All right, so last time we talked about positive psychology. And today we are going to start talking about psychological disorders. But before we get started, make sure you take out your guided notes. You can find a link to them in the description of this video. Now, psychological disorders are complex. They impact an individual's thinking, feelings, mood, and behavior. According to the APA, a psychological disorder is any condition characterized by cognitive and emotional disturbances. abnormal behaviors, impacted functioning, or any combination of these. When trying to determine if a person's thoughts or behaviors are part of a psychological disorder, mental health professionals will look at a variety of factors, such as the level of dysfunction, perception of distress, and deviation from social norms. A person's level of dysfunction refers to how well or poorly a person can carry out day-to-day activities and complete their daily responsibilities. For example, going to work, school, or taking care of themselves. If an individual's behavior or mental state severely impairs how well they can complete day-to-day activities, it could be a sign that there may be something wrong. The next factor is perception of distress which involves subjective experiences of negative emotions, pain or stress related to an individual's behaviors or mental processes. Often times mental health professionals will look to see how an individual is reacting to their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to better understand the level of distress that the individual is experiencing. Lastly, there is deviation from social norms. Behavior is often judged against social and cultural standards. If an individual's mental processes or behaviors significantly deviate from what is considered normal for society, it might be seen as a disorder. Now, this can get tricky because social and cultural norms often vary across different cultures and situations. What may be considered a deviant in one culture might be acceptable in another. Which is why it is important that when it comes to diagnosing or treating psychological disorders, only trained mental health professionals do it. Getting diagnosed with a psychological disorder can have both beneficial and detrimental effects on an individual. On one hand, when an individual is diagnosed, it allows them to get treatment which will allow the individual to take advantage of targeted interventions such as medications, therapies, and support services. It also allows the individual to make sense of their symptoms and helps them feel validation for their feelings. On the societal side, it also helps health researchers and policymakers allocate more funds and resources to mental health care, which will help improve care across society. But on the other hand, we can see there is negative consequences as well, such as the individual facing negative stigma that may be placed on them. Oftenimes other individuals in society are quick to view a person through the lens of the disorder rather than focusing on the individual. We can also see that sometimes cultural and social biases end up impacting the diagnosis and treatment options. Unfortunately, prejuditial attitudes and discrimination based on race, gender, age, or sex may influence diagnostic practices. For example, it is unfortunately not uncommon that symptoms of certain ethnic groups or women are often dismissed or minimized due to unfair stereotypes. Individuals that are diagnosed may also be at risk for being impacted by the self-fulfilling prophecy with some individuals internalizing negative stereotypes about their disorder and then limiting themselves or assuming that they are somehow broken. So while diagnosis can be beneficial in helping an individual get treatment, it can also carry a social and psychological burden. Now like I mentioned before, when it comes to diagnosing psychological disorders, it is important that only trained psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health specialists that rely on evidence-based methods should diagnose and treat individuals. When it comes to diagnosing, trained professionals reference either the DSM or ICD. The DSM was developed by the American Psychiatric Association, also known as the APA. The purpose of the DSM is to provide a comprehensive classification of mental disorders, listing not only the symptoms and criteria for diagnosis, but also providing statistical data on the different disorders as well. On the other hand, the ICD was developed by the World Health Organization. The purpose of the ICD is to create a global standard for classifying all health conditions, including mental and behavioral disorders. Both the DSM and the ICD are regularly updated as new discoverings about mental health conditions are made and as social norms evolve. All right, so we are about to change gears a little and talk about how the different psychological perspectives define psychological disorders. And I won't lie to you, there is a lot here. So to help, I have created some extra practice resources and quizzes and put them into my ultimate review packet to help you out. Today we can see that most psychologists use an eclectic approach, which means they combine different techniques, theories, and ideas from the different psychological perspectives instead of just focusing on one school of thought. This allows them to create a more personalized treatment plan that targets the specific needs of their client. Speaking of psychological perspectives, let's actually review how each perspective defines psychological disorders and highlight how the school of thought approaches disorders. Starting out, we have the behavioral perspective, which focuses on how mental disorders come from maladaptive learned associations between responses and stimuli. A maladaptive learned association occurs when an individual creates connections between stimuli and responses that are harmful, irrational, or counterproductive. These associations often end up shaping a person's irrational fears, unhealthy habits, and self-defeating behaviors. But since they are often learned, they can be modified or replaced through different cognitive and behavioral interventions. maladaptive learned associations are generally formed through classical conditioning, operant conditioning or observational learning. Now instead of focusing on associations, the next perspective which is the psychonamic perspective highlights