Unit 12 and 14 Study Guide

Psychological Disorder

a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

a psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 or one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Medical Model

the concept that diseases, in this case, psychological disorders have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital.D

DSM-5

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.

Anxiety

a feeling of dread and gnawing apprehension about vague or unrealized threats and hardships that exist sometime in the future but are not a clear immediate danger to well-being.

Anxiety Disorders

psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety. 

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal.

Panic Disorder

an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations. Often followed by worry over a possible next attack.

Phobia

an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation. 

Social Anxiety Disorder

 intense fear of social stimulus, leading to avoidance of such. (formally called social phobia)

Agoraphobia

fear or avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide open places, where one has felt a loss of control. 

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/ or actions (compulsions). 

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience. 

Posttraumatic Growth

positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises.

Mood Disorders

psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes. 

Major Depressive Disorder

a mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or another medical condition, two or more weeks with five or more symptoms, at least one of which must be either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure. 

Mania

a mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state. 

Bipolar Disorder

a mood disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania (formerly called manic-depressive disorder.) 

Schizophrenia

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

Psychosis

a psychological disorder in which a person loses contact with reality, experiencing irrational ideas and distorted perception. 

Somatic Symptom Disorder

a psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a somatic (bodily) form without apparent physical cause. 

Illness Anxiety Disorder

a disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease (formerly called hypochondriasis). 

Conversion Disorder

a disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found. (Also called functional neurological symptom disorder)

Dissociative Disorders

disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings. 

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Formerly called multiple personality disorder. 

Anorexia Nervosa

an eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) maintains a starvation diet despite being significantly (15 percent or more) underweight.

Bulimia Nervosa

an eating disorder in which a person alternates binge eating (usually high-calorie foods) with purging (by vomiting or laxative use), excessive exercise, or fasting 

Binge-Eating Disorder

significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt but without the compensatory purging or fasting that marks bulimia nervosa.

Personality Disorders

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

Antisocial Personality Disorder

a personality disorder in which a person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even towards friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist. 

Social Psychology

the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another. 

Attribution Theory

the theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition 

Optimists

people who attribute good events to dispositions and bad events to situations.

Pessimists

people who are more likely to suffer depression, will make dispositional attributions for bad events and situational attributions for good events. 

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing others’ behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Looking Glass Effect

When we are aware of our attitudes, we are more likely to allow them to guide our actions.

Attitude

feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events. 

Peripheral Route Persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness.

Central Route Persuasion

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. 

Role

a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in a position ought to behave. 

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. For example, when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes.

Conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. 

Normative Social Influence

influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Informational Social Influence

influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality

Social Facilitation

improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Social Loafing

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.

Deindividualization

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

Group Polarization

the enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group.

Groupthink

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. 

Culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next. 

Norm

an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. Norms prescribe “proper” behavior.

Prejudice

an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members; generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action. 

Stereotype

a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.

Discrimination

 unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

Just-World Phenomenon

the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people, therefore, get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Ingroup

“us” people with whom we share a common identity.

Outgroup

“them” those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup

Ingroup Bias

the tendency to favor our own group

Scapegoat Theory

the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.

Other-Race Effect

the tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other races. Also called the cross-race effect or the own-race bias.

Aggression

any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

Frustration-Aggression

principle that frustration - the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal - creates anger, which can generate aggression. 

Social Script

culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations. 

Mere Exposure Effect

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them. 

Passionate Love

an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship. 

Companionate Love

the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined. 

Equity

a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it.

Self-Disclosure

revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others.

Altruism

unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Bystander Effect

the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

Social Exchange Theory

the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs. 

Reciprocity Norm

an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them. 

Social-Responsibility Norm

an expectation that people will help those needing their help. 

Conflict

a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

Social Trap

 a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

Mirror-Image Perceptions

mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive. 

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

Subordinate Goals

shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation.

GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction)

a strategy designed to decrease international tensions.