CHAPTER 1: Historical Background Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

What is the definition of abnormal psychology?

A
  • Scientific study of abnormal behaviour in an effort to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning
  • Many definitions of been proposed but none of them has won total acceptance
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What are the two common features across all definition of abnormal psychology?

A

The four Ds

  • Deviance
  • Distress
  • Dysfunction
  • Danger

Influences

  • Norms
  • Culture
  • Context
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Is Abnormal Psychology defined by general criteria in society?

A

Yes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What did Thomas Szasz posit regarding societal involvement?

A

Posits that societal involvement may invalidate the concept of mental illness

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What is treatment/therapy?

A
  • Procedure designed to change abnormal behavior into more normal behavior
  • Definitional challenges closely related to defining abnormality
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What are the essential features of all therapy forms?

A
  • Sufferer or patient
  • Trained, socially accepted healer or therapist
  • Series of therapeutic contacts between the healer and the sufferer
  • Despite their differences, most clinicians agree that large numbers of people need therapy of one kind or another
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Has every society in the present and past witnessed psychological abnormality?

A

Yes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What did ancient societies raged abnormal behaviour as?

A

the work of evil spirits

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What were ancient societies treatment for abnormal behaviour?

A

Trephination and exorcism

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

How did the greek/roman (500 B.C. to 500 A.D.) views on abnormal behaviour differ than those of ancient times?

A

• Philosophers and physicians offered different explanations
and treatments for abnormal behaviors
• Hippocrates believed and taught that illnesses had natural causes; four humors

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What were the greek/roman (500 B.C. to 500 A.D.) treatments for abnormal behaviour?

A
  • Quiet life
  • Vegetable diet
  • Temperance
  • Exercise
  • Celibacy
  • Bleeding
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

When did demonology return?

A

500-1350 A.D. – Middle Ages

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What happened when demonology returned in 500-1350 A.D.? How did the perception of abnormalities change?

A

• Church rejected scientific forms of investigation and controlled
all education
• Mental disorders had demonic causes; mass madness; shared delusions and hallucinations
• At the close of the Middle Ages, demonology and its methods began to lose favor again

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What was the treatment of abnormalities in 500-1350 A.D. when demonology returned?

A
  • Exorcism
  • Torture
  • Gradually hospitalization
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

How did perception of abnormalities change in 1400-1700 A.D.?

A

With increased scientific knowledge, demonological views of abnormality continued to decline

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Who is Johann Weyer? and what did he believe?

A

Weyer was the first mental health physician; believed that the mind was as susceptible to sickness as the body

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

When did the reform and moral treatment begin?

A

19th century

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What happened during the 19th century?

A

Care of people with mental disorders began to improve

Moral treatment movement ended in the United States and Europe by the early twentieth century

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What did Pinel and Tuke contribute?

A

Advocated moral treatment that emphasized humane and respectful techniques

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What did Benjamin Rush promote?

A
  • Promoted moral treatment in the United States

* Movement disintegrated in the late nineteenth century; mental hospitals warehoused inmates and provided minimal care

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

When did people with severe disturbances begin to get cared for?

A

New psychotropic medications discovered in 1950s

22
Q

What were the New psychotropic medications discovered in 1950s?

A

A) Antipsychotic drugs
B) Antidepressant drugs
C) Anti anxiety Drugs

23
Q

What did the New psychotropic medications discovered in 1950s lead to?

A

deinstitutionalization and rise in outpatient care

24
Q

How were people with severe disturbances treated before the 1950s?

A

Almost all outpatient care took the form of private

psychotherapy

25
Q

How are people with severe disturbances treated today?

A
  • Outpatient care is the primary mode of treatment; more insurance coverage
  • Prevention programs are increasing; positive psychology has grown
  • Programs dealing with one kind of psychological problem have been created
26
Q

How are people with severe disturbances treated today?

A
  • Outpatient care is the primary mode of treatment; more insurance coverage
  • Prevention programs are increasing; positive psychology has grown
  • Programs dealing with one kind of psychological problem have been created
27
Q

Does the multitude of Digital distractions provide the foundation for shorter attention spans?

A

Yes

28
Q

What do clinical researchers do?

A
  • Discover universal laws and principles
  • Search for nomothetic understanding
  • Do not typically assess, diagnose, or treat individual clients
  • Rely on the scientific method
29
Q

Research is the systematic search for facts through the use of careful observations and investigations. TRUE of FALSE?

A

TRUE

30
Q

Clinical researchers depend on three methods of investigation: What are they?

A
  • Case study
  • Correlational method
  • Experimental method
31
Q

How are case studies helpful?

A
  • Detailed, interpretative description of a person’s life and psychological problems
  • Source of new ideas about behavior
  • Tentative support for a theory
  • Challenge of a theory’s assumptions
  • Introduction of new therapeutic techniques
  • Opportunities to study unusual problems
32
Q

What are the limitations of case studies?

A
  • Biased observers
  • Subjective evidence (low internal validity)
  • Little basis for generalization (low external validity)
33
Q

What is correlation?

A

Degree to which events or characteristics vary with each other
• Positivecorrelation
• Negativecorrelation
• Unrelated

34
Q

What is the correlational method?

A

Research procedure used to determine the co-relationship

between variables

35
Q

When can correlations be trusted?

A

Correlations can be trusted based on a statistical analysis of probability

36
Q

What is Statistical significance?

A

The finding is unlikely to have occurred by chance

37
Q

Advantages of the correlational method?

A
  • Has high external validity (can generalize findings)

* Can repeat (replicate) studies with other samples

38
Q

Difficulties with correlational studies?

A
  • Lack internal validity

* Describe but do not explain a relationship or causation

39
Q

Definition of cofound variable?

A

Variables other than the independent variable that may also be affecting the dependent variable

40
Q

What are the 3 features to guard against confounds?

A
  • Control group

* Random assignment • Masked (blind) design

41
Q

What is random assignment?

A

Any selection procedure that ensures that every participant in the experiment is as likely to be placed in one group as another

42
Q

What is masked (blind) design?

A

Experiment in which participants do not know which assigned group they are in
• Placebo therapy

43
Q

What is double-masked design?

A

Experiment in which both participants and experimenters are unaware of the groups to which participants are assigned

44
Q

What is Matched (mixed) designs?

A

• Participants are not randomly assigned to groups, but rather
placed in existing groups

• Matched control groups are used to address confounds based on demographic and other variables

45
Q

What is natural experiments?

A

• Nature manipulates the independent variable and the
experimenter observes the effects
• Events cannot be replicated at will
• Broad generalizations cannot be drawn from a single study

46
Q

What is single-subject experiment?

A
  • A single participant is observed before and after manipulation of the independent variable
  • Experiments rely on baseline data to set a standard for comparison
  • Has higher internal validity than the case study because the independent variable is manipulated
  • ABAB(reversal)design
47
Q

What is longitudinal studies?

A
  • Same individuals are observed on many occasions over a long period
  • Independent variable manipulation or random assignment of participants to conditions is not possible
  • Causes cannot be pinpointed
48
Q

What is epidemiological studies?

A

Reveal the incidence and prevalence of a disorder in a particular population
• Incidence: Number of new cases that emerge in a given period
• Prevalence: Total number of cases in a given period

49
Q

What is a researchers primary obligation?

A

Avoid physical or psychological harm for human participants

50
Q

What is a core problem for all social media studies?

A

most social media sites do not really have policies prohibiting researchers from studying subscribers or subscriber profiles without clear permission