AP Psych ch 12

Question 1

What is Psychological
Disorder?

Answer 1

Psychopathology –
Any pattern of emotions, behaviors, or
thoughts inappropriate to the situation
and leading to personal distress or the
inability to achieve important goals

Synonymous terms include:

Mental illness

Mental disorder

Psychological disorder

Question 2

What is Psychological
Disorder?

Answer 2

Three classic signs suggest severe
psychological disorder

Hallucinations

Delusions

Severe affective disturbances

Question 3

Indicators of Abnormality

Answer 3

Other signs of a disorder are more subtle,
and a diagnosis depends heavily on
clinical judgment
Distress, irrationality, unconventionality and undesirable behavior, maladaptiveness, and unpredictability.

Question 4

Changing Concepts of
Psychological Disorder:
The Cognitive-Behavioral Approach

Answer 4

Behavioral perspective –
Abnormal behaviors can be acquired
through behavioral learning – operant
and classical conditioning

Cognitive perspective –
Abnormal behaviors are influenced by
mental processes – how people perceive
themselves and their relations with others

Question 5

The Biopsychology of Mental Disorder

Answer 5

Although most psychologists have
reservations about the medical model,
the do not deny the influence of biology
on thought and behavior

Question 6

How are Psychological
Disorders Classified?

Answer 6

The most widely used
system, found in the
DSM-IV, classifies disorders
by their mental and
behavioral symptoms

Question 7

Overview of DSM-IV
Classification System

Answer 7

DSM-IV –
Fourth edition of the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders;
the most widely accepted classification
system in the United States

Neurotic disorder or neurosis

Psychotic disorder or psychosis

In multiaxial diagnosis, professionals look
at the entire person, not just their
“abnormal” behavior

Question 8

Mood Disorders

Answer 8

Major depression –
Form of depression that does not
alternate with mania

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) –
Believed to be caused by deprivation of
sunlight

Bipolar disorder –
Mental abnormality involving swings of
mood from mania to depression

Question 9

Anxiety Disorders

Answer 9

Generalized anxiety disorder –
Characterized by persistent and
pervasive feelings of anxiety, without any
external cause

Panic disorder –
Marked by panic attacks that have no
connection to events in a person’s
present experience

Agoraphobia –
Fear of public places/open spaces

Question 10

Anxiety Disorders

Answer 10

Phobias–
A group of anxiety disorders involving a
pathological fear of a specific object or
situation

Preparedness hypothesis –
Notion that we have an innate tendency,
acquired through natural selection, to
respond quickly and automatically to
stimuli that posed a survival threat to our
ancestors

Question 11

Anxiety Disorders

Answer 11

Obsessive-compulsive disorder –
Condition characterized by patterns of
persistent, unwanted thoughts and
behaviors

Question 12

Somatoform Disorders

Answer 12

Somatoform disorders –
Psychological problems appearing in the
form of bodily symptoms or physical
complaints

Conversion disorder –
Somatoform disorder marked by
paralysis, weakness, or loss of sensation,
but with no discernable physical cause

Question 13

Somatoform Disorders

Answer 13

Glove anesthesia

Question 14

Somatoform Disorders

Answer 14

Hypochondriasis –
Somatoform disorder involving excessive
concern about health and disease

Question 15

Dissociative Disorders

Answer 15

Dissociative disorders –
Group of pathologies involving
“fragmentation” of the personality
Dissociative amnesia, Depersonalization disorder, dissociative fugue, dissociative identity disorder.

