Diagnosing Psychological Disorders Activity

1. Diagnosing Psychological Disorders Activity 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?

2. Psychological Disorder?Scenario 1 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.”

3. Psychological Disorder?Scenario 2 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.

4. Psychological Disorder?Scenario 3 A teenaged boy packs a blanket and a bottle of water. Ignoring near-freezing 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.

5. Psychological Disorder?Scenario 4 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.

6. Introduction to Psychological DisordersModule 27

7. Defining DisorderWhat criteria do psychologists use to diagnose psychological disorders?

8. Psych Disorders & MUDA • Psychological disorder – a “harmful dysfunction” in which behaviors are judged maladaptive, unjustifiable, disturbing, and atypical. • 4 attributes of a psych disorder: • Maladaptive • Unjustifiable • Disturbing • Atypical

9. Maladaptive • destructive to oneself or others • exaggeration of normal, acceptable behaviors • scenarios that meet this criteria: • woman with fear of snakes • teenaged girl • teenaged boy

10. Unjustifiable • does not have a rational basis • scenarios that meet this criteria: • woman with fear of snakes

11. Disturbing • troublesome to other people • scenarios that meet this criteria: • woman with fear of snakes • teenaged girl

12. Atypical • so different from other people’s behavior that it violates a norm (accepted behavior) • norms vary from culture to culture • scenarios that meet this criteria: • woman with fear of snakes

13. Classifying Disorders

14. DSM-IV-TR • 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

15. DSM-IV-TR • 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

16. Labeling Disorders • 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.

17. Read page 519 – 520 and complete the following tasks: • 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: • 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?