ap psych, abnormal psychology (unit 8)

koch 22-23

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

a psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity

Anxiety disorders

psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

Agoraphobia

fear or avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide-open places, where one has felt loss of control or panic 

Anorexia nervosa

an eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) maintains a starvation diet despite being significantly (15%+) underweight 

Antisocial personality disorder

a personality disorder in which a person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even towards friends or family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist

Active listening

empathetic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of rogers client centered therapy

Aversive conditioning

a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (like drinking)

Antipsychotic drugs

drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder

Antianxiety drugs

drugs used to control anxiety and agitation

Antidepressants

drugs that relieve depression by increasing the supply of norepinephrine, serotonin, or dopamine

Behavior therapy

therapy that allows learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors

Bulimia nervosa

an eating disorder in which a person alternates binge eating (usually of high-calorie foods) with purging (by vomiting or laxative use) or fasting

Binge-eating disorder

significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory purging or fasting that marks bulimia nervosa 

Bipolar disorder

a mood disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the over-excited state of mania

Biomedical therapy

prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person’s

Conversion disorder

a disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found (aka functional neurological symptom disorder)

Client-centered therapy

a humanistic therapy, developed by carl rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathetic environment to facilitate clients growth

Counterconditioning

behavior therapy procedures that use classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; include exposure therapies and aversive conditioning 

Cognitive therapies

therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions 

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy 

DSM-5

 the american psychiatric association’s diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders 

Delusions

false beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders

Dissociative disorders

disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits 2+ distinct and alternating personalities. Formerly called multiple personality diso

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

 a biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient

Evidence-based practice

clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences

Exposure therapies

behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid

Eclectic approach

an approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client’s problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy

Family therapy

therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by or directed at other family members

Group therapy

therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permitting therapeutic benefits from group interactions

Generalized anxiety disorder

an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal 

Hallucination

false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus

Interpretation

 in psychoanalysis, the analysts noting supposed dream meanings, resistance, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight 

Illness anxiety disorder

a disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease (formerly known as hypochondriasis)

Insight therapies

a variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses

Lobotomy

a psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain

Meta-analysis

a procedure for statistically combining the result of many different research studies

Mood disorders

psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes. See major depressive disorder, mania, and bipolar disorder

Major depressive disorder

 a mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or another medical condition, two or more weeks with five or more symptoms, at least one of which must be either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure

Mania

a mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state

Medical model

 the concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions)

Psychological disorders

a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior

Panic disorder

an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations. Often followed by worry over a possible next attack 

Phobia

an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience 

Posttraumatic growth

positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises 

Psychotherapy

treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth

Psychoanalysis

(1) sigmund freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions, (2) Freud’s therapeutic technique. Freud believed the patients free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences- and the therapist’s interpretations of them -- released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight 

Psychosurgery

surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior 

Psychopharmacology

the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

Rumination

compulsive fretting; overthinking about our problems and their causes 

Resistance

in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material

Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)

a confrontational cognitive therapy, developed by albert ellis, that vigorously challenges people’s illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions

Regression toward the mean

 the tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average

Resilience

the personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and recover from adversity and even trauma

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)

the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity

Social anxiety disorder

 intense fear of social situations, leading to avoidance of such (formerly called social phobia)

Systematic desensitization

a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias

Token economy

 an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats

Therapeutic alliance

a bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the clients problem

Transference

in psychoanalysis, the patient’s transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent)

Unconditional positive regard

a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which carl rogers believed would help clients to develop self-awareness and self-acceptance 

Virtual reality exposure therapy

an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to electronic simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking

Aaron Beck

“father of cognitive therapy”, worked mostly with clinical depression and developed the cognitive triad of depression

Albert Ellis

created rational emotive behavior therapy (rebt), a psychotherapeutic approach to help his patients who struggled with unrealistic expectations and irrational beliefs 

B.F. Skinner

associated with operant conditioning, and created the skinner box

Carl Rogers

 leading humanistic psychologist, focusing on the self-concept. Created client centered therapy and the unconditional positive regard

Joseph Wolpe

systematic desensitization

Mary Cover Jones

“mother of behavioral therapy”, she unconditioned the fear response in infants

Sigmund Freud

the “father of modern psychology”, and created psychoanalysis and psychosexual development.