Abnormal Psychology Final Exam

abnormal behavior

Patterns of thought, emotion, and actions that are deviant, unexpected, or "away from the standard" based on statistical, social-cultural, and/or functional standards.

abnormal psychology

The scientific study of abnormal behavior in order to describe, predict, explain, and ultimately change abnormal patterns of functioning.

acute stress disorder

An anxiety disorder in which fear and related symptoms are experienced soon after a traumatic event, often including amnesia about the event, emotional numbing, and derealization, and lasting less than a month. Many victims later develop posttraumatic stress disorder.

addiction

Physical dependence on a substance marked by tolerance, withdrawal symptoms during abstinence, or both.

affect

A subjective feeling of emotion or mood often accompanied by bodily expressions noticeable to others.

age of onset

Person's age when he or she develops or exhibits symptoms of a disorder.

agnosia

Inability to recognize and name objects; may be a symptom of dementia or other brain disorders.

agoraphobia

Anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing) or help unavailable if panic symptoms were to occur.

alogia

Deficiency in the amount or content of speech, a disturbance often seen in people with schizophrenia. Also known as poverty of speech.

alternate personalities / alters

In dissociative identity disorder, the additional identities along with the host identity. Also known as subpersonalities.

American Law Institute (ALI) test (1955)

A legal test for insanity that holds a person to be insane at the time of committing a crime, if during criminal conduct, the individual could not judge right from wrong or control his or her behavior as required by law. Compare M'Naghten Rule and irresistible impulse.

amnestic disorders

Organic disorders in which the primary symptom is memory loss.

anhedonia

Inability to experience pleasure, associated with some mood and schizophrenic disorders.

anorexia nervosa

Eating disorder characterized by continual food refusal and the pursuit of extreme thinness, leading to dangerously low body weight.

antisocial personality disorder

A personality disorder marked by a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others. Deceitful, unremorseful, manipulative, lacks anxiety and guilt.

anxiety

Mood state characterized by marked negative affect, behaviors, and bodily symptoms of tension in which a person apprehensively anticipates future danger or misfortune.

anxiety disorders

A varied group of disorders that all have anxiety, fear, or tension as an essential feature. Includes specific phobias, social phobia, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

aphasia

Impairment or loss of language skills resulting from brain damage caused by stroke, Alzheimer's disease, or other illness or trauma.

apraxia

Loss of motor activities (such as walking); one of the symptoms of dementia.

Asperger's disorder

A pervasive developmental disorder in which individuals display profound social impairment and restricted or unusual behaviors, but without language delays seen in autism.

attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Developmental disorder in which persons are unable to focus their attention, they behave hyperactively or impulsively, or both.

auditory hallucinations

Psychotic disturbance in perception in which a person hears sounds or voices although these are not real or actually present. The voices are often critical, accusatory, or demanding.

attributional style

The relatively consistent explanations a person forms about why personal stressors or other negative life events occur, taking the form of internal vs. external, stable vs. unstable, and global vs. specific.

autistic disorder (autism)

Pervasive developmental disorder characterized by significant impairment in social interactions, extreme unresponsiveness to others, poor communication skills, and highly repetitive and rigid behavior.

avoidant personality disorder

A personality disorder featuring a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and extremely sensitive to criticism.

avolition

A symptom of schizophrenia marked by apathy, and an inability to initiate or complete important activities.

behavior therapy

An group of therapy methods based on the principles of behavioral and cognitive science as well as principles of learning as applied to clinical problems. It considers specific behaviors rather than inferred internal factors as targets for change. Also known as behavior modification.

behavioral medicine

Interdisciplinary approach applying behavioral science to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of medical problems.

behaviorism

The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior, including dysfunction, without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).

binge-eating disorder

An eating disorder involving consumption of large amounts of food in a short period of time, uncontrollable and distressing to the individual but not followed by compensatory behaviors.

biological paradigm

Explanation of psychological dysfunction that primarily emphasizes biological process in the brain or illness as the cause.

biopsychosocial model

The model that psychological disorders are not caused by one or two factors in a linear way; rather, they are a product of a continual interaction of a number of biological, psychological and social factors.

bipolar I disorder

Mood disorder characterized by the alternation of major depressive episodes with full manic episodes.

bipolar II disorder

Mood disorder characterized by the alternation of major depressive episodes with hypomanic (not full manic) episodes.

