Abnormal Psyc Ch. 2 Vocab

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multidimensional integrative approach

Back 1

approach to the study of psychopathology, which holds that psychological disorders are always the products of multiple interacting causal factors

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genes

Back 2

Long deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, the basic physical units of heredity that appear as locations on chromosomes

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diatheses-stress model

Back 3

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

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vulnerability

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suceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder

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reciprocal gene-environment model

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

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neuroscience

Back 6

Study of the nervous system and its role in behavior, throughts, and emotions.

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neuron

Back 7

Individual nerve cell responsible for transmitting information

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synaptic cleft

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

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neurotransmitters

Back 9

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

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hormone

Back 10

chemical messenger produced by the endocrine glands

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brain circuits

Back 11

neurotransmitter currents or neural pathways in the brain

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reuptake

Back 12

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

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agonist

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

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antagonist

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chemical substance that produces effects opposite thos of a particular neurotransmitter

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serotonin

Back 15

neurotransmitter involved in information processing, coordination of movement, inhibition, and restraint; it also assists in the regulation of eating, sexual, and aggressive behaviors, all of which may be involved in different psychological disorders. Its interaction with dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia.

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cognitive science

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

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learned helplessness

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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 in reality they do or not).

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modeling

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learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of other individuals and the consequences of that behavior.

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prepared learning

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Certain associations can be learned more readily than others because this ability has been adaptive for evolution

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implicit memory

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condition of memory in which a person cannot recall past events even though he or she acts in response to them

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fight or flight response

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biological reaction to alarming stressors that musters the body's resources (e.g., blood flow, respiration) to resist or flee the threat.

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emotion

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pattern of action elicited by an external even and a feeling state, accompanied by a characteristic physiological response

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mood

Back 23

enduring period of emotionality

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affect

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

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equifinality

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developmental psychopathology principle that a behavior or disorder may have several different causes