AP Psych - Unit 8 Vocab

Agoraphobia

Irrational fear of entering open or crowded spaces

Phobia

Persistent and irrational fear, resulting in avoidance of an object or situation that disrupts behavior

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Persistence of wanted thoughts and actions that time consuming, cause distress and interfere with everyday living

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Four or more weeks of haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and sleep problems

Somatic Symptom Disorder

psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a bodily form without apparent physical cause

Conversion Disorder

anxiety is converted into a physical symptom

Illness Anxiety Disorder

normal physical sensations are interpreted as symptoms of disease

Dissociative Disorders

Conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings

Dissociative Identity Disorder

a disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities, formerly called multiple personality disorder

Anorexia Nervosa

A condition in which a normal-weight person (usually an adolescent woman) continuously loses weight but still feels overweight

Bulimia Nervosa

A disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, usually high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, using laxatives, fasting, or excessive exercise.

Binge-Eating Disorder

A disorder characterized by episodes of binge eating, followed by feelings of remorse or disgust - but without purging or fasting

Personality Disorders

Characterized by inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A disorder in which the person (usually men) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members

Psychotherapy

treatment consisting of interactions between a trained therapist and a patient seeking treatment

Biomedical Therapy

prescribed medications or procedures that act on the person's physiology

Eclectic Approach

uses techniques from various forms of therapy

Psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. A common technique is free association

Resistance

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

Interpretation

in psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight

Transference

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

Psychodynamic Theory

therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition that views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences

Insight therapies

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

client-centered therapy

a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth.

Active listening

a feature of client-centered therapy where the therapist echoes, relates, and clarifies the patient's thinking, acknowledging expressed feelings

Unconditional Positive Regard

according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person

Behavior Therapy

Applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors

Counterconditioning

procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors

Exposure Therapies

Expose patients to things they fear and avoid. Through repeated exposures, anxiety lessens because they habituate to the things feared

Systematic Desensitization

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

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

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

Aversive Conditioning

Type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol)

Token Economy

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

Cognitive Therapy

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

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Confrontational cognitive therapy, developed by Albert Ellis, that vigorously challenges people's illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Combine the reversal of self-defeated thinking with efforts to modify behavior

Group Therapy

Normally consists of 6-9 people attending a 90-minute session that can help more people and costs less.

Family Therapy

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

Regression Toward the Mean

Tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average.

Meta-Analysis

Thousands of patients benefit more from therapy than those who did not go to therapy

Evidence-Based Practice

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

Therapeutic Alliance

Bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client's problem

Resilience

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

Psychopharmacology

Study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

Antipsychotic Drugs

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

Antianxiety Drugs

Depress the CNS, and reduce anxiety and tension by elevating the levels of neurotransmitters like GABA

Antidepressant Drugs

Inhibitors that improve the mood by elevating levels of serotonin by inhibiting reuptake

Electroconvulsive Therapy

used for severely depressed patients who do not respond to drugs

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

Pulsating magnetic coil is placed over prefrontal regions of the brain to treat depression with minimal side effect

Psychosurgery

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

Lobotomy

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

Psychological Disorder

deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional patterns of thoughts, feelings, or behaviors

ADHD

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity)

medical model

view of mental illness as due to a physical disorder requiring medical treatment

DSM-5

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (classifies psychological disorders)

anxiety disorders

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

generalized anxiety disorder

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

panic disorder

an anxiety disorder that consists of sudden, overwhelming attacks of terror

phobia

a persistent and irrational fear and avoidance f an object or situation that disrupts behavior

social anxiety disorder

an anxiety disorder involving the extreme and irrational fear of being embarrassed, judged, or scrutinized by others in social situations

agoraphobia

An abnormal fear of open or public places

obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

persistence of unwanted thoughts and/or actions that are time-consuming, cause distress and interfere with everyday living

posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia

posttraumatic growth

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

mood disorders

psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes

major depressive disorder

a mood disorder in which a person feels sad and hopeless (depression is the "common cold" of psychological disorders because of its pervasiveness)

mania

a mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state

bipolar disorder

A mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania.

rumination

compulsive fretting; overthinking about our problems and their causes

schizophrenia

a group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions ("split mind")

psychosis

a psychological disorder in which a person loses contact with reality, experiencing irrational ideas and distorted perceptions

delusions

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

hallucinations

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