AbnormalPsych123

• A psychological dysfunction within an individual that is associated with
• distress or impairment in functioning and a response that is not
• typical or culturally expected.

• Array of therapy methods based on the principles
• of behavioral and cognitive science, as well as principles of learning
• as applied to clinical problems. It considers specific behaviors rather
• than inferred conflicts as legitimate targets for change.

• Explanation of human behavior, including
• dysfunction, based on principles of learning and adaptation derived from
• experimental psychology.

• Explanation of human behavior, including
• dysfunction, based on principles of learning and adaptation derived from
• experimental psychology.

• Fundamental learning process first described by
• Ivan Pavlov. An event that automatically elicits a response is paired
• with another stimulus event that does not (a neutral stimulus). After
• repeated pairings, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus
• that by itself can elicit the desired response.

Details of the combination of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings of an individual that make up a particular disorder.

Pattern of development and change of a disorder over time.

• Derived from psychoanalysis, this theory
• emphasizes the role of the ego in development and attributes
• psychological disorders to failure of the ego to manage impulses and
• internal conflicts. Also known as self-psychology.

• Psychoanalytic therapy technique intended to
• explore threatening material repressed into the unconscious. The patient
• is instructed to say whatever comes to mind without censoring.

Number of new cases of a disorder appearing during a specific period (compare with prevalence).

In psychoanalysis, the struggles among the id, ego, and superego.

• Early, nonscientific approach to the study of
• psychology involving systematic attempts to report thoughts and feelings
• that specific stimuli evoked.

Psychosocial approach in the 19th century that involved treating patients as normally as possible in normal environments.

• Obsolete psychodynamic term for psychological
• disorder thought to result from unconscious conflicts and the anxiety
• they cause. Plural is neuroses.

• Modern development in psychodynamic theory
• involving the study of how children incorporate the memories and values
• of people who are close and important to them.

Number of people displaying a disorder in the total population at any given time (compare with incidence).

• Psychoanalytic assessment and therapy, which
• emphasizes exploration of, and insight into, unconscious processes and
• conflicts, pioneered by Sigmund Freud.

• Therapist who practices psychoanalysis after
• earning either an M.D. or a Ph.D. degree and receiving additional
• specialized postdoctoral training.

• Complex and comprehensive theory originally
• advanced by Sigmund Freud that seeks to account for the development and
• structure of personality, as well as the origin of abnormal behavior,
• based primarily on inferred inner entities and forces.

• Contemporary version of psychoanalysis that
• still emphasizes unconscious processes and conflicts but is briefer and
• more focused on specific problems.

• Treatment practices that focus on social and
• cultural factors (such as family experience), as well as psychological
• influences. These approaches include cognitive, behavioral, and
• interpersonal methods.

• Mental health professionals who are expected to
• apply scientific methods to their work. They must keep current in the
• latest research on diagnosis and treatment, they must evaluate their own
• methods for effectiveness, and they may generate their own research to
• discover new knowledge of disorders and their treatment.

• In operant conditioning, the development of a
• new response by reinforcing successively more similar versions of that
• response. Both desirable and undesirable behaviors may be learned in
• this manner.

Conscious, subjective aspect of an emotion that accompanies an action at a given time.

Chemical substance that effectively increases the activity of a neurotransmitter by imitating its effects.

In neuroscience, a chemical substance that decreases or blocks the effects of a neurotransmitter.

field of study that examines how humans and other animals acquire, process, store, and retrieve information.

• Hypothesis that both an inherited tendency (a
• vulnerability) and specific stressful conditions are required to produce
• a disorder.

• Neurotransmitter whose generalized function is
• to activate other neurotransmitters and to aid in exploratory and
• pleasure-seeking behaviors (thus balancing serotonin). A relative excess
• of dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia (although contradictory
• evidence suggests the connection is not simple), and its deficit is
• involved in Parkinson’s disease.

Pattern of action elicited by an external event and a feeling state, accompanied by a characteristic physiological response.

• The study of factors other than inherited DNA
• sequence, such as new learning or stress, that alter the Phenotypic
• expression of genes.

