| abnormal behavior | Actions, thoughts, and feelings that are harmful to the person or to others.
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| continuity hypothesis | The view that abnormal behavior is just a more severe form of normal psychological problems.
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| discontinuity hypothesis | The view that abnormal behavior is fundamentally different from normal psychological problems.
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| insanity | A legal definition concerning a person's inability to tell right from wrong, ability to understand the trial proceedings, or whether the person is a direct danger to self or others.
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| anxiety disorders | Psychological disorders that involve excessive levels of negative emotions, such as nervousness, tension, worry, fright, and anxiety.
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| phobia | An intense, irrational fear.
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| specific phobia | A phobic fear of one relatively specific thing.
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| social phobia | A phobic fear of social interactions, particularly those with strangers and those in which the person might be viewed negatively.
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| agoraphobia | An intense fear of leaving one's home or other familiar places.
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| generalized anxiety disorder | An uneasy sense of general tension and apprehension for no apparent reason that makes the individual highly uncomfortable because of its prolonged presence.
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| panic anxiety disorder | A pattern of anxiety in which long periods of calm are broken by an intensely uncomfortable attack of anxiety.
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| post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | The condition caused by extremely stressful experiences in which the person later experiences anxiety and irritability; has upsetting memories, dreams, and realistic flashbacks of the experience; and tries to avoid anything that reminds him or her of the experience.
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| obsessive-compulsive disorders | Disorders that involve obsessions (anxiety-provoking thoughts that will not go away) and/or compulsions (irresistible urges to engage in specific irrational behaviors).
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| somatoform disorders | Disorders in which the individual experiences the symptoms of physical health problems that have psychological rather than physical causes.
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| somatization disorders | Intensely and chronically uncomfortable psychological conditions that involve numerous symptoms of somatic (body) illnesses without physical cause.
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| hypochondriasis | A mild form of somatization disorder characterized by excessive concern about one's health.
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| conversion disorders | Somatoform disorders in which individuals experience serious somatic symptoms such as functional blindness, deafness, and paralysis.
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| somatoform pain disorders | Somatoform disorders in which the individual experiences a relatively specific and chronic pain that has a psychological rather than physical cause.
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| dissociative disorders | A category of conditions involving sudden cognitive changes, such as a sudden loss of memory or loss of one's identity.
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| depersonalization | The perceptual experience of one's body or surroundings becoming distorted or unreal in some way.
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| dissociative amnesia | A dissociative disorder that involves a loss of memory and that has a psychological rather than a physical cause.
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| dissociative fugue | A period of "wandering" that involves a loss of memory and a change in identity.
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| dissociative identity disorder | A dissociative disorder in which the individual appears to shift abruptly and repeatedly from one "personality" to another.
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| mood disorders | Psychological disorders involving depression and/or abnormal elation.
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| major depression | An affective disorder characterized by episodes of deep unhappiness, loss of interest in life, and other symptoms.
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| bipolar disorder | A condition in which the individual experiences periods of mania that alternate irregularly with periods of severe depression.
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| mania | A disturbance of mood in which the individual experiences a euphoria without cause that is characterized by unrealistic optimism and heightened sensory pleasures.
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| schizophrenia | A psychological disorder involving cognitive disturbance (delusions and hallucinations), disorganization, and reduced enjoyment and interests.
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| delusions | False beliefs that distort reality.
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| hallucinations | False perceptual experiences that distort reality.
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| paranoid schizophrenia | A subtype of schizophrenia in which the individual holds delusions of persecution and grandeur that seriously distort reality.
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| disorganized schizophrenia | A subtype of schizophrenia characterized by shallow silliness, extreme social withdrawal, and fragmented delusions and hallucinations.
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| catatonic schizophrenia | A subtype of schizophrenia in which the individual spends long periods in an inactive, statuelike state.
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| delusional disorder | A nonschizophrenic disorder characterized by delusions of grandeur and persecution that are more logical than those of paranoid schizophrenics in the absence of hallucinations.
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| personality disorders | Psychological disorders that are believed to result from personalities that developed improperly during childhood.
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| schizoid personality disorder | A personality disorder characterized by blunted emotions, lack of interest in social relationships, and withdrawal into a solitary existence.
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| antisocial personality disorder | A personality disorder characterized by smooth social skills and a lack of guilt about violating social rules and laws and taking advantage of others.
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