PSYC101 Exam "4"

This is just final portion of the semester. Use all four exam sets for the final exam review.

What are the four classes of disorders?

Personality, Anxiety, Mood, and Schizophrenia.

Think: PAMS

What are the characteristics of personality disorders?

List some of the major personality-related disorders.

Behavior patterns that impair social functioning.

Antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy), histrionic, narcissistic, and borderline personality disorder (BPD).

What is antisocial personality disorder?

It is a personality-related disorder where a person has a lack of conscience. They may be ruthless, aggressive, a con-artist, or very charming.

Signs in children: impulsive, uninhibited, unconcerned with social rewards, or have low anxiety.

What are the characteristics of anxiety disorders?

List some of the major anxiety-related disorders.

Distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety.

Generalized anxiety disorder, Panic disorder, Phobias, and Obsessive-Compulsive disorder.

What is generalized anxiety disorder?

It is an anxiety-related disorder where a person is continually tense and uneasy for no apparent reason.

What is panic disorder?

It is an anxiety-related disorder where a person experiences sudden, intense dread.

Like Tony Soprano (

What are phobias?

It is an anxiety-related disorder where a person has an irrational avoidance of a specific object or situation.

Examples: snakes, heights, crowds.

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?

It is an anxiety-related disorder where a person has unwanted, repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions).

Compulsions reduce anxiety caused by obsessions.

Example: Person repeatedly checks that oven is off due to a fear that their oven was left on and it will burn the house down. Repeatedly checking eases this obsession.

How do anxiety disorders develop?

From learning perspectives:
- Fear conditioning
- Observational learning
- Reinforcement
- Stimulus generalization

Think: FORS

From biological perspectives:
- Physiology: unusually high frontal lobe activity
- Evolution: we are scared of what our ancestors were scared of
- Genes

Think: PEG

What is a characteristic of mood disorders?

List some of the major mood-related disorders.

Emotional extremes.

Depression, manic episodes, and bipolar disorder.

What is depression (the disorder)?

It is a mood-related disorder where a person experiences feelings of worthlessness, decreased pleasure and interest, and depressed mood.

What are manic episodes?

It is a mood-related disorder where a person experiences a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state.

What is bipolar disorder (BPD)?

It is a mood-related disorder where a person experiences alternations between depression and mania.

How do mood disorders develop?

From biological perspectives:
1. Genetics
2. The brain
2a. low levels of serotonin and norepinephrine
2b. less active brains
2c. hippocampus


From socio-cognitive perspectives:
- Outlook on life can influence your mood
- Vicious cycle: negative thoughts create negative moods; negative moods create negative thoughts

What are the characteristics of schizophrenia?

Disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions.

What are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Hallucinations, delusions, bizarre behavior, incoherence, disassociated thoughts, and illogicity.

What are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

A toneless voice, expressionless face, rigid posture, blunted, apathy, and social withdrawal.

What are the causes of schizophrenia?

From brain abnormalities:
- dopamine overactivity
- brain anatomy (low frontal lobe activity, thalamus, shrunken brain tissue)
- maternal virus during pregnancy

From genetics
- identical twins have a 50% chance of being schizophrenic if their twin is

From psychological factors:
-maybe a reaction to stress?

What is the DMS-IV?

What 3 criterion does it use to diagnose a mental disorder.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edition)

1. Clinically significant dysfunction
2. Internal source
3. Involuntary manifestation

What are some clinical diagnostic tools?

1. Interview (client family & friends)
2. History (family & medical)
3. Direct observation
4. IQ Tests (WAIS)
5. Personality tests (MMPI, Big Five)
6. Projective tests (Rorschach, DAPT)
7. Brain Imaging (CAT, PET, MRI)
8. DSM-IV

What are the two types of therapy?

Biomedical and psychological

What are some examples of biomedical therapies?

1. Drug therapies
2. Other
2a. Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy (ECT) - severe depression
2b. Deep brain stimulation - invasive
2c. Vagus nerve stimulation - epilepsy, depression
2d. Transcranial magnetic stimulation - diagnosis of motor conditions, treatment of neuropathic pain, depression

What are the types of drug therapies?

Antipsychotics, anti-anxiety, antidepressants, and lithium.

