Psychological Disorders Case Study

Multiple criteria come into play when determining a psychological disorder. One reason is because, it is hard to know for sure if an action is abnormal or not. Something could be abnormal in our country, but a custom in another. According to Psychology in Action, “Rather than being fixed categories, both “abnormal” and “normal” behaviors exist along a continuum, and no single criterion is adequate for identifying all forms of abnormal behavior” (Huffman). There are times when people are plagued with thoughts, behaviors or emotions that will inhibit them from normal behavior. These are known as psychological disorders. These disorders come in many forms but all will have large effects on a person’s life. This essay will outline some common dis

Some believe this is due to the increased recognition of an autism spectrum disorder in doctors as well as parents/caregivers, teachers and other individuals that may work with children (Dugger, Caitlin E., "The Effects of Early Intervention on Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders" (2012).Research Papers.) Most children with ASD are probably autistic from birth. Autistic infants may be given away by their lack of normal interest in responsiveness to social stimuli; for example, by failure to display normal infant behaviors such as orienting to someone calling their name, preference for human over nonhuman stimuli, eye contact, visual focus on faces in a scene (autistic babies tent to focus on objects in the background), joint attention (a key precursor of theory-of-mind skills) imitations, and turn taking, as in mutual smiling and peekaboo games (Ingersoll, 2011; Klin et al., 2004; Zwaigenbaum et al.,

Most likely individuals with autism inherit from their parents, or acquire through new mutations, several genes that put them at risk. In some cases too, segments of DNA that affect neural communication appear to have been copied too many times, or more often, too few times during cell division. These copy number variations can be present in the parent and then inherited by the child. (Autism Genome Project Consortium, 2007; Waterhouse, 2013)

Autism occurs more often when parents, especially fathers, are older; this is because as we age, mutations and copy number variations become more common, especially in the formation of sperm (Hultman et al., 2011; O’Roak et al., 2012). When these genetic errors occur, the normal process through which genes are experience guide the development of the brain and its neural connections can be disrupted. Early environmental influence also contribute (Hu, 2013; Waterhouse,