Abnormal Psychology Chapter 1-4 Questions – Flashcards

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There is no one behavior that serves to make someone abnormal.
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What makes defining abnormality difficult?
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A classification system allows information to be organized.
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What is a reason for classifying mental disorders?
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When a label is used to describe an individual's behavior, information about the person is lost.
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Which of the following is a disadvantage of having a classification system for mental disorders?
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may be present but is not a necessary condition for making a diagnosis.
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According to the DSM-IV's definition of mental disorder, impairment in one or more areas of functioning (disability)
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A disorder seen only in certain cultures
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What is a culture-specific disorder?
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Such information is needed to plan for the provision of adequate services.
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Why is it important to know how many people have diagnosable mental illnesses?
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It is common.
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What does it mean if a disorder is said to be highly prevalent?
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Measures of several types of disorders were not included.
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Why is it believed that the NCS survey used to estimate the prevalence of mental illness underestimated that prevalence?
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over half of the people with a history of one serious disorder had two or more comorbid disorders.
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A major finding from the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS) was that
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people are hospitalized more briefly and then treated on an outpatient basis.
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The trend toward deinstitutionalization in recent years means that
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The psychiatrist
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Which of the following mental health professionals has a medical degree?
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The selection of a treatment approach is largely determined by assumptions about causality.
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Why is it important to have some understanding of what causes a psychological disorder?
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Conclusions based on so little data are likely to be flawed.
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Why is it dangerous to make conclusions based on case studies?
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determining the criteria for identifying people who have the disorder.
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An important FIRST step in studying a particular disorder is
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The more representative a sample is, the more generalizable the data.
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Why is a representative sample desirable?
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It is often unethical or impossible to directly manipulate the variables involved in abnormal psychology.
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Why are correlational (observational) research designs often used in abnormal psychology?
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Prospective
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What type of research design begins with the identification of individuals who are likely to develop a particular disorder?
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The effects of a single form of treatment are studied twice in the same subject.
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What is the value of using an ABAB design?
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The effectiveness of a new treatment for depression
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Which of the following would most likely be explored with an experiment?
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Seligman found that uncontrollable shock led the dogs to behave much like depressed humans.
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What did Seligman find by studying dogs exposed to uncontrollable shock?
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experimental
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A researcher who provides a certain treatment for one group and withholds treatment from a completely comparable group is using the ________ research method.
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Independent
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Which variable is manipulated in an experiment?
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as x increases, y increases
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A significant positive correlation is found between variables x and y. Which of the following may be safely inferred?
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Analogue
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A psychologist wishes to test the hypothesis that the experience of chronic physical pain can cause clinical depression, but the Ethics Committee of his university won't allow him to conduct a study in which he inflicts pain on the subjects. What kind of research design might best allow the psychologist to test this hypothesis while circumventing the committee's objection?
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a control group.
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To determine whether certain characteristics are true of people in general, and not just of people with mental disorders, it is important to use
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An ancient practice in which a hole was drilled in the skull to release evil spirits.
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What is trephining?
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proposed that mental disorders were the result of an imbalance.
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The belief in the four humors as a means of explaining temperament
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his description of consciousness.
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One of Aristotle's most major contributions to psychology was
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Recognizing that psychological disorders could have both biological and psychological causes
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What is Galen credited with?
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Supernatural explanations for mental disorders grew in popularity.
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What trend was observed during the Middle Ages in Europe?
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began at a more sophisticated level but regressed, like the West, to belief in the supernatural forces, although not for as long or with as negative a reaction to patients.
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Compared to the West, in the Chinese "Dark Ages," views of mental illness
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phenomena that impact the society and its structure may also affect mental health.
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The fact that episodes of mass madness peaked at the time of the Black Death illustrates that
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an ill-tempered, impoverished woman.
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Recent historical reviews of the literature indicate that the typical accused witch in the Middle Ages in Europe was
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were primarily warehouses for the mentally ill.
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The early asylums
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exhibited their patients for profit.
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"Bedlam" in London was one of several hospitals for the mentally ill in different countries that
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believed that mental patients were ill and needed to be treated as such - with kindness and caring.
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Philippe Pinel
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Benjamin Rush
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Who is considered the founder of American psychiatry?
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is credited with establishing numerous humane mental hospitals in many countries.
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Dorothea Dix
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focused on the moral and spiritual development of mental patients rather than their disorder.
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The moral management treatment
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He publicized the brutal treatment that many mental patients received.
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What is Clifford Beers known for?
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punitive.
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During the first half of the twentieth century, mental hospital care would best be characterized as
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The publication of "The Snake Pit"
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Which of the following served to publicize the plight of the mentally ill in the mid 1940s?
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a concern that prolonged hospitalization could keep patients from being able to adjust to and function in the outside world.
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The rationale behind deinstitutionalization was
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the discovery of the cause and later a cure for general paresis (syphilitic insanity)
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Which of the following is recognized as a major biomedical breakthrough in psychopathology because it established the link between mental and physical illnesses?
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identifying different types of mental disorders.
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Kraepelin is credited with
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advanced the recognition that psychological factors were involved in the development of mental disorders.
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The Nancy School
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an emotional release.
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A catharsis is
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a reaction to what the behaviorists perceived as a lack of scientific rigor in psychoanalysis.
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Behaviorism was
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the consequences of behavior influence its likelihood of being repeated.
