Running head: PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS 1

Psychological Disorders

Name

Institution
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Summary

The paper reviews the main types of psychological disorders. Specifically, the paper discusses

anxiety, mood, schizophrenic, and dissociative disorders. The discussions also include the

subtypes and symptoms of each disorder or subtype. The discussion helps in differentiating the

disorders according to individual symptoms. Additionally, the inclusion of the subtypes helps in

understanding the different subtypes of a disorder that may portray different symptoms. The

paper uses the APA format and relies on five (5) academic resources.
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The determination of psychological disorders relies on the assessment of cultural values, political

forces, social trends, and scientific knowledge in relation to behavior. Four criteria apply in the

definition of abnormal behavior: statistical infrequency, personal distress, violation of norms,

and disability or dysfunction (Medalia, Revheim, & Herlands, 2009). DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic

and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition – Text Revision) helps in the

classification of psychological disorders. The DSM-IV-TR contains a list of almost 400

acceptable labels for the known psychological disorders and explanations on their distinction.

The classification has five axes (Barlow, 2014).

 Axis I entails clinical disorders

 Axis II entails mental retardation and personality disorders

 Axis II comprises the general medical conditions

 Axis IV includes environmental and psychosocial problems, and

 Axis V comprises the global evaluation of functioning

Essentially, the development of psychological disorders depends on a multiplicity of factors

including biological, sociocultural, cognitive, behavioral, evolutionary, psychoanalytic, and

humanistic factors. The factors lead to dysfunctional brain, unresolved conflict, faulty thinking,

inappropriate modeling, and exaggerated adaptive reaction among others. Psychologists have

come up with five main categories of psychological disorders: anxiety, mood, schizophrenic,

dissociative, and somatoform disorders (Barlow, 2014).

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety entails a disproportionate apprehension or fear that relates to unique situations or

objects. High physiological arousal accompanies anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders are the
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commonest form of disorders. According to Ritsner (2011), approximately 15% of the U.S

population and 15% in Europe suffer from anxiety disorders. Additionally, anxiety disorders are

common among women than men. GAD (Generalized anxiety disorder) entails a chronic or high

degree of anxiety without a connection to any unique threat.

Phobic disorders entail an irrational and persistent fear for a situation or object that poses no

realistic or immediate danger. Phobic disorders include three main categories: agoraphobia,

social phobia, and specific phobias. Agoraphobia entails a fear or avoidance of solitude in places

where escape is hard or embarrassing, for example, airplanes. Social phobia entails the desire to

avoid or fear of situations that expose an individual to scrutiny leading to embarrassment.

Specific phobias engross persistent and irrational fear of specific situations or objects

accompanied by a compelling need to avoid them (Barlow, 2014). Panic disorders engross

intermittent attacks of irresistible anxiety occurring abruptly and unexpectedly. Panic attacks

entail acute anxiety and an associated increase in involuntary arousal of the nervous system

triggered by unique events.

Obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) refer to disorders associated with obstinate and

uncontrollable invasions of undesirable obsessions (thoughts) and urges for engagement in

irrational rituals (compulsions) (9arlow, 2014). Therefore, obsession entails the obstinate

irrational ideas or thoughts centered on the infliction of harm on others, sexual acts, suicide, or

personal failures. Compulsions entail intentional behaviors done in response to the obsessions in

a stereotyped way. According to Rachman & De (2007), many people with OCD have manifold

obsessions and compulsions. Lastly, post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), occur after the

endurance of a psychologically disturbing situations occurring after traumatic events. PSTD

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follows the exposure of individuals to life-threatening events that evoke horror and

powerlessness (Barlow, 2014).

Mood Disorders

There are two basic forms of mood disorders: unipolar and bipolar disorders. Mood disorders

entail a continuum of mods from mania to depression at each end of the continuum. Unipolar

disorder entails experiencing extreme depression. Conversely, bipolar disorder entails

experiencing emotional extremes on both ends of the continuum. Therefore, a bipolar individual

will express both depression and maniac behaviors intermittently. In many cases, the individual

may move between the extremes over months, weeks, or days marked with short normal periods.

