AP Psychology Unit 5 Flashcards

Health Psychology (5.1)

• Health psychology examines how physical health and wellness influence beliefs and mental processes.
• It considers a person's holistic perspective, including behaviors, coping strategies, stressors, psychological influences, and community engagement.
• Prolonged stress weakens the body's ability to fight off diseases. Chronic stress leads to high blood pressure.

Eustress and Distress

• Eustress: Positive stress that motivates individuals to take on challenges and perform better.
• Distress: Negative stress that overwhelms individuals, leading to exhaustion. Traumatic events (accidents, natural disasters, loss of loved ones) can lead to distress and intense psychological responses like PTSD.

PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

• A mental health condition occurring after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

• A model describing how the body reacts to prolonged stress.
• Stages:
  • Alarm Stage: Initial perception of stress triggers fight, flight, or freeze response.
    • Fight: Prepares to confront the stressor.
    • Flight: Prepares to run from the stressor.
    • Freeze: Individual becomes stuck and unable to act.
  • Resistance Stage: Body attempts to adapt to the stressor, using more energy. Prolonged resistance leads to tiredness.
  • Exhaustion Stage: Body's energy stores are depleted. The immune system weakens, leading to burnout, fatigue, illness, and anxiety.

Tend and Befriend Theory

• Under stress, individuals may protect themselves or seek social support.
  • Tending: Focuses on nurturing and caretaking behaviors to minimize stress and harm.
    • Involves care, social interactions, and connections.
  • Befriending: Seeking out others for support, increasing cooperation and social connections, leading to a higher sense of safety and reduced stress.

Coping Strategies

• Problem-Focused Coping:
  • Viewing the stressor as a problem that can be solved.
  • Identifying the source of the issue.
  • Creating a plan to reduce stress.
  • Implementing the plan when there is a practical solution.
• Emotion-Focused Coping:
  • Focusing on managing emotional reactions to the stressor.
  • Used when the source of stress is out of one's control.
  • Techniques include:
    • Deep breathing to reduce anxiety.
    • Meditation and mindfulness to focus on the present moment.
    • Physical activity or artistic expression to boost mood and reduce tension.
    • Talking to friends, counselors, or family members.

Positive Psychology (5.2)

• Focuses on understanding what makes life worth living.

Key Areas:

• Positive Emotions: Examining how feelings like joy and love broaden thinking and foster personal growth.
• Character Strengths: Identifying personality traits that contribute to a meaningful life.
• Resilience and Well-being: Studying how individuals recover from setbacks and maintain positive psychological health.

Methods:

• Using surveys and assessments to gauge life satisfaction and identify contributing factors.

Six Characteristics of Virtues:

• Wisdom: Creativity, curiosity.
• Courage: Bravery, integrity.
• Humanity: Kindness, love.
• Justice: Leadership.
• Temperance: Self-control.
• Transcendence: Hope, gratitude.

Post-Traumatic Growth

• Positive psychological changes occurring as a result of challenging or traumatic life events.

Classifying Psychological Disorders (5.3)

• A psychological disorder is a condition characterized by cognitive and emotional disturbances, abnormal behaviors, and impaired functioning.

Levels of Dysfunction:

• Impaired ability to carry out day-to-day activities and responsibilities.
• Subjective experiences of negative emotions, pain, or stress.
• Deviation from social and cultural norms.

Cultural and Social Biases:

• Impact diagnosis and treatment options.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:

• Internalizing negative stereotypes, leading to self-limitation.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)

• Published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the DSM provides comprehensive clarification of mental disorders.
• It includes symptoms, diagnostic criteria, and statistical data.

International Classification of Diseases (ICD)

• Developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the ICD aims to create a global standard for classifying all health conditions, including mental and behavioral disorders.

Eclectic Approach

• Combining techniques and ideas from different psychological perspectives to create personalized treatment plans.

Psychological Disorder Perspectives:

• Behavioral Perspective:
  • Mental disorders arise from maladaptive learned associations between responses and stimuli.
  • Maladaptive learning shapes irrational fears, unhealthy habits, and self-defeating behaviors.
  • These behaviors can be modified through cognitive and behavioral interventions.
• Psychodynamic Perspective:
  • Disorders originate from unconscious conflicts, often from childhood experiences.
  • Unresolved childhood conflicts and repressed feelings can contribute to psychological issues.
• Humanistic Perspective:
  • Disorders develop due to a lack of social support, failure to achieve potential, or an incongruent self-concept.
  • Incongruent self-concept: A difference between a person's actual self and their ideal self.
    • Larger gap between ideal and actual self leads to more anxiety and lower self-esteem.
    • Smaller gap leads to more contentment.
• Cognitive Perspective:
  • Disorders stem from maladaptive thought patterns, distorted beliefs, and attitudes.
  • Maladaptive thought patterns are irrational or negative ways of thinking that cause distress.
• Evolutionary Perspective:
  • Abnormal behaviors and tendencies originate in an individual's genetics.
• Social-Cultural Perspective:
  • Social and cultural factors (group dynamics, cultural norms, interpersonal relationships) influence mental disorders.
  • Example: Cultures emphasizing thinness may contribute to eating disorders.
• Biological Perspective:
  • Psychological disorders are driven by biological and genetic factors.

Biopsychosocial Model

• Proposes that psychological issues are influenced by interconnected biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors.
  • Biological: Genetic predispositions, brain chemistry, brain health.
  • Psychological: Emotional responses, coping skills, personality traits.
  • Social-cultural: Relationships, cultural norms, socioeconomic conditions, environmental stressors.
• A holistic approach to treatment, addressing each part of the individual.

Anxiety Disorders

• Considers:
  • Genetic predispositions (biological factors).
  • Excessive worry or fear (psychological factors).
  • Peer pressure and environmental stress (social-cultural factors).

Diathesis-Stress Model

• Psychological disorders result from the interaction between genetic/biological vulnerabilities and life stressors.

  • Genetic Predispositions: Increased likelihood of developing a condition due to inherited genetic factors.
  • Diathesis: Genetic predispositions or underlying biological factors.

• Stress: Environmental challenges (trauma, relationship difficulties, financial problems) that worsen vulnerabilities.

• This model suggests that inherited vulnerabilities, paired with environmental stressors, shape a person's psychological outcome.

• The biopsychosocial model focuses on the interaction of biological, psychological and social factors.