An Integrative Approach to Psychopathology Flashcards
Approach to the study of psychopathology that holds psychological disorders as always being the products of multiple interacting causal factors.
multidimensional integrative approach
Long deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, the basic physical units of heredity that appear as locations on chromosomes. A single gene is a subunit of DNA that determines inherited traits in living things.
genes
Hypothesis that both an inherited tendency (a vulnerability) and specific stressful conditions are required to produce a disorder.
diathesis–stress model
Susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder.
vulnerability
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.
gene–environment correlation model
The study of factors other than inherited DNA sequence, such as new learning or stress, that alter the phenotypic expression of genes.
epigenetics
Study of the nervous system and its role in behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
neuroscience
Individual nerve cell; responsible for transmitting information.
neuron
Short periods of electrical activity at the membrane of a neuron, responsible for the transmission of signals within the neuron.
action potentials
The end of an axon (of a neuron) where neurotransmitters are stored before release.
terminal button
Space between nerve cells where chemical transmitters act to move impulses from one neuron to the next.
synaptic cleft
Chemicals that cross the synaptic cleft between nerve cells to transmit impulses from one neuron to the next. Their relative excess or deficiency is involved in several psychological disorders.
neurotransmitters
Causing excitation. Activating.
excitatory
Causing inhibition. Suppressing.
inhibitory
Chemical messenger produced by the endocrine glands.
hormone
Neurotransmitter currents or neural pathways in the brain.
brain circuits
Chemical substance that effectively increases the activity of a neurotransmitter by imitating its effects.
agonist
In neuroscience, a chemical substance that decreases or blocks the effects of a neurotransmitter.
antagonist
Chemical substance that produces effects opposite those of a particular neurotransmitter.
inverse agonist
Action by which a neurotransmitter is quickly drawn back into the discharging neuron after being released into a synaptic cleft.
reuptake
Amino acid neurotransmitter that excites many different neurons, leading to action.
glutamate
Neurotransmitter that reduces activity across the synapse and thus inhibits a range of behaviors and emotions, especially generalized anxiety.
gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
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.
serotonin
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.
norepinephrine (also noradrenaline)
Neurotransmitter whose generalized function is to activate other neurotransmitters and to aid in exploratory and pleasureseeking 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.
dopamine
Field of study that examines how humans and other animals acquire, process, store, and retrieve information.
cognitive science
Martin Seligman’s theory that people become anxious and depressed when they make an attribution that they have no control over the stress in their lives (whether or not they do in reality).
learned helplessness
Learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of other individuals and consequences of that behavior.
modeling (also observational learning)
An ability that has been adaptive for evolution, allowing certain associations to be learned more readily than others.
prepared learning
Condition of memory in which a person cannot recall past events despite acting in response to them (contrast with explicit memory).
implicit memory
Biological reaction to alarming stressors that musters the body’s resources (for example, blood flow and respiration) to resist or flee a threat.
flight or fight response
Pattern of action elicited by an external event and a feeling state, accompanied by a characteristic physiological response.
emotion
Enduring period of emotionality.
mood
Conscious, subjective aspect of an emotion that accompanies an action at a given time.
affect
A model describing different emotions as points in a 2-dimensional space of valence and arousal.
circumplex model
Developmental psychopathology principle that a behavior or disorder may have several causes.
equifinality
