PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Somatic Symptom Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Meredith Chivers

Document Summary

Chapter 17: nature and causes of psychological disorders: 544-587. Etiology (causation) of psychological disorders influenced by interactions between genotype, brain chemistry, and childhood environment, as well as environmental factors. Psychological disorders are characterized by abnormal behaviour, thoughts or feelings. Most important feature of a psychological disorder isn"t whether behaviour is abnormal, but whether is it maladaptive. Multiple causes: interaction of hereditary, cognitive, and environmental factors. Perspectives differ on explanation of etiology or origin of psychological disorders. Psychological disorders originate in the intrapsychic conflict produced by the three components of the mind (id, ego and superego) Conflicts may centre on attempts to control potentially harmful expressions of sexual or aggressive impulses or attempts to cope with external dangers and traumatic experiences. When conflict is too severe to be resolved by mind"s defense mechanisms, result is distorted reality or person functions in some ways in earlier developmental stages than they are at.