Unit 5: Mental and Physical Health (NEW CED)

Health Psychology

A branch of psychology that focuses on how physical activities, psychological traits, and social relationships affect overall health and illness.

Stress

The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.

Hypertension

High blood pressure, often associated with stress, which can increase the risk of heart and kidney diseases and stroke.

Immune Suppression

Reduction in the effectiveness of the immune system, which can be caused by various forms of stress.

Stressors

Events or conditions in your surroundings that may trigger stress.

Daily Hassles

Everyday minor events that cause stress, such as traffic jams or overwhelming chores.

Significant Life Changes

Major life transitions like moving, leaving a job, or divorcing, which can be stressful.

Catastrophes

Unpredictable, large-scale events that cause significant stress and alter the lives of many people.

Eustress (motivating)

Positive stress which results from striving toward a challenging goal.

Distress (debilitating)

Negative stress that can make a person sick or keep a person from reaching a goal.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood and can have negative, lasting effects on health and well-being.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

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

Alarm Reaction Phase

The initial reaction to a stressor, activating the body's defense systems.

Resistance Phase

The body's response after the initial shock of a stressful event, where the body attempts to return to normal functioning.

Flight-Fight-Freeze Response

A physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.

Exhaustion Phase

The third stage of the GAS, during which the body depletes its resources in responding to a prolonged stressor.

Tend-and-Befriend Theory

A theory that suggests people seek social support and tend to others in times of stress.

Problem-focused Coping

Strategies aimed at tackling the cause of stress in practical ways which directly tackle the problem causing the stress.

Emotion-focused Coping

Strategies aimed at relieving or managing the emotional distress associated with stress.

Positive Psychology

The scientific study of human strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Subjective Well-being

An individual's own assessment of their happiness and satisfaction with life.

Resilience

The ability to mentally or emotionally cope with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status quickly.

Posttraumatic Growth

Positive psychological change experienced as a result of adversity and other challenges in order to rise to a higher level of functioning.

Positive Emotions

Feelings that engage us, elevate us, and promote growth and well-being.

Gratitude

A feeling of thankfulness and appreciation, especially in response to someone doing something kind or helpful.

Signature Strengths & Virtues

Character strengths and virtues that are personally fulfilling, intrinsic to one's identity, and contribute to the collective well-being.

Categories of Virtues

Broad categories that encompass character strengths, such as wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.

Abnormal Psychology

The study of psychological disorders, including their symptoms, etiology (i.e., their causes), and treatment.

Clinical Psychology

A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.

Psychology Student Syndrome

A phenomenon where psychology students begin to believe they have the disorders they are studying.

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

The updated manual that describes and categorizes mental disorders in order to improve diagnoses, treatment, and research.

International Classification of Mental Disorders (ICD)

A standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management, and clinical purposes. It is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO) and covers a broad range of health conditions, including psychological conditions.

Deviation

In psychology, typically refers to departing from the norm, which can either be statistical, social, or functional in nature.

Distress

Negative stress that can lead to anxiety, depression, and potentially to physical problems.

Dysfunction

Abnormal functioning, as opposed to normal functioning, often used to refer to individual behaviors or the functioning of social systems.

Eclectic Approach

An approach to clinical practice that involves selecting the best treatment techniques from various disciplines based on the client's unique problems, strengths, and preferences.

Behavioral Perspective

Focuses on how we learn observable responses and how the environment impacts those responses.

Psychodynamic Perspective

Emphasizes the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior and the importance of childhood experiences.

Humanistic Perspective

Focuses on the importance of being your true self in order to lead the most fulfilling life.

Cognitive Perspective

Focuses on how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information.

Evolutionary Perspective

How the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of one's genes.

Sociocultural Perspective

Examines how the social environments and cultural upbringing influence an individual's behavior and thoughts.

Biological Perspective

Explores the links between brain and mind, and how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences.

Biopsychosocial Model

An integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis to better understand health and illness.

Diathesis-Stress Model

Suggests that a person may be predisposed for a psychological disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress.

Stigma

Disapproval or discrimination against a person based on perceivable social characteristics that serve to distinguish them from other members of society.