body dysmorphic disorder

A somatoform disorder marked by preoccupation with an imagined or exaggerated defect in appearance, for example, facial blemishes, size or shape of nose or ears.

borderline personality disorder

A personality disorder involving a pervasive pattern of erratic moods, unstable self-image and relationships, cannot stand to be alone; intense anger, depression, and extremely impulsive behavior, including self-mutilation.

brief psychotic disorder

Psychotic disorder involving delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech and behavior, that appear suddenly after a very stressful event and last anywhere from a few hours to 1 month.

bulimia nervosa

Eating disorder involving recurrent episodes of uncontrolled excessive (binge) eating followed by compensatory actions to remove the food (e.g., deliberate vomiting, laxative abuse, excessive exercise).

anorexia nervosa, binge-eating-purging type (bulimarexia)

A variation of anorexia in which the individual turns to bingeing and then goes on to vomiting or other purging as a way of keeping weight at very low levels.

catatonia

A pattern of extreme psychomotor symptoms sometimes found in schizophrenia involving immobility, posturing, or excited agitation.

categorical classification

A system of placing disorders in categories with the assumption that each disorder is clearly different from every other disorder (an "all-or-none" approach). Based on the medical model in which every diagnosis has a distinct set of characteristics and underlying cause. Compare to dimensional classification.

childhood disintegrative disorder

Pervasive developmental disorder involving severe regression in language, adaptive behavior, and motor skills after a 2- to 4-year period of normal development.

civil commitment

Legal proceedings that determine whether a person is mentally disordered and may be hospitalized, even involuntarily.

clang

A rhyme used by some persons with schizophrenia as a guide to forming thoughts and statements.

clinical assessment / clinical interview

Systematic evaluation and measurement of psychological, biological, and social factors in a person presenting with a possible psychological disorder.

clinical psychology

The specialty of psychology involving research, assessment, treatment, and prevention of abnormal behavior.

cognition

The process of knowing; the thinking, remembering, judging, reasoning, and planning activities of the human mind. Behavior is often explained as depending on these processes.

cognitive-behavioral paradigm

The model of human behavior that people can best be understood by studying how they perceive and structure their experiences and how this influences behavior.

cognitive therapy

Treatment approach that involves identifying and altering negative thinking styles related to psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety and replacing them with more positive beliefs and attitudes.

communication disorders

Problems in transmitting or conveying information, including stuttering, selective mutism, and expressive language disorder.

comorbidity

The presence of two or more disorders in an individual at the same time.

compensatory behaviors

In eating disorders, those behaviors intended to avoid gaining weight from ingesting food. Examples are purging, forced vomiting, use of laxatives, or excessive exercising.

competency

Ability of legal defendants to participate in their own defense and understand the charges and the roles of the trial participants.

compulsions

Repetitive, ritualistic, time-consuming behaviors or thoughts a person feels driven to perform to reduce anxiety.

conduct disorder

Pattern of extreme disobedience in children, including theft, vandalism, lying, running away from home, and early drug use. May be precursor of antisocial personality disorder.

conversion disorder

A somatoform disorder in which the person reports sensory or motor function impairment (such as blindness or paralysis), even though there is no detectable neurological explanation for the deficits.

course

The pattern of development and change of a disorder over time.

course modifiers

Patterns of development in a disorder that help predict its future course. These include recurrence, time sequences, and seasonal patterns.

criminal commitment

Legal procedure by which a person who is found not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity is confined in a psychiatric hospital.

cyclothymic disorder

Chronic (at least 2 years) mood disorder characterized by alternating mood elevation and depression levels that are not as severe as manic or major depressive episodes.

(ego) defense mechanisms

Common patterns of behavior -- often adaptive coping styles when they occur in moderation -- observed in response to potentially threatening situations. In psychodynamic theory, they are proposed to be unconscious processes to reduce anxiety.

deinstitutionalization

Systematic discharge of people with severe mental illness from long-term institutional care in psychiatric hospitals so that they might be treated in community programs.

delirium

Rapid-onset reduced clarity of consciousness and cognition, with confusion, disorientation, and deficits in memory and language.

delusion

Psychotic symptom involving disorder of thought content and presence of strong beliefs that are misrepresentations of reality.

delusion of grandeur

A person's unfounded belief that he or she is a great inventor, historical figure, or other specially empowered person.

delusion of persecution

A person's unfounded belief that one is being plotted or discriminated against, or deliberately victimized.

