unit 8 ap psych flashcards

Psychological disorder

A syndrome characterized by a clinically significant disturbance in cognition, emotion, regulation, or behavior.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

A disorder marked by extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, typically appearing by age 7.

Medical model

The concept that psychological disorders have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and often cured.

DSM-V

The American Psychiatric Association's system for classifying psychological disorders.

Anxiety disorders

Disorders characterized by distressing anxiety or maladaptive behaviors reducing anxiety.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

An anxiety disorder involving continual tension, apprehension, and autonomic nervous system arousal.

Panic disorder

An anxiety disorder with unpredictable episodes of intense dread and physical symptoms like chest pain or choking.

Phobia

An anxiety disorder marked by irrational fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations.

Social anxiety disorder

Intense fear of social situations leading to avoidance (formerly social phobia).

Agoraphobia

Fear or avoidance of situations where loss of control and panic may occur.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

A disorder with unwanted repetitive thoughts or actions.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

A disorder with haunting memories, nightmares, and anxiety following a traumatic experience.

Posttraumatic growth

Positive psychological changes after struggling with challenging circumstances.

Mood disorders

Disorders characterized by emotional extremes.

Major depressive disorder (MDD)

A mood disorder with depressive symptoms lasting at least two weeks.

Mania

A mood disorder marked by hyperactivity and optimism.

Bipolar disorder

A mood disorder alternating between depression and mania.

Rumination

Compulsive overthinking about problems and their causes.

Schizophrenia

A disorder with delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech.

Psychosis

A disorder where a person loses touch with reality.

Delusions

False beliefs often accompanying psychotic disorders.

Hallucinations

False sensory experiences without external stimuli.

Somatic symptom disorder

A disorder with physical symptoms lacking a physical cause.

Conversion disorder

Experience of genuine physical symptoms without physiological basis.

Illness anxiety disorder

Interpreting normal sensations as symptoms of a disease.

Dissociative disorders

Disorders where awareness becomes separated from memories, thoughts, and feelings.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

A disorder with two or more distinct personalities.

Anorexia nervosa

Eating disorder with significant underweight despite a starvation diet.

Bulimia nervosa

Eating disorder with binge eating followed by purging.

Binge-eating disorder

Binge eating without purging.

Personality disorder

Disorders with enduring behavior patterns impairing social functioning.

Antisocial personality disorder

Lack of conscience for wrongdoing, aggression, or manipulation.

Psychotherapy

Treatment involving psychological techniques for overcoming difficulties or achieving growth.

Biomedical therapy

Treatment with medications or procedures acting on physiology.

Eclectic approach

Therapy using techniques from various forms depending on the client's issues.

Psychoanalysis

Freud's therapeutic technique exploring repressed feelings for self-insight.

Resistance

Blocking of anxiety-laden material in psychoanalysis.

Interpretation

Analyst's noting of dream meanings and behaviors for insight in psychoanalysis.

Transference

Patient's transfer of emotions to the analyst in psychoanalysis.

Psychodynamic therapy

Therapy focusing on unconscious forces and childhood experiences for self-insight.

Insight therapies

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

Client-centered therapy

Therapy using active listening in a genuine, accepting environment for client growth.

Behavior therapy

Therapy applying learning principles to eliminate unwanted behaviors.

Counterconditioning

Behavior therapy using classical conditioning to evoke new responses to unwanted behaviors.

Exposure therapies

Techniques exposing individuals to feared stimuli to treat anxieties.

Systematic desensitization

Exposure therapy associating relaxation with anxiety triggers to treat phobias.

Virtual reality exposure therapy

An anxiety treatment exposing individuals to fears through electronic simulations.

Aversive conditioning

Associating unpleasant states with unwanted behaviors to countercondition.

Token economy

Operant conditioning procedure rewarding desired behaviors with tokens.

Cognitive therapy

Teaching adaptive thinking to change emotional reactions.

Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)

Challenging illogical attitudes and assumptions for cognitive change.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

Integrative therapy combining cognitive and behavior therapies.

Group therapy

Therapy conducted with groups for therapeutic benefits.

Family therapy

Treating families as a system to address unwanted behaviors.

Regression toward the mean

tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average

Meta-analysis

a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies

Evidence-based practice

clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences

Therapeutic alliance:

•  a bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client’s problem

Resilience

the personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and recover from adversity and even trauma

Psychopharmacology

• the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

Antipsychotic drugs

drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder

Antianxiety drugs

• drugs used to control anxiety and agitation

Antidepressant drugs

•  drugs used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (several widely used antidepressants drugs are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors - SSRIs)

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

a biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (RTMS)

•  the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity

Psychosurgery

surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior

Lobotomy

• a psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollable emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotional-controlling centers of the inner brain