Abnormal Psych- Ch. 2 Key Terms

Multidimensional Integrative Approach

Approach to the study of psychopathology that holds psychological disorders as always being the products of multiple interacting casual factors

Genes

Long DNA molecules, the basic physical units of heredity that appear as locations on chromosomes. A single gene is a subunit of DNA that determines inherited traits in living things.

Diathesis-stress model

A hypothesis that both an inherited tendency (a vulnerability) and specific stressful conditions are required to produce a disorder.

Vulnerability

A susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder

Gene-environment correlational model

A hypothesis that people with a genetic pre-disposition for a disorder may also have a genetic tendency to create environmental risk factors that promote the disorder.

Epigenetics

The study of factors other than inherited DNA sequence, such as new learning or stress, that alter the phenotypic expression of genes.

Neuroscience

Study of the nervous system and its role in behavior, thoughts, and emotions

Neurons

Individual nerve cell; responsible for transmitting information

Action potentials

Short periods of electrical activity at the membrane of a neuron, responsible for the transmission of signals within the neuron

Terminal button

The end of an axon (of a neuron) where neurotransmitters are stored before release

Synaptic cleft

Space between nerve cells where chemical transmitters act to move impulses from one neuron to the next

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals that cross the synaptic cleft between nerve cells to transmit pulses from one neuron to the next. Their relative excess or deficiency is involved in several psychological disorders.

Excitatory

Causing excitation; activating

Inhibitory

Causing inhibition; suppressing

Hormone

Chemical messenger produced by the endocrine glands

Brain circuits

The neurotransmitter currents or neural pathways in the brain

Agonists

Chemical substance that effectively increases the activity of a neurotransmitter by imitating its effects.

Antagonist

In neuroscience, a chemical substance that decreases or blocks the effects of a neurotransmitter

Inverse agonists

Chemical substance that produces effects opposite those of a particular neurotransmitter.

Reuptake

Action by which a neurotransmitter is quickly drawn back into the discharging neuron after being released into a synaptic cleft

Glutamate

Amino acid neurotransmitter that excites many different neurons, leading to action.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid

A neurotransmitter that reduces activity across the synapse and thus inhibits a range of behaviors and emotions, especially generalized anxiety

Serotonin

A neurotransmitter involved in processing of information and coordination of movement, as well as inhibition and restraint. It also assists in the regulation of eating, sexual, and aggressive behaviors, all of which may be involved in different psychological disorders. Its interaction with dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia.

Norepinephrine

(also noradrenaline) The neurotransmitter active in the central and peripheral nervous systems, controlling heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration, among other functions. Because of its role in the body’s alarm reaction, it may also contribute generally and indirectly to panic attacks and other disorders.

Dopamine

Whose generalized function is to activate other neurotransmitters and to aid in exploratory and pleasure-seeking behaviors (thus balancing serotonin). a relative excess of dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia (although contradictory evidence suggests the connection is not simple), and its deficit is involved in Parkinson’s disease.

Microbiota

Entirety of the microorganisms (such as fungi, viruses, and bacteria) that populate the intestines. The combined genome of these organisms is called the microbiome. The influence of the microbiome of the gut on psychological well-being is called the psychobiome.

Brain-gut connection

The influence of the gut bacteria on physical and mental health

Cognitive science

Field of study that examines how humans and other animals acquire, process, store, and retrieve information.

Learned helplessness

Martin Seligman’s theory that people become anxious and depressed when they make an attribution that they have no control over the stress in their lives (whether or not they do in reality).

Modeling

(also known as observational learning) Learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of other individuals and consequences of that behavior.

Prepared learning

An ability that has been adaptive for evolution, allowing certain associations to be learned more readily than others.

Implicit memory

Condition of memory in which a person cannot recall past events despite acting in response to them (contrast with explicit memory).

Fight or flight response

Biological reaction to alarming stressors that musters the body’s resources (for example, blood flow and respiration) to resist or flee a threat.

Emotion

Pattern of action elicited by an external event and a feeling state, accompanied by a characteristic physiological response.

Mood

Enduring period of emotionality.

Affect

Conscious, subjective aspect of an emotion that accompanies an action at a given time.

Circumplex Model

A model describing different emotions as points in a two-dimensional space of valence and arousal.

Equifinality

Developmental psychopathology principle that a behavior or disorder may have several causes.