What are antipsychotics? What are they used to treat?

They are used to treat schizophrenia through a blockade of dopamine receptors.

Traditional (typical) - it only relieves positive symptoms through antagonism of dopamine (subtype 2) receptors

Examples: chlorpromazine, haloperidol

What are atypical antipsycholtics?

They reduce both positive and negative symptoms without the motor side effects.

- Antagonism of dopamine and serotonin

- Examples: clozapine, olanzapine, aripirazole

What are antianxiety drugs?

They reduce anxiety. They're most helpful for generalized anxiety disorder, but really shouldn't be used.

Example:
Benzodiazepines - Valium, Xanax, Ativan

What are antidepressants?

SSRI's (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors)
- Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft
- Effect serotonin only
- most common prescribed class
- helpful for some depression and anxiety

Prozac (fluoxetine)
- 5-HT syndrome (can't mix with other antidepressants)
- Sexual dysfunction
- Pregnancy and breast feeding?
- Increased risk of suicide in children

What are the types of psychological therapies?

Behavior therapies (classical/operant), cognitive therapies, cognitive-behavioral therapies, humanistic therapies, psychoanalysis, psychodynamic, eclectic, and group & family therapy.

What is behavior therapy?

Apply learning principles to eliminate unwanted behaviors. Does not deal with the underlying problem.

Classical conditioning - anxiety disorders
- systematic desensitization (exposure therapy)
- aversive conditioning (replaces positive resp. with negative resp.)

Operant conditioning
- token economy (rewards for desires behaviors)

What is cognitive therapy?

It teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting.

Negative thinking patterns influence your mental health. (Albert Ellis - Rational emotive therapy)

What is Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT)?

Changes self-defeating thinking and behavior. Gives "homework".

What is humanistic therapy?

It focuses on self-fulfillment.

The past is not important; the conscious; responsibility for one's feelings; promotes growth.

What is psychoanalysis?

Freud-based thinking. Brings repressed childhood feelings into conscious awareness.

What is psychodynamic therapy?

Understanding of current symptoms by exploring one's childhood.

Face-to-face, fewer sessions, deemphasizes sexual conflict

What is Carl Rogers' Client-Centered Therapy?

Non-directive.

1. genuineness, acceptance, and empathy
2. Active-listening
3. Ideal vs actual selves

What is prejudice?

Unjustifiable and usually negative attitude towards a group

What are the different roots of prejudice?

Social roots and cognitive roots.

What are the social roots of prejudice?

1. Social inequity
2. In-group (us) and Out-group (Them)
- ingroup bias
3. Scapegoating - blaming is an outlet for anger (Hitler)

What are the cognitive roots of prejudice?

Stereotypes come from how we cognitively simplify the world.

1. Categorization - overestimate the similarity of people within different groups from our own
2. Vivid cases - easily remembered and can bias judgements
3. Just-World Phenomenon - people get what they deserve

What is the fundamental attribution error?

The tendency when analyzing another's behavior to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Example: chastizing a "lazy employee" for being late to a meeting and then proceeding to make an excuse for being late yourself that same day

When will attitudes guide behaviors?

1. Outside influences are minimal
2. The attitude is specifically relevant to the behavior
3. We are keenly aware of our attitudes
- ex: Deiner mirror studies (people less likely to cheat, steal, etc when they see their reflection)

When do our behaviors guide our attitudes?

1. Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: tendency for people who agree to a small action to comply later with a larger one
2. Role playing - Zimbardo's prison experiment

What is cognitive dissonance theory?

We act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent.

What is an example of conformity (regarding social influence)?

Asch line measuring experiments.

Willingness to conform to the group.

What is an example of obedience (regarding social influence)?

Milgram's shock experiments.

63% delivered highest 450 volts.
65% delivered highest shock with learner reported "heart problems"
93% delivered highest shock when someone else pushed button

What are some examples of group influence?

1. Social facilitation - improved performance of tasks in front of others
2. Social loafing - people in a group tend to exert less effort (think tug-of-war example)
3. De-individuation - Loss of self-awareness and self restraint when anonymity is involved (woman w/ hoods, Zimbardo)
4. Group polarization - enhancement of a group's attitude through discussion within the group
5. Groupthink - the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives (ex: Challenger explosion)