Psychological DisordersClass 12 Psychology NCERT Solutions
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Q1Review Questions
Identify the symptoms associated with depression and mania.
Solution
Based on the chapter, the symptoms associated with depression and mania are as follows:
Symptoms of Depression (Major Depressive Disorder):
Depression is a disorder that involves a variety of negative moods and behavioural changes. The key symptoms include:
- Emotional Symptoms: A persistent period of depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure in most activities (anhedonia), feelings of worthlessness, or excessive guilt.
- Cognitive Symptoms: Inability to think clearly, and recurrent thoughts of death and suicide.
- Behavioural Symptoms: Agitation or greatly slowed behaviour, and social withdrawal.
- Physiological Symptoms: Significant changes in body weight (either gain or loss), constant sleep problems (insomnia or hypersomnia), and persistent tiredness or fatigue.
Symptoms of Mania:
The chapter describes mania in the context of Bipolar and Related Disorders. Bipolar I disorder involves episodes of both mania and depression. While the text does not provide a detailed list of manic symptoms, it states that manic episodes rarely appear by themselves and usually alternate with depression. Mania is characterized as a state of elevated mood and energy that is the opposite of depression. These disorders were previously known as manic-depressive disorders, highlighting the alternating presence of manic and depressive states.
Q2Review Questions
Describe the characteristics of children with hyperactivity.
Solution
Children with hyperactivity, a key feature of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), exhibit a persistent pattern of excessive motor activity and impulsivity. The characteristics described in the chapter are:
- Constant Motion: These children are often described as being 'driven by a motor' and always 'on the go'. It is nearly impossible for them to sit still through a lesson or other quiet activities.
- Fidgeting and Restlessness: They may constantly fidget, squirm in their seats, or run and climb around the room aimlessly.
- Impulsivity: They seem unable to control their immediate reactions or think before they act. This leads to difficulty in waiting their turn, resisting immediate temptations, or delaying gratification.
- Accident-Prone Behaviour: Their impulsivity can lead to minor mishaps like knocking things over, and in more serious cases, accidents and injuries.
- Excessive Talking: They often talk incessantly.
These behaviours are more frequent and severe than in other children of the same developmental level and cause significant impairment in academic and social functioning.
Q3Review Questions
What are the consequences of alcohol substance addiction?
Solution
Alcohol addiction, or alcoholism, has severe and wide-ranging consequences that affect an individual's personal, social, and physical well-being. The consequences mentioned in the chapter include:
- Social and Occupational Impairment: The individual's drinking interferes with their social behaviour and ability to think and work effectively. Alcoholism can destroy families, social relationships, and careers.
- Dependence and Tolerance: The body builds up a tolerance for alcohol, meaning the person needs to drink progressively greater amounts to achieve the same effects. They also experience withdrawal responses if they stop drinking.
- Impact on Families: Children of persons with alcohol addiction have higher rates of psychological problems, including anxiety, depression, phobias, and their own substance-related disorders.
- Physical Health Damage: Excessive drinking can seriously damage physical health. Alcohol is a depressant that slows down the central nervous system. It impairs judgment, inhibition, and memory. Motor difficulties increase, vision becomes blurred, and speech becomes less clear.
- Public Safety Risks: Intoxicated drivers are a major cause of road accidents, posing a significant risk to the public.
Q4Review Questions
Can a distorted body image lead to eating disorders? Classify the various forms of it.
Solution
Yes, a distorted body image can directly lead to the development of eating disorders. The chapter explicitly states that in anorexia nervosa, "the individual has a distorted body image that leads her/him to see herself/himself as overweight," even when they are dangerously thin.
The chapter classifies the various forms of eating disorders as follows:
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Anorexia Nervosa: This disorder is characterized by a distorted body image and an intense fear of gaining weight. The individual perceives themselves as overweight, leading them to refuse to eat, exercise compulsively, and develop unusual eating habits. This can result in a significant loss of weight and, in severe cases, death by starvation.
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Bulimia Nervosa: In this disorder, the individual engages in a cycle of bingeing and purging. They may eat excessive amounts of food in one sitting (binge) and then try to rid their body of the food by using methods like self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives and diuretics (purge). This cycle is often accompanied by feelings of disgust and shame during the binge, followed by relief after purging.
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Binge Eating Disorder: This involves frequent episodes of out-of-control eating. The individual tends to eat much more rapidly than normal and continues eating until they feel uncomfortably full. Binge eating episodes often occur even when the person is not feeling hungry, and unlike bulimia nervosa, are not followed by purging behaviours.
Q5Review Questions
"Physicians make diagnosis looking at a person's physical symptoms". How are psychological disorders diagnosed?
