AP Psych Unit 5 vocab

Health psychology

The branch of psychology that studies how biological, psychological, and social factors influence health, illness, and healthcare.

Stress

The physical and psychological response to demands or challenges.

Hypertension

Chronically high blood pressure.

Immune suppression

A reduced ability of the immune system to fight illness and infection.

Stressors

Events or conditions that trigger stress.

Eustress (motivating)

Positive stress that helps improve performance or motivation.

Distress (debilitating)

Negative stress that overwhelms a person and harms functioning.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)

Potentially traumatic events in childhood, such as abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction, that can affect later health and well-being.

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Hans Selye’s model describing the body’s three-stage response to prolonged stress.

Alarm reaction phase

The first stage of GAS, when the body recognizes a stressor and activates its immediate stress response.

Resistance phase

The second stage of GAS, when the body attempts to cope with ongoing stress while remaining on alert.

Flight-flight-freeze response

The body’s automatic survival response to danger, involving fighting, escaping, or becoming immobile. This is usually called the fight-flight-freeze response.

Exhaustion phase

The final stage of GAS, when prolonged stress depletes the body’s resources and can lead to illness or burnout.

Tend-and-befriend theory

The idea that people, especially females in some research, may respond to stress by caring for others and seeking social support.

Problem-focused coping

Managing stress by directly addressing or changing the source of the problem.

Emotion-focused coping

Managing stress by reducing the emotional distress caused by the situation rather than changing the situation itself.

Positive psychology

The field of psychology that studies strengths, well-being, and the factors that help people thrive.

Well-being

A general state of happiness, health, and life satisfaction.

Resilience

The ability to adapt, recover, and bounce back from adversity.

Positive emotions

Pleasant feelings such as joy, gratitude, love, and hope.

Gratitude

A feeling of appreciation and thankfulness.

Positive subjective experiences

Internal positive experiences, such as happiness, joy, hope, and satisfaction.

Subjective well-being

A person’s self-reported happiness and satisfaction with life.

Signature strengths

A person’s strongest and most central positive traits.

Virtues

Broad positive moral qualities that are valued across cultures.

Positive objective experiences

Observable positive conditions in life, such as supportive relationships, achievement, and good health.

Happiness

A state of positive emotion and overall satisfaction with life.

Categories of virtues (wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence)

The six broad groups of character strengths identified in positive psychology.

Posttraumatic growth

Positive psychological change that can occur after struggling with highly challenging life events.

Dysfunction

Impaired or abnormal patterns of thought, emotion, or behavior that interfere with daily life.

Distress

Emotional suffering or discomfort associated with a disorder or difficult situation.

Deviation from the social norm

Behavior or thinking that differs significantly from what a society considers typical or acceptable.

Cultural/societal norms

The shared rules and expectations for behavior within a culture or society.

Stigma

Negative attitudes and beliefs that lead people to fear, reject, or judge others.

Racism

Prejudice, discrimination, or unequal treatment based on race.

Sexism

Prejudice, discrimination, or unequal treatment based on sex or gender.

Ageism

Prejudice or discrimination based on a person’s age.

Discrimination

Unfair treatment of people based on group membership or personal characteristics.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

The manual used by mental health professionals in the United States to classify and diagnose psychological disorders.

International Classification of Mental Disorders (ICD)

The global diagnostic system used to classify mental and behavioral disorders, published by the World Health Organization.

Eclectic approach

An approach to treatment or understanding disorders that combines ideas and techniques from multiple perspectives.

Behavioral perspective

A view that explains behavior and disorders in terms of learned responses and environmental influences.

Maladaptive learned associations

Harmful patterns of behavior or thought that are acquired through experience or conditioning.

Psychodynamic perspective

A view that behavior and disorders are influenced by unconscious conflicts and early life experiences.

Humanistic perspective

A view that emphasizes personal growth, free will, and the need for acceptance and meaning.

Cognitive perspective

A view that focuses on how thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations influence behavior and mental health.

Evolutionary perspective

A view that explains behavior and mental processes in terms of adaptation and natural selection.

Sociocultural perspective

A view that emphasizes the influence of social and cultural environments on behavior and disorders.

Biological perspective

A view that explains behavior and disorders through genetics, brain structure, brain chemistry, and physiology.

Biopsychosocial model

A model that explains health and disorders as the result of interacting biological, psychological, and social factors.

Diathesis-stress model

The idea that psychological disorders develop when a predispositional vulnerability is triggered by stress.

