Major Diagnostic Categories

I. Anxiety Disorders – psychological disorders that include the following main features: motor tension,
hyperactivity, and apprehensive expectations and thoughts.
Types:
1. generalized anxiety disorder
marked by a chronic, high level of anxiety that is not tied to any specific threat for a marked period of time
sometimes referred to as free floating anxiety

2. phobic disorder
marked by a persistent and irrational fear of an object or situation that presents no realistic danger

3. panic disorder and agoraphobia

characterized by recurrent attacks of overwhelming anxiety that usually occurs suddenly and unexpectedly
(panic attacks), behavioral changes, and fears as a result of panic; agoraphobia is a fear of going out to
public places for fear of having a panic

4. obsessive–compulsive disorder marked by persistent, uncontrollable

intrusions of unwanted thoughts
(obsessions) and urges to engage in
repetitive, ritualistic behaviors to
prevent or produce some future
situation (compulsions)
5. posttraumatic stress disorder
anxiety disorder resulting from a very stressful experience; includes nightmares & flashbacks, distress at
exposure to reminders of the event, irritability, difficulty in concentrating & a general unresponsiveness

II. Mood Disorders – also called affective disorders; are severe disturbances in emotion

Mania – characterized by intense and unrealistic feelings of excitement and euphoria

Depression – involves feelings of extraordinary sadness and dejection

Types:
1. major depressive disorder
a mood disorder in which the individual is deeply unhappy, demoralized and bored, showing changes in
appetite and sleep patterns, decreasing energy, feeling of worthlessness, concentration problems, and
guilt feelings and suicidal ideations Individual experiences a major depressive episode and depressed
characteristics for at least two weeks or longer

2. bipolar disorder characterized by severe mood swings from major depressive episodes to manic
episodes of extreme elation and energy with no obvious external cues

III. Somatoform Disorders – psychological in which psychological symptoms take a physical, or somatic,
form even though no physical causes can be found; physical ailments with no authentic organic basis that
are due to psychological factors

Types:
1. somatization disorder
marked by a history of diverse physical complaints that appear to be psychological in origin a psychological
condition in which individuals report physical complaints & symptoms, including aches & pains, problems
with their digestive systems, and sexual problems such as sexual indifference or irregular menstruation

2. conversion disorder
psychological disorder in which individuals experience real motor or sensory symptoms for which there is
no known organic cause common symptoms are partial or complete loss of vision, partial or complete loss
of hearing, partial paralysis, severe laryngitis or mutism, loss of feeling or function of limbs

3. hypochondriasis characterized by excessive preoccupation with one’s health and incessant worry about
developing a physical illness

IV. Dissociative Disorders – class of disorders in which people lose contact with portions of their
consciousness or memory, resulting in disruptions in their sense of identity

Types:
1. dissociative amnesia
amnesia in this case occurs in the absence of any organic, clear-cut physical cause appears to stem from
the active motivation to forget; after experiencing some traumatic event, violating their own standards, or
undergoing intense stress, individuals sometimes go blank with respect to these events and cannot recall
them

2. dissociative fugue
form of dissociative amnesia in which individuals forget their identity and virtually all of their past life
Individual not only develops amnesia, but also unexpectedly travels away from home and assumes a new
identity

3. dissociative identity disorder/multiple personality disorder

involves the coexistence in one person of two or more largely complete, and usually very different
personalities

V. Schizophrenic Disorder – a group of serious psychological disorders characterized by severe distortions

in thought and language, perceptions, and emotion; comes from the Latin word skhizein meaning ―split‖
and phrenia meaning ―mind characterized by:

word salad – words are totally jumbled; statements are fragmented & disorganized; and ideas are
unconnected & they often create words of their own

delusions – irrational but firmly held beliefs about the world that have no basis in reality; e.g. delusions of
persecution, delusions of grandeur, delusions of control

hallucinations – vivid sensory experiences that occur in the absence of any external stimuli

Types:
1. paranoid schizophrenia
persons in this category have delusions of persecution – they see plots to harm them everywhere
2. catatonic schizophrenia
characterized by bizarre motor behavior, which sometimes takes the form of a completely immobile
stupor or agitation they may alternate between total immobility --they sit for days or even
weeks frozen in a single posture – and wild, excited activity

3. disorganized schizophrenia
an individual has delusions and hallucinations and communication patterns that have little or no
recognizable meaning

4. undifferentiated schizophrenia
a term used when an individual’s symptoms either don’t meet the criteria for the other types or they meet
the criteria for more than one of the types

VI. Personality Disorders – extremely rigid, maladaptive patterns of behavior that prevent a person from
normal social interactions and relationships; does not create an extensive break from reality

