Chapter 15 & 16 The Science of Psychology

Abnormal Behavior (3 Categories)

Behavior that is deviant, maladaptive, or personallly distressful over a long period of time

Biological Approach (Medical Model)

Attributes disorders to organic, internal causes. Primarily focuses on the brain, genetic factors, and neurotransmitter functioning

DSM-IV

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Split up into 5 axes
Axis I: All diagnostic categories except personality disorders and mental retardation. I.e. anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, mood disorders, etc.

Axis II: Personality disorders and mental retardation

Axis III: General medical conditions

Axis IV: Psychosocial and environmental problems

Axis V: Current level of functioning

Psychological Approach

Emphasizes contributions of experiences, thoughts, emotions, and personality characteristics in explaining disorders

Sociocultural Approach

Emphasizes the social contexts in which a person lives, including gender, ethnicity, economic status, family relations, etc.

Biopsychosocial Model

Biological, psychological, and social factors all interact with each other to produce normal or abnormal behavior

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Experience persistent anxiety for at least six months with no apparent reason for anxiety;

caused by deficiency in neurotransmitter GABA

Panic Disorder

Experience recurrent, sudden onsets of intense apprehension or terror, often without warning or cause

Phobic Disorder

Persistent fear of a particular object or situation

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Anxiety-provoking thoughts that will not go away and urges to perform repetitive behaviors

Depressive Disorders

Mood disorders in which the individual suffers from depression; an unrelenting lack of pleasure in life

Major Depressive Disorder

Involves significant depressive episode and depressed characteristics, such as lethargy and hopelessness for at least two weeks.

Dysthymic Disorder

More chronic; Individual is in a depressed mood for most days at least two years as an adult or at least one year as a child/adolescent. To be classified as having this, individual must not have experienced a major depressive episode

Bipolar Disorder

Mood disorder that is characterized by extreme mood swings that include one or more episodes of mania, an overexcited, unrealistically optimistic state

Suicide

Killing oneself; caused most often by anxiety and depression

Dissociative Disorders

Psychological disorders that involve a sudden loss of memory or change in identity due to the dissociation of the individual's conscious awareness from previous memories and thoughts

Dissociative Amnesia

Type of amnesia characterized by extreme memory loss that stems from extensive psychological stress

Dissociative Fugue

Dissociative disorder in which the individual not only develops amnesia but also unexpectedly travels away from home and sometimes assumes a new identity

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Multiple Personality Disorder; individual has two or more distinct personalities or identities, each with its own memories, behaviors, and relationships

Schizophrenia

Sever psychological disorder characterized by highly disordered thought processes, referred to as psychotic because they are so far removed from reality

Hallucinations

Sensory experiences in the absence of real stimuli

Delusions

False, unusual, and sometimes magical beliefs that are not part of an individual's culture

Catatonia

State of immobility and unresponsiveness lasting for long periods of time

Flat Effect

The display of a little or no emotion -- a common negative symptom of schizophrenia

Diathesis Stress Model

The model of psychopathology that proposes that people with an underlying vulnerability (also called a diathesis) may develop a disorder under stressful circumstances.

Personality Disorders

Chronic, maladaptive cognitive-behavioral patterns that are thoroughly integrated into an individual's personality

Anti-Social Personality Disorder

Characterized by guiltlessness, law-breaking, exploitation of others, irresponsibility, and deceit; more common in men

Borderline Personality Disorder

Instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotion, and of marked impulsitivity; More common in women

Biological Therapies

Also called biomedical therapies, treatments that reduce or eliminate the symptoms of psychological disorders by altering aspects of body functioning.

Anti-Anxiety Drugs

Commonly known as tranquilizers, drugs that reduce anxiety by making the individual calmer and less excitable.

Antidepressant drugs

Drugs that regulate mood

Lithium

The lightest of the solid elements of the periodic table of elements, widely used to treat bi-polar disorder

Anti-psychotic Drugs

Powerful drugs that diminish agitated behavior, reduce tension, decrease hallucinations, improve social behavior, and produce better sleep patterns in individuals with severe psychological disorder, especially schizophrenia.

Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy

Also called shock therapy, a treatment, commonly used for depression, that sets off a seizure in the brain.

Deep Brain Stimulation

A procedure for treatment-resistant depression that involves the implantation of electrodes in the brain that emit signals to alter the brain's electrical circuitry.

Psychosurgery

A biological therapy, with irreversible effects, that involves removal or destruction of brain tissue to improve the individual's adjustment.

Psychotherapy

A non medical process that helps individuals with psychological disorders recognize and overcome their problems.

Psychoanalysis

Freud's therapeutic technique for analyzing an individual's unconscious thoughts.

Free Association

A psychoanalytic technique that involves encouraging individuals to say aloud whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.

Interpretation

A psychoanalyst's search for symbolic, hidden meanings in what the client says and does during therapy.

Dream Analysis

A psychoanalytic technique for interpreting a person's dreams.

Transference

A client's relating to the psychoanalyst in ways that reproduce or relive important relationships in the individual's life.

Resistence

A client's unconscious defense strategies that interfere with the psychoanalyst's understanding of the individual's problems.

Humanistic Therapies

Treatments, unique in their emphasis on people's self-healing capacities, that encourage clients to understand themselves and to grow personally.

Client-Centered Therapy

Also called Rogerian therapy or non directive therapy, a form of humanistic therapy, developed by Rogers, in which the therapist provides a warm, supportive atmosphere to improve the client's self-concept and to encourage the client to gain insight into improve.

Reflective Speech

A technique in which the therapist mirrors the client's own feelings back to the client.

Behavior Therapies

Treatments, based on the behavioral and social cognitive theories of learning, that use principles of learning to reduce or eliminate maladaptive behavior.

Systematic Desensitization

A method of behavior therapy that treats anxiety by teaching the client to associate deep relaxation with increasingly intense anxiety-producing situations

Applied Behavior Analysis (Operant)

The use of psychological principles and research methods to solve practical problems

Cognitive Therapies

Treatments that point to cognitions (thoughts) as the main source of psychological problems and that attempt to change the individual's feelings and behaviors by changing cognitions.

Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy

A therapy based on Ellis's assertion that individuals develop a psychological disorder because of irrational and self-defeating beliefs and whose goal is to get clients to eliminate these beliefs by rationally examining them.

Beck's Cognitive Therapy

The goal is that the client will identify negative forms of thinking. The therapist is co-investigator in helping client discover faulty beliefs. Incorporates the use of record keeping or homework in helping client discover faulty beliefs and the clients write rational responses to thoughts and emotions to determine if thought is justified by the actual event

Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

A therapy that combines cognitive therapy and behavior therapy with the goal of developing self-efficancy.

Integrative Therapy

A combination of techniques from different therapies based on the therapist's judgement of which particular methods will provide the greatest benefit for the client.

Group Therapy

A sociocultural approach to the treatment psychological disorders that brings together individuals who share a particular psychological disorder in sessions that are typically led by a mental health professional.

Family Therapy

Group therapy with family members.

Couples Therapy

Group therapy with married or unmarried couples whose major problems lies within their relationship.

Therapeutic Alliance

The relationship between the therapist and client-an important element of successful psychotherapy

Well-Being Therapy

A short-term, problem focused, directive therapy that encourages clients to accentuate the positive.