Abnormal Psychology Essay: Misconceptions in Mental Disorders

This essay, focusing on abnormal psychology, critically examines misconceptions surrounding three key mental disorders: schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, and bipolar disorder. The essay begins with an abstract discussing the ongoing challenges in mental health research, including the limitations of current treatment strategies and the prevalence of controversial theories. The main body of the essay provides an in-depth analysis of each disorder, referencing various sources to debunk common myths and stereotypes often perpetuated by the media and entertainment industry. The author emphasizes the importance of realistic portrayals and accurate information, differentiating between naturalistic and dualistic approaches to understanding these complex conditions. The essay highlights key symptoms, potential causes, and effective treatment strategies for each disorder, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. Overall, the essay aims to contribute to a more informed and nuanced perspective on human experience and behavior.

Running Head: ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 1
Abnormal psychology
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ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 2
Abstract
Research on mental health has long been a deadlock for many years. Despite the
notable advancement in clinical treatment, there are multiple concerns about the long-term
disease management, unsatisfactory predictors of individual development and treatment
strategies. This has resulted in the growth of confusion through different controversial
theories concerning the aetiology and path psychological mechanisms. In the prevailing
perspective on mental health, we first discuss the misconceptions in contemporary research in
an attempt to link three key mental disorders to different pieces of evidence. It is important to
note that time-honoured methodologies of defining the discussed mental disorders should not
be contaminated with naturalistic misconceptions. Finally, lesson learned from this research
might significantly contribute to developing a comprehensive standpoint on human
experience as well as behaviours that incorporate methodological distinct , keeping in mind
that this should true and consistent from neuroscience and psychological point of view.
Schizophrenia Disorder
The position of the authors being strongly against the media portrayal and favour of
realistic ways has been on the rise. In my opinion, I feel the sources used are useful as they
present clear evidence on the subject matter. Most of the sources used in this subsection were
issued within the past eight years. Through comprehensive research, I have found a number
of key points that deem these sources as reliable for use as supportive evidence in this
research. Most of the details will be provided in the analysis below.
Schizophrenia can be described as the diagnosis given to certain people have with
beliefs that are severely disrupted. Dickerson, & Lehman, (2011) indicates that “during an
episode of Schizophrenia, the ability to understand and interpret things outside of the world is
disrupted. This result in losing touch with reality, seeing or hearing things that are not

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existing” (p.137). Moreover, such individuals tend to hold irritational and unfounded beliefs
which make them appear acting in very strange ways because they are trying to respond to
their inner decisions. Frith, (2014) describes a set of symptoms often in people with
Schizophrenia: positive and negative. Even though the positive signs are usually the most
dramatic and at most the most distressing. The negative symptoms tend to bring about more
problems as they tend to last longer.
There have been a considerable amount of misconceptions regarding Schizophrenia.
Critics in the entertainment industry often indicate depictions of Schizophrenia as stereotypic
by misinforming the masses about the symptoms, their causes and treatment. The
pervasiveness of such kind of misinformation are hard to ascertain due to limited empirical
evidence of movies depicting Schizophrenia. Wykes, et al., (2011) analysed depictions of
Schizophrenia in the entertainment industry, in an effort to determine the stereotypes and
misinformation about the disease.
To explain the complex human behaviour and the subjective experience, Jones,et al.,
(2014) indicates that understanding of the underlying assumptions is important to stop the
ever-increasing misconceptions about the conditions which is unproductive. In my opinion, I
believe it is essential to disentangle the various approaches through dualistic and naturalistic
approaches. This would allow proper distinguishing of brain-mind problems in the context of
Schizophrenia. The naturalistic approach would apply the methods of natural science to both
mental research. Baker,et al., (2014).As a result, it abstains from operating within the realm
of misconceptions and abstract constructs as the foundations of brain development
(Comer,2010).
The dualistic approach, on the other hand, relies on empirically defined functional
concepts, clinical semiology comprising of unique individual patterns of observable

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characteristics. Therefore it is important to encourage the development of mechanistic models
to connect the two approaches. Frith, (2014) has demonstrated that, this strategy can
incorporate self-reports concerning subjective experiences. In such a perspective,
Schizophrenia and other related subjective abstract situations don’t have their own reality but
are collective ideas defined by a combination of observable behavior. To match these
approaches on the potential biological cases, the final decision must be informed by the
functional anatomy of the brain (Eysenck, 2013).
Overall I believe the authors are quite knowledgeable regarding this subject, given the
background of the information provided. Majority of the works used are books and journals.
As a result, the evidence provided is concrete. Dealing with only specific information.
Anxiety Disorder
Through research from online libraries, I have been able to gather informed evidence
on the issue concerning misinformation about Anxiety disorder. This has gradually become
clear that non-factual representation of anxiety disorder has grown over time, my opinion
being strongly against the unrealistic portrayal of the disorder. On the basis of usefulness, the
main objective of the sources used were to inform of the realistic presentations and attempt to
debunk the unrealistic portrayals.
Anxiety is a condition in which individuals have frequent panic attacks and as a result
their behavior change. Individuals with anxiety often experience a number of symptoms.
Different people usually have different symptoms (Steensel, Bögels, & Perrin, 2011).When
the condition becomes severe, most individuals try hard to get out of the situation, with the
hope that the feeling will subside. Others try to seek help with the fear that they may collapse,
have a heart attack or become mad (Reichenberg, 2010).The most common symptom of
anxiety is wanting to be alone to avoid being embarrassed in some way (Brewin et al., 2010).

