Unit 8 Clinical Psychology

Agoraphobia

fear of open spaces

Anorexia Nervosa

an eating disorder in which a normal-weight person (usually an adolescent female) diets and becomes significantly (15 percent or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve

Antisocial Personality Disorder

a personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits lack of conscience for wrong-doing, even towards friends and family members; may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist

Anxiety Disorders

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

Bipolar Disorder

a mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania (formerly called manic-depressive disorder

Catatonic Schizophrenia

type of schizophrenia characterized either by displays of excited or violent motor activity or by stupor.

Comorbidity

the presence of two or more unrelated disease conditions at the same time in the same person

Concordance Rate

indicates the percentage of twin pairs or other pairs of relatives who exhibit the same disorder

Conjunction Fallacy

when people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event

Conversion Disorder

a rare somatoform disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found

Culture-Bound Disorder

abnormal syndromes found only in a few cultures; mult personality disorder only in US

Cyclothymic Disorder

a mild bipolar disorder that persists over a long time

Delusions

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

Diagnosis

identifying the nature or cause of some phenomenon

Disorganized Schizophrenia

disorganized speech or behavior, flat or inappropriate emotion

Dissociative Amnesia

dissociative disorder characterized by the sudden and extensive inability to recall important personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature

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 two or more distinct and alternating personalities (also called multiple personality disorder)

Dysthymic Disorder

type of psychological disorder characterized by mild but chronic depression

Eating Disorders

extreme, harmful eating behaviors that can cause serious illness or even death

Epidemiology

the branch of medical science dealing with the transmission and control of disease

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

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

Hallucinations

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

Hypochondriasis

chronic and abnormal anxiety about imaginary symptoms and ailments

Insanity

relatively permanent disorder of the mind

Involuntary Commitment

a civil proceeding in which people are hospitalized in psychiatric facilities against their will.

Major Depressive Disorder

a mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities

Mania

a mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, widely optimistic state

Medical Model

the concept that diseases have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured; when applied to psychological disorders, the medical model assumes that these mental illnesses can be diagnosed on the basis of their symptoms and cured through therapy, which may include treatment in a psychiatric hospital

Mood Disorders

psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

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

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

Paranoid Schizophrenia

a type of schizophrenia that is dominated by delusions of persecution along with delusions of grandeur

Personality Disorders

condition in which personality traits, appearing first in adolescence, are inflexible, stable, expressed in a wide variety of situations, and lead to distress or impairment

Phobic Disorders

disorders characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations

Psychological Disorder

deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional behavior patterns

Prevalence

(epidemiology) the ratio (for a given time period) of the number of occurrences of a disease or event to the number of units at risk in the population

Prognosis

forecast for the disorder

Schizophrenic Disorders

a group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions

Somatization Disorders

intensely and chronically uncomfortable psychological conditions that involve numerous symptoms of somatic (body) illness without physical cause

Somatoform Disorders

disorders characterized by physical symptoms for which no known physical cause exists

Undifferentiated Schizophrenia

mixture of symptoms and does not meet the diagnostic criteria for any one type of schizophrenia

Anti-Anxiety Drugs

drugs used to control anxiety and agitation

Anti-Depressant Drugs

drugs used to treat depression; also increasingly prescribed for anxiety; different types work by altering the availability of various neurotransmitters

Anti-Psychotic Drugs

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

Aversion Therapy

a behavior therapy in which an aversive stimulus is paired with a stimulus that elicits an undesirable response.

Behavior Therapies

therapies that apply the principles of classical and operant conditioning in the treatment of psychological disorders

Biomedical Therapies

prescribed medications or medical procedures that act directly on the patient's nervous system

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 (also called person-centered therapy)

Clinical Psychologists

evaluate and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders

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

Counseling Psychologists

counsel people with milder problems than clinical psychologists

Counterconditioning

a behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors; based on classical conditioning (includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning)

Deinstitutionalization

policy of reducing the population of mental hospitals by shifting care from inpatient facilities to community-based outpatient facilities

Dream Analysis

a psychoanalytic technique in which the therapist interprets the symbolic meaning of the client's dreams

Eclecticism

in psychotherapy, drawing ideas from two or more systems of therapy instead of committing to just one system

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

Free Association

in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever come to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Group Therapy

psychotherapy in which a small group of individuals meet with a therapist

Insight Therapies

a variety of therapies which aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing the client's awareness of underlying motives and defenses

Interpretation

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

Lithium

a chemical that provides an effective drug therapy for the mood swings of bipolar disorders

Lobotomy

a now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients; the procedure cut the nerves that connect the frontal lobe to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain

Mental Hospital

a hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person

Meta-Analysis

a procedure for statistically combining the results of man different research studies

Placebo Effects

occur when people's expectations lead them to experience some change even though they receive a fake treatment

Psychiatrists

physicians who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders

Psychotherapy

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

Psychopharmacology

the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

Psychosurgery

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

Resistance

an electrical device that resists the flow of electrical current; (psychiatry) an unwillingness to bring repressed feelings into conscious awareness

Social Skills Training

a behavior therapy designed to improve interpersonal skills that emphasizes shaping, modeling, and behavioral rehearsal

Spontaneous Remission

recovery from a disorder without formal treatment

Systematic Desensitization

desensitization a technique used in behavior therapy to treat phobias and other behavior problems involving anxiety

Tardive Dyskinesia

involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs; a possible neurotoxic side effect of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs that target D2 dopamine receptors

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

Transference

(psychoanalysis) the process whereby emotions are passed on or displaced from one person to another