Abnormal Psychology Flashcards
What is the biopsychosocial model?
It emphasizes that there are biological, psychological, and social aspects that affect behavior
What does the DSM-5 define a personality disorder as?
A maladaptive, inflexible way of dealing with the environment and other people
CC: Is is possible for people with different symptoms to get the same diagnosis?
Yes, DSM-5 has many diagnoses that are based on the variability of symptoms
CC: What is the advantage of rating a person along several dimensions, instead of giving them a categorical diagnosis?
It can be more accurate of the persons condition especially if it does not fit into a specific disorder
TQ: How is DSM useful to researchers?
A) It explains the statistical tests for evaluating experimental results
B) It identifies the places where it will be easy to find people with any disorder
C) It clarifies the procedures for obtaining informed consent
D) It increases consistency in how disorders are diagnosed
D
TQ: Why is it easy for people with different symptoms to get the same diagnosis?
A) When in doubt, a therapist can call anyone ‘psychotic’
B) Behavioral observations do not always match the laboratory results
C) Many disorders are categorized as an either or fashion
D) Many therapists do not rely on DSM
C
TQ: Why is it often difficult to give a clear diagnosis?
A) Some therapists rely on behavior, and others use laboratory tests
B) Many people have rare disorders that are unfamiliar to a therapist
C) DSM does not list enough categories
D) Many people have symptoms that that partly match more than one category
D
TQ: What is an alternative to the categorical approach to diagnosis?
A) Wait until laboratory tests are validated before making a diagnosis
B) Rate each persons symptoms along several dimensions
C) Use the MMPI, Rorschach, and other personality tests
D) Let each therapist use his or her own system
B
What is a generalized anxiety disorder characterized by?
It is characterized by frequent exaggerated worries
What is a panic disorder characterized by?
To have frequent or occasional panic attacks. Some examples of an episode of rapid breathing, increased heart rate, chest pains, sweating, fainting, and trembling.
What is agoraphobia?
Fear of open and public spaces
What is a social phobia?
It is characterized by a severe avoidance of people and doing anything in public
What do agoraphobic and a social phobias have in common?
They are both caused by the fear of having a panic attack in public spaces, or in front of people
CC: Why would control of breathing be important in treating a panic disorder?
It would be important because it can help relax people who are prone to panic attacks
CC: After someone has learned to press a lever to avoid a shock, what procedure would lead to extinction of that behavior?
They still recieve a shock even after they pull the lever
CC: Why are people more likely to develop phobias of snakes and spiders than of cars and electrical outlets? Offer 3 explanations
1) Biologically people have learned to be fearful of snakes and spiders which have been around long enough to create a biological fear
2) Snakes and spiders are unpredictable they move around, can be found in dark or small spaces meaning people have to keep an eye on them
3) People have had more positive experiences with cars and outlets than spiders and snakes reducing the likelyhood of the fear
What is exposure therapy or systematic desensitization?
It is a process of slowly exposing people to their phobias to reduce their sense of fear
CC: How does exposure therapy resemble extinction of a learned shock avoidance response?
To extinguish a learned shock avoidance response, prevent the response to that the individual learns that a failure to respond is not dangerous. Similarly, in exposure therapy, the patient is prevented from fleeing the feared stimulus. So then the individual learns that the danger is not as great as imagined.
What is an obsession?
Repetitive unwelcome stream of thought
What is an compulsion?
A repetitive, almost irresistible urge to do a action
What is the best type of therapy for OCD?
Exposure therapy with response prevention or in other words someone is exposed to what might trigger obsessive and compulsive thoughts but are prevented from doing so
CC: Suppose someone reports that a new therapy relieves many cases of OCD. Why would it be important to have a no-treatment or control group?
Because a certain degree of recovery is possible overtime without treatment so it would be to confirm that it was the effect of the treatment itself
TQ: Which of the following is most common for someone with a panic disorder?
A) Bipolar disorder
B) OCD
C) Agoraphobia
D) Anorexia nervosa
C
TQ: Panic disorder is associated with bursts of of overactivity by which of these?
A) Corpus callosum
B) Primary visual cortex
C) Sympathetic nervous system
D) Parasympathetic nervous system
C
TQ: In Watson and Rayner’s experiment, what was the conditioned response?
A) A white rat
B) A loud noise
C) Fear responses
D) Relaxation
C
TQ: What happens if a monkey watches another monkey show fear?
A) It increases its own fear of almost everything
B) It develops a fear of the same thing the monkey fears
C) it tries to comfort the other monkey
D) It decreases its fear of almost everything
B
TQ: The return of a phobia long after exposure therapy is comparable to which aspect of classical conditioning?
A) Acquisition
B) Extinction
C) Spontaneous recovery
D) Generalization
c
TQ: What is one reason why obsessive-compulsive checkers continue checking?
