AP Psych Unit 10

Perspectives on Psychological Disorders and Anxiety Disorders.

Psychological Disorder- A field of Psychology that attempts to understand, prevent, and treat mental disorders.Mental Disorders are characterized by persistent abnormal behaviors. (clinical psychology)

Medical Model- views abnormal behavior as a symptom of an underlying disease or disorder, similar to how physical illnesses are understood.

DSM-V- To provide a common language and framework for diagnosing mental disorders

Anxiety Disorder- a psychological disorder characterized by excessive and persistent fear, anxiety, or worry that interferes with daily life

Generalized Anxiety Disorder- produces fear, worry, and a constant feeling of being overwhelmed. It is characterized by excessive, persistent, and unrealistic worry about everyday things

Panic Disorder- anxiety disorder characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal distress

PTSD- Psychologically distressing experience continues to plague individuals after the fact and causes anxiety.

Phobia- Intense fear of specific situations or objects, Usually abnormal or unnecessary fears

Agoraphobia- Fear of crowded places or even leaving the home

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder- Driven to disturbing thoughts (obsessions) and/or performing senseless rituals (compulsions)

Somatoform, Dissociative, and Mood Disorders

Hypochondriasis- Hypochondriasis (now more commonly referred to as Illness Anxiety Disorder) is a condition in which a person is excessively worried about having a serious illness, despite medical evaluations and assurances that they do not.

Conversion Disorder- A psychological condition in which a person loses the ability to function normally in some bodily way, not due to any identifiable physical cause but as a response to psychological conflict or stress.

Dissociative Identity Disorder- A mental disorder characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states, each with its own way of perceiving and interacting with the environment.

Dissociative Amnesia- Dissociative amnesia refers to a psychological disorder characterized by the inability to remember important personal information, usually related to traumatic or stressful events. It is not due to physical damage or medical conditions.

Dissociative Fugue- Dissociative fugue is a rare condition in which a person suddenly, without planning or warning, travels far from home or work and leaves behind their past life. They may even assume a new identity.

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.

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, Personality Disorders, and Risk for Disorders

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

Paranoid Schizophrenia- Characterized mainly by the presence of delusions of persecution or grandeur and auditory hallucinations related to a single theme. Individuals are often tense, suspicious, guarded, and may be argumentative, hostile, and aggressive.

Catatonic Schizophrenia- a form of schizophrenia characterized by a tendency to remain in a fixed stuporous state for long periods

Disorganized Schizophrenia- Features incoherent speech, including made up words (neologisms) or rhyming strings of nonsense words (clang associations), hallucinations, delusions, and bizarre behavior. Often evidence of inappropriate or flat affect.

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

Treatment of Psychological Disorders

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 medications or procedures that act directly on the person’s physiology.

Eclectic Approach- an approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client’s problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy.

Psychoanalysis- Sigmund Freud’s therapeutic technique. Freud believed the patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences—and the therapist’s interpretations

of them—released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.

Insight Therapy- a variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by

increasing a person’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses.

Client-centered Therapy- a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients’ growth. (Also called person-centered therapy.)

Active Listening- empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A

feature of Rogers’ client-centered therapy.

Behavior Therapy- therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.

Exposure Therapies- behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination

or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid.

Systematic Desensitization- a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.

Aversive Conditioning- a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol).

Token Economy- an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats.

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

reactions.

Rational-emotive behavior Therapy- a confrontational cognitive therapy, developed

by Albert Ellis, that vigorously challenges people’s illogical, self-defeating attitudes and

assumptions.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy- a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive

therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior).

Group Therapy- therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permitting therapeutic benefits from group interaction.

Family Therapy- therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual’s unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members.

Psychopharmacology- Psychopharmacology is a branch of psychology that studies how drugs affect mood, sensation, thinking or behavior. These substances may be natural or artificial.

Antipsychotic Drugs- Medications that are used to treat symptoms of psychosis, such as hallucinations and delusions. They work by blocking certain neurotransmitters in the brain.

Anti-anxiety Drugs- Anti-anxiety drugs, also known as anxiolytics, are medications that help reduce the symptoms of anxiety, such as panic attacks or extreme fear and worry. They work by slowing down the central nervous system.

Antidepressant Drugs- Antidepressants are medications used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, some pain syndromes, and also to manage some addictions. They work by balancing chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters that affect mood and emotions.

Electroconvulsive Therapy- ECT is a procedure, done under general anesthesia, in which small electric currents are passed through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure. It often works when other treatments are unsuccessful.