• Criteria for defining psychological disorders depend on whether cultural norms are violated, whether behavior is maladaptive or harmful, and whether there is distress.
• The medical model describes and explains psychological disorders as if they are diseases.
• The vulnerability-stress model states that disorders are caused by an interaction between biological and environmental factors.
• The learning model theorizes that psychological disorders result from the reinforcement of abnormal behavior.
• The psychodynamic model states that psychological disorders result from maladaptive defenses against unconscious conflicts.
• Psychologists use objective and projective tests to assess psychological disorders.

• Classification allows psychologists to describe disorders, predict outcomes, consider treatments, and study etiology.
• Insanity is a legal term, not a diagnostic label.
• Psychologists and psychiatrists use the DSM to diagnose psychological disorders.
• The DSM uses a multi-axial system of classification.
• The DSM is a useful tool but has been criticized for several reasons.
• Most of the major disorders in the DSM are found worldwide.
• Culture-bound syndromes are limited to specific cultural contexts.

• A chronic, high level of anxiety may be a sign of an anxiety disorder.
• Generalized anxiety disorder involves persistent and excessive anxiety for at least six months.
• Having a specific phobia means becoming anxious when exposed to a specific circumstance.
• Social phobia is characterized by anxiety in social or performance situations.
• A person with panic disorder experiences recurrent, unexpected panic attacks.
• Agoraphobia involves anxiety about having panic attacks in difficult or embarrassing situations.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder entails obsessions, compulsions, or both.
• Post–traumatic stress disorder is a set of psychological and physiological responses to a highly traumatic event.
• Biological factors implicated in the onset of anxiety disorders include genes, different sensitivity to anxiety, the neurotransmitters GABA and serotonin, and brain damage.
• Conditioning and learning may contribute to the development of phobias.
• Some styles of thinking may make people more susceptible to anxiety disorders.
• Neuroticism is associated with anxiety disorders.

• Mood disorders are characterized by marked disturbances in emotional state, which cause physical symptoms and affect thinking, social relationships, and behavior.
• Mood disorders may be unipolar or bipolar.
• People with dysthymic disorder have depressed mood for at least two years.
• Major depressive disorder involves at least one period with significant depressive symptoms.
• Bipolar disorders involve at least one period with manic symptoms and usually depressive periods as well.
• Biological influences on mood disorders include genes, the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin, and brain abnormalities.
• There is a two-way relationship between negative thinking and depression.
• Cognitive characteristics of depressed people include learned helplessness; a pessimistic worldview; hopelessness; a tendency to make internal, stable, global attributions; and a tendency to ruminate.
• There is a two-way relationship between social support and depression.
• Depression may be related to experiences of loss.
• The onset and course of mood disorders may be influenced by stress.

• Eating disorders are characterized by problematic eating patterns, concerns about body weight, and inappropriate efforts to control weight.
• Anorexia nervosa entails very low body weight, fear of gaining weight, and distorted body image.
• Bulimia nervosa involves binge eating and unhealthy efforts to control body weight.
• Some people may have a genetic vulnerability to eating disorders.
• Eating disorders may be associated with particular personality traits.
• Cultural factors strongly influence the onset of eating disorders.
• Lacking autonomy in the family and having an overly weight-conscious mother may influence the onset of eating disorders.
• People with eating disorders tend to have certain distortions of thinking.
• The onset of anorexia nervosa may be associated with stressful events.

• Somatoform disorders are characterized by real physical symptoms that cannot be fully explained by a medical condition, the effects of a drug, or another mental disorder.
• A person with somatization disorder has many different, recurrent physical symptoms.
• Conversion disorder involves symptoms that affect voluntary motor functioning or sensory functioning.
• People with hypochondriasis constantly fear that they may have a serious disease.
• People with histrionic personality traits may be more likely to develop somatoform disorders.
• Several cognitive factors may contribute to somatoform disorders.
• People with somatoform disorders may learn to adopt a sick role.

• Many substance-related disorders are described in the DSM.
• Substance abuse is a maladaptive pattern of drug use that results in repeated, negative legal, social, occupational, or academic consequences.
• Substance dependence involves continuing to use a drug despite persistent harmful physical or psychological consequences.
• The disease model of addiction holds that addiction is a disease that must be treated medically.
• The learning model of addiction holds that addiction is a way of coping with stress.
• Genes may produce a predisposition to substance dependence.
• Several lines of evidence suggest that environmental factors play a key role in substance dependence.

• Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that includes positive and negative symptoms. There are several subtypes of schizophrenia.
• The paranoid type is characterized by marked delusions or hallucinations and relatively normal cognitive and emotional functioning.
• The disorganized type involves disorganized behavior, disorganized speech, and emotional flatness or inappropriateness.
• The catatonic type is characterized by unnatural movement or speech patterns.
• A diagnosis of undifferentiated type applies if diagnostic criteria are not met for any of the above three subtypes.
• Research suggests that genes, neurotransmitters, and brain abnormalities are involved in the onset of schizophrenia.
• Stress may help to induce schizophrenia in people who are already biologically vulnerable to the disorder.

• Dissociative disorders are characterized by disturbances in consciousness, memory, identity, and perception.
• Dissociative fugue involves sudden and unexpected travel away from home, failure to remember the past, and confusion about identity.
• People with dissociative identity disorder fail to remember important personal information and have two or more identities or personality states that control behavior.
• Dissociative identity disorder is a controversial diagnosis. Psychologists disagree about why its prevalence has risen since the 1980s.
• Severe stress may play a role in the onset of dissociative disorders.

• Personality disorders are stable patterns of experience and behavior that differ noticeably from patterns that are considered normal by a person’s culture.
• People with schizoid personality disorder are socially withdrawn and have restricted expression of emotions.
• Borderline personality disorder involves impulsive behavior and unstable relationships, emotions, and self-image.
• Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by attention-seeking behavior and shallow emotions.
• People with narcissistic personality disorder have an exaggerated sense of importance, a strong desire to be admired, and a lack of empathy.
• Avoidant personality disorder involves social withdrawal, low self-esteem, and extreme sensitivity to being evaluated negatively.
• Antisocial personality disorder begins at age fifteen and includes a lack of respect for other people’s rights, feelings, and needs.
• Abnormalities in physiological arousal, a genetically inherited inability to control impulses, and brain damage may be involved in the development of antisocial personality disorder.
• Environmental influences are also likely to influence the development of antisocial personality disorder.