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Abnormal Psychology Terminology

Terms

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Theoretical Approach
Set of assumptions about the likely causes of abnormality and appropriate treatments.
Biological Approach
View that biological factors cause and should be used to treat abnormality.
Psychological Approach
Approach to abnormality that focuses on personality, behavior and ways of thinkinng as possible causes of abnormality.
Social Approach
Approach to abnormality that focuses on interpersonal relationships, culture, society, and the environment as possible causes of abnormality.
Nature vs. Nurture
Debate over the causes of psychological disorders (are disorders cause by something in the biology of the person or in the history of events to which the person was exposed?); debate implies that the cause of the disorder has to be either biological or psychological and that it cannot be both.
Vulnerability-Stress Models
Comprehensive models of the many factors that lead some people to develop a given mental disorder.
Feedback Loops
A system which changes in one element result in changes in a second element, then changes in the second element to change the first element again.
Cerebrum
Part of the brain that regulates complex activities, such as speech and analytical thinking.
Central Core
Part of the brain that includes brains stem and regulates basic life processes.
hypothalamus
Component of the central core of the brain that regulates eating, drinking, sex and basic emotions; abnormal behaviors involving any of these activities may be the result of dysfunction in the hypothalamus.
Endocrine System
Systems of glands that produces many different hormones.
Limbic System
Part of the brain that relays information from the primitive brain stem about changes in bodily functions to the cortex where the information is interpreted.
Neurotransmitters
Biochemicals released from a sending neuron that transmit messages to a receiving neuron in the brain and nervous system.
Synapse
Space between the sending neuron and the receiving neuron into which neurotransmitters are first released (also called the synaptic gap).
Reuptake
Process in which a sending neuron absorbs some of the neurotransmitter in the synapse, decreasing the amount left inn the synapse.
Degradation
Process in which a receiving neuron releases an enzyme into the synapse, breaking down neurotransmitters into other biochemicals.
Pituitary
Major endocrine gland that lies partly on the outgrowth of the brain and just below the hypothalamus; produces the largest number of different hormones and controls the secretion of other endocrine glands.
Behavior genetics
Study of the processes by which genes affect behaviior and the extent to which personality and abnormality are genetically inherited.
Polygenic
combination of many genes, each of which makes a small contribution to an inherited trait.
Predisposition
Tendency to develop a disorder that must interact with other biological, psychological, or environmental factors for the disorder to develop.
Family History Study
The study of the heritability of a disorder involving identifying people with the disorder and people without the disorder and then determining the disorder's frequency within each person's family.
Probands
People who have the disorder under investigation in a family history study.
Monozygotic (MZ) Twins
Twins who share 100% of their genes because the developed from a from a single fertilized eggs
Dizygotic (DZ) Twiins
Twins who average only 50% of their genes in common because they developed from two separate fertilized eggs.
Twin Study
Studies of the heritability of a disorder by comparing concordance rates between monozygotic and dizygotic twins.
Concordance Rate
Probability that both twins will develop a disorder if one twin has the disorder.
Adoption Study
Study of the heritability of a disorder by finding adopted with a disorder and then determining the prevalence of the disorder among their biological and adoptive relatives in order to separate out contributing genetic and environmental factors.
Psychodynamic Theories
Label for a group of theories developed by Freud's followers, but usually differing somewhat from Freud's original theories.
Psychoanalysis
A form of treatment for psychopathologyinvolving alleviating unconscious conflicts driving psychological symptoms by helping people gain insight into their conflicts and finding ways of resoling these conflicts.
Catharsis
Expression of emotions connected to memories and conflicts, which leads to the release of energy used to keep these memories in the unconscious.
Repression
A defense mechanism in which the ego pushes anxiety-provoking material back into the unconscious.
Libido
Psychical energy derived from physiological drives.
Id
Most primitive part of the unconscious, consists of drives and impulses seeking immediate gratification.
Pleasure Principle
Drive to maximize pleasure and minimize pain as quickly as possible.
Primary Process Thinking
Wish fulfillment or fantasies, humans use to conjure up desired objects or actions; an example is a hungry infant imagining it's mothers breats when she is not present.
Ego
Part of the psyche that channels libido acceptable to the superego and within the constraints of reality.
Reality Principle
Idea that the ego seeks to satisfy our needs within the realities of society's rules, rather than following the abandon of the pleasure principle.
Secondary Process Thinking
Rational deliberation, as opposed to the irrational thought of primary process thinking.
Superego
Part of the unconscious that consists of absolute moral standards internalized from one's parents during childhood and one's culture.
Introject
To internalize moral standards because following them makes us feel good and reduces anxiety.
Unconscious
Area of the psyche where memories, wishes, and needs are stored, and where conflicts among the id, ego, and superego are played out.
Preconscious
Area of the psyche that contains material from the unconscious before it reaches the conscious mind.
Conscious
Mental content and processes of which we are actively aware.
Defense Mechanism
Strategies the ego uses to disguise or transform unconscious wishes.
Neurotic Paradox
Psychoanalytic term for a condition in which an individual's way of coping with unconscious concerns creates even more problems in that individual's life.
Psychosexual stages
Developmental process children pass through, in each stage, sex drives are focused on the stimulation of certain areas of the body and particular psychological issues can arouse anxiety.
Oral Stage
Earliest psychosexual stage lating for the first 18 months of life; libidinal impulses are best satisfied through the stimulation of the mouth area, including actions such as feeding or sucking; major issues of concern are dependence and the reliability of others.
Anal Stage
Psychosexual stage that occurs between the ages of 18 months and three years; focus of gratification is the anus, and children are interested in toilet activiies; parents can cause children to be fixated in this stage by being to harsh and critical during toilet training.
Phallic Stage
Psychosexual stage that occurs between the ages of 3 and 6 years of age; focus of pleasure is the genitals, important conflicts of sexual development emerge at this time, differing for boys and girls.
Oedipus Complex
Major conflicy of male sexual development during which boys are sexually attracted to their mothers and hate their fathers as rivals.
Castration Anxiety
Boys'fear that their fathers will retaliate against them by castrating them; this fear serves as motivation for them to put aside their desires for their mothers and to aspire to become like their fathers.
Electra Complex
Girls realize during the phallic stage that they don't have a penis and their horro at the discovery; they realize that their mothers also don't have penises and disdain females for this deficit, an attraction for the male father ensues, following the belief that he can provide a penis.
Penis nvy
A wish to have the male sex organ.
Latency Stage
Period of psychosexual development following the phallic stage in which libidinal drives are quelled and childrens energy turns toward the development of skills and interests and toward becoming fully socialized to the world; the opposite sex is avoided.
Genital Stage
Psychosexual stage that ocurs around the age of 12, when childrens sex drives reemerge; if a child has successfully resolved the phallic stage, interst in sex turns toward heterosexual relationships.
Object Relations
A view held by a group of modern psychodynamic theorist that one develops a self-concept and appraisal of others in a 4 stage process during childhood and retains them throughout adulthood; psychopathology consists of an incomplete progression through these stages or an acquisition of poor self and other concepts.
Splitting
IN object relations theory, phenomenon wherein a person fails to resolve stage 2 or 3 of the self-concept acquistion process and splits conceptions of self and others into either all good or all bad categories, neglecting to recognize people's mixed qualities.
Behavioral Theories
Theories that focus on an individuals history of reinforcements and punishments as causes for abnormal behavior.
Classical Conditioning
Form of learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally elicits a response, thereby making the neutral stimulus itself sufficient to elicit the same response.
Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
IN classical conditioning, stimulus that naturally elicits a reaction, as food elicits salivation in dogs.

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