AP Psych Unit 12- Abnormal Behavior (Myers Textbook)

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 of one or more of three key symptoms; extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity

Philippe Pinel (1742-1826)

Opposed the brutal treatment of “mad people” and reformed humane treatment

Medical Models

The concept that disease, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured, often though treatments in a hospital

Biopsychosocial Approach

Assumed that three sets of influence- biological (evolutionary, genetics, brain structure, and chemistry), psychological (stress, trauma, perceptions, and memories), and socio-cultural (roles, expectations, definitions of “normality’ and “disorder”)- interact to produce specific psychological disorders

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 Disorders

Psychological Disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety, or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

Generalized Anxiety

An anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal; many people with it were maltreated and inhibited as a child and it may cause high blood pressure

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 situations, leading to avoidance of such (formerly called social phobia)

Agoraphobia

Fear or avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide open places, where one has felt loss of control and panic

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

Theories of Anxiety Disorders

1\. Freud proposed anxiety originates from repression in childhood

2\. Conditioning & Observational Learning

3. Genes (temperament, neurotransmitters, evolution)

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

A brain region that monitors our actions and checks for error- seems especially likely to be hyperactive in these with OCD

Mood Disorders

Psychological disorders characterized by emotional extreme -comes in two principal forms 1) major depressive disorder 2) manic-depressive disorder

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

Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia)

A diagnoses for adults if they experience a mildly depressed mood more often than not for at least two years

Mania

A mood disorder marked by a hyperactive wildly optimistic state; marked by an overabundance in norepinephrine

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)

Rumination

Compulsive fretting; overthinking about our problems and their cases- thanks to the continuous firing of a frontal love that sustains attention

Explanatory Style

Who or what we blame for our failures (or credit for our success); if you can externalize the blame, you are more likely to feel angry. If you blame yourself, you will probably feel stupid and depressed

The Vicious Cycle of Depressive Thinking

1) Stressful Experience → 2) Negative Explanatory Style → 3) Depressed Mood → 4) Cognitive & Behavioral Changes

Terms of Explaining Bad Events

1. Stable vs. Unstable (Is it going to last forever vs. It’s going to be temporary)
2. Global vs. Specific (It’s going to affect everything I do vs. It’s going to affect only some aspects of my life)
3. Internal vs. External

Schizophrenia

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