Solution
Unlike physicians who diagnose physical illnesses based on physical symptoms and biological tests, the diagnosis of psychological disorders relies on classifying them based on behavioural and psychological criteria. This is done using official classification systems that provide a common language and set of standards for mental health professionals.
The chapter mentions two primary classification systems used for diagnosing psychological disorders:
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The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5): Published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), this manual is widely used to classify psychological disorders. It provides discrete clinical criteria for each disorder, which helps clinicians determine the presence or absence of a disorder based on a person's symptoms and behaviours.
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The International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10): Prepared by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the ICD-10 Classification of Behavioural and Mental Disorders is the official system used in India and many other countries. For each disorder, this scheme provides a description of the main clinical features or symptoms, other associated features, and specific diagnostic guidelines.
These classification manuals are essential tools that enable psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers to communicate effectively about disorders, understand their causes, and plan appropriate treatments.
Q6Review Questions
Distinguish between obsessions and compulsions.
Solution
Obsessions and compulsions are the two core features of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), but they are distinct from each other. The key distinction lies in the fact that obsessions are thoughts, while compulsions are behaviours.
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Obsessions: These are defined as the inability to stop thinking about a particular idea or topic. They are recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are experienced as intrusive and unwanted. The person often finds these thoughts to be unpleasant, distressing, and shameful. Obsessions are internal mental events.
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Compulsions: These are defined as the need to perform certain behaviours over and over again. They are repetitive, ritualistic behaviours that an individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rigid rules. The goal of a compulsion is often to prevent or reduce anxiety or distress related to the obsession. Common compulsions include counting, ordering, checking, touching, and washing. Compulsions are external, observable actions.
In summary, obsessions are the intrusive thoughts that create anxiety, and compulsions are the repetitive actions performed to alleviate that anxiety.
Q7Review Questions
Can a long-standing pattern of deviant behaviour be considered abnormal? Elaborate.
Solution
Yes, a long-standing pattern of deviant behaviour can be considered abnormal, but deviance alone is not sufficient for a diagnosis. The concept of abnormality is complex and is generally defined by what are known as the 'four Ds': deviance, distress, dysfunction, and danger.
The chapter presents two main approaches to defining abnormality:
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Deviation from Social Norms: This approach views abnormal behaviour as behaviour that deviates from a society's stated or unstated rules for proper conduct (norms). A long-standing pattern of such behaviour would be considered abnormal under this definition. However, this view has limitations. Social norms change over time and vary across cultures. What is considered deviant in one context may be acceptable in another. This approach also risks labeling non-conformity as abnormality.
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Maladaptive Behaviour: This approach is considered more robust by many psychologists. It defines abnormal behaviour as that which is maladaptive—meaning it interferes with the optimal functioning and growth of the individual and, potentially, their social group. Well-being includes not just survival but also growth and fulfilment. From this perspective, even conforming behaviour can be seen as abnormal if it is maladaptive (e.g., a student who is too scared to ask questions in class).
Therefore, a long-standing pattern of deviant behaviour is more likely to be considered abnormal if it is also:
- Distressing: Unpleasant and upsetting to the person or to others.
- Dysfunctional: Interfering with the person's ability to carry out daily activities constructively.
- Dangerous: Posing a risk to the person or to others.
In conclusion, while deviance is a key feature, it is the combination of deviance with distress and dysfunction (maladaptation) that provides a stronger basis for considering a behaviour abnormal.
Q8Review Questions
While speaking in public the patient changes topics frequently, is this a positive or a negative symptom of schizophrenia? Describe the other symptoms of schizophrenia.
Solution
Frequently changing topics while speaking is a positive symptom of schizophrenia. This is a type of 'formal thought disorder' known as loosening of associations or derailment, where the normal structure of thinking becomes muddled and illogical.
Schizophrenia symptoms are grouped into three categories:
1. Positive Symptoms (Pathological Excesses): These are 'bizarre additions' to a person's behaviour.
- Delusions: Firmly held false beliefs, such as delusions of persecution (believing one is being plotted against), grandeur (believing one is specially empowered), or control (believing one's thoughts are controlled by others).
- Disorganised Thinking and Speech: Includes loosening of associations, inventing new words (neologisms), and persistent repetition of thoughts (perseveration).
- Hallucinations: Perceptions that occur without external stimuli. Auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) are most common.
- Inappropriate Affect: Emotions that are unsuited to the situation.
2. Negative Symptoms (Pathological Deficits): These are deficits in normal thought, emotion, and behaviour.
- Alogia (Poverty of Speech): A reduction in speech and speech content.
- Blunted and Flat Affect: A marked reduction in the expression of emotions (blunted) or no emotional expression at all (flat).
- Avolition: Apathy and an inability to start or complete a course of action.
- Social Withdrawal: Becoming focused on one's own ideas and fantasies.
3. Psychomotor Symptoms:
- These can include moving less spontaneously or making odd grimaces and gestures.
