Chapter 2. An Integrative Approach to Psychopathology

Question 1

Approach to the study of psychopathology that holds psychological disorders as always being the products of multiple interacting causal factors.

Answer 1

Multidimensional integrative approach

Question 2

The fact that some phobias are more common than others (such as fear of heights and snakes) and may have contributed to the survival of the species in the past suggests that phobias may be genetically prewired. This is evidence for which influence?

a) behavioral
b) biological
c) emotional
d) social
e) developmental

Answer 2

b) biological

Question 3

Miray’s husband, Jinx, was an unemployed jerk who spent his life chasing women other than his wife. Miray, happily divorced for years, cannot understand why the smell of Jinx’s brand of aftershave causes her to become nauseated. Which influence best explains her response?

a) behavioral
b) biological
c) emotional
d) social
e) developmental

Answer 3

a) behavioral [best answer]

or

c) emotional

Question 4

Ichiro, age 16, finds it more difficult than his 7-year-old sister to adjust to his parents’ recent separation. This may be explained by what influences?

a) behavioral
b) biological
c) emotional
d) social
e) developmental

Answer 4

e) developmental

Question 5

A traumatic ride on a Ferris wheel at a young age was most likely to have been the initial cause of Isabella’s fear of heights. Her strong emotional reaction to heights is likely to maintain or even increase her fear. The initial development of the phobia is likely a result of _____ influences; however, _____ influences are likely perpetuating the phobia.

a) behavioral
b) biological
c) emotional
d) social
e) developmental

Answer 5

a) behavioral (initial)

c) emotional (maintenance)

Question 6

Long deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, the basic physical units of heredity that appear as locations on chromosomes. A single one of these is a subunit of DNA that determines inherited traits in living things.

Answer 6

Genes

Question 7

A hypothesis that both an inherited tendency (a vulnerability) and specific stressful conditions are required to produce a disorder.

Answer 7

Diathesis-stress model

Question 8

A susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder.

Answer 8

Vulnerability

Question 9

A hypothesis that people with a genetic pre-disposition for a disorder may also have a genetic tendency to create environmental risk factors that promote the disorder.

Answer 9

Gene-environment correlation model

Question 10

The study of factors other than inherited DNA sequence, such as new learning or stress, that alter the phenotypic expression of genes.

Answer 10

Epigenetics

Question 11

The first 20 pairs of chromosomes program the development of the body and brain. (T/F)

Answer 11

False (first 22 pairs)

Question 12

No individual genes have been identified that cause any major psychological disorders. (T/F)

Answer 12

True

Question 13

According to the diathesis–stress model, people inherit a vulnerability to express certain traits or behaviors that may be activated under certain stress conditions. (T/F)

Answer 13

True

Question 14

The idea that individuals may have a genetic endowment to increase the probability that they will experience stressful life events and therefore trigger a vulnerability is in accordance with the diathesis–stress model. (T/F)

Answer 14

False

(reciprocal gene–environment model)

Question 15

Environmental events alone influence the development of our behavior and personalities. (T/F)

Answer 15

False

complex interplay of nature (biology) and nurture (psychosocial factors)

Question 16

Study of the nervous system and its role in behavior, thoughts, and emotions.

Answer 16

Neuroscience

Question 17

Individual nerve cell; responsible for transmitting information.

Answer 17

Neurons

Question 18

Short periods of electrical activity at the membrane of a neuron, responsible for the transmission of signals within the neuron.

Answer 18

Action potentials

Question 19

The end of an axon (of a neuron) where neurotransmitters are stored before release.

Answer 19

Terminal button

Question 20

Space between nerve cells where chemical transmitters act to move impulses from one neuron to the next.

Answer 20

Synaptic cleft

Question 21

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.

Answer 21

Neurotransmitters

Question 22

Causing excitation; activating.

Answer 22

Excitatory

Question 23

Causing inhibition; suppressing.

Answer 23

Inhibitory

Question 24

Chemical messenger produced by the endocrine glands.

Answer 24

Hormone

Question 25

The neurotransmitter currents or neural pathways in the brain.

Answer 25

Brain circuits

Question 26

Chemical substance that effectively increases the activity of a neurotransmitter by imitating its effects.

Answer 26

Agonists

Question 27

In neuroscience, a chemical substance that decreases or blocks the effects of a neurotransmitter.

Answer 27

Antagonists

Question 28

Chemical substance that produces effects opposite those of a particular neurotransmitter.

Answer 28

Inverse agonists

Question 29

Action by which a neurotransmitter is quickly drawn back into the discharging neuron after being released into a synaptic cleft.

Answer 29

Reuptake

Question 30

Amino acid neurotransmitter that excites many different neurons, leading to action.

Answer 30

Glutamate

Question 31

A neurotransmitter that reduces activity across the synapse and thus inhibits a range of behaviors and emotions, especially generalized anxiety.

Answer 31

Gamma-aminobutyric acid

Question 32

A 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.

Answer 32

Serotonin

Question 33

The 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.

(also noradrenaline)

Answer 33

Norepinephrine

Question 34

Whose generalized function is to activate other neurotransmitters and to aid in exploratory and pleasure-seeking behaviors (thus balancing serotonin). A relative excess of this is implicated in schizophrenia (although contradictory evidence suggests the connection is not simple), and its deficit is involved in Parkinson’s disease.

Answer 34

Dopamine

Question 35

Entirety of the microorganisms (such as fungi, viruses, and bacteria) that populate the intestines. The combined genome of these organisms is called the microbiome. The influence of the microbiome of the gut on psychological well-being is called the psychobiome.

Answer 35

Microbiota

Question 36

The influence of the gut bacteria on physical and mental health.

Answer 36

Brain-gut connection

Question 37

Field of study that examines how humans and other animals acquire, process, store, and retrieve information.

Answer 37

Cognitive science

Question 38

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).

Answer 38

Learned helplessness

Question 39

Learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of other individuals and consequences of that behavior.

(also known as observational learning)

Answer 39

Modeling

Question 40

An ability that has been adaptive for evolution, allowing certain associations to be learned more readily than others.

Answer 40

Prepared learning

Question 41

Condition of memory in which a person cannot recall past events despite acting in response to them (contrast with explicit memory).

Answer 41

Implicit memory

Question 42

Biological reaction to alarming stressors that musters the body’s resources (for example, blood flow and respiration) to resist or flee a threat.

Answer 42

Flight or fight response

Question 43

Pattern of action elicited by an external event and a feeling state, accompanied by a characteristic physiological response.

Answer 43

Emotion

Question 44

Enduring period of emotionality.

Answer 44

Mood

Question 46

Conscious, subjective aspect of an emotion that accompanies an action at a given time.

Answer 46

Affect

Question 47

A model describing different emotions as points in a two-dimensional space of valence and arousal.

Answer 47

Circumplex model

Question 48

Developmental psychopathology principle that a behavior or disorder may have several causes.

Answer 48

Equifinality