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When the affected individuals start associating anxiety with certain situations, they usually
try minimising the feeling by avoiding certain situations. For instance, some people often
have their first feeling of anxiety on a train and might start avoiding trains in the future
(Argyle, 2013).
One major misconception about anxiety is “going crazy”. Some people often
presume that the symptoms are signs that they are going crazy or mad. Aldao, & Nolen-
Hoeksema, (2012) indicate that not knowing what is going on in you can be very scary,
especially when the symptoms are very frequent. While the symptoms might be interpreted as
strange, however specific they might appear, such symptoms are very different from those of
serious mental disorder. Most psychological problems are associated with hallucination and
delusion (Newman et.al, 2013).Some run through families, with only a small number of
people with high vulnerabilities develop such conditions. However, in other people, no such
amount of stress can precipitate the disorder (Goldin, & Gross, 2010).
An argument by Aldao, & Nolen-Hoeksema to refute the misconceptions is strong.
They argue that “the causes of anxiety should not be misinterpreted with the trigger/factors
revealing that someone is anxious. Someone might be “gestating” an anxiety and trying to
justify their symptoms” (p.148).However, in the face of critical events such as job loss, the
condition becomes serious. It is important to mention that not everyone suffering from such
triggers feels anxious. However a huge number of people who do not experience adverse
situations do (Eysenck, 2013).
I believe that is right to argue that when everything in life is good for someone, there
is a huge possibility that even then the individual can feel anxious. However, this argument
can be partially erroneous, since it suggests that the association between the anxieties is
weaker than it really is (Wells, 2013). Moreover, this also refers to the idea that anxiety is a

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disorder and therefore is highly dependent on specific biological alterations and independent
of certain situations. In fact, it is not true that a huge percentage of people who do not suffer
from stressors become anxious (Farchione et al., 2012).
Bipolar Disorder
I searched from the sources from online libraries. They provide comprehensive
coverage of the current debates on Bipolar disorder, offering balances evidence that both
supported and disagreed with how the disease was presented in the media and entertainment
channels. The primary objective of the sources is to inform the reader with facts, researched
information on both factions concerning the issues at hand. Therefore, they are objective
sources. Since the subtopic is about bipolar disorder, the date of these sources is important,
with most of published in the past eight years, thus making them very recent source.
A bipolar disorder which is also known as the manic-depressive disorder is a
complex, and severe mental condition that is often characterised by manic episodes,
depression of a combination of both. Geddes, & Miklowitz, (2013) describe the condition as
a complex genetic disorder where the most common symptom is an incorrigible disturbance
in moods that change between periods of happiness or jubilation (mania). These periods
change to severe depression which often affects the thinking and behavioural patterns and
might also include psychotic symptoms. Yatham,et al.,(2013) elaborated further by defining
bipolar disorder as a condition of episodes, suggesting that one can fully recover within
episodes. Phillips, & Kupfer, (2013) agree with this views by indicating that, by defining
bipolar disorder as a chronic condition. That has distinctive and recurrent features mania and
depression and has had a huge impact on the global economic burden of disease (Newman, et
al., 2013).

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While little has been discussed about the misconception of bipolar disorder in
entertainment industry. A number of scholars have analysed various television programmes
depicting characters with bipolar disorder. Some of them often depict realistic symptoms of
the disorder, including major depressive episodes as well as professional competencies. Other
list unrealistic stereotypes are largely absent in movies such as Homelands. (Craske, et.al,
2011). Such misconceptions include being only happy or sad at certain moments. Craddock,
& Sklar, (2013) critiques Homelands misconception, believing that the characters depicting
bipolar disorder seem unrealistic as she acts manic and full of depression even when taking
her medication.
Another major misconception is that individuals with bipolar disorder refuse to take
treatment. Once an individual acquires treatment, some also think that patients recover
instantaneously. Torrent, et al., (2013) analyses the experience of one patient in a scientific
journal, attributing the ability to manage the symptoms through an ongoing relationship with
a reliable psychiatrist. This case debunks the depiction of bipolar individuals taking pills, or
seeking some treatment and recover instantaneously. It is often agreed within the medical
fraternity that persons with bipolar disorder might learn to cope, even though it impossible to
fully recover (Oltmanns, et al. 2011). Moreover, it has been proven through a huge number of
anecdotal studies that individuals with bipolar disorder experience the best outcomes through
a series of factors, such as medication, and social support.
To conclude the sources used to provide strong evidence that refutes the stereotypes
portrayed by movies about anxiety disorder. Through the evidence provided, it shows that
Anxiety disorder if not a condition that can be healed instantaneously, gradually putting to
an end such kind of misconceptions. Through such convincing ideas, organized and
informative ideas have been presented accurately.

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