Ab Psych Exam 1

Distress

Symptoms causing significant suffering to the individual or others.

Dysfunction

Symptoms that interfere with daily functioning in social, occupational, or other important areas.

Deviance

Symptoms that depart from societal or cultural norms, though this is subjective.

Danger

Symptoms that pose a risk of harm to the individual themselves or to others.

Standardization

Ensuring an instrument is administered and scored consistently across different populations and situations.

Reliability

The consistency of a measure; a reliable test yields the same results under consistent conditions.

Validity

The accuracy of a measure; how well it assesses what it is intended to measure.

Test-Retest Reliability

Consistency of scores over time, often requiring a correlation of 0.80 or higher.

Interrater Reliability

The level of agreement between different clinicians or observers rating the same patient.

Construct Validity

How well a measure assesses a specific concept without reflecting unrelated concepts.

Predictive Validity

The ability of a measure to predict future performance or behavior, such as the SAT for college success.

Prevalence

The total number of cases of a disorder in a given population at a designated time.

Incidence

The number of new cases that emerge in a population during a specified period of time.

Diathesis-Stress Model

The theory that a preexisting biological vulnerability is triggered by significant environmental stress.

Biopsychosocial Model

An integrated approach that attributes disorders to a combination of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors.

Trephination

An ancient practice involving cutting away sections of the skull, possibly to release evil spirits.

Moral Treatment

A 19th-century movement emphasizing kindness, compassionate environments, and occupational therapy.

ABAB Reversal Design

A single-case design that alternates between baseline (A) and treatment (B) phases to demonstrate causality.

Case Study

A detailed narrative of an individual’s behavior or treatment, useful for examining rare phenomena but unable to prove causality.

Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)

A group-based study using random assignment to assess the impact of an independent variable on a dependent variable.

Downward Drift

The theory that impairment from a disorder leads to job loss or lower educational achievement, resulting in lower socioeconomic status.

Comorbidity

The presence of more than one psychological disorder in a single patient.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

The part of the nervous system comprising the brain and spinal cord.

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals that relay electrical signals between neurons across the synapse.

Frontal Lobe

The brain region involved in reasoning, impulse control, judgment, motor function, and social behavior.

MMPI-3

A 335-item personality test that uses empirical keying to differentiate clinical groups from healthy ones.

WAIS-IV

A widely used intelligence test providing indices for verbal comprehension, working memory, perceptual reasoning, and processing speed.

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)

A neuropsychological test measuring set shifting and frontal lobe function through flexible thinking.

Functional Analysis

A behavioral assessment identifying the antecedents and consequences that maintain a problem behavior.

Clinical Significance

A measure of whether a treatment resulted in a meaningful improvement in a patient's daily life or functioning.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Consists of the brain and spinal cord, housing approximately 100 billion neurons.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

The system outside the CNS, divided into the sensory-somatic and autonomic nervous systems.

Frontal Lobe

The brain region responsible for reasoning, impulse control, judgment, motor function, and social behavior.

Limbic System

The brain area involved in emotions, impulses, and memory; includes the amygdala, cingulate gyrus, and hippocampus.

Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)

Activates the body's "fight or flight" response, increasing heart rate and blood pressure.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Returns the body to a resting state after the Sympathetic Nervous System has been activated.

Pituitary Gland

Known as the "master gland," it regulates many endocrine functions under the control of the hypothalamus.

Hysteria

A term introduced by Hippocrates, who incorrectly attributed the condition to a "wandering uterus".

Benjamin Rush

Known as the "father of American psychiatry," he believed mental illness was caused by issues in the brain's blood vessels.

Dorothea Dix

An advocate for humane care who established 32 psychiatric institutions for treatment, research, and education.

Emil Kraepelin

Scientist who introduced diagnostic categories based on symptoms and etiology, defining schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Internal Validity

The extent to which a study design allows researchers to conclude that the independent variable caused changes in the dependent variable.

External Validity

The ability to generalize research findings to real-world settings and diverse populations.

Efficacy Research

Studies focused on internal validity using homogeneous samples and highly controlled settings.

Effectiveness Research

Studies focused on external validity, reflecting real-world scenarios and routine clinical care.

Clinical Significance

The degree to which a treatment results in meaningful improvement in a patient's life or daily functioning.

Reliable Change Index (RCI)

A tool used to determine if a change in symptoms during treatment is statistically meaningful beyond normal variation.

Differential Diagnosis

The process of integrating assessment data to determine the most accurate diagnosis among several possibilities.

Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI)

A structured tool in the DSM-5-TR used to understand how culture impacts a patient's personal experience of a disorder.

Belmont Report Principles

The three core ethical standards for research: Respect for Persons, Beneficence, and Justice.

Informed Consent

The process of ensuring participants understand research aims, risks, and benefits, and that their participation is voluntary.

Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS)

A genetic research method that tests hundreds of thousands of variants across the genome to find associations with disorders.

Epigenetics

The study of heritable changes in gene expression caused by environmental factors rather than changes in the DNA sequence itself.

Translational Research

An approach that focuses on converting basic scientific discoveries into practical applications for human health.

Comorbidity

The presence of more than one psychological disorder in a single individual.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

A treatment focusing on the reciprocal relationships between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Humanistic Perspective

A psychological model emphasizing subjective perception and the individual's motivation to self-actualize.

Functional Analysis

A behavioral assessment identifying the antecedents and consequences that maintain a specific problem behavior.

Neuropsychological Testing

Indirectly measures brain functioning through tasks assessing memory, language, and motor skills.

Double Consciousness

A concept in Black psychology describing the navigation of dual identities, which can be both a coping mechanism and a source of distress.