definitions Exam 1 for Psychosocial Challenges 204

selection

a belief that individuals who are at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale are by virtue of this position in society more likely to develop mental disorders.

drift

suggests that individuals with mental disorders by virtue of the emotional cognitive and behavioral difficulties are more likely to slide into a lower socioeconomic status

mental disorder

a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning

etiology

the cause of the disorder.

dementia

significant cognitive decline. associated with changes in brain structure and chemistry but no one can explain why this happens

interrater reliability

the extent to which 2 different clinicians make the same diagnosis.

descriptive psychopathology

describing what the clinician saw not what caused what they observed

atheoretical

without reference to particular theories or points of views

multiaxial classification

axes that made it possible to not only name a syndrome but identify disordered personality characteristics accompanying medical condition of significance to treatment and prognosis levels of stress encountered by the individual and recent level of function

Axis V

known as the level of function, appeared to be the most reliable of the axes

hierarchical

based on the assumption that disorders higher on the hierarchy has symptoms found in those lower but not the opposite.

spectrum disorders

replaced the assumption of hierarchies.
Conceptualization reflects the belief that related disorders fall along a continuum from more severe to less severe.

prevalence

the proportion of the population identified as having a particular disorder at a particular time- of mental disorders in general and specific conditions.

evidence based practice

practice that is based on findings in the research
literature that validate particular interventions.

medicalization

some experiencing mental disorders are reduced to “it is a
chemical imbalance” versus the view of social and situational issues that cause problems w/ function.

comorbid

accompanying a diagnosis. I.e. having anxiety and
depression or personality disorder and anxiety

function

“a person’s ability to perform a specific daily life activity

evaluation

the process of gathering initial information in preparation for the development of an intervention strategy.

assessment

the specific instruments or tools, usually standardized, that
contribute information to the evaluation.

occupational profile

clarifies characteristics of the client and their activities.

screening

a process that identifies whether a given individual needs more extensive evaluation and what areas might need to be examined most closely.

performance skills are….

observable, goal-directed actions and consist of motor skills, process skills and social interaction skills.

performance patterns are?

activities that are an important part of a client’s life.

what are roles?

behaviors that are associated with societally dictated expectations

what are rituals?

routines that incorporate, symbolic actions to reflect spiritual, cultural, or social meanings.

what are routines?

are sequences of habits or clusters of behavior that accomplish an occupation

habits are?

automatic behaviors that are undertaking regularly

psychometric properties

the quantifiable aspects of a test that indicate its
statistical strength or weakness. These determine quality, reliability, and validity.

norm referenced

provide information about comparable groups of people and the range of their scores.

floor effect or ceiling effect

when measurements accurately only to a particular lower or upper level of ability

goal attainment scaling

a method that focuses on the measurement of
individual goals.

what are activity demands?

activity demands are what is typically required to carry out the activity regardless of client and context

Nervios

translate roughly to nerves and is a hybrid of depression and anxiety

Zar

a form of spirit possession

Operational criteria

are specific observable characteristics describe a particular syndrome or disorder