Psych 270
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Social Construction
- A concept about the nature of reality based on the shared principles of a society
- psychopathology
- the study of the origin, development, and manifestations of mental or behavioral disorders
- abnormal psychology
- Study of mental disorders via science.
- psychosis
- Out of touch with reality “Persistent hallucinations are an example of a psychotic stateâ€
- syndrome
- A group/cluster of symptoms
- Central Tendency
- given data, we want to find the "middle“ …to use as a "norm".
- Harmful
- Condition that causes some harm to the person… …harm as defined by the standards of the person’s culture. …harm in terms of experiencing distress and/or difficulty performing social or work-related tasks.
- Dysfunction
- Problem with some internal mechanism. Mechanism could be physical (low dopamine) or mental (process that allows us to distinguish perception from imagination).
- Epidemiology
- Study of frequency and distribution of disease/disorders within a population. Frequency: how often does a disease occur? Distribution: in what groups (gender, age, ethnic, geographic) is the disease more/less frequent?
- Incidence
- The number of new cases in a population within a period of time.
- Prevalence
- The total number of active cases in a population (including old and new) within a period of time. Lifetime prevalence: total number of people affected at some point in their lives.
- Comorbidity
- Presence of more than one disorder at the same time. Synonym: co-occurrence.
- Disease Burden
- Impact of disease on peoples’ lives. Burden = mortality + disability (lost years of healthy life) = premature death + living with disorder
- The Biological Paradigm
- Focus: Abnormal behavior is rooted in biological abnormalities Major Influences: Discovery that syphilis is associated with general paresis
- The Psychodynamic Paradigm
- Focus:Abnormal behavior is caused by unconcious mental conflicts rooted in childhood Main Influence:Sigmund Freud & psychoanalytic theory
- Cognitive Behavioral Paradigm
- Focus:Abnormal behavior is a product of learning Main Influence: Ivan Pavlov (classical conditioning – learning through association) and B.F. Skinner (operant conditioning – learning as a function of consequences)
- The Humanistic Paradigm
- Focus:Human behavior is caused by voluntary choices ( free will). Main Influence: Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers
- Social roles
- (expectations of behavior according to a situation) are seen as causes of abnormal behavior
- Labeling theory
- states that abnormal behavior is created by social expectations; it is only abnormal what a given group or society deems to be abnormal
- Self-fulfilling prophecy
- states that people’s actions conform to the expectations created by a label
- Multifinality
- the same event can lead to different outcomes (e.g. abuse can lead to very different outcomes in different children)
- Equifinality
- a psychological disorder may have multiple causes; there are many routes to the same destination; multiple pathways=equifinality
- Reciprocal Causality
- the direction of causality can be in both directions simultaneously (e.g., children behavior affect parents just as parents’ behavior influence children’s behavior).
- sociocultural treatment paradigms
- the individual is viewed as a part of a larger system of relationships influenced by social forces and culture that must be addressed in therapy Paradigms include: group therapy, community psychology, family therapy, couples therapy
- Experimental Method
- A controlled scientific procedure that allows researchers to determine cause and effect.
- Hypothesis
- Prediction about cause and effect
- Independent Variable
- Variable controlled and manipulated by experimenter
- Dependent Variable
- Outcome that is hypothesized to vary according to manipulation of IV
- Statistically Significant
- Probability of chance outcome is less than 5 %
- Efficacy
- Can treatment work (under prescribed situations)?
- Effectiveness
- Does treatment actually work in real-world?
- Outcome Research
- Study of how effective psychotherapy is in terms of relieving symptoms, eliminating disorders, ie. outcomes
- Placebo
- Treatment with no active ingredient, but that creates expectation of an effect for patients, and therapists
- Double-blind Study
- Neither patients nor physicians know whether Tx is real or placebo
- categorical classification
- qualitative distinctions (“either orâ€)
- dimensional
- quantitative distinctions (“how muchâ€)
- inclusion criteria
- conditions that must be present for a positive diagnosis
- exclusion criteria
- conditions that, if present, rule out positive diagnosis
- validity
- how useful is a diagnosis? What does it tell us?
- validity: etiological (history)
- Are the conditions leading up to “Disorder X†consistent?
- validity: concurrent
- (same time!) Does “Disorder X†consistently produce a common set of symptoms, behaviors, and test results?
- validity: predictive
- (future)Does “Disorder X†allow a consistent prediction of the outcome of a disorder?