Neurodevelopmental disorders

Disorders that begin in childhood and involve problems in brain development affecting behavior, learning, or communication.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

A disorder marked by persistent inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A neurodevelopmental disorder involving differences in social communication and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests.

Schizophrenic Spectrum Disorders

A group of disorders involving disruptions in thought, perception, emotion, and behavior, including schizophrenia.

Delusions

False beliefs that are strongly held despite clear evidence against them.

Hallucinations

Sensory experiences that occur without an external stimulus, such as hearing voices that are not there.

Disorganized thinking

Disturbed, illogical, or hard-to-follow thought patterns.

Disorganized speech

Speech that is incoherent or difficult to follow because of disturbed thinking.

Disorganized motor behavior

Unusual or unpredictable physical movements and actions.

Negative symptoms

Symptoms involving a loss or reduction of normal functions, such as flat affect or lack of motivation.

Positive symptoms

Symptoms involving the presence of abnormal behaviors or experiences, such as hallucinations or delusions.

Delusions of persecution

False beliefs that one is being harmed, watched, or conspired against.

Delusions of grandeur

False beliefs that one has exceptional power, wealth, importance, or identity.

Word salad

Severely disorganized speech in which words and phrases are jumbled and lack logical meaning.

Catatonia

A state of severely disturbed movement or responsiveness, ranging from immobility to excessive activity.

Flat affect

A lack of emotional expression in voice, face, or behavior.

Catatonic stupor

A motionless, unresponsive condition associated with catatonia.

Dopamine hypothesis

The theory that schizophrenia is partly related to overactivity of dopamine systems in the brain.

Depressive disorders

Disorders characterized by persistent sadness, hopelessness, and loss of interest or pleasure.

Major Depressive Disorder

A mood disorder involving severe depressive symptoms that interfere with daily life for at least two weeks.

Persistent Depressive Disorder

A long-lasting form of depression with less severe but more chronic symptoms, lasting at least two years in adults.

Bipolar disorders

Mood disorders involving shifts between depressive states and manic or hypomanic states.

Cycling

Repeated shifts between mood states in bipolar disorders.

Mania

A period of abnormally elevated mood, energy, activity, or irritability.

Depression

A state of persistent sadness, low energy, and loss of interest or pleasure.

Bipolar I Disorder

A bipolar disorder defined by at least one full manic episode, often with depressive episodes.

Bipolar II Disorder

A bipolar disorder involving at least one major depressive episode and at least one hypomanic episode, but no full manic episode.

Anxiety disorders

Disorders involving excessive fear, worry, or anxiety that disrupt daily functioning.

Specific phobia

An intense, irrational fear of a particular object or situation.

Acrophobia

An intense fear of heights.

Arachnophobia

An intense fear of spiders.

Agoraphobia

Fear of situations where escape may be difficult or help may not be available.

Panic disorder

An anxiety disorder involving recurring unexpected panic attacks and fear of future attacks.

Panic attack

A sudden episode of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms such as a racing heart, shortness of breath, or dizziness.

Ataque de nervios

A culturally recognized syndrome, often in Latin American contexts, involving intense emotional upset, screaming, crying, trembling, or aggression.

Social anxiety disorder

An intense fear of being judged, embarrassed, or rejected in social situations.

Taijin kyofusho

A culture-related form of social anxiety, often involving fear of offending or embarrassing others.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

A disorder involving excessive, uncontrollable worry about many areas of life.

Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders

A group of disorders involving intrusive thoughts, repetitive behaviors, or related symptoms.

Obsessions

Persistent, unwanted thoughts, urges, or images that cause anxiety.

Compulsions

Repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed to reduce anxiety or prevent a feared event.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

A disorder involving obsessions and compulsions that are time-consuming or distressing.

Hoarding disorder

A disorder involving persistent difficulty discarding possessions, leading to clutter and impairment.

Dissociative disorders

Disorders involving disruptions in memory, identity, consciousness, or perception.

Dissociation

A mental process in which a person feels disconnected from thoughts, feelings, identity, memory, or surroundings.

Dissociative amnesia

Inability to recall important personal information, usually after trauma or stress, that cannot be explained by ordinary forgetting.

D.A with fugue

Dissociative amnesia with fugue, a condition involving memory loss along with unexpected travel or wandering and confusion about identity.

Dissociative identity disorder

A disorder involving two or more distinct identity states or personality states.

Trauma and stressor-related disorders

Disorders that develop after exposure to trauma or major stress.