Anxiety Disorders

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

Specific Phobia

An anxiety disorder characterized by irrational and persistent fear of a specific object, situation, or activity.

Acrophobia

Fear of heights.

Arachnophobia

Fear of spiders.

Agoraphobia

Fear of open or crowded spaces.

Panic Disorder

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

Ataque de nervios

A cultural syndrome primarily seen in Latin Americans, involving symptoms of intense emotional upset, acute anxiety, fear, or anger.

Social Anxiety Disorder

A chronic mental health condition in which social interactions cause irrational anxiety.

Taijin Kyofusho

A Japanese culture-specific syndrome characterized by an intense fear that one's body, body parts, or bodily functions give others a negative impression.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

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

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Disorders involving intrusive obsessions and compulsions which impede daily life.

Obsessions

Persistent ideas, thoughts, or impulses that are unwanted and inappropriate and cause marked distress.

Compulsions

Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that an individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession.

Hoarding Disorder

A disorder characterized by the persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value.

Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders

Disorders related to the exposure to a traumatic or stressful event.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

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

Depressive Disorders

Disorders that involve the presence of sad, empty, or irritable mood, accompanied by physical and cognitive changes that significantly affect the individual's capacity to function.

Major Depressive Disorder

A mood disorder causing a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest.

Persistent Depressive Disorder

A form of depression that is less severe than major depressive disorder but more chronic.

Bipolar Disorder

A disorder associated with episodes of mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic highs.

Bipolar Cycling

The process of cycling through episodes of mania and depression in bipolar disorder.

Bipolar I Disorder

A type of bipolar spectrum disorder characterized by the occurrence of at least one manic episode.

Bipolar II Disorder

A type of bipolar disorder marked by milder episodes of hypomania that alternate with periods of severe depression.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

A group of conditions with onset in the developmental period, often before school age, that are characterized by developmental deficits that produce impairments of personal, social, academic, or occupational functioning.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

A chronic condition including attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A disorder that affects communication and behavior.

Feeding and Eating Disorders

Disorders characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits, which negatively affect a person's health.

Anorexia Nervosa

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

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging.

Schizophrenic Spectrum Disorders

A range of disorders that involve psychosis, including schizophrenia.

Delusions

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

Delusions of Persecution

The belief that others are out to get one.

Delusions of Grandeur

A false belief that one is more important or influential than they really are.

Hallucinations

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

Disorganized Thinking

A symptom of psychosis, manifested as illogical or incoherent thought and speech.

Disorganized Speech

A style of talking involving incoherence and a lack of typical logical patterns.

Word Salad

A confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases.

Disorganized Motor Behavior

Includes a variety of unusual behaviors including problems with goal-directed behavior leading to difficulties performing activities of daily living.

Catatonia

A state of unresponsiveness to one's outside environment, usually including muscle rigidity, staring, and inability to communicate.

Flat Affect

A lack of emotional responsiveness.

Dopamine Hypothesis

The theory that schizophrenia results from an excess of dopamine activity.

Positive Symptoms

Symptoms of schizophrenia that are excesses of behavior or occur in addition to normal behavior; hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized speech.

Negative Symptoms

Symptoms of schizophrenia that are marked by deficits in functioning, such as apathy, lack of emotion, and slowed speech and movement.

Dissociative Disorders

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

Dissociative Amnesia

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

Dissociative Fugue

A rare dissociative disorder in which a person loses awareness of their identity or other important autobiographical information and also engages in some form of unexpected travel.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

A disorder characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states.

Personality Disorders

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

Cluster A Personality Disorders

Odd, eccentric thinking or behavior (including paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders).

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Type of personality disorder characterized by extreme distrust and suspicion of others.

Schizoid Personality Disorder

A personality disorder characterized by persistent avoidance of social relationships and little expression of emotion.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

A personality disorder characterized by severe social anxiety, thought disorder, paranoid ideation, derealization, transient psychosis, and often unconventional beliefs.

Cluster B Personality Disorders

Dramatic, overly emotional or unpredictable thinking or behavior (including antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders).

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A personality disorder characterized by a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family.