Question 16

Dissociative Disorders/ Dissociative amnesia

Answer 16

A psychologically
induced loss of
memory for
personal
information

Question 17

Dissociative Disorders/ Dissociative fugue

Answer 17

Dissociative
amnesia with the
addition of “flight”
from one’s home,
family, and job

Question 18

Dissociative Disorders/ Depersonalization disorder

Answer 18

Abnormality involving
the sensation of
mind and body
having separated

Question 19

Dissociative identity disorder

Answer 19

Condition in which the
individual displays
multiple identities

Question 20

Eating Disorders

Answer 20

Anorexia nervosa –
Eating disorder involving persistent loss
of appetite that endangers an individual’s
health – stemming from psychological
reasons rather than organic causes
Bulimia –
Eating disorder characterized be eating
binges followed by “purges,” induced by
vomiting or laxatives; typical initiated as a
weight-control measure

Question 21

Schizophrenic Disorders

Answer 21

Schizophrenia –
Psychotic disorder involving distortions in
thoughts, perceptions, and/or emotions

Question 22

Major Types of Schizophrenia

Answer 22

Disorganized, catatonic, paranoid, undifferentiated, residual, positive, negative.

Question 23

Major types of schizophrenia / Disorganized

Answer 23

Features incoherent
speech,
hallucinations,
delusions, and
bizarre behavior

Question 24

Major Types of Schizophrenia/ Caratonic

Answer 24

Involves stupor or extreme excitement.

Question 25

Major Types of Schizophrenia/ Paranoid

Answer 25

Prominent feature:
combination of
delusions and
hallucinations

Question 26

Major Types of Schizophrenia/ Undifferentiated

Answer 26

Persons displaying a
combination of
symptoms that do not
clearly fit in one of the
other categories

Question 27

Major Types of Schizophrenia/ Residual type

Answer 27

Individuals who have
had a past episode of
schizophrenia but are
free of symptoms

Question 28

Major Types of Schizophrenia/ Positive schizophrenia

Answer 28

Any form in which the
person displays
active symptoms
(e.g. delusions,
hallucinations)

Question 29

Major Types of Schizophrenia/ Negative schizophrenia

Answer 29

Any form distinguished
by deficits, such as
withdrawal and
poverty of thought
processes

Question 30

Possible Causes of Schizophrenia

Answer 30

Evidence for the causes of schizophrenia
has been found in a variety of factors
including genetics, abnormal brain
structure, and biochemistry,
Diathesis-stress hypothesis–
Genetic factors place the individual at
risk, but environmental stress factors
transform this potential into an actual
schizophrenic disorder

Question 31

Personality Disorders

Answer 31

Personality disorders –
Conditions involving a chronic, pervasive,
inflexible, and maladaptive pattern of
thinking, emotion, social relationships, or
impulse control

Question 32

Personality Disorders

Answer 32

Narcissistic personality disorder –
Characterized by a grandiose sense of
self-importance, a preoccupation with
fantasies of success and power, and a
need for constant attention

Question 33

Personality Disorders

Answer 33

Antisocial personality disorder –
Characterized by a long-standing pattern
of irresponsible behavior indicating a lack
of conscience and a diminished sense of
responsibility to others

Question 34

Personality Disorders

Answer 34

Borderline personality disorder –
An unstable personality given to
impulsive behavior

Question 35

Adjustment Disorders and Other
Conditions That May Be a Focus
of Clinical Attention

Answer 35

Mild depression, physical complaints, parent-child problems, bereavement, marital problems, academic problems, job problems, malingering.

Question 36

Developmental Disorders/ Autism-

Answer 36

A developmental disorder marked by
disabilities in language, social interaction,
and the ability to understand another
person’s state of mind

Question 37

Developmental Disorders/ Dyslexia

Answer 37

A reading disability, thought by some
experts to involve a brain disorder

Question 38

Developmental Disorders

Answer 38

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder –
A developmental disability involving short
attention span, distractibility, and extreme
difficulty in remaining inactive for any
period

Question 39

Shyness

Answer 39

Shyness, a distressing pattern of avoiding
or withdrawing from social contact is
treatable, but it is not a DSM-IV disorder

Question 40

What are the Consequences
of Labeling People?

Answer 40

Ideally, accurate diagnoses
lead to proper treatments, but
diagnoses may also become
labels that depersonalize
individuals and ignore the
social and cultural contexts in
which their problems arise

Question 41

The Plea of Insanity

Answer 41

A legal term, not a psychological or
psychiatric one, referring to a person who
is unable, because of a mental disorder
or defect, to confirm his or her behavior
to the law