how psychological disorders can originate from the unconscious conflicts that often come from a person's childhood experiences. Individuals that have unresolved childhood conflicts have often repressed their feelings and memories of the specific trauma. This is a defense mechanism to help protect the individual. However, even though aspects of the event are repressed, we can see that the individual is still impacted by the unresolved conflict. Up next, we have the humanistic perspective, which focuses on how psychological disorders develop due to a person lacking social support, failing to achieve their potential, or having an inongruent self-concept. Remember, an inongruent self-concept occurs when there is differences between a person's actual self, who they believe that they are, and their ideal self, who they want to be. If the discrepancy between these two concepts is too large, it can lead the individual to become more anxious, have a lower self-esteem, and make it more difficult for the individual to reach their full potential. Up next is the cognitive perspective, which proposes that mental disorders come from maladaptive thought patterns, including distorted beliefs and attitudes. Maladaptive thought patterns are distorted, irrational, or negative ways of thinking that can lead to emotional distress and unhealthy behaviors. Then there is the evolutionary perspective which focuses on how mental disorders that cause abnormal behaviors and tendencies often originate in an individual's genetics highlighting that certain maladaptive traits that were once helpful in survival now are not. This perspective also looks into genetic predispositions to see which mental disorders might be linked to genetic traits that are passed down. On the other hand, the next perspective, which is the socioultural perspective, looks at how mental disorders are influenced not by genetics, but social and cultural factors, including group dynamics, cultural norms, and interpersonal relationships. This perspective focuses on maladaptive social and cultural relationships, examining the different social norms and societal pressures that an individual is exposed to. For instance, cultures that put a major focus on being thin may contribute to disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Lastly, there is the biological perspective which states that psychological disorders are primarily driven by physiological and genetic factors. For instance, neurotransmitter imbalances, brain structure abnormalities or other inherited vulnerabilities. So, we can see that each approach has a specific take on how mental disorders may originate. And this is why once again mental health professionals take an eclectic approach. The goal here is to look at multiple factors to create a comprehensive treatment that addresses all relevant aspects of a person's experience. Now, if you do need more help with identifying how each perspective views mental disorders, make sure you go and take the practice quiz and check out the review sheet located inside my ultimate review packet. You can just click the link down below once you are done with this video. All right. And now to wrap up this video we need to talk about two models. The first model is the biocschosocial model which proposes that the development of any psychological issue is influenced by multiple interconnected factors. The model focuses on biological, psychological and socioultural factors. Biological factors include genetic predispositions, brain chemistry and an individual's physical health. Psychological factors include an individual's thought patterns, emotional responses, coping skills, and personality traits. Lastly, socioultural factors include a person's relationships, cultural norms, social and economic conditions, and environmental stressors. This model approaches psychological disorders from a holistic perspective, recognizing that treatment needs to be comprehensive, addressing each part of an individual. For instance, this model would look at an anxiety disorder and examine the individual's genetic predisposition to anxiety, which would be biological factors. Then would look at the individual's excess worry or the fear of the situation, which would be the psychological factors. And lastly, examine any pure pressure the individual is experiencing or the impact the environment has on the individual's stress, which would be the socioultural factors. Now the last model that we need to review is the diiathesis stress model which focuses on how psychological disorders come from the interaction between genetic or biological vulnerabilities and stressful life events. Now this model has two parts. The first is diiathesis. Here the focus is on how genetic predispositions or underlying biological factors impact an individual. Remember, genetic predisposition refers to an increased likelihood of developing a particular trait, condition, or disorder due to inherited genetic factors. The second part of the model is stress. The focus here is on how an individual's environment can cause significant life challenges such as trauma, relationship difficulties, financial problems, or other hardships which may worsen the vulnerabilities identified in the first part of the model. For example, a person has a family history of depression and inherits genes that make them more prone to low serotonin levels. This person ends up experiencing a major setback in life, such as losing their job, resulting in them becoming less financially secure. Due to the person's genetic vulnerability, they may struggle to cope with this additional stress, which may result in a possible condition. Now, both of these two models that we just reviewed highlight the importance of approaching mental disorders from multiple dimensions. Remember the biocschosocial model focuses on three factors and how they interact while the diiathesis stress model emphasizes how inherent vulnerabilities paired with environmental stressors may shape a person. To better help you practice these two models, I created a practice quiz and put it in the ultimate review packet. Again, remember you need to be active in your learning to truly excel in AP psychology. All right, well that's all the time we have for today. Now, next time we're going to go over all of the different psychological disorders that you need to know for AP psychology. As always, I'm Mr. Sin. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time online.