Chapter 15: Psychological Disorders

The chapter contrasts the medical model, which conceptualizes disorders as diseases with identifiable biological mechanisms, with the biopsychosocial framework that integrates biological vulnerabilities, psychological processes, and sociocultural contexts as interconnected contributors to disorder development and expression. The DSM-5 serves as the standard diagnostic classification system, though the chapter acknowledges concerns about diagnostic labeling, including potential for stigmatization and risks of misidentification. Anxiety disorders encompassing generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, specific phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder emerge from interactions between classical conditioning patterns, maladaptive thought processes, and neurobiological dysregulation. Mood disorders including major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder involve heritable genetic components combined with negative cognitive attributions and rumination patterns. Schizophrenia represents a severe psychotic condition characterized by delusions, sensory hallucinations, and disorganized thought processes, with substantial evidence implicating dopaminergic dysfunction, structural brain abnormalities, and genetic predisposition. The chapter addresses dissociative identity disorder despite ongoing diagnostic controversy and describes antisocial personality disorder through impulsivity, behavioral disinhibition, and diminished empathic capacity. Eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder reflect complex interactions among cultural beauty standards, genetic susceptibility, and psychological factors such as perfectionism and body image disturbance. The chapter concludes by emphasizing that recovery outcomes improve substantially with early identification, therapeutic intervention, and robust psychosocial support systems.