Mental Health Disorder

Make Sure to Write this
as a Freshman in
college entry level
writing

Week 5 Assignment:
Mental Health Disorder
Topic Proposal Paper

This week, you will submit a topic for approval in your paper due next week.

1. Begin by exploring the topics on psychological disorders in your psychology
textbook. Reference your textbook and at least one reputable journal article to
explore topic ideas and disorders. Make sure the disorder you review is a
valid disorder in the DSM-5.

2. Choose a topic or disorder that interests you.
3. In 2 to 3 paragraphs, respond to the questions below.

● What disorder do you want to research for your paper due next
week?

● Why did you choose this disorder? Note: In this paper, do not
share personal information (yours or someone else’s) or share to
the extent that you feel uncomfortable with your topic.

Your paper should include and incorporate one scholarly source, which can be your
textbook.

Rubric
PSYC_160_OL – Topic Proposal

Criteri
a

Ratings Pts

This
criterion
is linked
to a
Learnin
g
Outcom
e

Topic

40 to >35.6 ptsMeets or Exceeds ExpectationsAn appropriately narrow, unique
topic is clearly identified.

35.6 to >30.0 ptsMostly Meets ExpectationsA topic is clearly identified but may
be too broad, too narrow, or lack originality.

30 to >23.6 ptsBelow ExpectationsA topic is identified but is too broad, too
narrow, or unclear.

23.6 to >0 ptsDoes Not Meet ExpectationsA topic is not clearly identified.

40
pts

This
criterion
is linked
to a
Learnin
g
Outcom
e

Mecha
nics
and
APA

10 to >8.9 ptsMeets or Exceeds ExpectationsThe assignment consistently
follows current APA format and is free from errors in formatting, citation, and
references. No grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors. All sources are cited
and referenced correctly. The paper meets all assignment criteria in length,
structure, and source criteria.

8.9 to >7.5 ptsMostly Meets ExpectationsThe assignment consistently follows
current APA format with only isolated and inconsistent mistakes and/or has a few
grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors. Most sources are cited and referenced
correctly. The paper meets most of the assignment criteria in length, structure, and
source criteria.

7.5 to >5.9 ptsBelow ExpectationsThe assignment occasionally follows current or
outdated APA format with multiple mistakes and/or grammatical, spelling, or
punctuation errors. Few sources are cited and referenced correctly. The paper
meets some of the assignment criteria in length, structure, and source criteria.

5.9 to >0 ptsDoes Not Meet ExpectationsThe assignment does not follow current
APA format and/or has many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors. Many
sources are cited and referenced incorrectly, or citations and references are
missing. The paper meets few of the assignment criteria in length, structure, and
source criteria.

10
pts

Total Points: 50

USE the TEXTBOOK
Module 38
The Major Psychological Disorders
LEARNING OUTCOME
LO 38-1 What are the major psychological disorders?

Ayisha’s first panic attack was a surprise. Visiting her parents after college, she
suddenly felt dizzy, broke into a cold sweat, and began hyperventilating. Her father
clocked her pulse at 180 and rushed her to the hospital, where all symptoms vanished.
She laughed it off and returned to her apartment.

But the panic attacks continued. At the gym, at work, in restaurants and movie theaters,
Ayisha was never safe from them. Not just frightening, they were downright
embarrassing. She quit her job to work at home. She avoided crowds and turned down
invitations to dinners, parties, and movies. The only way to escape humiliation was to
wall herself inside her apartment with a blanket and a pillow.

Ayisha suffered from panic disorder, one of the specific psychological disorders we’ll
consider in this module. Keep in mind that although we’ll be discussing these disorders
objectively, each represents a very human set of difficulties that influence and, in some
cases, considerably disrupt people’s lives.

Anxiety Disorders
All of us at one time or another experience anxiety, a feeling of apprehension or tension,
in reaction to stressful situations. There is nothing “wrong” with such anxiety. It is a
normal reaction to stress that often helps rather than hinders our daily functioning.
Without some anxiety, for instance, most of us probably would not have much
motivation to study hard, undergo physical exams, or spend long hours at our jobs.

But some people experience anxiety in situations in which there is no apparent reason
or cause for such distress. Anxiety disorders occur when anxiety arises without external
justification and begins to affect people’s daily functioning. We’ll discuss three major
types of anxiety disorders: phobic disorder, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety
disorder.

PHOBIC DISORDER
Forty-five-year-old Jackson is terrified of electricity. He’s unable to change a lightbulb for
fear of getting electrocuted. The thought of static electricity on clothing sends him into a
panic. He can’t even open a refrigerator door without being terrified a short circuit will
send electricity through his body. And thunderstorms? Forget it: He is beside himself
with fear of getting electrocuted by lightning (Kluger, 2001).

Jackson suffers from a specific phobia, an intense, irrational fear of a specific object or
situation. For example, claustrophobia is a fear of enclosed places, acrophobia is a fear
of high places, xenophobia is a fear of strangers or foreigners, social phobia is the fear
of being judged or embarrassed by others, and—as in Jackson’s case—electrophobia is
a fear of electricity.

The actual danger posed by an anxiety-producing stimulus (which can be just about
anything, as you can see in Figure 1) is typically small or nonexistent. However, to
someone suffering from the phobia, the danger is great, and a full-blown panic attack
may follow exposure to the stimulus. Phobic disorders differ from generalized anxiety
disorders and panic disorders in that there is a specific, identifiable stimulus that sets off
the anxiety reaction.

FIGURE 1 Phobic disorders differ from generalized anxiety and panic disorders
because with phobic disorders, a specific stimulus can be identified. Listed here are a
number of types of phobias and their triggers.

