Chp 15. Psychological Disorders

Question 1

Criteria for behavior to be considered abnormal

Answer 1

– deviant (atypical)

– maladaptive (dysfunctional)

– personally distressing (despair)

Question 2

What does Deviant Behavior mean?

Answer 2

Behavior does not conform to accepted social standards.

Ex. washing one’s hands four times an hour and taking seven showers a day

Question 3

What does Maladaptive behavior mean?

Answer 3

Behavior interferes with a person’s ability to function effectively in the world.

Ex. A person that believes their breath can harm others may go to great lengths to avoid people to protect them

Question 4

What does personally distressing mean?

Answer 4

It’s over a long period of time, meaning the person finds it troubling.

Ex. Someone who secretly makes themselves vomit after every meal may never be seen by others as deviant.

Question 5

What are characteristics of Cognitive approaches to therapy?

Answer 5

-Focus on symptoms and skill development rather than insight into the past or to root causes of the client’s problems.

-Directive.

• thoughts are primary source of psychological problems ( Negative self talk )

Question 6

What are characteristics of sociocultural approaches to therapy

Answer 6

Methods view the individual as part of a system of relationships influenced by various social and cultural factors.

Question 7

What are symptoms of panic disorder?

Answer 7

An anxiety disorder in which the individual experiences recurrent, sudden onsets of intense terror, often without warning and with no specific cause.

Symptoms:
1) Shortness of breath
2) chest pains
3) trembling
4) sweating,
5) dizziness
6) feeling of helplessness

Question 8

What are symptoms of OCD?

Answer 8

• Symptoms
– persistent anxiety-provoking thoughts and/or urges to perform
repetitive, ritualistic behaviors to prevent or produce a situation

– obsessions: recurrent thoughts
– compulsions: recurrent behaviors

Question 9

What are symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder?

Answer 9

An anxiety disorder marked by persistent anxiety for at least 6 months, and in which the individual is unable to specify the reasons for the anxiety.

Symptoms: experience fatigue, muscle tension, stomach problems, difficulty sleeping

Question 10

What are symptoms of social phobia (social anxiety)?

Answer 10

An anxiety disorder in which the individual has an intense fear of being humiliated or embarrassed in social situations.

Question 11

What are symptoms of dissociative amnesia?

Answer 11

Dissociative disorder characterized by extreme memory loss that is caused by extensive psychological stress.

Forget only aspects of their own identity and autobiographical experiences

Question 12

What are symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 12

May see things that are not there, hear voices inside their head, show inappropriate emotion, may say odd things. Socially withdrawn and isolated.

Question 13

What are symptoms of antisocial personality disorder?

Answer 13

1) Failure to conform to social norms or obey laws.
2)Impulsivity
3) Deceitfulness, lying or conning others for personal profit or pleasure
4) Lack of remorse

Question 14

What are symptoms of personality disorder?

Answer 14

1) Impulsive and risky behavior
2) unstable self-perception
3) Difficult relationships
4) Mood swings
5) Paranoia
etc.,

Inflexible, disruptive,
and enduring behavior
patterns that impair
social and other
functioning

Question 15

What are symptoms of autism spectrum disorder?

Answer 15

1. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction
2. Restrictive repetitive behaviors, interests, and activities

Question 16

What is the goal of humanistic client-centered therapy?

Answer 16

-unique in their emphasis on clients’ self-healing capacities
-encourage clients to understand themselves and to grow personally.

Question 17

What is the goal of cognitive therapy?

Answer 17

cognitive restructuring: changing a pattern of
thought that is causing maladaptive behavior or
emotion

Question 18

What are the criticisms of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders?

Answer 18

1) That it is rooted in the medical model-treating psychological disorders.

2) Neglects factors such as poverty, unemployment, and trauma.

3) It relies too much on social norms and subjective judgements

4) Many new categories of disorders have been added, some with no consistent research support.

Question 19

What are characteristics of first impressions?

Answer 19

Discern qualities of a person’s
1) self-esteem
2) judgments of extraversion
3) conscientiousness
4) intelligence
5) personality

Question 20

What’s the focus of behavior therapies?