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The central principle of operant conditioning is that
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psychoanalysis.
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The study of hypnosis and its relationship to hysteria was the starting point for
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such knowledge might make both the prevention and cure of mental disorders possible.
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Understanding the causes of mental disorders is important because
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sufficient cause; necessary cause
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While having a gene for Parkinson's disease guarantees that Parkinson's disease will develop, this is not the only factor that can lead to Parkinson's disease. In other words, the presence of the gene is a ________, but not a ________.
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distal contributory cause.
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Childhood abuse is commonly seen in those who develop dissociative disorders later in life. Childhood abuse would best be described as a
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the causal pattern of a disorder.
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Etiology is
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fixated
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According to Freud, a person who does not appropriately resolve each psychosexual stage would be ___________ at that stage.
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the quality of parental care in forming attachments.
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John Bowlby's attachment theory emphasized
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contributory cause.
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A diathesis can best be described as a
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an influence that modifies a persons response to environmental stressors.
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A protective factor is
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To understand what is within the range of normal development so as to have a better understanding of what is abnormal.
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What is the focus of the field of developmental psychopathology?
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neurotransmitters that are involved in psychopathology.
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Norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, and GABA are all
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the adrenal gland produces that mobilizes the body to deal with stress.
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Cortisol is a hormone that
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polygenic
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Mental disorders are almost always influenced by multiple genes. This means they are
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Evocative
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Attractive children and unattractive babies tend to be treated differently. In other words, an infant's physical phenotype may alter how others respond to him or her. What type of genotype-environment correlation is this an example of?
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the concordance rate for monozygotic twins would be greater than the concordance rate for dizygotic twins.
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If trait is highly heritable, it would be expected that
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Association studies
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Which of the following strives to describe the location of genes responsible for mental disorders?
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the flexibility of the brain - existing neural circuits can change or new ones can be made.
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Neural plasticity is
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the gene for depression is probably located near the gene for height
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Suppose that, using linkage analysis, a researcher finds that family members with a high likelihood of developing depression also are very likely to be of below average height. This would mean
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help a person feel less anxious, but because they usually work by distorting reality, they are not always adaptive.
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Defense mechanisms
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Lack of scientific evidence
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Which of the following is a criticism of traditional psychoanalytic theory?
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focusing on symptoms.
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The behavioral perspective has been criticized for
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results from distorted thinking and information processing.
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Cognitive-behavioral psychologists believe that abnormal behavior
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high; moderately high
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The four parenting styles described in the text differ along two dimensions, warmth and control. The style associated with the most positive developmental outcome is best described as ________ in warmth and ________ in control.
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overly aggressive behavior.
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A major factor associated with a child's rejection by peers is
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responses to stress vary cross-culturally.
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Cross-cultural research on stress demonstrates that
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"I will accept any explanation from psychoanalytic to biological as long as it works."
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A psychologist who takes an eclectic approach is most likely to make which of the following statements?
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All of the above
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Which of the following explanations for the relationship between SES and abnormal behavior is supported by the existing data? a. Low SES may cause abnormal behavior. b. Abnormal behavior is more likely to go untreated in those of low SES c. Recovery from loss of a job may be more difficult for those exhibiting signs of mental illness. d. All of the above
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An adequate assessment should include as much information as possible.
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Which of the following statements regarding assessment is true?
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provides better differentiation and clarity.
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One advantage of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) over the CAT scan is that the MRI
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EEG
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Which of the following would be used to reveal a dysrhythmia in brain activity?
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rating scales.
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The reliability of the assessment interview may be enhanced by the use of
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are dependent on the competence of the clinician who interprets them.
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Psychological tests
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permits the clinician to determine how a client's behavior compares to some reference group.
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The use of standardized psychological tests
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personality
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"Projective" and "objective" are two types of ________ tests.
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assess the way a patient perceives ambiguous stimuli.
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The aim of a projective test is to
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A considerable amount of training is required to administer and score it accurately.
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Which statement about the Rorschach is accurate?
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The age of the client
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What would determine whether the WISC-III or the WAIS-III is used to test intelligence?
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a structured approach to personality assessment.
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The MMPI is
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picking items that differentiate between different groups, no subjective judgment is needed.
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The empirical keying approach to making a test like the MMPI involves
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the clinical scales measure the same properties of personality organization as they always have.
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A key feature of the MMPI-2 is that
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measures what it is designed to measure.
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A valid test
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Dimensional
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Which approach to the classification of abnormal behavior uses statistical criteria to differentiate between normal and abnormal?
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Prototypical
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If a diagnosis is made by comparing subjects to a "model" of an illness, which type of classification scheme is being used?
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become more objective.
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Since it was first published, the DSM has
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Axes IV and V
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Which axes are rarely used in most clinical settings?
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they can influence both other people's and the diagnosed person's perception of themselves in negative ways.
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One criticism of diagnostic labels is that
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a DSM diagnosis is only the first step, much more is needed to determine treatment.
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The DSM acknowledges that
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the existing criteria tend to lead to a prototypal approach.
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While the DSM is designed to be a categorical classification scheme,
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can be scored by computer, thereby increasing its reliability.
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Research by Exner and others has shown that the Rorschach
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Each disorder has unique symptoms.
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Which of the following is an assumption of a categorical approach to abnormal behavior?
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Use more modern pictures
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Which of the following would best address recent criticisms of the TAT?
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