Ch. 2 - Theoretical Paradigms

Question 1

Repression

Answer 1

A defense mechanism whereby impulses and thoughts unacceptable to the ego are pushed into the unconscious

Question 2

Resilience

Answer 2

An individual’s level of protection from risk factors or ability to recover from emotional difficulties or trauma

Question 3

Resilient Type

Answer 3

The most adaptive if three personality types found among children. Resilient children tend to become resilient adults who are able to bounce back from adversity.

Question 4

Resistances

Answer 4

During psychoanalysis,the defensive tendency of the unconscious part of the ego to ward off from consciousness particularly threatening repressed material

Question 5

Reuptake

Answer 5

Process by which released neurotransmitters are pumped back into the presynaptic cell, making them available for enhancing transmitting of nerve impulses.

Question 6

Risk

Answer 6

A factor that increases the likelihood of a person developing a disorder or dysfunction. Risk factors can react to a characteristic of the person or their life situation.

Question 7

Role-playing

Answer 7

A technique that teaches people to behave in a certain way by encouraging them to pretend that they are in a particular situation; it helps people acquire complex behaviors in an efficient way.

Question 8

Schema

Answer 8

A mental structure for organizing information about the world

Question 9

Secondary process thinking

Answer 9

The reality-based decision-making and problem-solving activities of the ego.

Question 10

Self-actualization

Answer 10

The fulfillment of one’s potential as an always-growing human being; believed by client-centered therapists to be the master motive.

Question 11

Self-efficacy

Answer 11

In Bandura’s theory, the person’s belief that he or she can achieve certain goals

Question 12

Sublimation

Answer 12

Defence mechanism entailing the conversion of sexual or aggressive impulses into socially valued behaviours, especially creative activity

Question 13

Successive Approximations

Answer 13

Responses that closer and closer resemble the desired response in operant conditioning

Question 14

Superego

Answer 14

In psychoanalytic theory, the part of the personality that acts as the conscience and reflects society’s moral standards as learned from parents and teachers

Question 15

Sympathetic Nervous System

Answer 15

The division of the autonomic nervous system that acts on bodily systems–for example, contracting the blood vessels, reducing activity of the intestines, and increasing the heartbeat–to prepare the organism for exertion, emotional stress, or extreme cold

Question 16

Synapse

Answer 16

A small gap between two neutrons where the nerve impulse passes from the axion of the first to the dendrites, cell body, or axon of the second

Question 17

Systematic Desensitization

Answer 17

A major behaviour therapy procedure that has a fearful person, while deeply relaxed, imagine a series of progressively more fearsome situations. The two responses of relaxation and fear are incompatible and fear is dispelled. This technique is useful for treating psychological problems in which anxiety is the principal difficulty.

Question 18

Temperament

Answer 18

An individual difference variable that reflects variability in tendencies such as emotionality and activity level that are believed to reflect, in part, biologically inherited differences

Question 19

Transference

Answer 19

The venting of the client’s emotions, either positive or negative, by treating the psychoanalyst as the symbolic representative of someone important in the past. An example id the client’s becoming angry with the psychoanalyst to release emotions actually felt toward his or her father.

Question 20

Twin Method

Answer 20

Research strategy in behaviour genetics in which concordance rates of monozygotic and dizygotic twins are compared.

Question 21

Unconditional Positive Regard

Answer 21

According to Rogers, a crucial attitude for the client-centered therapist to adopt toward the client, who needs to feel complete acceptance as a person in order to evaluate the extent to which current behaviour contributes to self-actualization.

Question 22

Unconscious

Answer 22

A state of unawareness without sensation or thought. In psychoanalytic theory, it is the part of the personality, in particular the id impulses, or id energy, of which the ego is unaware.

Question 23

Under-controlled Type

Answer 23

One of the three personality types found among children. Under controlled children are often impulsive and lack self control and are prone to engaging in risky behaviours throughout their adolescence and adult periods.