question

How do psychologists define a psychological disorder?

answer

A psychological disorder is anything that interferes with a persons way of life over an extended period of time

question

What is a scientist- practitioner?

answer

they practice treatment delivery and research mutually. They focus on current research in the field. They evaluate their own assessment and treatment and conduct research.

question

What supernatural influences were formerly believed to explain abnormal behavior?

answer

People believed that abnormal people were either possessed by the devil or touched by God

question

Psychological disorder

answer

psychological dysfunction associated with distress and or impairment in functioning -Behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunctions that are unexpected in their cultural context and associated with present distress and or impairment in functioning or increased risk of suffering, death, pain, or impairment

question

What is mental disorder often associated with?

answer

Harmful dysfunction

question

Distress

answer

can be normal in some situations, becomes dysfunctional when a person is at the extreme

question

Impairment

answer

must be pervasive and or significant to classify as a mental disorder

question

How does culture influence what is considered a psychological disorder or not?

answer

Different behaviors are accepted in some cultures but not in others, may be considered normal in a European country but a mental disorder in Africa.

question

Psychopathology

answer

scientific study of psychological dysfunction

question

Who can Diagnose?

answer

PhD, PsyD, MD (psychiatrist), psychiatric nurses (masters) , LICSW, Master's level counselors

question

LICSW

answer

licensed clinical social worker (trained in delivering treatment)

question

PsyD

answer

"Doctor of psychology" does clinical and counseling

question

Describe a Clinical Description

answer

Begins with a description of the symptoms, describes prevalence and incidence of disorders. distinguishes the clinical dysfunction from common experience, describes onset, course of disorder, and prognosis

question

Prevalence

answer

how many people in a population have the disorder

question

Incidence

answer

the number of new cases over a period of time (year)

question

Acute onset

answer

immediate start of symptoms

question

Insidious onset

answer

has been going on for a long time/ gradual start of symptoms (ex Schizophrenia)

question

Episodic

answer

symptoms come and go

question

Time-Limited

answer

symptoms come and stay for a period of time, and then you think you are cured, but they come back again and again ex) depression typically has a 9 month cycle

question

Developmental psychology

answer

the study of changes in behavior over time

question

developmental psychopathology

answer

the study of changes in abnormal behavior over time

question

life-span developmental psychopathology

answer

includes not just childhood and adolescence, but adulthood and old age abnormal behavior study

question

How does age of onset affect presentation of a disorder?

answer

The age of the patient will impact how they describe the problem, and different disorders are more likely to begin at different stages of life ex) 25% of people with schizophrenia have one episode, and are unaffected for the rest of their lives

question

Etiology

answer

how illness is caused

question

Treatment for psychological disorders?

answer

Includes pharmacological, psychosocial, and/or combined treatments

question

Psychological suffering has a larger negative impact on the body than what?

answer

physical suffering ex) emotional abuse is worse than physical abuse

question

What are the three historical dominant traditions used to explain abnormal behavior?

answer

1) supernatural 2)biological 3)psychological

question

Supernatural tradition

answer

Good vs Evil -possession, or touched by God -people would be tortured, exorcised, etc.

question

"stress and melancholy"=?

answer

anxiety and depression

question

insanity is caused by what

answer

emotional stress

question

What was Saint Vitus's Dance/ Tarantism?

answer

in medieval times, people would randomly dance in the streets

question

What is tarantism known as today?

answer

mass hysteria

question

Mob psychology

answer

people do more extreme and dangerous things when they are in a group than when they are alone --> emotion contagion

question

Where did the term lunatic come from?

answer

people used to believe the moon led to crazy behavior, this came from a swiss physician, Paracelsus, who suggested mental health issues were caused by the pull of the moon and stars

question

Who was Paracelsus?

answer

the swiss physician who suggested that mental health problems are affected by the pull of the moon stars -built a hospital with angles to prevent moonlight from affecting patients

question

What did Saint Vitus's Dance assist with the belief in?

answer

demonic possession

question

Who was the father of modern western medicine?

answer

Hippocrates

question

What is moral therapy?

answer

treat patients as normally as possible, humanely, encourage and reinforce social interaction -moral referred to psychological and emotional factors -became popular in the first half of the 19th century

question

Who were the main proponents of moral therapy?

answer

Philippe Pinel, Benjamin Rush, and Dorothea Dix

question

Phillipe Pinel ; Jean-Baptiste Pussin

answer

argued that patients shouldn't be restrained

question

Benjamin Rush

answer

led reforms in the US, signed the Declaration of Independence, and founded American Psychiatry

question

Dorthea Dix

answer

mental hygiene movement

question

What happened when asylum reform occurred?

