Psychological Terms 14 - 16

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Abnormal behavior

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behavior that is deviant, maladaptive, or personally distressful over a long period of time.

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Medical model

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a biological approach that describes psychological disorders as medical diseases with a biological origin.

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DSM-IV

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abbreviation for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition; the current version of the APA’s major classification of psychological disorders.

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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

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psychological disorder in which the individual shows one or more of the following characteristics over a period of time: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

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Anxiety disorders

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psychological disorders that feature motor tension, hyperactivity, and apprehensive expectations and thoughts.

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Generalized anxiety disorder

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an anxiety disorder that consists of persistent anxiety for at least 6 months; the individual with this disorder cannot specify the reasons for the anxiety.

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Panic disorder

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an anxiety disorder marked by recurrent sudden onsets of intense apprehension or terror.

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Agoraphobia

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a cluster of fears centered on public places and on an inability to escape or to find help should become incapacitated.

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Phobic disorder

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commonly called phobia, an anxiety disorder in which the individual has an irrational, overwhelming, persistent fear of a particular object or situation.

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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

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an anxiety disorder in which the individual has anxiety-provoking thoughts that will not go away (obsession) and/or urges to perform repetitive, ritualistic behaviors to prevent or produce some future situation (compulsion).

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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

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an anxiety disorder that develops through exposure to a traumatic event, severely oppressive situations, severe abuse, and natural and unnatural disasters.

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Mood disorders

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– psychological disorders in which there is a primary disturbance in mood (prolonged emotion that colors the individual’s entire emotional state). Two main types are the depressive disorders and bipolar disorder.

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Depressive disorders

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mood disorders in which the individual suffers from depression (an unrelenting lack of pleasure in life).

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Major depressive disorder (MDD)

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a mood disorder indicated by a major depressive episode and depressed characteristics, such as lethargy and hopelessness, lasting at least 2 weeks.

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Dysthymic disorder

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a depressive disorder that is generally more chronic and has fewer symptoms than major depressive disorder.

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Bipolar disorder

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a mood disorder characterized by extreme mood swings that include one or more episodes of mania (an overexcited, unrealistically optimistic state).

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Dissociative disorders

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psychological disorders that involve a sudden loss of memory or change in identity.

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Dissociative amnesia

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a dissociative disorder involving extreme memory loss caused by excessive psychological stress.

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Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

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formerly called multiple personality disorder, this is the most dramatic but least common dissociative disorder; individuals suffering from this disorder have two or more distinct personalities or selves.

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Schizophrenia

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a severe psychological disorder that is characterized by highly disordered thought processes.

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Hallucinations

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sensory experiences in the absence of real stimuli.

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Delusions

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false, sometimes even preposterous beliefs that are not part of the person’s culture.

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Referential thinking

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ascribing personal meaning to completely random events.

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Catatonia

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a state of immobility and unresponsiveness.

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Flat affect

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– a negative symptom in which the person shows little or no emotion, speaks without emotional inflection, and maintains an immobile facial expression.

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Disorganized schizophrenia

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a type of schizophrenia in which an individual has delusions and hallucinations that have little or no recognizable meaning.

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Catatonic schizophrenia

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a type of schizophrenia characterized by bizarre motor behavior that sometimes takes the form of a completely immobile stupor.

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Paranoid schizophrenia

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a type of schizophrenia that is characterized by delusions of reference, grandeur and persecution.

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Undifferentiated schizophrenia

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a type of schizophrenia that is characterized by disorganized behavior, hallucinations, delusions and incoherence.

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Diathesis-stress model

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a model of schizophrenia that proposes a combination of biogenic disposition and stress as the cause of the disorder.

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Personality disorders

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chronic, maladaptive cognitive-behavioral patterns that are thoroughly integrated into the individual’s personality.

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Biological therapies

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treatments to reduce or eliminate the symptoms of psychological disorders by altering the way an individual’s body functions.

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Psychotherapy

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the nonmedical process used by mental health professionals to help individuals recognize and overcome their problems.

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Antianxiety drugs

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commonly used as tranquilizers; drugs that reduce anxiety by making individuals calmer and less excitable.

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Antidepressant drugs

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drugs that regulate mood.

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Lithium

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a drug that is widely used to treat bipolar disorder.

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Antipsychotic drugs

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– powerful drugs that diminish agitated behavior, reduce tension, decrease hallucinations, improve social behavior, and produce better sleep patterns in people who have a severe psychological disorder, especially schizophrenia.

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Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

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commonly called shock therapy, a treatment used for severely depressed individuals that causes a seizure to occur in the brain.

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Psychosurgery

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a biological therapy that involves removal or destruction of brain tissue to improve an individual’s adjustment.

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Insight therapy

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a therapy that encourages insight and self-awareness; includes the psychodynamic and humanistic therapies.

