AP Psychology Ultimate Study Guide (All Vocab)

Health Psychology

The study of psychological and behavioral processes in health, illness, and healthcare.

Positive Psychology

Concentrates on aspects of happiness and mental health, such as positive emotions and experiences.

Psychological Disorders

Those specializing in psychological disorders apply theoretical frameworks to diagnose and devise treatment strategies.

Holistic Approach

An approach that underscores the importance of integrating various aspects of psychology in real-world applications.

Evidence-Based Practices

Practices that are based on the best available evidence to improve psychological health.

Subjective Well-being

How people experience the quality of their lives, including both emotional reactions and cognitive judgments.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

The three-stage process that describes the physiological changes the body goes through when under stress: alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

Resilience

The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.

Stress

The psychological and physiological response to perceived challenges or threats.

Posttraumatic Growth

Positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances.

Positive Emotions

Feelings that engage us, uplift us, and make our lives feel meaningful.

Hypertension

Chronic high blood pressure, often stress-related, affecting cardiovascular health.

Immune Suppression

The reduction in the effectiveness of the immune system, often due to stress.

Gratitude

A feeling of thankfulness and appreciation.

Alarm Reaction Phase

The initial reaction to a stressor, activating the sympathetic nervous system.

Resistance Phase

The body adapts to the stressor but at a high cost in energy and effort.

Flight-Fight-Freeze Response

The body's automatic, built-in system designed to protect it from threat or danger.

Exhaustion Phase

The phase in which the body's ability to resist is depleted.

Signature Strengths & Virtues

Personal characteristics that define who we are and which we use to navigate life effectively.

Stressors

Specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten their well-being.

Daily Hassles

Everyday minor events that cause stress.

Significant Life Changes

Major life transitions that can be sources of stress.

Catastrophes

Large-scale events that require adaptation through significant personal change.

Categories of Virtues

Broad domains of human behavior that reflect good character; they include wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.

Tend-and-Befriend Theory

A theory proposing that women are more likely to respond to stress with nurturing behaviors and forming alliances than fight-or-flight.

Problem-focused Coping

Strategies aimed at tackling a stressful situation directly.

Emotion-focused Coping

Strategies aimed at managing the emotional response to stress.

Positive Psychology

The study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Eustress

Positive, motivating stress that enhances one's functioning.

Distress

Negative stress that can lead to health problems or decreased functioning.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Potentially traumatic events that occur during childhood.

Abnormal Psychology

The study of psychological disorders and their treatment.

Clinical Psychology

The branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illness and disability.

Ataque de nervios

A cultural syndrome predominantly seen among individuals from Latin American and Latino communities, characterized by symptoms of intense emotional upset, acute anxiety, anger, or grief, screaming and shouting uncontrollably, attacks of crying, trembling, and sometimes dissociative experiences or seizure-like episodes.

Taijin Kyofusho

A cultural syndrome most commonly found in Japan, characterized by an intense fear that one's body, body parts, or bodily functions are displeasing, embarrassing, or offensive to other people.

Cognitive Perspective

The study of how we perceive, think, and solve problems.

Evolutionary Perspective

The study of the roots of behavior and mental processes using the principles of natural selection.

Sociocultural Perspective

A psychological perspective that examines the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior.

Biological Perspective

The scientific study of the biological bases of behavior and mental states.

Biopsychosocial Model

An integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR)

The most recent edition of the manual used by clinicians to diagnose and classify mental disorders.

International Classification of Mental Disorders (ICD)

A globally used diagnostic tool for epidemiology and health management as well as clinical purposes, which includes the criteria for health conditions and related health problems.

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder that consists of sudden, overwhelming attacks of terror.

Anxiety Disorders

Mental health disorders characterized by significant feelings of anxiety and fear.

Behavioral Perspective

Focuses on observable behaviors and the ways in which they're learned.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Intense fear of social situations, leading to avoidance of such.

Specific Phobia

An anxiety disorder that involves an irrational fear of a specific object or situation.

Acrophobia

Fear of heights.

