Chapter 1 Keywords

Front 1

Abnormal Psychology

Back 1

Thescientific study of abnormal behavior in an effort to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning.

Front 2

Norms

Back 2

A society's stated and unstated rules for proper conduct.

Front 3

Culture

Back 3

A people's common history, values, institutions, habits, skills, technology, and arts.

Front 4

Treatment/Therapy

Back 4

A procedure designed to change abnormal behavior into more normal behavior.

Front 5

Trephination

Back 5

An ancient operation in which a stone instrument was used to cut away a circular section of the skull, perhaps to treat abnormal behavior.

Front 6

Humors

Back 6

According to the Greeks and Romans, bodily chemicals that influence mental and physical functioning.

Front 7

Asylum

Back 7

A type of institution that first became popular in the sixteenth century to provide care for persons with mental disorders. Most became virtual prisons.

Front 8

Moral Treatment

Back 8

A nineteenth-century approach to treating people with mental dysfunction that emphasized moral guidance and humane and respectful treatment.

Front 9

State Hospitals

Back 9

State-run public mentalinstitutions in the United States.

Front 10

Somatogenic Perspective

Back 10

The view that abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes.

Front 11

Psychogenic Perspective

Back 11

The view that the chief causes of abnormal functioning are psychological.

Front 12

Psychoanalysis

Back 12

Either the theory or the treatment of abnormal mental functioning that emphasizes unconscious psychological forces as the cause of psychopathology.

Front 13

Psychotropic Medications

Back 13

Drugs that mainly affect the brain and reduce many symptoms of mental dysfunctioning.

Front 14

Deinstitutionalization

Back 14

The practice, begun in the 1960s, of releasing hundreds of thousands of patients from public mental hospitals.

Front 15

Private Psychotherapy

Back 15

An arrangement in which a person directly pays a therapist for counseling services.

Front 16

Prevention

Back 16

Interventions aimed at determining mental disorders before they develop.

Front 17

Positive Psychology

Back 17

The study and enhancement off positive feelings, traits, and abilities.

Front 18

Multicultural Psychology

Back 18

The field of psychology that examines the impact of culture, race, ethnicity, gender, and similar factors on our behaviors and thoughts, including abnormal behaviors and thoughts.

Front 19

Managed Care Program

Back 19

A system of health care coverage in which the insurance company largely controls the nature, scope, and cost of medical or psychological services.

Front 20

Scientific Method

Back 20

The process of systematically gathering and evaluating information through careful observations to gain an understanding of a phenomenon.

Front 21

Case Study

Back 21

A detailed account of a person's life and psychological problems.

Front 22

Epidemiological Study

Back 22

A study that measures the incidence and prevalence of a disorder in a given population.

Front 23

Longitudinal Study

Back 23

A study that observes the same participants on many occasions over a long period of time.

Front 24

Experiment

Back 24

A research procedure in a variable is manipulated and the effect of the manipulation is observed.

Front 25

Independent Variable

Back 25

The variable in an experiment that is manipulated to determine whether it has an effect on another variable.

Front 26

Dependent Variable

Back 26

The variable in an experiment that is expected to change as the independent variable is manipulated.

Front 27

Confound

Back 27

In an experiment, a variable other than the independent variable that is also acting on the dependent variable.

Front 28

Control Group

Back 28

In an experiment, a group of participants who are not exposed to the independent variable.

Front 29

Experimental Group

Back 29

In an experiment, the participants who are exposed to the independent variable under investigation.

Front 30

Random Assignment

Back 30

A selection procedure that ensures the participants are randomly placed either in the control group or in the experimental group.

Front 31

Blind Design

Back 31

An experiment in which participants do not know whether they are in the experimental or the control condition.

Front 32

Quasi-Experiment

Back 32

An experiment in which investigators make use of control and experimental groups that already exist in the world at large. Also called a mixed design.

Front 33

Natural Experiment

Back 33

An experiment in which nature, rather than an experimenter, manipulates an independent variable.

Front 34

Analogue Experiment

Back 34

An experiment in which the investigator produces abnormal-like behavior in laboratory participants and then conducts studies on the participants.

Front 35

Single-Subject Experimental Design

Back 35

A research method in which a single participant is observed and measured both before and after the manipulation of an independent variable.