AP Psychology: Unit 10- Disorders and Therapy

Deviant Psychological Disorder: 

• Behaviors, thoughts, or feelings that deviate significantly from societal or cultural norms, often seen as abnormal or out of place.

Dysfunctional Psychological Disorder: 

• Behaviors or thoughts that interfere with a person's ability to function in daily life, such as at work, school, or in relationships.

Distressful Psychological Disorder: 

• Behaviors or thoughts that cause significant distress or discomfort to the individual or others around them.

Maladaptive: 

• Behaviors or thoughts that impair a person’s ability to adapt to or cope with normal life demands and are harmful or counterproductive.

Medical Model

• A framework for understanding psychological disorders as diseases that have biological causes, symptoms, and potential cures, often treated through medication or surgery.

 Epigenetics

• The study of changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence, influenced by environmental factors.

Diagnostic & Statistical Manual V (DSM-5)

• The 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a comprehensive classification system used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental health disorders.

ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder): 

• A neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent patterns of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interfere with daily functioning or development.

Anxiety Disorders (Generalized) 

• A disorder characterized by excessive, uncontrollable worry about a variety of topics, events, or activities, lasting for at least six months.

Panic Disorder: 

• Recurrent and unexpected panic attacks, which are sudden periods of intense fear or discomfort that include physical symptoms such as a rapid heartbeat, sweating, and shortness of breath.

Phobic Disorder: 

• A type of anxiety disorder marked by persistent, irrational fear of specific objects, situations, or activities.

Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder): 

• An intense fear of being judged or scrutinized by others in social or performance situations, leading to avoidance of such situations.

Agoraphobia: 

• A fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult or help unavailable in the event of a panic attack or other symptoms, often leading to avoidance of public spaces.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): 

• A disorder involving repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and/or ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) performed to reduce anxiety.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): 

• A condition that may develop after exposure to a traumatic event, characterized by flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, and hypervigilance.

Conditioning Effects on Anxiety Disorders

• The theory that anxiety disorders can be learned through classical conditioning (associating a neutral stimulus with an unpleasant event) or operant conditioning (engaging in avoidance behaviors to reduce anxiety).

Major Depressive Disorder: 

• A mood disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and loss of interest or pleasure in most activities, lasting at least two weeks.

Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia): 

• A chronic form of depression where a person experiences a low mood for at least two years, often with periods of more severe depressive symptoms.

Bipolar Disorder: 

• A mood disorder characterized by extreme mood swings between depressive episodes and manic episodes (elevated, expansive, or irritable mood).

Mania: 

• A state of elevated mood, energy, and activity, often associated with impulsivity, decreased need for sleep, and risky behavior, commonly seen in bipolar disorder.

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): 

• A class of medications used to treat depression and anxiety by increasing serotonin levels in the brain by inhibiting its reuptake.

Ruminations: 

• Repetitive, negative thinking or dwelling on distressing thoughts, often contributing to or exacerbating depressive symptoms.

Schizophrenia:

•  A severe mental disorder characterized by distorted thinking, perceptions (hallucinations), and emotions, as well as impaired social and occupational functioning

Hallucinations: 

• False sensory perceptions, such as hearing voices or seeing things that are not present.

Delusions:

•  False beliefs that are strongly held despite evidence to the contrary, such as believing one has special powers or is being persecuted.

Chronic Schizophrenia: 

Schizophrenia that develops gradually and tends to be more resistant to treatment.

Acute Schizophrenia: Schizophrenia that develops suddenly, often with a more rapid onset and sometimes with a better prognosis.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID): 

• A condition where an individual has two or more distinct personality states or identities, often as a response to trauma.

Antisocial Personality Disorder: 

A personality disorder characterized by persistent patterns of disregard for the rights of others, lack of empathy, and manipulative or deceitful behavior.

Biopsychosocial Factors: 

• An approach to understanding psychological disorders by considering biological, psychological, and social factors that interact and contribute to the development of mental health conditions.

Anorexia Nervosa: 

• An eating disorder characterized by an intense fear of gaining weight, leading to self-imposed starvation and extreme weight loss.

Bulimia Nervosa: 

• An eating disorder characterized by episodes of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors such as vomiting, excessive exercise, or use of laxatives to prevent weight gain.

Placebo Effect: 

• The phenomenon where a person experiences a perceived improvement in their condition due to believing they are receiving treatment, even if the treatment has no active ingredients.

David Rosenhand: 

• A psychologist known for his study “On Being Sane in Sane Places,” where he and others feigned psychiatric symptoms to be admitted to mental hospitals, revealing the difficulties in diagnosing mental disorders and the effects of labeling.

Labeling: 

• The process of classifying and naming a mental disorder, which can sometimes have negative effects, including stigmatization and reinforcement of the disorder.

Psychotherapy: 

A therapeutic approach to treating psychological disorders through communication and interaction with a trained professional, aimed at changing behavior, thought patterns, and emotions.

Biomedical Therapy: 

• Treatment of psychological disorders using medications or other medical interventions, such as drugs or brain stimulation, to alleviate symptoms.

Psychoanalysis: 

• A therapeutic approach developed by Sigmund Freud that seeks to uncover unconscious thoughts and emotions, often through methods like free association, dream analysis, and transference.

Sigmund Freud: 

• The founder of psychoanalysis, Freud developed theories of the unconscious mind, defense mechanisms, and the structure of personality, including the id, ego, and superego.

Free Association: 

• A technique in psychoanalysis where patients are encouraged to say whatever comes to mind, without censorship, to reveal unconscious thoughts and feelings.