Table Summary: A table summarizes descriptions and examples of 7 phobic disorders
listed in column 1. The example for specific phobias is not provided.
Phobic Disorder Description Example
Agoraphobia Fear of places, such as unfamiliar or crowded spaces, where help might
not be available in case of emergency Person becomes housebound because any
place other than the person’s home arouses extreme anxiety symptoms.

Specific phobias Fear of specific objects, places, or situations
Animal type Specific animals or insects

Person has extreme fear of dogs, cats, or spiders.
Natural environment type Events or situations in the natural environment Person has
extreme fear of storms, heights, or water.
Situational type Public transportation, tunnels, bridges, elevators, flying, driving
Person becomes extremely claustrophobic in elevators.

Blood injection injury type Blood, injury, injections

Person panics when viewing a child’s scraped knee.
Social phobia Fear of being judged or embarrassed by others Person avoids all
social situations and becomes a recluse for fear of encountering others’ judgment.
Source: Nolen-Hoeksema, 2023.

(spider) Pets in Frames/Shutterstock; (needle) Stockbyte/Photodisc Collection/Getty
Images; (woman) Maridav/123RF; (businessman) JohnnyGreig/E+/Getty Images

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Phobias may have only a minor impact on people’s lives if those who suffer from them
can avoid the stimuli that trigger fear. For example, a fear of heights may have little
impact on people’s everyday lives (although it may prevent them from living in an
apartment on a high floor). On the other hand, a social phobia, or a fear of strangers,
presents a more serious problem. For example, in one extreme case, a Washington
woman left her home just three times in 30 years—once to visit her family, once for an
operation, and once to purchase ice cream for a dying companion (Wong et al., 2011;
Stopa et al., 2013; Lau et al., 2021).

PANIC DISORDER
In another type of anxiety disorder, panic disorder, panic attacks occur that last from a
few seconds to several hours. Panic disorders do not have any identifiable, specific
triggers (unlike phobias, which are triggered by specific objects or situations). Instead,
during an attack such as those Ayisha experienced in the case described earlier,
anxiety suddenly—and often without warning—rises, and an individual feels a sense of
impending, unavoidable doom.

Although the physical symptoms of a panic attack differ from person to person, they
may include heart palpitations, shortness of breath, unusual amounts of sweating,
faintness and dizziness, gastric sensations, and sometimes a sense of imminent death.
After such an attack, it is no wonder that people tend to feel exhausted (Montgomery,
2011; Carleton et al., 2014; Hewitt et al., 2021).

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Panic attacks seemingly come out of nowhere and are unconnected to any specific
stimulus. Because they don’t know what triggers their feelings of panic, victims of panic
attacks may become fearful of going places. In fact, some people with panic disorder
develop a complication called agoraphobia, the fear of being in a situation in which
escape is difficult and in which help for a possible panic attack would not be available.
In extreme cases, people with agoraphobia never leave their homes (Kim & Yoon, 2017;
Stech et al., 2019; Preti et al., 2021).

Acrophobia, the fear of heights, is not an uncommon phobia. What sort of
behavior-modification approaches might be used to deal with acrophobia?

Imagine China/Newscom

In addition to the physical symptoms, panic disorder affects how the brain processes
information. For instance, people with panic disorder have reduced reactions in the
anterior cingulate cortex to stimuli (such as viewing a fearful face) that normally produce
a strong reaction in those without the disorder. It may be that recurring high levels of
emotional arousal that patients with panic disorder experience desensitize them to
emotional stimuli (Maddock et al., 2013; Lai, 2019).

GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER
People with generalized anxiety disorder experience long-term, persistent anxiety and
uncontrollable worry. Sometimes their concerns are about identifiable issues involving
family, money, work, or health. In other cases, though, people with the disorder feel that

something dreadful is about to happen but can’t identify the reason and thus experience
“free-floating” anxiety.

Because of persistent anxiety, people with generalized anxiety disorder cannot
concentrate or set their worry and fears aside; their lives become centered on their
worry. Furthermore, their anxiety is often accompanied by physiological symptoms, such
as muscle tension, headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, or insomnia (Starcevic et
al., 2007). Figure 2 shows the most common symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.

FIGURE 2 Frequency of symptoms in cases of generalized anxiety disorder.

Source: Beck & Emery, 2005.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), people are plagued by unwanted thoughts,
called obsessions, or feel that they must carry out behaviors, termed compulsions, that
they feel driven to perform.

An obsession is a persistent, unwanted thought or idea that keeps recurring. For
example, a student may be unable to stop thinking that she has neglected to put her
name on a test and may think about it constantly for the 2 weeks it takes to get the
paper back. A man may go on vacation and wonder the whole time whether he locked
his house. A woman may hear the same tune running through her head over and over.
In each case, the thought or idea is unwanted and difficult to put out of mind. Of course,
many people suffer from mild obsessions from time to time, but usually such thoughts
persist only for a short period. For people with serious obsessions, however, the
thoughts persist for days or months and may consist of bizarre, troubling images
(Rassin & Muris, 2007; Wenzel, 2011; Iliceto et al., 2017; Llorens-Aguilar et al., 2022).

As the name suggests, as part of an obsessive-compulsive disorder, people may also
experience compulsions. Compulsions are irresistible urges to repeatedly carry out
some behavior that seems strange and unreasonable even to them. Whatever the
compulsive behavior is, people experience extreme anxiety if they cannot do it, even if it
is something they want to stop. The acts may be relatively trivial, such as repeatedly
checking the stove to make sure all the burners are turned off, or more unusual, such as
washing one’s hands so much that they bleed (Moretz & McKay, 2009; Gillan &
Sahakian, 2015; Robbins et al., 2019).

Essentials of Understanding Psychology: 2024 Release

Robert S Feldman