Chapter 2

Front 1

Association for Psychological Science (APS)

Back 1

the professional psychological organization formed in 1988 when an academic-scientific contingent broke off from the APA; goals of the APS include advancing the discipline of psychology, preserving its scientific base, and promoting public understanding of the field and its applications

Front 2

behavior therapy

Back 2

a popular learning framework for treating disorders that is based on the principles of conditioning; behavior therapy usually focuses on observable behavior and is typically of relatively brief duration

Front 3

behavioral assessment

Back 3

an approach to understanding and changing behavior by identifying the context in which it occurs (the situations or stimuli that either precede it or follow from it)

Front 4

brief (time-effective) therapy

Back 4

generally speaking, therapy of 15 or fewer sessions' duration; brief therapy has gained popularity in recent years due to the financial constraints imposed by managed care, as well as studies demonstrating that its effectiveness is on par with that of traditional psychotherapy

Front 5

community psychology

Back 5

a psychological specialty that focuses on the prevention and treatment of mental health problems, particularly among people who are traditionally underserved

Front 6

eclectics

Back 6

clinicians who employ the techniques of more than one theoretical orientation; the nature of the presenting problem determines which orientation to use in a given case

Front 7

etiological

Back 7

causal; for example, an etiological factor for depression is believed to contribute to its onset

Front 8

g

Back 8

a term introduced by Charles Spearman to describe his concept of a general factor of intelligence

Front 9

guidance clinics

Back 9

clinics devoted to evaluation and treatment of children's intellectual and behavioral difficulties

Front 10

health psychology

Back 10

a psychological specialty that focuses on the prevention of illness, the promotion and maintenance of good health, and the psychological treatment of individuals with diagnosed medical conditions

Front 11

manualized treatment

Back 11

treatment that is presented and described in a manual format (i.e., outlining the rationales, goals, and techniques that correspond to each phase of the treatment)

Front 12

measurement of intelligence

Back 12

the use of tests to measure various mental capacities

Front 13

mental tests

Back 13

the term coined by James McKeen Cattell to describe his measures of individual differences in reaction time; he believed that performance on these tests was associated with intelligence

Front 14

neuropsychological assessment

Back 14

an assessment approach - based on empirically established brain-behavior relationships - that evaluates a person's relative strengths and weaknesses across a number of areas

Front 15

objective measures

Back 15

psychological tests that draw conclusions about people's states or traits on the basis of their responses to unambiguous stimuli, such as rating scales or questionnaire items; responses to objective measures are often interpreted using a nomothetic approach

Front 16

personality disorders

Back 16

enduring and maladaptive patterns of experience and behavior that emerge by adolescence or young adulthood and persist through much of adulthood

Front 17

personality testing

Back 17

the use of measures or techniques to provide insight into enduring characteristics or traits

Front 18

play therapy

Back 18

a technique, derived from traditional Freudian principles, that uses expressive play to help release anxiety or hostility; proponents believe that such a release has a curative effect

Front 19

projective techniques

Back 19

psychological testing techniques, such as the Rorschach or the Thematic Apperception Test, that use people's responses to ambiguous test stimuli to make judgments about their personality traits or their psychological state

Front 20

psychoanalysis

Back 20

a framework for understanding and treating mental illness based on the collaborative work of Breuer and Freud in the late 1800s

Front 21

psychodiagnosis

Back 21

the use and interpretation of psychological test scores for the purposes of diagnosis and treatment planning

Front 22

psychotherapy research

Back 22

research that evaluates the effectiveness of therapy or certain therapy components; psychotherapy research may be used to determine which intervention is more effective for treating a certain condition or which component of a particular therapy is most crucial for bringing about an observed change

Front 23

radical behaviorism

Back 23

a movement in psychology that began in the late 1950s and persisted through the 1960s; proponents of this movement asserted that only overt behaviors could be measured and even questioned the existence of personality traits

Front 24

scientist-practitioner model

Back 24

the principal model for clinical psychology training of the past 50 years (aka Boulder model); this model strives to produce professionals who can effectively integrate the roles of scientist and practitioner

Front 25

structured diagnostic interviews

Back 25

a class of assessment tools, all of which consist of questions keyed to diagnostic criteria; the term structured means the interviewers ask all interviewees the same questions in the same order and score the answers in standard ways

Front 26

systematic desensitization

Back 26

a behavioral technique for the treatment of anxiety disorders in which patients practice relaxation while visualizing anxiety-provoking situations of increasing intensity