with normal daily life
o If behaviours were predictable (expected and culturally sanctioned) reactions to their
environment (ex. Being sad while grieving)
Topic 02: Organizing Mental Disorders
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5): Outlines the various mental
disorders and the specific criteria required for each disorder diagnostic
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Document Summary
Topic 01: characteristics of mental disorders: subjective distress: is it harmful, ex. If a person is affected for a longer period of time-losing appetite, cannot sleep, no joy in normal activities for no apparent reason, a clinically significant issue could be present. Important to look at: how behaviours interfered with normal daily life. If behaviours were predictable (expected and culturally sanctioned) reactions to their environment (ex. Gender, people with mild forms are lumped together with people with severe cases: diathesis-stress model: describes how an interaction between our genes and our environment can result in a mental disorder, ex. Topic 03: defining mental disorders: anxiety disorder: an irrational fear of situations or stimuli that are not actually dangerous, for a mental disorder to be present, the following must be evaluated, 1. Do they cause the person distress and/or significantly impair their functioning: 2. Whether the symptoms or actions represent a dysfunction.
