After defining mood and what a manic, hypomanic, and depressive episode are, we are ready to define what Bipolar Disorder is. The diagnostic manual (DSM) distinguishes three main categories:
To talk about Bipolar Disorder, we need to understand what a are:
In the diagnostic manual (DSM), after schizophrenia, comes Bipolar Disorder. As with everything I'm trying to tell you in my own words, we need to start with some simpler concepts to get an understanding of what Bipolar Disorder is. Today, I'll talk about mood.
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If you ask a mental health professional which disorder has the most profound consequences for an individual, most would likely respond, 'Schizophrenia.' Let's try to understand why.
In the previous post, I introduced Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders and other Psychotic Disorders. For this group, the diagnostic manual lists the following disorders:
- Delusional Disorder
- Brief Psychotic Disorder
- Schizophreniform Disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Schizoaffective Disorder
Let's delve into the details of the first two.
After Neurodevelopmental Disorders, the diagnostic manual takes a different direction and introduces us to Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders and other Psychotic Disorders. Here we encounter at least three new terms: spectrum, schizophrenia, and psychotic.
Every time we move our body or a part of it, we're performing a movement. As we grow, the movements we make become targeted (like using a fork), and some movements disappear (like rocking or putting a finger in the mouth). However, we've learned that during growth, things aren't always linear, and even with movement, we may observe behaviors that are slow to be mastered or to vanish. Let's delve into this in detail.
Anyone involved in the school environment is likely familiar with Learning Disabilities. I will attempt to explain this disorder in simple terms.
ADHD is the acronym for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. If you've ever dealt with children, you've almost certainly wished at some point that they would be more attentive or calm. But when is a lack of attention or excessive activity a problem? Let's explore it together.
Autism spectrum disorder, or simply autism, is one of those disorders often portrayed in movies, and for this reason, we all have an idea (whether accurate or not) of what the behavior of an individual with autism might be like.
In the previous post, we mentioned that in the diagnostic manual (DSM), Communication Disorders include:
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What does it mean to communicate? In simple terms, it's the ability to express concepts and understand them. So, we recognize at least two functions: sending messages and receiving messages.
Let's begin our exploration of Neurodevelopmental Disorders with Intellectual Disability. The word "disability" refers to an inadequately developed ability, while "intellectual" pertains to mental faculties. I'll try to simplify these concepts in my own words.
Neurodevelopment is a complicated word, but if we break it into two words, the meaning becomes simple. The word "neuro" relates to the brain, and "development" concerns growth. Neurodevelopmental disorders include those mental disorders that manifest from childhood to adolescence.
Once we discussed symptoms as those sensations of discomfort or pain experienced by our body and/or our mind. Clinical psychology encompasses all the rules that allow us to act as "investigators" to determine the cause of symptoms, as well as the best way to treat them.
From previous posts, we've learned that it's possible to define parts of the brain that specialize in specific tasks. But what happens if one of these parts is damaged? Is that ability compromised or enhanced? The branch of psychology that deals with linking brain damage to the loss of abilities is called neuropsychology.
If you search on Google for 'left brain and right brain,' you'll find many images suggesting that the left brain handles reason and logic, while the right brain deals with creativity. Is this really true?
If we want to describe an organ like the brain, we can view it from the side (lateral view), cut it in half and look at its right or left part (sagittal view), or even cut it into upper and lower halves (axial view). The lateral view, in my opinion, is the simplest way to talk about something not too complicated about our brain.
To understand behavior, we need to know about the engine that drives our actions – the brain. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to talk about the brain, but I'll give it a try in my own words.
Do you like the chart? All colorful... and did you understand anything from it? If not, let me try to explain it in my own words. If I asked you how many emotions there are, what would your answer be? To this day, there is still no definitive answer to this question. Psychologists have attempted to classify emotions, but it is important to note that these are scientifically unvalidated models.
Lately, we've talked about emotions and how to recognize them. But are there emotions that are easier to recognize than others? Or emotions that 'arrive' before others? Yes, negative emotions are quicker to activate. Let's see why.
Last time, we saw that human beings can convey information about their emotions through their facial expressions and body language. But what exactly are emotions?
In the last post, I talked about symbolic language, which is the language created by humans based on a series of symbols that convey meaning. What can we communicate without using this artificial system? Emotions.
