Diagnosing a psychological disorder requires an interview, personality tests, and background information on the individual. The psychologist will then compare their findings with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV. This manual is published by the American Psychiatric Association so that medical professionals can diagnose patients.
This link http://justines2010blog.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/dsm-iv.pdf takes you to a online PDF of the DSM-IV so you can se what the contents of such a book look like.
This image of the DSM-IV contains a lot of information on how to classify a disorder and there is constantly new updates added to the DSM-IV as we learn new things.
Phobic Disorders
Phobia simply means fear. Phobic disorders are the irrational fear of an object, idea, person. or situation that interferes with someone’s ability to function. The thing feared may not itself be dangerous but the actions of the individual may be. Symptoms of people with a phobic disorder often create safe places where they can go to feel safe. When someone confronts their fear they have extreme anxiety or panic attack. In severe cases, patients may not even leave their home. Phobic disorders can develop from a combination of events. Having a bad experience with the object feared can cause a phobic disorder. As well, observing others with a phobic disorder can influence someone else to develop a phobic disorder.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder is chronic and exaggerated worry and tension although nothing is provoking it. The anxiety is always more intense than the situation warrants which makes it irrational. The symptoms of GAD include an excessive anxiety occurring more days than not for at least six months. Also, restlessness, being easily fatigued, muscle tension, irritability, and sleep disturbance are all symptoms of GAD. The causes of GAD involve the chemicals of the brain and there are likely to be genetic influences on the development of GAD.
Panic Disorder
Panic attacks are a symptom of anxiety disorder. Panic disorder develops when someone has a great deal of panic attacks. Eventually, in the development of the disorder, just the thought of going out in public will trigger a panic attack.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
People with obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, perform rituals or routines, and check things over and over agin. These frequent thoughts and actions are called obsessions. When people become obsessed with something they feel the need to do something about the obsession, these are called compulsions, hence the name obsessive0-compulsive. People with OCD have repeated thoughts about many things, such as acts of violence, fear of germs, or being overly clean. Also, they can’t control the unwanted thoughts and behaviors. They spend at least one hour a day on the thoughts and rituals which cause distress and get in the way of life. OCD is caused by feelings of fear and anxiety.
Somatoform Disorders
Somatization disorder is a condition in which a person has physical symptoms that involve more than one part of the body, but no physical cause can be found. The symptoms people feel are real. Researchers believe that the emotional well-being affects the development of the disease. The symptoms of this disorder feel pain that anyone with a physical ailment would feel including, pain, nausea, and dizziness.
Dissociative Disorders
People with dissociative disorders get lost in life. They may develop amnesia and alternate identities. There are four types of dissociative disorders: dissociative amnesia, dissociative identity disorder, dissociative fugue, and depersonalization disorder. The symptoms of all of these disorders are memory loss, sense of being detached from oneself, the perception of the people around oneself are unreal, and a blurred sense of identity. Usually the development of dissociative disorders is accompanied by some sort of trauma.
Schizophrenic Disorders
People with schizophrenia can not tell the difference between what is real and what is not real, they can not think clearly or have normal emotional responses, or act normally in social situations. Certain people are more at risk for Schizophrenia than others because of their genes.
Mood Disorders
Mood disorders affect people’s emotions and behaviors on an everyday basis. The chemicals of the brain affect the moods. Depending on the mood disorder, people could be suffering from a wide range of emotions and suicidal thoughts.
Phobia simply means fear. Phobic disorders are the irrational fear of an object, idea, person. or situation that interferes with someone’s ability to function. The thing feared may not itself be dangerous but the actions of the individual may be. Symptoms of people with a phobic disorder often create safe places where they can go to feel safe. When someone confronts their fear they have extreme anxiety or panic attack. In severe cases, patients may not even leave their home. Phobic disorders can develop from a combination of events. Having a bad experience with the object feared can cause a phobic disorder. As well, observing others with a phobic disorder can influence someone else to develop a phobic disorder.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder is chronic and exaggerated worry and tension although nothing is provoking it. The anxiety is always more intense than the situation warrants which makes it irrational. The symptoms of GAD include an excessive anxiety occurring more days than not for at least six months. Also, restlessness, being easily fatigued, muscle tension, irritability, and sleep disturbance are all symptoms of GAD. The causes of GAD involve the chemicals of the brain and there are likely to be genetic influences on the development of GAD.
Panic Disorder
Panic attacks are a symptom of anxiety disorder. Panic disorder develops when someone has a great deal of panic attacks. Eventually, in the development of the disorder, just the thought of going out in public will trigger a panic attack.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
People with obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, perform rituals or routines, and check things over and over agin. These frequent thoughts and actions are called obsessions. When people become obsessed with something they feel the need to do something about the obsession, these are called compulsions, hence the name obsessive0-compulsive. People with OCD have repeated thoughts about many things, such as acts of violence, fear of germs, or being overly clean. Also, they can’t control the unwanted thoughts and behaviors. They spend at least one hour a day on the thoughts and rituals which cause distress and get in the way of life. OCD is caused by feelings of fear and anxiety.
