Psych 303 Exam 1

Prevalence inflation

The tendency for awareness of a mental health issue to cause individuals to overestimate normal emotional distress and misidentify it as a clinical mental disorder

Nomenclature

A naming system

Family aggregation

Whether a disorder runs in families

Epidemiology

The study of how diseases spread and determine health in populations

Incidence

The number of new cases of a disease occurring in a population over a specific period

Prevalence

The total number of existing cases (new + old) over a specific period

Point prevalence

The total number of existing cases (new + old) at a specific point in time, representing disease burden

Lifetime prevalence

The total number of individuals who experienced a specific condition at any point in their lives

Comorbidity

The co-occurrence of two or more disorders in an individual

Acute

Temporary, short-term

Chronic

Long-term, (sometimes) permanent

Sampling

Selecting a representative subgroup from a specific population for research

Representative sample

A small, accurately selected subset of a larger population that mirrors its key characteristics (e.g., age, gender, income, education)

Internal validity

How confidently a study establishes a true cause-and-effect relationship, free from confounding variables

External validity

Generalizability of results to other settings, populations, times, etc.

Random assignment

Selects treatment and control participants based on complete chance (e.g., lottery) to reduce bias and ensure groups are comparable at the start

Meta-analysis

Combines data from multiple independent studies to develop a single, more precise conclusion

General paresis

A neuropsychiatric disorder caused by late-stage syphilis, characterized by progressive mental deterioration and paralysis; one of the first conditions to show a clear biological cause related to a mental condition.

Kraepelin

Revolutionized psychiatry by organizing mental illnesses based on clinical course, prognosis, and biological causes rather than just symptoms

Mesmerism

A therapeutic practice developed by Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, involving the use of magnetic fields and fluid to induce trance-like states for “healing” purposes.