Chapter 2 - Definitions

Question 1

Multidimensional Integrative Approach

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Genes

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Chorea

Answer 3

Motor problems characterised by involuntary limb movements that are jerky and sometimes resemble dance-like movements (cf choreography).

Question 4

Genome

Answer 4

All of the hereditary information of an organism that is encoded in DNA.

Question 5

Dominant Gene

Answer 5

One gene of any pair of genes that determines a particular trait.

Question 6

Recessive Gene

Answer 6

Gene that must be paired with another recessive gene to determine a trait.

Question 7

Neuron

Answer 7

Individual nerve cell; responsible for transmitting information.

Question 8

Diathesis–Stress Model

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Vulnerability

Answer 9

Susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder.

Question 10

Gene–Environment Correlation Model

Answer 10

Hypothesis that people with a genetic predisposition for a disorder may also have a genetic tendency to create environmental risk factors that promote the disorder.

Question 11

Epigenetics

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Neuroscience

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Central Nervous System

Answer 13

Brain and spinal cord.

Question 14

Peripheral Nervous System

Answer 14

Neural networks outside the brain and spinal cord, including the somatic nervous system, which controls muscle movement, and the autonomic nervous system, which regulates cardiovascular, endocrine, digestion and regulation functions.

Question 15

Synaptic Cleft

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Neurotransmitters

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Aphasia

Answer 17

Impairment or loss of language skills resulting from brain damage caused by stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, or other illness or trauma.

Question 18

Hormone

Answer 18

Chemical messenger produced by the endocrine glands. Endocrine glands secrete directly into the blood.

Question 19

Brain Circuits

Answer 19

Neurotransmitter systems or neural networks in the brain.

Question 20

Agonist

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Antagonist

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Inverse Agonist

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Reuptake

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Noradrenaline (also known as norepinephrine)

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Glutamate

Answer 25

Amino acid neurotransmitter that excites many different neuronal systems, mostly in the cortex.

Question 26

Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA)

Answer 26

Neurotransmitter that reduces activity across the synapse and thus inhibits a range of behaviours and emotions, especially generalised anxiety.

Question 27

Serotonin

Answer 27

Neurotransmitter involved in sensory processing, motor co-ordination, as well as inhibition and restraint. It also assists in the regulation of eating and sexual and aggressive behaviours, which may be involved in different psychological disorders. Its interaction with dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia. Also called 5-hydroxytrypatimine or 5HT.

Question 28

Dopamine

Answer 28

Neurotransmitter whose generalised function is to modulate other neurotransmitter systems and to aid in exploratory and pleasure-seeking behaviours (thus balancing serotonin). Excessive dopaminergic activity in the mesolimbic system is implicated in psychosis, but evidence in schizophrenia is more complex. A net dopaminergic deficit due to the death of dopamine-producing cells in the midbrain produces the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

Question 29

Cognitive Science

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Learnt Helplessness

Answer 30

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).

Question 31

Modelling

Answer 31

(also known as observational learning) Learning through observation and imitation of the behaviour of other individuals and consequences of that behaviour.

Question 32

Prepared Learning

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Blind Sight

Answer 33

Phenomenon in which a person is able to perform visual functions while having no awareness or memory of these abilities. Also called unconscious vision.

Question 34

Implicit Memory

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Explicit Memory

Answer 35

Good recollection of actual events (contrast with implicit memory).

Question 36

Flight or Fight Response

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Emotion

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Mood

Answer 38

Enduring period of emotionality.

Question 39

Affect

Answer 39

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

Question 40

Equifififinality

Answer 40

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