- In extreme forms, it can manifest as catatonia, which includes remaining motionless and silent for long periods (catatonic stupor), maintaining a rigid posture (catatonic rigidity), or assuming bizarre positions (catatonic posturing).
Q9Review Questions
What do you understand by the term 'dissociation'? Discuss its various forms.
Solution
Dissociation is a psychological process that can be viewed as a severance of the connections between ideas and emotions. It involves sudden, temporary alterations of consciousness that serve to blot out painful experiences. Key features of dissociation include feelings of unreality, estrangement, depersonalisation (a sense of being detached from oneself), and sometimes a loss or shift of identity.
The chapter discusses the following forms of dissociative disorders:
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Dissociative Amnesia: This is characterized by extensive but selective memory loss that has no known organic cause, like a head injury. The person may be unable to recall specific traumatic events, or in some cases, their entire past.
- Dissociative Fugue: This is a part of dissociative amnesia where the person engages in unexpected travel away from home, assumes a new identity, and is unable to recall their previous identity. The fugue state usually ends suddenly, with the person 'waking up' with no memory of the events that occurred during the fugue.
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Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder): This is the most dramatic dissociative disorder, often associated with severe trauma in childhood. The person assumes two or more alternate personalities that may or may not be aware of each other. These distinct personalities may take control of the person's behaviour at different times.
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Depersonalisation/Derealisation Disorder: This disorder involves a dreamlike state where the person feels separated from both themself and from reality.
- Depersonalisation: Involves a change in self-perception, where the person's sense of their own reality is temporarily lost or changed. They may feel like an outside observer of their own thoughts or body.
- Derealisation: Involves a sense of unreality or detachment from one's surroundings.
Q10Review Questions
What are phobias? If someone had an intense fear of snakes, could this simple phobia be a result of faulty learning? Analyse how this phobia could have developed.
Solution
A phobia is an irrational fear related to a specific object, person, or situation. People with phobias experience intense and incapacitating fear that is disproportionate to the actual danger posed.
Yes, an intense fear of snakes (a specific phobia) could absolutely be the result of faulty learning. The behavioural model of psychological disorders explains that abnormal behaviours, like phobias, are learned through conditioning.
This phobia could have developed in the following ways:
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Classical Conditioning: This involves learning by association. A previously neutral object (a snake) becomes associated with a fear-inducing event. For example, a child might be playing peacefully when a snake appears, and at the same moment, a loud, frightening sound occurs (like a parent screaming). The child associates the snake (neutral stimulus) with the fear caused by the scream (unconditioned stimulus). After this pairing, the snake alone becomes a conditioned stimulus capable of eliciting an intense fear response.
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Operant Conditioning: This involves learning through consequences. If a person avoids snakes and this avoidance leads to a reduction in their anxiety, the avoidance behaviour is reinforced. This reinforcement makes it more likely that the person will continue to avoid snakes in the future, thus maintaining the phobia.
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Social Learning (Modeling): A person can learn a phobia by observing others. For example, a child might see a parent or a character in a movie react with extreme terror to a snake. By imitating this observed behaviour, the child learns to fear snakes as well, without ever having a direct negative experience with one.
Q11Review Questions
Anxiety has been called the "butterflies in the stomach feeling". At what stage does anxiety become a disorder? Discuss its types.
Solution
Anxiety, the "butterflies in the stomach feeling," is a normal and often adaptive emotion. We experience it before an exam or a performance, and it can motivate us to do well. Anxiety becomes a disorder when it reaches high levels that are distressing and interfere with a person's effective functioning in daily life. It is defined as a diffuse, vague, and very unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension, often accompanied by physical symptoms like rapid heart rate, sweating, and shortness of breath.
The chapter discusses several types of anxiety disorders:
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Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD): This involves prolonged, vague, unexplained, and intense fears that are not attached to any particular object or situation. The individual is in a constant state of worry and hypervigilance (scanning the environment for dangers) and experiences motor tension, making it difficult to relax.
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Panic Disorder: This consists of recurrent, unpredictable anxiety attacks where the person experiences intense terror. A panic attack is an abrupt surge of intense anxiety with symptoms like shortness of breath, dizziness, trembling, palpitations, and a fear of going crazy, losing control, or dying.
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Phobias: These are irrational fears related to specific objects, people, or situations. They are categorized into:
- Specific Phobias: Intense fear of a particular object (e.g., animals, enclosed spaces).
- Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia): Intense fear and embarrassment when dealing with others.
- Agoraphobia: Fear of entering unfamiliar situations, often leading to a fear of leaving one's home.
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Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD): This involves fear and anxiety about separation from attachment figures (like parents) that is developmentally inappropriate. Children with SAD may cling to parents and have difficulty being alone or going to school.