Somatoform Disorders
Somatization disorder is a condition in which a person has physical symptoms that involve more than one part of the body, but no physical cause can be found. The symptoms people feel are real. Researchers believe that the emotional well-being affects the development of the disease. The symptoms of this disorder feel pain that anyone with a physical ailment would feel including, pain, nausea, and dizziness.
Dissociative Disorders
People with dissociative disorders get lost in life. They may develop amnesia and alternate identities. There are four types of dissociative disorders: dissociative amnesia, dissociative identity disorder, dissociative fugue, and depersonalization disorder. The symptoms of all of these disorders are memory loss, sense of being detached from oneself, the perception of the people around oneself are unreal, and a blurred sense of identity. Usually the development of dissociative disorders is accompanied by some sort of trauma.
Schizophrenic Disorders
People with schizophrenia can not tell the difference between what is real and what is not real, they can not think clearly or have normal emotional responses, or act normally in social situations. Certain people are more at risk for Schizophrenia than others because of their genes.
Mood Disorders
Mood disorders affect people’s emotions and behaviors on an everyday basis. The chemicals of the brain affect the moods. Depending on the mood disorder, people could be suffering from a wide range of emotions and suicidal thoughts.
This website http://www.mentalhealth.com/p20-grp.html gives a list of many disorders and what is intailed into each disorder.
This image shows how angry someone with schizophrenia can get with all of the sounds going on inside their head, and how bad it could impact someones life.
Piaget developed a theory of intellectual development through one’s life and include thought, judgement, and knowledge. The stages include the sensorimotor (birth to ages 18- 24 months), pre-operational (18-24 months - age 7), concrete operational (7-12 years), formal operational (12- adulthood). In the sensorimotor stage infants become aware of what is in front of them. They focus on what they are doing and the interactions that they make in their immediate environment. Until an infant is about 7 months old, infants begin to realize that an object exists even if it is not seen. When an infant beings to move around, there is a large increase in cognitive development. In the pre-operational stage, children begin to think of things symbolically. They develop a memory and an imagination. Although their thinking is not always logical, it is an important step in the cognitive development. In the concrete operational stage, children demonstrate concrete logical thinking. In the formal operational stage, the logical use of information to solve abstract ideas becomes clear.
This website http://www.webmd.com/children/piaget-stages-of-development describes the four stages of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development.
This image shows the four stages of Piaget's theory and the ages of the children during the stages and the description of the stages.
Sensation is the result of your body's senses something like heat or pain, then your mind converts this sensation into a feeling which you express yourself about how it felt. Whereas perception is how you view the world through your eyes and the way you perceive events in life. So perception is the opposite of sensation instead of feelings whats going on your perceiving and trying to understand whats going on and how that thing is operating the way it is.
This article http://allpsych.com/psychology101/sensation.html describes sensation and the absolute theory behind sensation and other sub theories about sensation.
The way you perceive this image at first you just see a normal elephant, but if you look a little closer to the legs of the elephant they aren't matched up with the body.
Expectation and motivation can affect perception in good and bad ways. For instance a study was done where a computer would flash a B, but looked like a 13, on a screen and if they saw a number they received orange juice and if they saw a letter they received green slime. The motivation to get the orange juice over the green slime made the participants perceive the B as a 13 so they didn’t have to drink the green slime.
This blog http://scienceblogs.com/mixingmemory/2006/10/30/motivated-seeing-motivation-af/ a man describes how perception can be altered by motivation and expectation.
This image is from the experiment from above where it looks like either B or a 13 by the way you perceive the image.
Their are six Gestalt principles: Similarity, Continuation, Closure, Proximity, Figure and Ground. Similarity is when we group similar objects together and perceive them as one whole object. Continuation is when like a line is through the whole of a image heading towards a key point of the image to make more emphases with continuity. Closure is used when a image isn't fully complete, but our brains fill in the rest of the image to make it full. Proximity is also a principle, where in a image if shapes are closer together they are perceived to be part of a whole, whereas is they where further apart they aren't related at all.
This website http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm contains all of the principles and the descriptions for all of them.
This image has the Gestalt principles blended into all of the images below. There is actually two examples for each perception.
35. Explain the processes of depth perception and size constancy.
Both depth perception and size constancy are very interesting topics. We see a 3-D picture but it is on a flat surface. Binocular vision is the main cue for depth. Since we have two eyes, there is a difference between what each eye sees. Our brain combines the two images to form one vision that we perceive.
Both depth perception and size constancy are very interesting topics. We see a 3-D picture but it is on a flat surface. Binocular vision is the main cue for depth. Since we have two eyes, there is a difference between what each eye sees. Our brain combines the two images to form one vision that we perceive.
All of the stick men are the same size, but because of the walls the depth perception is makes you perceive that the one in the back is much larger than the one in the front.
This video upsets your perception of depth and really confuses you.