A) They distrust their memory
B) They experience pleasure and relief from checking
C) They impress other people with their conscientiousness
D) They experience spontaneous recovery
A
TQ: What is unusual about avoidance learning, compared to other learning?
A) It continues even when there is no need for it
B) It develops more rapidly in older than younger individuals
C) It requires simultaneous activation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
D) It does not generalize to other stimuli
A
What does it mean for someone to be physically dependent on a drug?
It means that the person will suffer withdrawl symptoms when they do not have it
What is an addiction or substance abuse disorder?
It is when someone are unable to quit a habit of using a self-destroying drug or substance
Why do people get addicted to doing something?
Because as they continue to do that activity repeatedly it causes dopamine to be released
CC: Does it make sense to distinguish between substances that are or are not addictive?
Not really because any substance can become addictive under the right circumstances ex. the alcoholics found that drinking an insane amount of water can have the same effect as being drunk
What does it mean to have a psychological dependence on something?
It means that someone will crave something without having physical withdrawl symptoms associated with it.
CC: How do stressful experiences relate to addiction?
Once someone has tried a drug they notice that it reduces their stress levels. So even though they may be in recovery from it a stressful event can trigger that craving
CC: if someone ‘holds their liquor well’ and do not quickly feel intoxicated, is that something to feel good or concerned about?
Concerned because that increases the person’s predisposition to becoming an alcoholic
What is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)?
It is a self-help group for people who are trying to stop drinking and work to help others do the same
What is contingency management?
It is when therapists work with someone recovering from substance abuse and encourage them to avoid situations that would make it tempting for them to relapse
CC: Why is it important to supervise people taking both methadone and antiabuse?
Because in both cases people could not take them and relapse
CC: In what ways are many southeast Asians similar to someone taking antiabuse?
It has been found that many southeast Asians have a gene that slows down the breakdown of acetaldehyde into acetic acid which causes them to get sick really easily if they drink too much. Similar to the factory workers
TQ: What characterizes physical dependence on a drug?
A) The drug produces increasing amounts of pleasure
B) The drug blocks dopamine synapses in the nucleus accumbens
C) Abstaining from the drug produces withdrawl symptoms
D) The person uses the drug almost everyday
C
TQ: Why do so many south Asians avoid drinking much alcohol?
A) They have a gene that slows down the breakdown of alcohol
B) Alcohol does not stimulate the dopamine synapses in their brains
C) They do not experience the withdrawal symptoms other people do
D) Their taste buds respond more slowly to alcohol relatively to other people
A
TQ: How does early-onset alcoholism differ from later-onset alcoholism?
A) Early onset alcoholism is mostly male, and it has a stronger genetic influence
B) Early onset alcoholism is mostly male, and it has a weaker genetic influence
C) Early onset alcoholism is mostly female, and it has a stronger genetic influence
D) Early onset alcoholism is mostly female, and it has a weaker genetic influence
A
TQ: What kind of people are more likely than average to develop alcohol abuse?
A) People for whom alcohol has little influence on dopamine synapses
B) People who have a greater than average density of tastebuds on their tongue
C) People who get intoxicated easily
D) People who can drink a fair amount before feeling intoxicated
D
TQ: If someone injected methadone instead of swallowing it, what would happen?
A) It would have no effect
B) It would produce effects similar to heroin or morphine
C) It would interfere with opiate synapses
D) It would decrease the metabolic breakdown of heroin or morphine
B
TQ: If someone takes a placebo, but believes it is antabuse, it can be effective anyway. Why?
A) Antabuse acts by strengthening inhibitory pathways
B) Antabuse acts to reinforce the decision to avoid alcohol
C) Placebos alter the breakdown of alcohol
D) Antabuse and placebos both stimulate increased cortical activity
B
How can major depression be defined?
It can be defined as someone lacking pleasure, interest in hobbies, or motivation along with extreme levels of sadness. Which can last to for weeks or years at a time
What is seasonal affective disorder or SAD for short?
It is when people become depressed during a specific season of the year
CC: If an advocate of some new therapy for depression reports that most people undergoing therapy feel better a few months later, what if anything can we conclude?
Unless the study included a control group that was not receiving therapy, there is nothing that can be concluded. Most people show recovery over time regardless of receiving treatment
CC: Some of the same factors that predispose depression also increase the vulnerability to other disorders. How might that fact complicate the search for genes related to depression?
It could complicate the search because it makes it harder to know if the gene is correlated to depression or another condition
What do tricyclic drugs do for depression?
They block the axons ability to reabsorb neurotransmitters including dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin after they are released
What do selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) do for depression?
They block only the reuptake of serotonin
What do monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI’s) do for depression?
They block the breakdown of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin using the enzyme monoamine oxidase
CC: How do the effects of tricyclics and SSRI’s resemble those of cocaine?
Because the block the reuptake of neurotransmitters like dopamine its just that antidepressants do it with slower effects