Ap Psychology Barron's Chapter 12: Abnormal Psychology Flashcards
Insane
Not a medical term; a legal term to describe people who, because of a psychological disorder, cannot be held fully responsible for their actions
DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)
book that helps psychologists diagnose patients; contains symptoms of everything currently considered to be a psychological disorder
anxiety disorders
Disorders that share a common symptom of anxiety: phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and some hypochondriacs
specific phobia
intense unwarranted fear of a situation or object which creates anxiety; claustrophobia, arachnophobia, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder
agoraphobia
Fear of open, public spaces; severe cases may be afraid to venture out of their homes at all
Social anxiety disorder
A fear of a situation in which one could embarrass oneself in public, such as when eating in a restaurant or giving a lecture; aka social phobia
generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Experience constant, low-level anxiety; constantly feel nervous and out of sorts
panic disorder
Suffer from episodes of intense anxiety without any apparent provocation; attacks tend to increase in frequency; anticipating attacks causes anxiety
somatic symptom disorders
occur when a person manifests a psychological problem through a physiological symptom; e.g. conversion disorder, some hypochondriacs
Conversion disorder
People report a severe physical problem, like blindness, and will be unable to see; but there are no biological reason for such problems
dissociative disorders
a disruption in conscious processes because a traumatic event has been repressed; e.g. dissociative amnesia, dissociative identity disorder
psychogenic amnesia (dissociative amnesia)
when a person cannot remember things and no physiological basis for the disruption in identity can be identified
dissociative identity disorder (DID)
person has several personalities that can be opposite each other and represent different ages and sexes; commonly have a history of sexual abuse or childhood trauma
depressive disorders
mood (affective) disorder; major depressive disorder (unipolar depression); seasonal affective disorder; bipolar disorder
major depressive disorder
Aka unipolar depression; most common mood disorder; when people remain unhappy for more than two weeks in the absence of a clear reason
seasonal affective disorder
Experience depression but only during certain times of the year, usually winter, when there is less sunlight; often treated with light therapy
bipolar disorder
Involves depressed (low energy) and manic (high energy) episodes; manic episode involves confidence and power or anxiety and irritableness
Cognitive triad
3 forms of negative thinking that Beck theorizes lead people to feel depressed: negatively thinking about themselves, their world, their future
learned helplessness
prior experiences have caused one to feel unable to control aspects of the future that are controllable; may result in passivity and depression
Schizophrenic Disorders
Most severe and debilitating of psychological disorders; symptoms include distorted thinking demonstrated through delusions, hallucinations, disorganized language
delusions of persecution
the belief that people are out to get you
delusions of grandeur
belief that you enjoy greater power and influence than you do; e.g. that you are president of the United States or a Nobel Prize-winning author
Hallucinations
Perceptions in the absence of any sensory stimulation; e.g. you think you see newspaper headlines that say you won the nobel prize
Disorganized language
A symptom of schizophrenia; two types: neologisms and clang associations
neologisms
made up words; a type of disorganized language
clang associations
String together a series of nonsense words that rhyme; a type of disorganized language
inappropriate affect
emotional displays that are improper for the situation; e.g. laugh when hearing that someone has died; a symptom of schizophrenia
flat affect
consistently have essentially no emotional response at all; a symptom of schizophrenia
Catatonia
motor problem of schizophrenia; remain motionless in strange postures for hours at a time and/or move jerkily
waxy flexibility
During the motionless part of catatonic schizophrenia, people allow their body to be moved into alternative shapes and hold the pose
dopamine hypothesis
high levels of dopamine are associated with schizophrenia; antipsychotic drugs used to treat schizophrenia result in lower dopamine levels
tardive dyskinesia
muscle tremors and stiffness caused by extensive use of antipsychotic drugs; similar to Parkinson's disease which is treated by increasing dopamine
Double bind
when people are given contradictory messages, they may develop distorted ways which may lead to schizophrenia
diathesis-stress model
environmental stressors can cause a biological predisposition for an illness to express itself; may cause schizophrenia and other disorders
personality disorders
well-established, maladaptive ways of behaving that negatively affect people's ability to function; e.g. antisocial, dependent, paranoid, narcissistic, histrionic, and obsessive-compulsive
antisocial personality disorder
Have little regard for other people's feelings; view the world as a hostile place where people need to look out for themselves; criminals often have this
dependent personality disorder
rely too much on the attention and help of others
paranoid personality disorder
feel persecuted
narcissistic personality disorder
seeing oneself as the center of the universe
histrionic personality disorder
Overly dramatic behavior
obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
overly concerned with certain thoughts and performing certain behaviors, but not to the point of obsessive compulsive disorder
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
flashbacks or nightmares following a person's involvement in or observation of an extremely troubling event such as war or natural disaster
Paraphilia disorders (psycho-sexual disorder)
sexual attraction to an object, person, or activity not usually seen as sexual; e.g. pedophilia, zoophilia, fetishism, zoophilia, fetishism, voyeur, masochist, sadist
anorexia nervosa
At a significantly low weight; an intense fear of fat and food; distorted body image; form of self-starvation; predominates in young women
Bulimia
binge-purge cycle; sufferers eat large quantities of food and then throw up or use laxatives; distorted body image; somewhat underweight
Autism Spectrum Disorder
neurodevelopmental disorder where people seek less contact than others; hypersensitive to sensory stimulation; repetitive behaviors; have intense interests
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
difficulty paying attention or sitting still; more commonly in boys; similar to typical young boy behavior resulting in over diagnosis
Dementia
A neurocognitive disorder characterized by a deterioration of cognitive abilities, often seen most dramatically in memory; e.g. Alzheimer's disease
Aaron Beck
(1921-present) a cognitive theorist who believes that depression results from unreasonably negative ideas (the cognitive triad)
Martin Seligman
(1942-present) conducted an experiment where some dogs acquired learned helplessness and did not prevent being shocked
David Rosenhan
(1929-2012) led a study where people pretended to hear voices, went to institutions, stopped pretending, and were released as having schizophrenia in remission