Psychodynamic Perspective

An approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces that underlie human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience.

Arachnophobia

Fear of spiders.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

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

Agoraphobia

Fear of places or situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment.

Humanistic Perspective

An approach to psychology that emphasizes empathy and stresses the good in human behavior.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Disorders characterized by persistent, uncontrollable thoughts (obsessions) and the need to perform certain rituals (compulsions) in an attempt to control anxiety.

Feeding and Eating Disorders

Disorders characterized by a persistent disturbance of eating behaviors and associated distressing thoughts and emotions, which can result in altered consumption or absorption of food.

Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders

Disorders in which exposure to a traumatic or stressful event is listed explicitly as a diagnostic criterion.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A disorder characterized by failure to recover after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event.

Anorexia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted perception of body weight or shape.

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder marked by binge eating, followed by methods to avoid weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives, or excessive exercise.

Cluster B Personality Disorders

Personality disorders characterized by dramatic, overly emotional, or unpredictable thinking or behavior; includes antisocial, histrionic, narcissistic, and borderline personality disorders.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A disregard for and violation of the rights of others.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Excessive emotionality and attention seeking.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy.

Borderline Personality Disorder

Instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity.

Personality Disorders

Disorders characterized by inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning.

Cluster A Personality Disorders

Personality disorders characterized by odd, eccentric thinking or behavior; includes paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Distrust and suspicion of others.

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Detachment from social relationships.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

A pattern of peculiarities in thinking, perception, and behavior.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

A group of conditions characterized by an impairment of brain function that affects children's ability to control emotion, learning ability, self-control, and memory as they grow.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

A disorder marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior, interests, or activities.

Cluster C Personality Disorders

Personality disorders characterized by anxious, fearful thinking or behavior; includes avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation.

Dependent Personality Disorder

Excessive need to be taken care of, leading to submissive and clinging behavior.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Preoccupation with orderliness, perfection, and control.

Dopamine Hypothesis

The theory that schizophrenia results from excessive activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Schizophrenic Spectrum Disorders

A range of disorders involving psychosis or other severe mental disturbances that affect thinking, feeling, and behavior.

Delusions

False beliefs based on incorrect inferences about reality.

Delusions of Persecution

Beliefs that others are out to harm or harass the individual.

Delusions of Grandeur

Beliefs that one holds special power, unique knowledge, or is extremely important.

Hallucinations

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

Positive Symptoms

Symptoms of schizophrenia that are excesses of behavior or occur in addition to normal behavior; includes hallucinations, delusions, and distorted thinking.

Negative Symptoms

Symptoms of schizophrenia that are less than normal behavior or an absence of normal behavior; tend to appear as deficits in functioning, such as flat affect, lack of emotional response, and withdrawal from reality.

Dissociative Disorders

Disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings.

Dissociative Amnesia

A disorder characterized by the sudden loss of memory for significant personal information.

Dissociative Fugue

A disorder in which one travels away from home and is unable to remember details of his past, including often his identity.

Disorganized Thinking

Fragmented or bizarre thinking that is often illogical.

Disorganized Speech

Incoherent or nonsensical talk.

Word Salad

Jumbled words and phrases that are disconnected or incoherent.

Disorganized Motor Behavior

Behavior that is unpredictable and inappropriate for the situation.

Catatonia

A state of unresponsiveness to one's environment, including a lack of motor skills or interaction with others.

Flat Affect

A lack of emotional responsiveness.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities.

Person-Centered Therapy

A form of psychotherapy developed by Carl Rogers that emphasizes the creation of a supportive environment for self-discovery.

Cultural Humility

An approach to engagement across cultures that emphasizes openness and self-awareness of one's own cultural identity and views about difference.

Depressive Disorders

Disorders characterized by persistent feelings of sadness and worthlessness and a lack of desire to engage in formerly pleasurable activities.

Active Listening

Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies.

Major Depressive Disorder

A disorder characterized by severe depression that occurs in episodes.

Persistent Depressive Disorder

A moderate form of depression that lasts for at least two years.