Definitions

Question 1

Define clinical psychology. It’s aims, what it deals with and how.

Answer 1

Clinical psychology aims to reduce psychological distress and to enhance and promote psychological well being. It deals with a range of psychological difficulties such as anxiety, depression, relationship problems and schizophrenia. Clinical assessments are used such as therapy, counselling or advice.

Question 2

Statistical definition of abnormality

Answer 2

Deviating from the norm or average. Statistically infrequent behavior is regarded as abnormal, whereas frequent is normal. Characteristics like mood or intelligence can be measured and graphed and the highest, middle point is considered normal and the ends abnormal.

Question 3

Social norm definition of abnormality

Answer 3

Every society has commonly accepted rules and standards of behavior. There are explicit ones like murder and implicit ones like queuing. Behavior is considered normal as the majority considers it acceptable.

Question 4

Schizophrenia

Answer 4

A disorder which affects thinking, feeling and behavior. It usually starts between 15 and 35 and have many symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, feelings controlled, loss of interests and energy, hearing voices and many more.

Question 5

Reliability

Answer 5

It refers to how consistent a study or measuring device is. A measurement is considered reliable if it can produce similar results if used in similar circumstances. There is much debate as to whether abnormal behavior can be diagnosed reliably, eg, can one persons symptoms lead to a common diagnosis.

Question 6

Validity

Answer 6

It refers to whether a study or test measures or examine what it claims to measure or examine. It can be argued hat when disorders are operationalised such as with a list of symptoms then the measuring devise (such as DSM) is losing validity because it does not truly describe the patient’s experience of the illness.

Question 7

Primary Data

Answer 7

Data collected by the researcher from the source. Most methods used in psychology collect primary data through such methods as questionnaires and experiments.

Question 8

Secondary Data

Answer 8

Data that has already been collected by other researchers and then used by psychologists. Secondary data often come as statistics and a method called meta analysis is often used. Meta analysis involves the pooling of data about a particular topic from different sources such as the occurrence of depression.