AP Psych Unit 10

Psychological Disorder

A field of Psychology that attempts to understand, prevent, and treat mental disorders characterized by persistent abnormal behaviors.

Medical Model

Views abnormal behavior as a symptom of an underlying disease or disorder, similar to how physical illnesses are understood.

DSM-V

A diagnostic tool that provides a common language and framework for diagnosing mental disorders.

Anxiety Disorder

A psychological disorder characterized by excessive and persistent fear, anxiety, or worry that interferes with daily life.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Produces fear, worry, and a constant feeling of being overwhelmed; characterized by excessive, persistent, and unrealistic worry about everyday things.

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms.

PTSD

Psychologically distressing experience that continues to cause anxiety after the fact.

Phobia

Intense fear of specific situations or objects, usually abnormal or unnecessary fears.

Agoraphobia

Fear of crowded places or even leaving the home.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Driven to disturbing thoughts (obsessions) and/or performing senseless rituals (compulsions).

Hypochondriasis

A condition where a person is excessively worried about having a serious illness, despite medical evaluations.

Conversion Disorder

A psychological condition in which a person loses the ability to function normally in some bodily way, not due to any identifiable physical cause.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

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

Dissociative Amnesia

A psychological disorder characterized by the inability to remember important personal information, usually related to traumatic events.

Dissociative Fugue

A rare condition where a person suddenly travels away from home and may assume a new identity.

Major Depressive Disorder

A mood disorder in which a person experiences depression for two or more weeks with five or more symptoms.

Bipolar Disorder

A mood disorder characterized by alternating between the hopelessness of depression and the overexcited state of mania.

Schizophrenia

A psychological disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished emotional expression.

Paranoid Schizophrenia

Characterized by delusions of persecution or grandeur and auditory hallucinations related to a single theme.

Catatonic Schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia characterized by a fixed stuporous state for long periods.

Disorganized Schizophrenia

Features incoherent speech and bizarre behavior, often with inappropriate or flat affect.

Personality Disorder

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

Psychotherapy

Treatment involving psychological techniques between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome difficulties.

Biomedical Therapy

Prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on a person's physiology.

Eclectic Approach

An approach to psychotherapy that uses techniques from various forms of therapy based on the client's problems.

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s therapeutic technique focusing on free associations, resistances, dreams, and transference to release repressed feelings.

Insight Therapy

Therapies aiming to improve psychological functioning by increasing awareness of underlying motives and defenses.

Client-centered Therapy

A humanistic therapy developed by Carl Rogers, focused on active listening in a supportive environment.

Active Listening

Empathic listening where the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies messages.

Behavior Therapy

Therapy that applies learning principles to eliminate unwanted behaviors.

Exposure Therapies

Behavioral techniques that treat anxieties by exposing people to the things they fear.

Systematic Desensitization

A type of exposure therapy that associates a relaxed state with increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli.

Aversive Conditioning

A type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state with unwanted behavior.

Token Economy

An operant conditioning procedure where people earn tokens for desired behaviors, exchangeable for privileges or treats.

Cognitive Therapy

Therapy that teaches new, more adaptive ways of thinking.

Rational-emotive behavior Therapy

A cognitive therapy that challenges illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

An integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy with behavior therapy.

Group Therapy

Therapy conducted with groups, allowing therapeutic benefits from interactions.

Family Therapy

Therapy that treats the family as a system affecting individual behavior.

Psychopharmacology

The branch of psychology that studies how drugs affect mood, behavior, and cognition.

Antipsychotic Drugs

Medications used to treat symptoms of psychosis, such as hallucinations and delusions.

Anti-anxiety Drugs

Medications that help reduce symptoms of anxiety by slowing down the central nervous system.

Antidepressant Drugs

Medications used to treat depression and anxiety, balancing neurotransmitters that affect mood.

Electroconvulsive Therapy

A procedure involving small electric currents passed through the brain to trigger a brief seizure, often used when other treatments fail.