answer

Moral therapy declined because there were too many patients and not enough staff

question

"Competitive alternative models"

answer

behaviorism, psychoanalysis -they competed with moral therapy

question

Freudian theory

answer

(of the structure and function of the mind) emotional problems are caused by psychological stressors. You can control these problems by talking to people

question

Unconscious

answer

where most emotional problems arise but we are unable to be aware of it (Freudian theory)

question

Catharsis

answer

helpful release of emotion

question

What are the components of the structure of the mind according to Freudian theory?

answer

Id, Superego, and Ego

question

Id

answer

pleasure principle, illogical, emotional, irrational, no consequence thought -develops first

question

superego

answer

enemy of the ed, controlling aspect of the mind, knows moral principals

question

ego

answer

the rational, mediates between the id and the superego, compromiser, problem solver

question

What were Freud's proposed mental stages based on sexual pleasure?

answer

Oral 0-1 Anal 1-3 Phallic 3-6 Latent 6-12 Genital 12-life very complex theory, but most subject to disagreement conflicts arise at each stage and must be resolved

question

What are defense mechanisms according to freudian theory?

answer

The ego's attempt to manage anxiety resulting from the id/superego conflict

question

What are the types of defense mechanisms?

answer

displacement and denial, rationalization, reaction formation, projection, repression, and sublimation

question

Displacement

answer

emotion ends up on a new target ex) kick dog when angry with boss

question

reaction formation

answer

behave the opposite of your feelings because it is more acceptable

question

Projection

answer

attribute your emotions to someone else

question

Sublimation

answer

channel emotions into something productive ex) work out when feeling angry

question

Repression

answer

minimizing what happened?

question

Denial

answer

pretending the emotion does not exist

question

When are defense mechanisms unhealthy?

answer

too frequently used or too rigid

question

Psychosexual stages

answer

as a child grows up, the focus shifts between different sources of need and pleasure

question

Object relations theory

answer

Children's personalities and understanding of the world is largely influenced by their relationships with important people (like parents) and what they learn from those relationships (like safety)

question

Who was Alfred Adler?

answer

a freudian follower who believed in free will and personal growth throughout their lives -almost every school of modern therapy traces their roots to adler, not freud _individual psychotherpay

question

Gungi

answer

practically freud's son, had a nervous breakdown when he disagreed with him over the nature of the unconscious, he believed that people grew and developed throughout their whole lives

question

Watson

answer

believed psychology is a science

question

BF Skinner

answer

operant conditioning

question

Humanistic psychology

answer

people have free will

question

Cognitive therapy

answer

came 10 years after humanism, and focused on the brain/ cognition -thinking is one of the major determinants of how we feel and behave -most widely used therapy

question

One dimensional models

answer

explain behavior in terms of a single cause, tend to ignore info from other areas ex) Obsessive compulsive disorder being explained as a result of family history alone

question

Multidimensional model

answer

interdisciplinary, eclectic, and integrative, draws upon information from several sources, abnormal behavior occurs on the basis of multiple factors

question

what are some examples of dimensions?

answer

genetic, social, biological, learning/behavioral, cultural, and environmental

question

Polygentic

answer

many genes --> one outcome

question

T or F environment trumps genetics

answer

mostly true

question

what is epigenetics?

answer

changes in the way genes are expressed based on environmental factors

question

Diathesis-stress model

answer

Disorders are the result of underlying risk factors combining with life stressors that cause a disorder to emerge

question

Neuroscience

answer

studies the role of the nervous system in disease and behavior

question

CNS

answer

central nervous system brain & spinal cord

question

PNS

answer

peripheral nervous system somatic and autonomic branches

question

What are the parts of a neuron?

answer

soma, dendrites, axon, axon terminals, synapses

question

soma

answer

cell body

question

dendrites

answer

branches that receive information from other neurons

question

axon

answer

the trunk of a neuron that sends messages to other neurons

question

axon terminals

answer

buds at the end of axon from which chemical messages are sent

question

synapses

answer

small gaps that separate neurons

question

synaptic cleft

answer

a small space that exists between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of another

question

Neuron

answer

a nerve cell that operates electrically but communicates chemically

question

neurotransmitters

answer

the chemical messengers between neurons

question

Structure of the brain

answer

forebrain, brain stem

question

Brain stem

answer

basic functions (breathing) contains: hindbrain, midbrain, thalamus, and hypothalamus

question

Forebrain

answer

higher-order functions, more modern part of the brain contains: limbic system, basal ganglia, cerebral cortex -this is what separates humans from other species

