Chapter 1: Overview

Question 1

Abnormal psychology

Answer 1

Study of psychological dysfunctions that the person experiences in terms of distress or impairment in functioning.

Question 2

Psychopathology

Answer 2

The scientific study of mental illness and it’s causes.

Question 3

Stigma

Answer 3

Negative attitudes and beliefs that cause general public to avoid certain people, including those with a mental illness.

Question 4

Behavioral and experimental perspectives

Answer 4

Examines the behavior and experience observed in psychopathology, especially the manner in which the signs and symptoms of a particular disorder are seen in a similar manner throughout the world.

Question 5

Neuroscience perspectives

Answer 5

Examines what we know about particular psychopathological experience from the standpoint of neuroscience, including the structure and function of the brain, the autonomic nervous system, and a genetic and epigenetic consideratioknasnitbrelated to psychopathology.

Question 6

Evolutionary perspectives

Answer 6

Examines psychological disorders in terms of certain aspects might be adaptive, asking if there is any advantage to behaving and feeling in certain ways that others consider abnormal or if the disordered behavior is secondary to another process that is beneficial.

Question 7

Levels of analysis

Answer 7

Examination of psychopathology ranging from culture and society at a higher level to the individual at a middle level and physiology and genetics at the lower levels.

Question 8

Cultural perspective

Answer 8

Examines the social world in which a person lived from which a person learns skills, values, beliefs, attitudes, and other information.

Question 9

Hierarchical integration

Answer 9

Through inhibitory control, the various levels of the brain such as the brain stem, limbo system, and the neocortex, are able to interact with each other, and higher levels restrict or inhibit the lower levels.

Question 10

Variation

Answer 10

The assumption that heritable variations can and do occur in nature.

Question 11

Natural selection

Answer 11

Darwin’s idea that if an organism has even slight variations that help it to compete successfully for survival then over time the species will be made up more members with these characteristics and less individuals lacking these features.

Question 12

Sexual selection

Answer 12

The manner in which makes and females choose a mate.

Question 13

Symptoms

Answer 13

Features observed by patient.

Question 14

Signs

Answer 14

Features observed by clinician.

Question 15

Syndrome

Answer 15

Determination of which signs and symptoms go together.

Question 16

Psychodynamic perspective

Answer 16

Approach to psychological therapy that emphasizes how behaviors and experience may be influenced by internal processes that are outside of awareness, often due to internal conflicts.

Question 17

Psychoanalysis

Answer 17

Treatment developed by Freud based on the search for ideas and emotions that are in conflict in an unconscious level.

Question 18

Existential-humanistic perspective

Answer 18

Psychological therapy that focuses on the experience of the person in the moment and the manner in which he or she interprets the experiences.

Question 19

Client-centered therapy

Answer 19

A treatment approach in psychology characterized by the therapist’s empathic understanding, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness.

Question 20

Emotion focused therapy

Answer 20

Emotion is viewed as centrally important in the experience of the self.

Question 21

Mindfulness

Answer 21

A therapeutic technique involving an increased focused nonjudgmental purposeful awareness of the present moment.

Question 22

Behavior perspectives

Answer 22

A psychological approach focused only on actions and behaviors, not internal processes or aspects of consciousness.

Question 23

Classic conditioning

Answer 23

The pairing of the unconditioned stimulus with a neutral stimulus eventually causing the neutral stimulus to produce the same response.

Question 24

Extinction

Answer 24

The process by which, after a period of time, the conditioned stimulus, when presented alone, will no longer produce the response.

Question 25

Operant conditioning

Answer 25

Concept that behavior can be elicited it shaped if reinforcement follows its occurrence.

Question 26

Reinforcement

Answer 26

In operant conditioning, rewards that follow behaviors and increase their occurrence.

Question 27

Observational learning

Answer 27

Also known as modeling; when humans imitate the behaviors of others even without reinforcement.

Question 28

Cognitive behavioral perspective

Answer 28

A treatment perspective that suggests that dysfunctional thinking is common to all psychological disturbances; by learning in therapy how to understand one’s thinking, it is possible the change the way one thinks as well as one’s emotional state and behaviors.

Question 29

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

Answer 29

Therapy based on cognitive behavioral perspective, directed at changing the individual’s faulty logic and maladaptive behaviors.