The manic phase epitomizes agitation, high energy, insomnia, and irrationality. The depressive

phase epitomizes low energy, challenges in the initiation of activity, and serious depression.

Fundamentally, the disorder relates to problems in the control of synaptic sensitivities of some

neurotransmitters. Bipolar disorder, formerly manic-depressive disorder, epitomizes longer

depressive episodes than manic episodes. The disorder has three categories. Bipolar I disorder

epitomizes one or more manic incident with a major depressive incident between them. Bipolar

II disorder epitomizes one depressive incident and one hypomanic incident. Cyclothymia

epitomizes hypomania and mild depression (Barlow, 2014).

Dissociative Disorders

Dissociative disorders involve abrupt and temporary changes in the identity, consciousness,

memory, and sensorimotor behavior of an individual. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID),

formerly multiple-personality disorder, entails the coexistence of two complete and significantly

different personalities. Positive clinical diagnosis would require an individual to have tow
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dissimilar personalities with distinct thinking, sensing, and relating to the environment and self.

Additionally, positive diagnosis calls for identification of the personalities controlling behavior

recurrently. Dissociative amnesia entails the loss of memory resulting from psychological factors

rather than physical brain trauma. Dissociative fugue entails the disappearance of a person’s real

identity, as well as past. The person assumes another imaginary identity and begins living a new

life. However, the individual does not have the consciousness of having done any of the things

under the new identity (Medlia, Revheim, & Herlands, 2009).

Schizophrenic Disorders

Although the term means split mind, it does not engross the splitting of an individual’s

personality into functional personality subtypes. Schizophrenia entails a group of disorders

epitomized by a lack of reality and deterioration of intellectual and social functioning of the

affected individual. The disorder begins before an individual reaches 45 years and persists not

less than 6 months. The symptoms of schizophrenic disorders include hallucinations, incoherent

speech, delusions, thought disorders, disorganized behavior, and loss of typical social behaviors

and emotional responses. The commonest symptoms of schizophrenia comprise of delusions and

hallucinations. Often, schizophrenic individuals experience delusions of persecution, reference,

grandeur, identity, guilt, and control. Frequently, hallucinations are auditory, but some

individuals experience olfactory, visual, or tactile hallucinations. Fundamentally, most people

who hear voices in their heads suffer from schizophrenia (Barlow, 2014).

Schizophrenic disorders are grouped into five main categories: paranoid, catatonic, disorganized,

residual, and the undifferentiated types. Delusions of grandeur and prosecution, as well as

hallucinations, dominate the paranoid type. Conversely, the catatonic type involves motor

disturbances and catatonic stupor or catatonic excitement. Individuals with catatonic

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schizophrenia express excessive motor immobility, purposeless and extreme motor activity,

peculiar voluntary movement, extreme negativism, and echolalia. The disorganized type entails

the decline of adaptive behavior. The category includes symptoms such as a disturbed process of

thinking, inappropriate affect, as well as disorganized speech and behavior. The residual type

involves the exhibition of inappropriate affect, eccentric thinking, and illogical thinking.

However, the individuals with this condition have some connection with reality. Lastly,

undifferentiated type portrays almost all symptoms of schizophrenia. The behaviors of the

individuals with the conditions do not fit in any one of the aforementioned subtypes. The

individuals show significant deterioration in functioning and a mixture of delusions,

hallucinations, thought disorders, and inappropriate affect among others (Ritsner, 2011).

Summarily, psychological disorders entail abnormal behavior indicated through statistical

infrequency, violation of norms, disability, and personal distress. The main forms of

psychological disorders include anxiety, mood, schizophrenic, dissociative, and somatoform

disorders. Anxiety disorders are the commonest disorders frequently, and are more predominant

among women than among men. However, schizophrenic disorders are the most serious of the

disorders as shown.
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References

Barlow, D. H. (2014). Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: A step-by-step treatment

manual.

Medalia, A., Revheim, N., & Herlands, T. (2009). Cognitive remediation for psychological

disorders: Therapist guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rachman, S. J., & De, S. P. (2009). Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Ritsner, M. S. (2011). Conceptual issues and neurobiological advances. New York: Springer.

Veague, H. B., Collins, C. E., & Levitt, P. (2007). Personality disorders. New York: Chelsea

House.