question

Hindbrain

answer

regulates automatic processes -medulla -pons -cerebellum

question

medulla

answer

heart rate, blood pressure, respiration

question

pons

answer

regulates sleep stages, awareness, and sleep health

question

cerebellum

answer

involved in physical coordination, has a lot of surface area. Coordinates muscle movement

question

midbrain

answer

coordinates movement with sensory input ex) hot stove = pull stand back -contains part of the RAS

question

RAS

answer

reticular activating system, sleep and active cycle

question

Limbic system

answer

involved in emotional processing, aggression, includes thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus

question

Basal ganglia

answer

thought to partially control motor activity

question

Thalamus

answer

receives and integrates sensory information, sensory relay station

question

Hypothalamus

answer

eating, drinking, aggression, sexual activity, controls the endocrine system, and the pituitary gland four F's: feeding, fighting, fleeing, and f***ing

question

amygdala

answer

emotion

question

Hippocampus

answer

memory

question

Cerebral Cortex

answer

contains two specialized hemispheres brain operates best when it coordinates both of these

question

Right brain

answer

spatial awareness, music, positive emotions

question

left brain

answer

language, problem solving

question

Lobes of the cerebral cortex and some of their functions

answer

frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal

question

Frontal

answer

thinking and reasoning abilities, memory

question

PArietal

answer

touch recognition

question

Occipital

answer

integrates visual input

question

Temporal

answer

recognition of sights and sounds, long term memory storage

question

Somatic branch of the PNS

answer

controls voluntary muscles and movement

question

autonomic branch of the PNS

answer

involuntary processes, 2 branches

question

what are the two branches of the Autonomic branch of the PNS?

answer

sympathetic and parasympathetic branches

question

sympathetic branch

answer

arousal mechanism, tells your body what to do in the event of the crisis -increases heart rate, dilates eyes, increases lung capacity, mobilizes fat storage for quick energy

question

parasympathetic branch

answer

restores equilibrium from the actions of the sympathetic branch after a crisis regulates cardiovascular system and body temperature

question

The endocrine system

answer

regulates release of hormones

question

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenalcortical axis (HPA)

answer

integration of endocrine and nervous system function

question

What are types of chemicals in the brain other than neurotransmitters?

answer

agonists, inverse agonists, antagonists

question

Agonists

answer

increase the activity of a neurotransmitter by mimicking its effects

question

antagonists

answer

inhibit or block the production of neurotransmitter or function indirectly to prevent the chemical from reaching the next neuron by closing or occupying the receptors

question

inverse agonists

answer

produce effects opposite to a given neurotransmitter

question

Glutamate

answer

major excitatory neurotransmitter, very common

question

GABA

answer

main inhibitory neurotransmitter Gamma aminobutyric acid

question

Norepinphrine

answer

noradrenaline, speeds up the heart, too much can be PTSD or panic disorders

question

Serotonin

answer

(5-HT) influences information processing behavior, mood, and thoughts has widespread complex circuits (6) in the brain Dysregulated serotonin may contribute to depression

question

low serotonin is linked to what?

answer

instability and impulsivity, aggression, overreacting, mood disorders

question

SSRI

answer

selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, only work with a few receptors

question

Beta blockers

answer

block the norepinphrine receptors and slow the heart down

question

Dopamine

answer

implicated in depression and ADHD, regulates other neurotransmitters, too little dopamine is related to Parkinson's -reward circuits in the brain -at least 5 different receptor sites in the brain

question

What suggests that psychosocial influences affect brain function?

answer

the fact that neurological activity may change as a result of psychotherapy --> successful therapy changes the brain structure and normalizes the brain

question

What is the importance of environment on development?

answer

more stimulating environments appear to promote neurodevelopment, and sense of control over environment appears important

question

Explain the psychosocial monkey experiment

answer

Monkeys were given neurochemical designed to trigger extreme anxiety Monkeys raised in uncontrollable environment responded with panic Monkeys raised in controllable environment responded with aggression Perceived control changes reaction

question

Operant conditioning

answer

your behavior is controlled by the rewards or punishment that come with it

question

Who discovered learned helplessness?

answer

Marty Saligman

question

learned helplessness

answer

first demonstrated in animal models, but may contribute to depression in humans

question

Learned optimism

answer

people with positive views of themselves that live live longer than those without

question

Social Learning

answer

based on the research of Albert Bandura, modeling and observational learning, you learn from watching others

question

Prepared learning

answer

it is easier to learn associations that would have been helpful to our ancestors ex) fear of spiders -women do prepared learning easier than men do

question

implicit memory

answer

acting on the basis of experiences that are not recalled ex) stroop test done with fearful words times are slower

question

Blind sight

answer

some people who are blind can still sense objects that would be in their visual field even if they do not experience sight

question

How does anger impact your heart?