If I asked you what sets humans apart from other animal species, what comes to mind? For me, it's language. But what is language?
When have you told someone, 'You're an intelligent person?' What makes you think someone is intelligent? And what makes you think someone is not?
In the last post, I mentioned that reasoning sensibly is slow and requires effort, so we prefer quick and effortless solutions that we have defined as heuristics. These heuristics lead to systematic errors called cognitive biases. Let's see some of them.
If we reflect for a moment, making decisions is something that happens often throughout the day. Whether we're in the car, at the supermarket, or at work, there are situations that require us to make choices. Making a decision follows the process of reasoning, which involves all the "things" that the mind does to analyze the starting situation and evaluate which of the possible outcomes is the most appropriate.
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Let's continue this journey through memories with a strange question. Did everything we remember really happen? Surely, when it comes to things we have studied, there may have been times when we said or thought, "Maybe it wasn't exactly like that." But when it comes to our personal experiences, can we be convinced that something happened to us that actually didn't? Yes, it's true!
If in your life you have been curious about psychology and, perhaps, you have bought a book on general psychology, most likely there was at least one section dedicated to optical illusions. But why should Psychology be concerned with optical illusions? I'll try to give an answer.
When we talk about health there are some words like disease, syndrome, symptom, disorder. Not all these words belong in the clinical psychology. I would like to talk to you about three words.
Psychologist? - Psychotherapist? - Psychiatrist? Some of you may have questioned the difference between these figures. Can they do the same thing? Is one better than the other one? What did they study? If you didn’t understand the difference between these three, perhaps reading this post will help you.
In my last post, we discussed how groups function differently from individuals. But, how are groups formed? And, how do stereotypes (attributions of characteristics to a group) and prejudices (attitudes towards a group) arise? Tajfel and Wilkes addressed these topics through a unique experiment.
In a book called "Great Scientific Experiments: 20 Experiments that Changed Our View of the World," there’s one about cookie cutters. Are
you curious?
Reflecting upon my last two posts it seems evident that human beings
do not always act according to moral standards. In psychology, we use
the expression “mechanisms of moral disengagement”, there are
justifications that allow us to abandon moral standards (so that we can
have unkind or reprehensible behaviour) without feel guilty. The
psychologist Albert Bandura classified 8 mechanisms. Would you like to
see them?
Do you do everything that you are told to do? Do you do everything that your boss asks of you? These are two similar questions, but probably with different answers. Why is it different if the order is given by someone representing authority? Let’s see why you end up saying yes to your boss.
Anthony reads the post:
I bet if I said the word Psychology, one of the first three words that you would think of, would be the name "Freud". What if I told you that Freud hadn't ever dealt with Psychology? What would be your reaction? Let’s take it step by step. Freud was a neurologist and, starting from the works of other authors, (Charcot and Janet) he developed an unconscious mind theory. Freud’s unconscious mind theory provides an explanation of behaviours that we are not aware of.
How do I talk about schizophrenia in a simple way? Let’s try this.
Idea: A schizophrenia diagnosis can be made when at least two psychotic symptoms occur for at least six months. So at least two symptoms for a period not less than six months. Okay, but what are the psychotic symptoms? They are delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized behaviour, and negative symptoms. Let’s look at them.
Charles Darwin. Do you know the name? If not, have you ever heard about evolution theory? We can summarize it in this way: what we are as a human species is the result of a series of adaptations to the environment. This is valid for all species including animals and plants. Throughout the ages, species have acquired and lost physical and behavioural characteristics to overcome the challenges that the environment gave them. Sounds cool. But what does psychology have to do with this?
Christine reads the post:
If I mention the term “behaviour”, what do you think of? Perhaps of the time that you said or thought "I don’t like his behaviour", or, less frequently: "He is a nice person, I admire the way he behaves when angry or stressed". Many of us think of behaviour as something that comes out of a relationship with another person. In the field of psychology, behaviour is also something else.
Andrew reads the post:
If you visit the Wikipedia Psychology page you will see that psychology is defined as the scientific study of mind and behaviour.
Then if you think about a session with a psychologist, and you think of two people talking, and it doesn’t seem to have much to do with science. Is that true?