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Psychodynamic therapies

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therapies that stress the importance of the unconscious mind, extensive interpretation by the therapist, and the role of experiences in the early childhood years. The goal of the psychodynamic therapies is to help individuals recognize their maladaptive ways of coping and the sources of their unconscious conflicts.

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Psychoanalysis

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Freud’s therapeutic technique for analyzing an individual’s unconscious thoughts. Freud believed that clients’ current problems could be traced to childhood experiences, many of which involved conflicts about sexuality.

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Free association

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the psychoanalytic technique of having individuals say aloud whatever comes to mind.

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Dream analysis

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the psychotherapeutic technique used to interpret a person’s dream. Psychoanalysts believe that dreams contain information about the individual’s unconscious thoughts and conflicts.

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Transference

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the psychoanalytic technique for the client’s relating to the analyst in ways that reproduce or relive important relationships in the client’s life.

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Resistance

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the psychoanalytic technique for the client’s unconscious defense strategies that prevent the analyst from understanding the person’s problems.

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Humanistic therapies

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therapies that encourage clients to understand themselves and to grow personally. The humanistic therapies are unique in their emphasis on self-healing capacities.

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Client-centered therapy

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Roger’s humanistic therapy in which the therapist provides a warm, supportive atmosphere to improve the client’s self-concept and encourage the client to gain insight about problems.

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Reflective speech

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a technique in which the therapist mirrors the client’s own feelings back to the client.

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Gestalt therapy

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Perl’s humanistic therapy, in which the therapist challenges clients in order to help them become more aware of their feelings and face their problems.

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Behavior therapies

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therapies that use principles of learning to reduce or eliminate maladaptive behavior.

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Systematic desensitization

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a method of behavior therapy based on classical conditioning that treats anxiety by getting the person to associate deep relaxation with increasingly intense anxiety-producing situations.

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Aversive conditioning

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a classical conditioning treatment that consists of repeated pairings of the undesirable behavior with aversive stimuli to decrease the behavior’s rewards.

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Behavior modification

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the application of operant conditioning principles to change human behaviors; especially to replace unacceptable, maladaptive behaviors with acceptable adaptive behaviors.

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Cognitive therapies

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therapies emphasizing that individuals’ cognitions or thoughts, are the main source of abnormal behavior and psychological problems.

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Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)

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a therapy based on Ellis’s assertion that individuals develop a psychological disorder because of their beliefs, especially those that are irrational and self-defeating; the goal of REBT is to get clients to eliminate self-defeating beliefs by rationally examining them.

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Cognitive-behavior therapy

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therapy consisting of a combination of cognitive therapy and behavior therapy; self-efficacy is an important goal of cognitive behavior therapy.

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Family therapy

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group therapy with family members.

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Couples therapy

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group therapy with married or unmarried couples whose major problem lies within their relationship.

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Therapeutic alliance

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the relationship between the therapist and client.

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Integrative therapy

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a combination of techniques from different therapies based on the therapist’s judgment of which particular techniques will provide the greatest benefit for the client.

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Well-being therapy (WBT)

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a short-term, problem-focused, directive therapy that encourages clients to accentuate the positive.

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Post-traumatic growth

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improvements individuals can see in themselves as a result of a struggle with negative life events.

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Health psychology

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a field that emphasizes psychology’s role in establishing and maintaining health and in preventing and treating illness.

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Behavioral medicine

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an interdisciplinary field that focuses on developing and integrating behavioral and biomedical knowledge to promote health and reduce illness.

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Health behaviors

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practices that have an impact on physical well-being.

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Theory of reasoned action

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model suggesting that effective change requires individuals to have specific intentions about their behaviors, as well as positive attitudes about a new behavior, and to perceive that their social group looks on the new behavior positively.

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Theory of planned behavior

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model for effective change incorporating the theory of reasoned action but adding the person’s perceptions of control over the outcome.

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Stages of change model

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five-step model that describes the process by which individuals give up bad habits and adopt healthier lifestyles.

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Relapse

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a return to former unhealthy patterns.

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Self-efficacy

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the belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes.

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Implementation intentions

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specific strategies (such as setting specific plans and goals) for dealing with the challenges of making a life change.

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General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

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Selye’s term for the common effects on the body when demands are placed on it. The GAS consists of three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

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Psychoimmunoneurology

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the field that explores connections among psychological factors (such as attitudes and emotions), the nervous system, and the immune system.

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Stress management programs

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programs that teach individuals to appraise stressful events, to develop skills for coping with stress, and to put these skills into use in everyday life.

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Exercise

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structured activities whose goal is to improve health.

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Aerobic exercise

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sustained exercise, such as jogging, swimming, or cycling that stimulates heart and lung function.

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Sexually transmitted infections (STIs)

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infections that are contracted primarily through sex – vaginal intercourse as well as oral-genital and anal-genital sex.

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Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)

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a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a sexually transmitted infection that destroys the body’s immune system.