answer

chronic hostility increases risk for heart disease

question

What is Sass' Law?

answer

never treat a diagnosis, treat a person

question

Standardization

answer

is a process by which a set of standards or norms is established for a technique to ensure its consistency across different measurements

question

Mental status exam

answer

an assessment of the major cognitive and emotional systems of the patient - an examination of the cognitive and emotional systems of a patitent

question

semi-structured (most common clinical assessment method)

answer

having an outline of questions that are followed but some flexibility to ask about certain areas more or less

question

affect

answer

specific reactions to specific types of questions (over or under reactions)

question

Sensorium

answer

the patient's general orientation, ex) do they know where they are and what they're doing

question

ABCs of observation

answer

Antecedents, behavior, consequences

question

self-monitoring

answer

individual observes self

question

reactivity problem

answer

simply observing a behavior may cause it to change due to the individual's knowledge of being observed

question

Psychological testing

answer

specific tools for assessment: cognition, emotion, behavior

question

Projective tests

answer

used to access the unconscious processes, unique to each respondant

question

Objective tests

answer

standardized, reliable, and valid, roots in empirical tradition, require minimal clinical inference in scoring and interpretation

question

Personality Tests

answer

MMPI (minnesota multiphasic personality inventory) is best for telling if a personality disorder is present extensive validity, reliability, and normative database

question

Name four types of anxiety disorders

answer

Generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and agoraphobia, specific phobias, social anxiety disorder

question

What do anxiety disorders have in common?

answer

anxiety and fear play a large role

question

What type of disorder is PTSD?

answer

Trauma and stressor related disorders

question

Which disorders are obsessive compulsive?

answer

OCD, body dysmorphic disorder

question

Fear

answer

immediate, present oriented, sympathetic nervous system activated

question

Anxiety

answer

apprehensive, future oriented, somatic symptoms: muscle tension, restlessness, elevated heart rate

question

Panic attack

answer

abrupt experience of intense fear with both physical and cognitive symptoms Physical: heart palpitations, chest pain, dizziness, sweating, chills Cognitive: fear of losing control, dying, or going crazy expected and unexpected -occur very suddenly

question

What are the DSM 5 symptoms for panic attack?

answer

(four or more) 1. Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate 2. Sweating 3. Trembling or shaking 5. Feeling of choking 6. Chest pain or discomfort 7. Nausea or abdominal distress 8. Feeling dizzy, unsteady, light-headed or faint 9. Chills or heat sensations 10. Paresthesias 11. Derealization 12. Fear of losing control or going crazy 13. Fear of dying

question

There are biological contributions to anxiety. Discuss

answer

Increased physiological vulnerability, polygenetic influences, corticotropin releasing factor neurotransmitters: GABA, noradrenergic, serotonergic

question

CRF

answer

corticotropin releasing factor activates the HPA and impacts anxiety

question

GABA levels associated with what

answer

low levels --> anxiety

question

Noradrenergic and serotenergic systems

answer

problems with these symptoms lead to greater anxiety

question

What types of stressful life events may contribute to anxiety?

answer

family, interpersonal, occupational, educational

question

What is the comorbidity rate between anxiety and related disorders?

answer

55-76%

question

Comorbidity

answer

meeting diagnostic criteria for multiple disorders at the same time

question

Generalized anxiety disorder DSM 5

answer

Excessive anxiety and worry occurring more days than not for at least 6 months Difficulty controlling the worry Anxiety and worry associated with other physical symptoms Anxiety causes clinically significant distress or impairment Not due to substance use or medical condition Not better explained by another mental disorder

question

GAD in children

answer

only need one physical symptom for physical diagnosis

question

Neuroticism

answer

tendency to experience more frequent and more intense negative affect and react to this affect with avoidant coping

question

Treatments of GAD?

answer

pharmacological, benzodiapines, antidepressants

question

Benzodiazepines

answer

provide fast acting relief but may not be used over time and the disorder will return

question

PTSD

answer

major trauma, can cause hippocampus to shrink PTSD is more likely with severe trauma generalized psychological vulnerability (beliefs about uncontrollability and unpredictability of threatening situations) social support helps!

question

Neurobiological model of PTSD

answer

threatening cues activate CRF system and activates fear and anxiety areas, hippocampus shrinks

question

Obsessions vs compulsions?

answer

Obsessions -Intrusive and nonsensical -Thoughts, images, or urges -Attempts to resist or eliminate, repetitive Compulsions -Thoughts or actions -Provide relief from obsessive thoughts

question

What are the four major categories of compulsions?

answer

Checking, ordering, arranging, and washing/c;eaning

Abnormal Psychology Chapter 1, 2, 3, 5- Exam 1 – Flashcards

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