delusion (idea) of reference

A person's unfounded belief that the actions, thoughts, laughter, and meaningless activities of others are directed toward or refer to him or her.

delusional disorder

Psychotic disorder featuring a persistent belief contrary to reality (non-bizarre delusion) but no other symptoms of schizophrenia.

dementia

Gradual-onset deterioration of brain functioning, involving memory loss, inability to recognize objects or faces, and problems in planning and abstract reasoning.

dementia of the Alzheimer's type

Gradual onset of cognitive deficits caused by Alzheimer's disease, principally identified by person's inability to recall newly or previously learned material. The most common form of dementia.

dependent personality disorder

A personality disorder characterized by a person's pervasive and excessive need to be taken care of, a condition that leads to submissive and clinging behavior and fears of separation.

depersonalization

A disorder marked by a persistent and recurring feeling of being detached from one's own mental processes or body; the loss of one's sense of their own reality. Examples: feeling like you are in a dream; sensation of floating above or beside your body and observing yourself act.

(depressive) cognitive triad

Thinking errors in depressed people that are negatively focused in three areas: themselves, their immediate world, and their future.

derailment

A thinking disturbance in schizophrenia involving rapid shifts from one topic of conversation to another. Also called loose associations.

derealization

The loss of one's sense of reality of the outside world. Examples: things may seem to change size or shape; people may seem mechanical.

diagnosis

Process of determining whether a presenting problem meets the established criteria for a specific psychological disorder.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV-TR)

Current version of the official classification system for psychological and mental disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association.

diathesis-stress model

Hypothesis that both an inherited tendency (vulnerability) and specific stressful conditions are required to produce a disorder.

dimensional classification

A system of organizing the attributes of psychological disorders as occurring on a continuum or spectrum (such as a scale of mild to severe), rather than present or absent. Can specify a cutting point and resemble a categorical system.

disease (medical) model of dependence

The view that drug dependence is caused by a physiological disorder. This implies the user is a blameless victim of an illness.

disorder of written expression

Condition in which one's writing performance is significantly below age norms.

disorganized speech

Style of talking often seen in people with schizophrenia, involving incoherence and a lack of typical logic patterns.

dissociation

The disconnection from full awareness of identity, memory, and/or consciousness of external circumstances. Occurs along a continuum from normal everyday experiences to severely dysfunctional disorders.

dissociative amnesia

Inability to recall personal information, usually of a stressful nature, that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

dissociative disorders

A group of disorders in which the primary symptoms are a disturbance in the normally integrative functions of identity, memory, and consciousness.

dissociative fugue

A dissociative disorder with amnesia in which person leaves familiar surroundings; sudden, unexpected travel away from home and inability to recall one's past, sometimes with assumption of new identity.

dissociative identity disorder

Two or more identities (host + subpersonalities) which regularly take control of the person's behavior. Also called multiple personality disorder.

distal cause

In studying the causes of behavior, all causes other than physiological processes in the brain. Compare to proximal cause.

double depression

Severe mood disorder typified by major depressive episodes superimposed over a background of dysthymic disorder.

Down syndrome

A type of mental retardation caused by a chromosomal aberration (chromosome 21) and involving characteristic physical appearance.

Durham Rule (1954)

A legal test for insanity by which an accused person is not responsible if the criminal behavior is judged attributable to mental disease or defect.

duty to protect

The principle that therapists must break confidentiality and notify the potential victim whom a client has specifically threatened.

dysfunction

Thoughts, feelings, or behavior that is maladaptive or interferes with healthy daily functioning, positive growth, and fulfillment of potential.

dyslexia

Learning disability involving marked impairment in the ability to recognize words and to comprehend what they read.

dyspareunia

A sexual pain disorder in which severe pain accompanies sexual activity but is not traceable to any medical cause.

dysthymic disorder

Mood disorder involving persistently depressed mood, with low self-¬esteem, withdrawal, pessimism or despair, present for at least 2 years, with no absence of symptoms for more than 2 months.

eccentricity

An unusual pattern of behavior (idiosyncrasy, oddity) that others might find strange, but does not meet any other criteria of abnormality. Psychological disorders, by comparison, are usually based on dysfunction and distress.

echolalia

A symptom of autism or schizophrenia in which a person responds to statements by repeating the other person's words.

enmeshment

A family pattern in which members are over-involved with each other's affairs and over-concerned about each other's welfare.

epidemiology

The scientific study of the prevalence, distribution, and consequences of disorders in a given population.