Unit 10: illness & treatment

Psychological disorder - syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, and behavior

Medical Model - concept that diseases psychological disorders have physical causes that an be diagnosed, treated, often through treatment in the hospital

Epigenetics - “in addition to” genetics. Study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without DNA change

ADHD - attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder - psych disorder marked by extreme inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity

Immigrant paradox - mexican-american born in the U.S., mexican-americans who have recently immigrated are less risk for mental disorders

Anxiety disorders - psychological disorders characterized by distressing persistent anxiety/maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) - which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal

Panic disorder - marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread where a person may experience terror with chest pain, choking, etc

Agoraphobia - fear/avoidance of public situations from which escape my be difficult

Phobias - anxiety disorder marked by persistent, irrational fear, and avoidance of specific objects, activity, or situation

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, insomnia that lingers for 4+ weeks after trauma

Survivor resiliency - recovering from severe stress

Stimulus generalization - occurs when a person experiences a fearful event and later develops a fear of similar events

Glutamate - heightens activity in the brain’s alarm centers

Serotonin - influences sleep, mood, attending to threats

Anterior Cingulate Cortex - brain region that monitors our actions and checks for errors (likely to be hyperactive)

Major depressive disorder - disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or any others medical condition, 2 or more weeks and 5 or more symptoms, at least 1 of which must be either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure

Bipolar disorder - disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania

Mania - hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously judgment is common

Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder - people who are persistently irritable and who have frequent and recurring behavior outbursts

Norepinephrine - increases arousal and boosts mood, is scarce during depression and overabundant during mania

Social-cognitive perspective - how people’s assumptions and expectations influence what they perceive

Rumination - compulsive fretting; overthinking out problems and their causes

Explanatory style - who or what they blame for their failures

Schizophrenia - disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and/or diminished, inappropriate emotional expressions

Psychotic disorder - group of disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality

Delusions - a false belief, often a persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders

Flat affect - emotionless state of no apparent feeling

Impaired theory of mind - difficulty perceiving facial expressions and reading other state of mind

Catatonia - motor behaviors ranging from a physical stupor - remaining motionless for hours - to senseless, compulsive actions (rocking/rubbing your arm until it is raw)

Chronic schizophrenia - AKA process schizophrenia, a form of schizophrenia, in which symptoms usually appear by late adolescence or early adulthood. As people age psychotic episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten

Acute schizophrenia - AKA reactive schizophrenia. Form of schizophrenia that can begin at any age, frequently occurs in response to an emotionally traumatic event and has extended recovery times

Dissociative disorder - controversial, rare disorder in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings

Fugue state - sudden loss of memories or change of identity

Dissociative identity disorder - rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits 2 or more distinct alternating personalities → multiple personality disorder

Personality disorders - inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning

antisocial personality disorder - personality disorder in which a person (usually men) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even towards friends and family members; may be aggressive and ruthless or clever con artist

Emotional intelligence - ability to understand, manage and perceive emotions

Anorexia nervosa - people (mostly girls) maintain starvation diet despite being significantly underweight; sometimes accompanied by excessive exercise

Bulimia nervosa - person binge eating (high calorie foods) followed by inappropriate weight loss promoting behavior (i.e. vomiting, fasting, laxatives, exercise)

Binge eating disorder - significant binge eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust or guilt but without the compensatory behavior for bulimia

Psychotherapy - treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth

Biomedical therapy - prescribed meds or procedures that act directly on a person's physiology

Eclectic - approach on psychotherapy that uses techniques from various forms of therapy

Psychoanalysis - freud  patients free associations, resistances, dreams, transferences and the therapist’s interpretations of them - released previously repressed feelings, allowing patient to gain self insight

Resistance - blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material

Interpretation - analyst’s noting supposed dream meaning, resistances, other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight

Transferring - patients transfer to the analyst of emotions, linked with other relationship (love/hatred for parent)

Psychodynamic therapists - theories that view personality with a focus on unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences

Insight therapies - therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses

Client-centered therapy - humanistic therapy→Carl Rogers, the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within an accepting, genuine, empathetic environment to facilitate client’s growth

Active listening - empathetic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies expressed feelings

Unconditional positive regard - caring, accepting, non judgemental attitude which Carl Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance

Behavior therapies - therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behavior

Counterconditioning - behavior therapy procedures that use classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; include exposure therapy and aversive conditioning

Exposure therapies - behavioral techniques, like systematic desensitization and VR exposure therapy, treat anxieties by exposing people (in imaginary or actual situations to things they fear/avoid)

Systematic desensitization - type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli

Progressive relaxation - release tension in 1 muscle group after another, until achieved comfortable, complete relaxation

Virtual reality exposure therapy - counterconditioning technique that treats anxiety through creating electronic simulations in which people can safely face fears

Aversive conditioning - associates an unpleasant state (nausea) with unwanted behavior (drinking alcohol)

Token economy - operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token for exhibiting a desires behavior and can later exchange the token for privilege and treats

Cognitive therapies - therapy that teaches people new more adaptive ways of thinking based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions

Catastrophizing - relentless, overgeneralized, self blaming behavior

Stress inoculation training - teaching people to restructure their thinking in stressful situations

Cognitive-behavioral therapy - CBT, popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)

Dialectical behavior therapy - helps change harmful, even suicidal behavior patterns

Group therapy - therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, providing benefits from group interaction

Family therapy - therapy that treats people in the context of their family system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by or directed at, other family members

Effort justification - selective and biased recall and its making judgments that conform our beliefs

Meta-analysis - procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies

Evidence-based practice - clinical decision making that integrates the best part available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences

Psychopharmacology - study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

Double blind procedure - when neither staff or patient knows if they are receiving drug or placebo

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

Tardive dyskinesia - involuntary movements of facial muscles (grimacing), tongue and limbs

Antianxiety drugs - drugs used to control anxiety and agitation (depress central nervous system)

Mood stabilizing drugs - meds that make people’s moods stable, no manic highs or depressive lows

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

tDCS - transcranial direct current stimulation →stimulate cognitive abilities, depression treatment

rTMS - repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation - application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain used to stimulate/suppress brain activity

Psychosurgery - surgery that removes/destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior

Lobotomy - psychosurgical procedure used to calm uncontrollable emotional or violent patients. The procedure cuts the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion centers of the inner brain

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

Posttraumatic growth - positive psych changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises