Abn Psych Key Terms 1

Question 1

abnormal psychology

Answer 1

the scientific study of abnormal behavior in an effort to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning.

Question 2

norms

Answer 2

a society’s stated and unstated rules for proper conduct.

Question 3

culture

Answer 3

a people’s common history, values, institutions, habits, skills, technology, and arts.

Question 4

dysfunction

Answer 4

interferes with daily functioning, upsets, distracts, or confuses people

Question 5

Danger

Answer 5

behavior that is consistently careless, hostile, or confused may be placing themselves or those around them at risk. Danger is often cited as a feature of abnormal psychological functioning, research suggests that is actually the exception rather than the rule.

Question 6

treatment

Answer 6

a systematic procedure designed to change abnormal behavior into more normal behavior. Also called therapy.

Question 7

trephination

Answer 7

an ancient operation in which a stone instrument was used to cut a way a circular section of the skull, perhaps to treat abnormal behavior.

Question 8

humors

Answer 8

according to the Greeks and Romans, bodily chemicals that influence mental and physical functioning.

Question 9

asylum

Answer 9

a type of institution that first became popular in the 16th century to provide care for persons with mental disorders. Most became virtual prisons where patients were held in filthy conditions and treated with unspeakable cruelty. Bethlehem Hospital “Bedlam”, sole purpose was to confine the mentally ill. Patients were bound in chains and cried out. It was a popular tourist attractions where people paid to took at the howling and gibbering inmates. “Bedlam” came to mean chaotic uproar.

Question 10

moral treatment

Answer 10

19th century approach to treating people with mental dysfunction that emphasized moral guidance and humane and respectful treatment.

Question 11

state hospital

Answer 11

state-run public mental institution in the US

Question 12

somatogenic perspective

Answer 12

the view that abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes

Question 13

psychogenic perspective

Answer 13

the view that the chief causes of abnormal functioning are psychological

Question 14

psychotropic meds

Answer 14

drugs that mainly affect the brain and reduce many symptoms of mental dysfunction

Question 15

deinstitutionalization

Answer 15

the practice, begun in 1960’s, of releasing hundreds of thousands of patients from public mental hospitals

Question 16

private psychotherapy

Answer 16

an arrangement in which a person directly pays a therapist for counseling services

Question 17

prevention

Answer 17

interventions aimed at deterring mental disorders before the develop

Question 18

positive psychology

Answer 18

the study and enhancement of positive feelings, traits, and abilities

Question 19

multicultural psychology

Answer 19

the field of psychology that examines the impact of culture, race, ethnicity, gender, and similar factors on our behaviors and thoughts, including abnormal behaviors and thoughts

Question 20

managed care program

Answer 20

a system of health care coverage in which the insurance company largely control the nature, cope, and cost of medical or psychological services.

Question 21

case study

Answer 21

a detailed account of a person’s life and psychological problems

Question 22

diagnosis

Answer 22

a determination that a person’s psychological problems comprise a particular disorder. Chosen from DSM.

Question 23

Syndrome

Answer 23

a cluster of symptoms is called a syndrome and follows a particular course

Question 24

classification system

Answer 24

a list of categories, or disorders, with descriptions of the symptoms and guidelines for assigning individuals to the categories

Question 25

Emil Kraepelin

Answer 25

developed the first modern classification system for abnormal behavior. His categories formed the foundations for the DSM.

Question 26

DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders | approx. 400 disorders

Answer 26

most widely used classification system in US, Most other countries use the International Classification of Diseases developed by the World Health Organization. The DSM changed over time. Now, DSM-5 Contains numerous additions and changes to the diagnostic categories, criteria, and organization found in past editions of the DSM

Question 27

Categorical information

Answer 27

refers to the name of the category (disorder) indicated by the client's symptoms.

Question 28

Dimensional information

Answer 28

is a rating of how severe a client's symptoms are and how dysfunctional the client is across various dimensions of personality.

Question 29

reliability

Answer 29

means that different clinicians are likely to agree on the diagnosis when the use the system to diagnose the same client.

Question 30

predictive validity

Answer 30

categories are most used when the demonstrate predictive validity. When they help predict future symptoms or events.

Question 31

validity

Answer 31

accuracy of the information that is diagnostic categories provide.

Question 32

clinical picture

Answer 32

after collecting assessment information, clinicians form a clinical picture and decide upon a diagnosis.

Question 33

Can Diagnosis and Labeling Cause harm?

Answer 33

Even with trustworthy assessment data and reliable and valid classification categories clinicians will sometimes arrive at a wrong conclusion. Studies show, for example, that they are overly influenced by information gathered early in the assessment process, sometimes pay too much attention to certain sources of information and too little others. Their judgements can be distorted by personal biases--gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, etc. Limitations of assessment tools, assessors, and classification systems. Many theorists believe that diagnostic labels can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Our society attaches a stigma to abnormality. People labeled mentally ill may find it difficult to get a job, especially a position of responsibility, or to be welcomed into social relationships. Some clinicians would like to do away with diagnoses. Others believe we must work to increase what is known about psychological disorders and improve diagnostic techniques and hold that classification and diagnosis are critical to understanding and treating people in distress.

Question 34

Thomas Szasz

Answer 34

places emphasis on society's role that he finds the whole concept om mental illness to be invalid, a myth or sorts. According to Szasz, the deviations that society calls abnormal are simply "problems in living".

Question 35

eccentricity

Answer 35

unusual pattern with which others have no right to interfere.

Question 36

abnormal functioning

Answer 36

generally considered to be deviant, distressful, dysfunctional, and dangerous. Behavior must also be considered in the contest which it occurs, however; and the concept of abnormality depends on the norms and values of the society in question.

Question 37

Jerome Frank

Answer 37

states that all forms of therapy have three essential features. A sufferer who seeks relief from the healer. A trained, socially accepted healer, whose expertise is accepted by the sufferer and his or her social group. A series of contacts between the healer and the sufferer, through which the healer tries to produce certain changed in the sufferer's emotional state, attitudes, and behavior.

Question 38

Carol Rogers

Answer 38

pioneer in the modern clinical field. Noted that "therapists are not in agreement as to their goals or aims...they are not in agreement as to what constitutes a successful outcome of their work. They cannot agrees as to what constitutes a failure. It seems as though the field is completely chaotic and divided."

Question 39

clinical view of abnormality

Answer 39

some clinicians view abnormality as an illness and so consider therapy a procedure that helps cure the illness and call people "patients". Others see abnormality as a problem in living and therapists as teachers of more functional behavior and thought, and call people "clients".

Question 40

Hippocrates

Answer 40

often called the father of modern medicine, taught that illnesses had natural causes. He saw abnormal behavior as a disease arising from internal physical problems. He believed that some form of brain pathology was the culprit and that it resulted--like all other forms of disease, in his view--from an imbalance of four fluids, or humors, that flowed through the body: yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. He sought to correct the underlying physical pathology. His focus on internal causes for abnormal behavior was shared by the great Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle and by influential Greek and Roman physicians.

Question 41

mass madness

Answer 41

large numbers of people apparently shared absurd false beliefs and imagined sights or sounds.

Question 42

tarantism (aka Saint Vitus' dance)

Answer 42

an example of mass madness. Groups of people would suddenly start to jump, dance, and go into convulsions. All were convinced that they had been bitten and possessed by by a wolf spider, now called a tarantula.

Question 43

lycanthropy

Answer 43

example of mass madness where people thought they were possessed by wolves or other animals. They acted wolf-like and imagined that fur was growing all over their bodies.

Question 44

Ancient views and treatments

Answer 44

probably regarded abnormal behavior as the work of evil spirits. Apparently believed that all events around and within them resulted form the actions of magical beings who controlled the world. They viewed the human body and mind as a battleground between external forces of good and evil Abnormal behavior was typically interpreted as a victory by evil spirits, and the cure for such behavior was to force the demons from a victim's body.

Question 45

exorcism

Answer 45

The idea was to coax the evil spirits to leave or to make the person's body an uncomfortable place in which to live. A shaman, or priest, mights recite prayers, plead with the evil spirits, insult the spirits, perform magic, make loud noises, or have the person ingest bitter drinks. If these techniques failed, the shaman performed a more extreme form of exorcism, such as whipping or starving the person.

Question 46

Johann Weyer, German physician

Answer 46

the first physician to specialize in mental illness, believed that the mind was susceptible to sickness as the body was. He is now considered the founder of the modern study of psychopathology.

Question 47

Shrine of Gheel

Answer 47

Across Europe religious shrines were devoted to the humane and loving treatment of people with mental disorders. Perhaps the best known of these shrines was at Gheel in Belgium.