High Levels of Glutamate in Brain May Kick-Start Schizophreniaan overactive dopamine system may result in schizophrenia: Medications that block dopamine receptors, specifically D2 receptors, reduce schizophrenia symptoms.Chp 15 Notes.Abnormal behavior is behavior that is deviant, maladaptive ,or personally distressful over a relatively longperiod of time.deviant . Abnormal behavior is certainly atypical or statistically unusual . People such asAlicia Keys, Peyton Manning, and Steven Spielberg are atypical—but we do not categorize them as abnormal. When atypical behavior deviates from what is acceptable in a culture, it often is considered abnormal. A woman who washes her hands three or four times an hour and takes seven showers a day is abnormal because her behavior deviates from what we consider acceptable.Maladaptive behavior interferes with a person’s ability to function effectively in the world. A man who believes that he can endanger other people through his breathing may go to great lengths to avoid people so that he will not harm anyone. He might isolate himself from others, for what he believes is their own good. His belief separates him from society and prevents his everyday functioning; thus, his behavior is maladaptive.Personal distress over a long period of time. Th e person Engaging in the behavior fi ndsit troubling. A woman who secretly makes herself vomit after every meal may never be seen by others as deviant (because they do not know about it), but this pattern of behavior may cause her to feel intense shame, guilt, and despair.Th e biological approach attributes psychological disorders to organic, internal causes. Th is approach primarily focuses on the brain, genetic factors, and neurotransmitter functioning as the sources of abnormality.Th e psychological approach emphasizes the contributions of experiences, thoughts, emotions, and personality characteristics in explaining psychological disorders. Psychologists might focus, for example, on the infl uence of childhood experiences or of personality traits in the development and course of psychological disorders.Th e sociocultural approach emphasizes the social contexts in which a person lives, including the individual’s gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, family relationships, and culture. For instance, individuals from low-income, minority neighborhoods have thehighest rates of psychological disorders (Schwartz & Corcoran, 2010). Socioeconomic status plays a much stronger role in disorders than does ethnicity: Th e living conditions of poverty create stressful circumstances that can contribute to the development of a psychological disorder.Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Its current version, the DSM-IV (APA, 1994), was introduced in 1994 and revised in 2000, producing the DSM-IV-TR (text revision) (APA, 2000). DSM-V is due in 2013. Th roughout the development of the DSM, the number of diagnosable disorders has increased dramatically. Th e fi rst DSM listed 112 disorders; the DSM-IV-TR includes 374.In contrast, anxiety disorders involve fears that are uncontrollable, disproportionate to the actual danger the person might be in, and disruptive of ordinary life (Cisler & others, 2010). Th ey feature motor tension (jumpiness, trembling), hyperactivity (dizziness, a racing heart), and apprehensive expectations and thoughts.Generalized anxiety disorder is diff erent from such everyday feelings of anxiety in that suff erers of this disorder experience persistent anxiety for at least six months and are unable to specify the reasons for the anxiety (Fisher, Granger, & Newman, 2010). People withgeneralized anxiety disorder are nervous most of the time.In a panic disorder , however, a person experiences recurrent, sudden onsets of intense apprehension or terror, often without warning and with no specifi c cause. Panic attacks can produce severe palpitations, extreme shortness of breath, chest pains, trembling, sweating, dizziness, and a feeling of helplessness (Dammen & others, 2006). People with panic disorder fear that they will die, go crazy, or do something they cannotcontrol. Th ey may feel that they are having a heart attack.Irrational, overwhelming, persistent fear of a particular object or situation—an anxiety disorder called a phobic disorder or phobia . Whereas individuals with generalized anxiety disorder cannot pinpoint the cause of their nervous feelings, individuals with phobias can As with any anxiety disorder, phobias are fears that are uncontrollable, disproportionate, and disruptive.Anxiety disorder known as o bsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) features anxiety-provoking thoughts that will not go away and/or urges to perform repetitive, ritualistic behaviors to prevent or produce some future situation. Obsessions are recurrent thoughts, and compulsions are recurrent behaviors. Individuals with OCD dwell on normal doubts and repeat their routines sometimes hundreds of times a day.Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that develops through exposure to a traumatic event that has overwhelmed the person’s abilities to cope (O’Donnell & others, 2010). PTSD symptoms can follow a trauma immediately or after months or even years (de Roon-Cassini & others, 2010; McFarlane, 2010). Most individuals who are exposed to a traumatic event experience some of the symptoms in the days and weeks following exposure.Major depressive disorder (MDD) involves a signifi cant depressive episode and depressed characteristics, such as lethargy and hopelessness, for at least two weeks.Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder that is characterized by extreme mood swings that include one or more episodes of mania, an overexcited, unrealistically optimistic state. A manic episode is like the fl ipside of a depressive episode. Th e person feels euphoric and on top of the world. An individual who experiences mania has tremendous energy and might sleep very little. A manic state also features an impulsivity that can get the individual in trouble. For example, the suff erer might spend his or her life savings on a foolish business venture.Dissociative disorders are psychological disorders that involve a sudden loss of memory or change in identity. Under extreme stress or shock, the individual’s conscious awareness becomes dissociated (separated or split) from previous memories andThoughts.Dissociative amnesia is a type of amnesia characterized by extreme memory loss that stems