Developmental psychopathology principle that a behavior or disorder may have several causes.

• Neuro transmitter that reduces activity across
• the synapse and thus inhibits a range of behaviors and emotions,
• especially generalized anxiety.

Amino acid neurotransmitter that excites many different neurons, leading to action.

Chemical substance that produces effects opposite those of a particular neurotransmitter.

Learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of other individuals and consequences of that behavior.

• Approach to the study of psychopathology that
• holds psychological disorders as always being the products of multiple
• interacting causal factors.

• Neurotransmitter active in the central and
• peripheral nervous systems, controlling heart rate, blood pressure, and
• respiration, among other functions. Because of its role in the body’s
• alarm reaction, it may also contribute generally and indirectly to panic
• attacks and other disorders.

An ability has been adaptive for evolution, allowing certain associations can be learned more readily than others.

• Hypothesis that people with a genetic
• predisposition for a disorder may also have a genetic tendency to create
• environmental risk factors that promote the disorder.

• Neurotransmitter involved in processing of
• information and coordination of movement, as well as inhibition and
• restraint. It also assists in the regulation of eating, sexual, and
• aggressive behaviors, all of which may be involved in different
• psychological disorders. Its interaction with dopamine is implicated in
• schizophrenia.

Susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder.

• Measuring, observing, and systematically
• evaluating (rather than inferring) the client’s thoughts, feelings, and
• behavior in the actual problem situation or context.

Classification method founded on the assumption of clear-cut differences among disorders, each with a different known cause.

Assignment of objects or people to categories on the basis of shared characteristics.

• Systematic evaluation and measurement of
• psychological, biological, and social factors in a person presenting
• with a possible psychological disorder.

Presence of two or more disorders in an individual at the same time.

Process of determining whether a presenting problem meets the established criteria for a specific psychological disorder.

Method of categorizing characteristics on a continuum rather than on a binary, either-or, or all-or-none basis.

Assessment error in which no pathology is noted (that is, test results are negative) when one is actually present.

Assessment error in which pathology is reported (that is, test results are positive) when none is actually present.

The extent to which a disorder is found among a patient’s relatives.

Close and detailed investigation of an individual emphasizing what makes that person unique (compare with nomothetic strategy).

Score on an intelligence test estimating a person’s deviation from average test performance.

• Applying a name to a phenomenon or a pattern of
• behavior. The label may acquire negative connotations or be applied
• erroneously to the person rather than that person’s behaviors.

• Relatively coarse preliminary test of a client’s
• judgment, orientation to time and place, and emotional and mental
• state; typically conducted during an initial interview.

Sophisticated computer-aided procedures that allow nonintrusive examination of nervous system structure and function.

Assessment of brain and nervous system functioning by testing an individual’s performance on behavioral tasks.

• In a naming system or nosology, the actual
• labels or names that are applied. In psychopathology, these include mood
• disorders and eating disorders.

• Identification and examination of large groups
• of people with the same disorder to note similarities and develop
• general laws (compare with idiographic strategy).

Classification and naming system for medical and psychological phenomena.

• Enduring maladaptive patterns for relating to
• the environment and self, exhibited in a range of contexts that cause
• significant functional impairment or subjective distress.

• Psychoanalytically based measures that present
• ambiguous stimuli to clients on the assumption that their responses will
• reveal their unconscious conflicts. Such tests are inferential and lack
• high reliability and validity.

• System for categorizing disorders using both
• essential, defining characteristics and a range of variation on other
• characteristics.

• Measurement of changes in the nervous system
• reflecting psychological or emotional events such as anxiety, stress,
• and sexual arousal.

Degree to which a measurement is consistent—for example, over time or among different raters.

• Action by which clients observe and record their
• own behaviors as either an assessment of a problem and its change or a
• treatment procedure that makes them more aware of their responses. Also
• called self-observation.

• Process of establishing specific norms and
• requirements for a measurement technique to ensure it is used
• consistently across measurement occasions. This includes instructions
• for administering the measure, evaluating its findings, and comparing
• these to data for large numbers of people.

System of naming and classification (for example, of specimens) in science.

Degree to which a technique measures what it purports to measure.