Resistance: 

• In psychoanalysis, resistance refers to the unconscious defense mechanisms that prevent a patient from fully engaging in therapy or confronting difficult emotions or memories.

Interpretation: 

• The psychoanalytic process of analyzing and explaining the meaning behind a patient’s thoughts, behaviors, and dreams to uncover unconscious conflicts.

Transference: 

• In psychoanalysis, transference occurs when a patient projects feelings and emotions onto the therapist that are linked to past relationships or unresolved conflicts.

Humanistic Therapies: 

• Approaches to therapy that emphasize personal growth, self-actualization, and the inherent goodness of humans, focusing on the present and future rather than past experiences.

Client vs Patient:

•  In humanistic therapy, the term “client” is used instead of “patient” to emphasize a more equal, non-hierarchical relationship between the therapist and the person receiving therapy.

Carl Rogers: 

• A prominent humanistic psychologist who developed client-centered therapy and emphasized concepts such as unconditional positive regard and active listening.

Client-Centered Therapy: 

• A therapeutic approach developed by Carl Rogers that focuses on providing a supportive environment with empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard to help clients achieve personal growth.

Active Listening: 

• A communication technique used in therapy, where the therapist listens attentively, reflects, and clarifies what the client is saying to ensure understanding and empathy.

Unconditional Positive Regard

• A concept in Carl Rogers' client-centered therapy, referring to the therapist's nonjudgmental acceptance and support of the client, regardless of their actions or feelings.

Behavior Therapies: 

• Approaches to psychotherapy that focus on changing maladaptive behaviors through techniques based on classical and operant conditioning.

Counterconditioning

• A behavioral therapy technique that involves conditioning an unwanted behavior or response to be replaced by a more adaptive behavior, often using classical conditioning methods.

Exposure Therapies

• A type of behavior therapy that gradually exposes a person to the feared object or situation in a controlled way to reduce anxiety or phobia over time.

Systematic Desensitization

• A type of exposure therapy that involves gradually exposing a person to a feared stimulus while simultaneously teaching relaxation techniques to reduce anxiety.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy: 

• A type of exposure therapy where virtual reality simulations are used to expose individuals to feared situations in a controlled, virtual environment.

Aversive Conditioning: 

• A type of counterconditioning that pairs an unwanted behavior with an unpleasant stimulus to reduce the occurrence of that behavior.

Behavior Modification:

• The use of operant conditioning techniques (such as reinforcement and punishment) to change behavior, often used in institutional or educational settings.

Token Economy

• A system of behavior modification in which individuals earn tokens for exhibiting desirable behaviors, which can later be exchanged for rewards.

Cognitive Therapies:

• Approaches to psychotherapy that focus on identifying and changing negative thought patterns and beliefs that contribute to emotional distress.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

• A type of psychotherapy that combines cognitive and behavioral techniques to help individuals recognize and change negative thought patterns and behaviors, commonly used for anxiety and depression.

Group Therapy

• A form of psychotherapy where a small group of individuals with similar issues or concerns meets with a therapist to share experiences and provide mutual support.

Family Therapy: 

• A therapeutic approach that involves treating families as a unit, addressing communication patterns, relationships, and dynamics within the family system.

Hans Eysenck: 

• A psychologist who studied the effectiveness of psychotherapy and concluded that many therapies have little benefit, suggesting that spontaneous remission or other factors might be responsible for improvement.

Meta-Analysis: 

• A statistical technique that combines the results of multiple studies to identify patterns, relationships, or overall effects in research findings, often used to assess the effectiveness of treatments.

Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR): 

• A therapeutic technique used to treat trauma and PTSD, involving bilateral stimulation (e.g., guided eye movements) to process distressing memories.

Light Exposure Therapy: 

• A treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) where the patient is exposed to bright light to regulate circadian rhythms and alleviate symptoms of depression.

Antipsychotic Drugs: 

• Medications used to manage symptoms of schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders by blocking dopamine receptors in the brain, reducing symptoms like hallucinations and delusions.

Antianxiety Drugs: 

• Medications designed to reduce anxiety, often working by enhancing the effects of neurotransmitters like GABA. Common types include benzodiazepines.

Xanax:

• A brand name for alprazolam, a benzodiazepine medication commonly prescribed for anxiety disorders to produce a calming effect on the nervous system.

Antidepressant Drugs: 

• Medications used to treat depression and some anxiety disorders by influencing neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine in the brain.

Prozac

• A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) commonly used as an antidepressant to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Mood-Stabilizing Drugs

• Medications used to treat mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder, by stabilizing extreme mood swings between mania and depression.

  •  Lithium

Lithium

• A mood-stabilizing medication primarily used to treat bipolar disorder by helping to prevent the recurrence of manic and depressive episodes.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT): 

• A biomedical treatment for severe depression that involves sending electric currents through the brain to induce a brief seizure, often used when other treatments fail.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

• A non-invasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate specific areas of the brain, often used to treat depression.

Psychosurgery

• Surgical procedures that alter brain tissue to treat mental disorders, such as lobotomies, which are rarely performed today due to ethical concerns and potential side effects.

Lobotomy

• A form of psychosurgery, historically used to treat severe mental illnesses, involving the removal or disruption of parts of the brain, often leading to severe side effects.

Resilience

• The ability to recover or bounce back from adversity, trauma, or significant stress, often associated with improved mental health outcomes.

Postraumatic Growth

• A positive psychological change that can occur after a traumatic or stressful event Ps