Abnormal Psychology Chapter 1

Front 1

Psychopathology

Back 1

pathology of the mind

Front 2

Abnormal psychology

Back 2

application of psychological science to the study of mental disorders

Front 3

Psychosis

Back 3

general term that refers to several types of severe mental disorders in which the person is considered to be out of contact with reality

Front 4

Syndrome

Back 4

a group of symptoms that appear together and are assumed to represent a specific type of disorder

Front 5

Harmful dysfunction

Back 5

a concept used in one approach to the definition of mental disorder; a condition can be considered a mental disorder if it causes some harm to the person and if the condition results from the inability of some mental mechanism to perform its natural function

Front 6

Culture

Back 6

values, beliefs, and practices that are shared by a specific community or group of people

Front 7

Epidemiology

Back 7

scientific study of frequency and distribution of disorders within a population

Front 8

Incidence

Back 8

number of new cases of a disorder that appear in a population during a specific period of time

Front 9

Prevalence

Back 9

total number of active cases, both old and new, that are present in population during a specific period of time

Front 10

Lifetime prevalence

Back 10

total proportion of people in a given population who have been affected by the disorder at some point during their lives

Front 11

Comorbidity

Back 11

presence of more than one condition within the same period of time

Front 12

Case study

Back 12

in-depth look at the symptoms and circumstances surrounding one person’s mental disturbance

Front 13

Hypothesis

Back 13

any new prediction made by an investigator

Front 14

Null hypothesis

Back 14

alternative to the experimental hypothesis