1. How do you know if someone has a psychological disorder?

2. 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?

3. 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.”

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Introduction to Psychological Disorders Module 27

8. Defining Disorder What criteria do psychologists use to diagnose psychological disorders?

9. 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

10. 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

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

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

13. Atypical woman with fear of snakes
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

14. Classifying Disorders

15. 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

16. 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

17. Think-Pair-Share
If you owned an apartment complex, would you rent a room to someone who had been in a mental institution?

18. 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.

19. 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?