- Reliability
- Are we consistent? - are conditions measured consistently? are decisions made consistently by individual clinicians and across clinicians
- hypothetical construct
- A theory that attempts to explain some set of observed data or behavior (may not be directly observable)
- operationalize hypothetical construct
- Create a set of measures, tests, procedures that define the term. Make predictions based on definition → predictions that can be tested
- construct validity
- Extent to which specific measures produce results that are consistent with the theoretical construct
- Criterion Validity
- Does the disorder (as conceived) correlate with other relevant variables. Concurrent validity - SCHZ correlates with present drop in IQ Predictive validity- SCHZ correlates with future suicide attempt
- Content Validity
- Does the disorder include characteristics that have actually been observed
- Major domains of information (Axis)
- Axis I → Current problems (shorter term, what are recent issues) Axis II → Stable, chronic problems Axis III → Medical conditions Axis IV → Life events/environment (reminder: “general antecedent conditionsâ€) Axis V → Overall rating; helps track disorder over time
- non-shared environment (among MZ twins):
- Aspects of the environment that differ across the two twins, for example if they attended different schools, have a different set of friends, play different sports. The non-shared environment can contribute to psychological differences in the two twins.
- polygenic inheritance
- When the phenotype/characteristics of an individual are caused by more than a single gene
- genotype
- The genetic structure of an individual that we don’t observe directly. as opposed to the phenotype which are directly observable characteristics/behavior.
- culture-bound syndrome
- A syndrome (collection of signs and symptoms of psycopathology) that is specific to a particular culture
- empirically supported treatment
- For a treatment to be considered empirically supported, it needs to at least be shown to have efficacy using the experimental method
- paradigm
- comprised of a specific theory and a set of assumptions about how the theory is tested
- Diathesis-stress model
- Diathesis - a predisposition to develop a disorder Stress - a difficult life experience
- Kappa
- A measure of inter-rater reliability that controls for chance agreement (> .7 good, <.4 bad)
- Rating Scales
- Allow an observer to make judgments and rate behavior on a scale
- Culture
- The values, beliefs, and practices shared by a specific community or group of people
- case study
- an in-depth look at the symptoms and circumstances surrounding one person's mental disturbance
- Biopsychosocial Model
- When biological, psychological, and social factors all contribute to abnormal behavior
- Id
- Part of the psychoanalytic theory - present at birth and houses biological drives (hunger, sex)
- Ego
- Part of the psychoanalytic theory - deals with realities of the world as it attempts to fulfill id impulses
- Superego
- Part of the psychoanalytic theory - contains societal standards of behavior. Acts as the conscience
- Defense Mechanisms
- Unconscious self-deceptions that reduce conscious anxiety by distorting anxiety-producing memories, emotions, and impulses.
- Classical Conditioning
- Learning through association
- Operant Conditioning
- learned behavior is a function of its consequences
- Systems Theory
- integrates evidence on different contributions to abnormal behavior - holism, causality, and developmental psychopathology
- Prognosis
- The predictable course of a disorder
- Premorbid History
- A pattern of behavior that precedes the onset of the disorder
- Concordance Rate
- The key comparison of two sets of twins, specifically whether MZ twins are more aliked than DZ twins are alike
- Psychotherapy
- The use of psychological techniques and the therapist-client relationship to produce emotional, cognitive, and behavioral change.
- Eclectic
- A description of most health professionals that means they use different treatments for different disorders
- Transference
- The process whereby pts transfer their feelings about some key figure in their life onto the shadowy figure of the analyst
- Meta-Analysis
- the statistical procedure that allows researchers to combine the results from different studies in a standardized way
- Diagnosis
- The identification or recognition of a disorder on the basis of its characteristic symptoms
- etiology
- the study of the causes of disease
- Mind-Body Dualism
- Every mental state/experience we have is experienced by the brain and the body, as well
- Kendall's Biological Disadvantage
- Mental conditions that increase mortality or decrease fertility ADVANTAGE: grounds judgments about pathology in evolutionary terms
- Wakefield's Harmful Dysfunction
- Sought to merge objective (malfunction of internal mechanism) and subjective (harmful or disvalued judged by social norms) aspects DISADVANTAGE: natural (objective) component falters under interrogation
- Sedwick's Social Construction
- Psychopathology is an intentional concept - mental disorders are social constructions involving deviations from the norm and a quest for explanation
- Mind-Body Problem
- A challenge regarding how to best explain the fact that human consciousness, subjectivity, and free will are somehow realized in the physical properties of brains