Types:

1. Odd or Eccentric Disorders

a. paranoid – chronic and pervasive mis-trust of others that is unwarranted
b. schizoid – impaired social relationships; inability and lack of desire to form attachments to others
c. schizotypal – peculiar thought patterns, oddities of perception and speech

2. Dramatic, Emotional, or Erratic Disor-ders

a. antisocial – impulsive, callous behavior based on disregard for others and lack of respect for social
norms
b. borderline – impulsive and unpredictable with unstable moods and relationships with others
c. histrionic – chronic, intense need for attention and approval sought by dramatic behavior,
seductiveness, and dependence
d. narcissistic – has an inflated sense of self importance and expect special attention from other people

3. Anxious or Fearful Disorders

a. avoidant – shy and inhibited yet desire interpersonal relationships; have low self esteem and are
extremely sensitive to rejection
b. dependent – has extremely low self-esteem and allows other people to make every decision
c. obsessive-compulsive – pervasive rigidity in activities and relationships, extreme perfectionism

VII. Sexual deviances and Dysfunctions

Types:

1. Gender Identity Disorder a psychological disorder involving individuals who feel, often from an early
age that they were born with the wrong sexual identity sex-change operations – their sexual organs are
altered to approximate those of the other sex

2. Paraphilias
sexual disorders involving choices of inappropriate sexual objects, such as young children, or the inability
to experience arousal except in the presence of specific objects or fantasies
a. fetishism – individuals become aroused exclusively by inanimate objects
b. transvestic fetishism – intense sexual urges & arousing fantasies involving cross-dressing
c. pedophilia – individuals experience sexual urges & fantasies involving sexual activity with children,
generally ones younger than thirteen
d. exhibitionism – sexual urges or arousing fantasies involving exposure of one’s geni-tals to an
unsuspecting victim
e. voyeurism – recurrent sexual urges or arousing fantasies involving the act of observing an unsuspecting
person who is naked, disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity
f. frotteurism – involves fantasies & urges focused on rubbing or touching against a non-consenting person
g. sexual masochism – individuals become sexually aroused by receiving pain or humiliation
h. sexual sadism – individuals become sexually aroused by inflicting pain or humiliation on others
i. zoophilia – sexual contact with or fantasies concerning animals
j. necrophilia – sexual arousal to corpses
k. telephone scatologia – lewdness during phone conversations

Treatment of Psychological Disorders

I. Psychotherapy – a form of therapy in which a trained professional uses methods based on psychological
theories to help a per-son with psychological problems

I. Psychoanalysis
a. Free Association - a tool used by Freud in which the patient is encouraged to talk about whatever comes
to mind, allowing the contents of the unconscious mind to slip past the censorship of the ego
b. Dream Interpretation – a method developed by Freud in which the symbols of the manifest content of
dreams that are recalled by the patient are interpreted to reveal their latent content
c. Analysis of resistance - any form of patient opposition to the process of psychoanalysis
d. Analysis of transference – the phenomenon in psychoanalysis in which the patient comes to feel and act
to-ward the therapist in ways that resemble how he or she feels and acts toward other significant adults
e. Catharsis – the release of emotional
energy related to unconscious conflicts

2. Humanistic Psychotherapy
a. Client-centered psychotherapy - Carl Roger’s approach to humanistic psychotherapy in which the
therapist creates an atmosphere that encourages the client to discover feelings which they are unaware of
b. Gestalt psychotherapy - a humanistic therapy in which the therapist takes an active role to help the
client become more aware of his or her feelings
3. Behavior Therapy
a. Systematic Desensitization - a behavior therapy method in which the client is taught not to fear phobic
stimuli by learning to relax in the presence of successively more threatening stimuli
b. Flooding – a method of behavior therapy in which the client is confronted with high levels of the phobic
stimulus until the fear response is extinguished
c. Aversive conditioning – a method of behavior therapy that involves the use of unpleasant negative
stimuli to eliminate the abnormal habits such as alcoholism deviant sexual practices

4. Cognitive therapy
a. Cognitive behavior therapy (Aaron Beck) – believes that mental disorders are a product of a person’s
illogical think-ing about themselves, the world they live in and the future. It’s goal is to change their beliefs
into hypotheses that they can test through unbiased experiments
b. Rational emotive behavior therapy (Albert Ellis) - attempts to change our basic maladaptive beliefs
where emotional responses and behaviors are presumed to depend

II. Medication – some symptoms of psychological disorders can be controlled through the use of medicine
such as anti-depressants and anti-psychotics

III. Electroconvulsive Therapy – biological treatment for severe, chronic depression involving the
application of electrical impulses through the brain to produce seizures