Answer 20

Desired behavior is reinforced; undesired behavior is not reinforced and sometimes is punished.
* Focus on behavior, not thoughts or emotions.

Question 21

What’s the focus of humanistic perspectives in therapy?

Answer 21

• Emphasize conscious rather THAN unconscious thoughts.
• Emphasize positive human qualities and the
  capacity for personal growth

Question 22

What are the Systematic desensitization techniques in treating phobias?

Answer 22

1) exposing someone to a feared situation in a real or an imagined way, or using virtual reality.

2) Therapist asks client to rank aspects of feared situation from most to least frightening

3) Teach individual to relax.

Associates a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing, anxiety-triggering stimuli.

Question 23

Characteristics of neuroticism as a personality trait.

Answer 23

1) Tendency to worry and experience negative emotions
2) anxious, insecure, and self-pitying

Question 24

What’s the purpose of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in treating depression?

Answer 24

SSRIS target serotonin and work mainly by interfering only with the reabsorption of serotonin in the brain.

Question 25

What are the advantages of group therapy and self-help support groups?

Answer 25

• Group therapies can be used with a range of populations (ex adults and children with shared psychological issues or experiences)

-Puts client inside the context of relationships

Question 26

What is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)?

Answer 26

A treatment, sometimes used for depression, that sets off a seizure in the brain.

Question 27

What is face validity in personality assessment?

Answer 27

The extent to which a test item appears to fit the particular trait it is measuring.

Question 28

What is the Biological approach to personality

Answer 28

Brain imaging, twin studies, molecular genetic studies

Question 29

What is the role of brain structure in violent people?

Answer 29

Have deficits in areas that are associated with empathy and compassion (including the insula) as well as areas of the limbic system, including the amygdala and the frontal lobes.

Question 30

Symptoms of groupthink?

Answer 30

-Overestimating the power and morality of one’s group.

• Close-mindedness
• Unwillingness to hear all sides of an argument
• Pressure for uniformity

Question 31

What is the Bystander effect?

Answer 31

The tendency of an individual who observes an emergency to help less when other people are present than when the observer is alone

Question 32

What is person perception?

Answer 32

Refers to the processes by which we use social stimuli to form impressions of others
ex. how one views their parents and how they believe parents should behave based on their parents’ behavior.

Question 33

What is subjective well being?

Answer 33

A person’s assessment of their own level of positive affect relative to negative affect and an evaluation of their life in general

Question 34

Define stereotypes

Answer 34

A generalization about a group’s characteristics that does not consider any variations from one individual to another.

Question 35

What is the Attribution theory?

Answer 35

The view that people are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part of their effort to make sense of the behavior (internal or external)

Question 36

What is therapeutic alliance?

Answer 36

The relationship between the therapist and client; an important element of successful psychotherapy

Question 37

What is Fundamental attribution error?

Answer 37

Observers’ overestimation of the importance of internal traits and underestimation of the importance of external situations when they seek explanations of an actor’s behavior

For example, a person was speeding down the highway not because they were a bad driver, but because they were in an emergency situation.

Question 38

What is False consensus effect?

Answer 38

A person’s overestimation of the degree to which everybody else thinks or acts in the way the person does.

Examples:

People believe that the political candidate they support has more support among other people than they really do.

In relationships, people assume that the other person wants the same things as they do.

Racist people believe more people are racist than will admit to it.

Question 39

What is Self-serving bias?

Answer 39

The tendency to take credit for one’s successes and to deny responsibility for one’s failures.

Ex. an athlete is more likely to attribute a good performance on their own ability, and a poor one on external causes like the event environment.

Question 40

What is Stereotype Threat?

Answer 40

An individual’s fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype about their group.

Question 41

What is Cognitive dissonance?

Answer 41

An individual’s psychological discomfort (dissonance) caused by having two inconsistent thoughts.

Smoking: Many people smoke even though they know it is harmful to their health.

Question 42

What is Self-perception Theory?

Answer 42

Bem’s theory on how behaviors influence attitudes, stating that individuals make inferences about their attitudes by perceiving their behavior.

example
a person deciding that jazz is their favorite type of music simply because they observed that they listen to it more than other types of music.