AP Psychology Flashcards: Abnormal Psychology, Disorders, DSM, Anxiety, Depression

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is the standard classification system for diagnosing psychological disorders in the United States. The current edition is the DSM-5-TR. It defines each disorder by specific diagnostic criteria including required symptoms, duration, and functional impairment. A diagnosis requires that symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, involves persistent, excessive worry about multiple everyday topics like health, finances, and work for at least six months. Physical symptoms include muscle tension, fatigue, restlessness, and sleep disturbance. The worry is disproportionate to actual circumstances. Panic disorder involves recurrent unexpected panic attacks, which are sudden episodes of intense fear peaking within minutes, with physical symptoms like racing heart, shortness of breath, dizziness, and feeling of impending doom.

Major depressive disorder requires at least five symptoms present during the same two-week period, with at least one being depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyed activities. Other symptoms include significant weight change or appetite change, insomnia or hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation or retardation, fatigue or loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation.

Bipolar I disorder is defined by at least one manic episode, a period of abnormally elevated or irritable mood with increased energy lasting at least seven days, accompanied by symptoms like decreased need for sleep, rapid speech, racing thoughts, grandiosity, and risky behavior. Depressive episodes also commonly occur. Bipolar II disorder is defined by at least one hypomanic episode, a less severe form of mania lasting at least four days, and at least one major depressive episode.

Positive symptoms are experiences added to normal functioning: hallucinations, most commonly auditory voices; delusions, which are false beliefs held despite contradictory evidence; disorganized thinking and speech; and disorganized or abnormal motor behavior. Negative symptoms are reductions in normal functioning: flat affect or diminished emotional expression, avolition or lack of motivation, alogia or reduced speech output, anhedonia or inability to experience pleasure, and social withdrawal.

Obsessions are persistent, unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that cause significant anxiety or distress. Common obsessions include fears of contamination, harm to self or others, symmetry, and forbidden thoughts. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed to reduce the anxiety caused by obsessions, such as excessive handwashing, checking, counting, or arranging. The compulsions provide temporary relief but reinforce the cycle because the person learns that the ritual reduces anxiety.

The biopsychosocial model proposes that psychological disorders result from the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors rather than any single cause. Biological factors include genetics, brain chemistry, neurotransmitter imbalances, and brain structure abnormalities. Psychological factors include learned behaviors, cognitive patterns, coping styles, and personality traits. Social factors include childhood experiences, trauma, family dysfunction, poverty, cultural norms, and social support.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, develops after exposure to a traumatic event involving actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. Core symptoms include intrusion symptoms like flashbacks and nightmares, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, negative changes in thoughts and mood like guilt, detachment, and inability to experience positive emotions, and changes in arousal and reactivity like hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, irritability, and sleep disturbance. ---