Bipolar Disorder Case Study

There are very few people that I know with psychological problems, at least with diagnosed psychological problems anyways. But I do know of someone with bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a condition that affects the brain in such a way that it causes extreme mood swings that can range from mania (the “highs”) to depression (the “lows”) (Latuda, 2016). There are many ways that this disorder and other psychological disorders can be explained, and I am going to discuss how psychologists from six different theoretical models; biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and socio-cultural explain bipolar disorder according to their specific theoretical framework. The biological approach believes that we as humans are

The cognitive approach focuses more on the internal behavior and the “mediational process”, such as a memory, perception, or attention, that occurs between the stimulus/input and response/output (Saul McLeod, 2007). When associating this with bipolar disorder, cognitive psychologists are similarly concerned with environmental factors like behavioral psychologists, but they then dig a little deeper to explain the processes of the mind that makes the patient react to a certain stimulus in a certain way. They want to explain the cause of the mood swings or changes by figuring out how the patients perceptions, memories, or experiences interact with the environmental stimulus leading to an extreme mood

This method also believes that we as humans are all born with an inherently good nature, but these “good natured” impulses are hindered by negative influences in our lives (Cognitive Psychology, 2016). Humanistic psychologists would work to explain bipolar disorder by examining the environmental influences, and previous thoughts emotions and experiences that the patient faced to understand the perception that each individual has. According to this method not every patient with bipolar disorder is the same and it is important to study each case individually to understand each patient’s perception of life and how it effects the choices that they make that ultimately lead to their mood or mood