Key Questions for Understanding Abnormality in Psychology

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University of North Texas *

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4610

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Psychology

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Jun 12, 2024

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Exam 1 - Questions for Review 1. What makes defining abnormality difficult? No universal agreement about what is meant by abnormality. Culture also plays a role in determining what is and what is not abnormal. The dysfunctional pattern of behavior must not stem from social deviance or conflicts that the person has with society as a whole 2. What are the elements or criteria to determine abnormality? Indicators of abnormality are subjective distress, maladaptiveness, statistical deviancy, violation of the standards of society, social discomfort, irrationality and unpredictability, dangerousness 3. Brett persistently injects himself with pain killers. This has greatly increased his chance of overdosing and dying. His behavior harms no one else. According to the DSM-5 , is Brett’s behavior consistent with the definition of a mental disorder? Yes, his behavior is consistent with opioid use disorder. His behavior meets the DSM-5 criteria requiring 2 of 11 characteristics- opioids taken in large amounts (A1), continued use despite risk of overdose (A9), tolerance with need for increased amounts of opioids (A10a). 4. According to the DSM , when is deviant behavior viewed as indicative of a mental disorder? Deviant behavior is viewed as indicative of a mental disorder when it violates the standards of society and is statistically deviant or rare. 5. What is the utility of the DSM-5 ? The utility is to provide all the information necessary to diagnose mental disorders including descriptions and lists of symptoms. The advantages of the DSM-5 are, provides nomenclature, provides common language for researchers and clinicians, structuring provides diagnostic accuracy and consistency, facilitates research, defines the domain of what is considered pathological, helps patients get reimbursed from insurance

6. Which concept provides psychologists with a consistent naming system that can be used to organize and identify information in a helpful manner? Classification system and Nomenclature 7. What is a disadvantage of having a classification system for mental disorders?  Loss of specific information due to simplification because there is variability in the presentation of mental disorders  Stigma and stereotyping  Self-concept impacted by diagnostic labeling 8. Maria believes that her dead grandmother occasionally speaks to her. In deciding if Maria has a mental illness or not, which of the following should first be evaluated? Maria’s upbringing and culture. It is important to consider whether speaking to the dead is common or frequent in the environment she grew up in. 9. What is epidemiology? In general, it is the study of the distribution of diseases, disorders, or health- related behaviors in a given population. Mental health epidemiology is the study of the distribution of mental disorders in a given population 10. What is the most prevalent psychological disorder among adults in the United States? Anxiety disorders according to the NCS-R study mentioned in our book. 11. Why is it important to have some understanding of what causes a psychological disorder? If we understand how psychological disorders are caused than we can work to reduce factors that increase risk of developing them. Having an understanding of the causes, fights against stigma that causes harm to the individuals that do have a psychological disorder. Understanding the cause of a psychological disorder can help determine treatment options.

12. Why is it dangerous to make conclusions based on case studies? Information presented in case studies is subject to “bias” because the writer of the case study selects what information to include and what to omit. In addition, material in a case study is often only information relevant to the specific individual being described therefore having low “generalizability” and cannot be used to draw conclusions about other cases. 13. Why is a representative sample desirable? This is important because ideally study groups mirror the underlying population in all important ways (e.g., in severity and duration of disorder and in demographics such as age, gender, and marital status). 14. What is a good control group for a research study on people with eating disorders? A good control group would consist of people who do not have eating disorders but are otherwise comparable to people in the criterion group. 15. Early writings show that the Chinese, Egyptians, Hebrews, and Greeks often attributed abnormal behavior to... possession by a demon or god. 16. Hippocrates doctrine of the four humors was meant to explain what? Personality or temperament 17. What is Galen credited with? Made original contributions concerning the anatomy of the nervous system based on dissections of animals. Galen also divided the causes of psychological disorders into physical and mental categories. Causes included head injuries, excessive alcohol use, shock, fear, adolescence, menstrual changes, economic reversals, and disappointment in love. 18. The approaches to treatment of the mentally ill during the Middle Ages in Europe are best characterized as... mostly devoid of scientific thinking and humane treatment for the mentally ill.

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19. Johann Weyer, in the early 1500s provided what to help understand abnormal behavior? Argued that the people accused of witchcraft were actually mentally ill. In 1583 he published a book, On the Deceits of the Demons , which contained a step-by-step rebuttal of the Malleus Maleficarum , a witch-hunting handbook published in 1486. 20. If you visited an asylum in the 16th Century in Europe you would likely find ________ Conditions of incredible filth and cruelty, set up basically as prisons. 21. Philippe Pinel was known for what? Treating mental patients as sick people and not beasts or criminals. He did this by removing chains and restraints from patients and allowing patients basic freedoms like sunshine, exercise, and kindness. 22. Moral management treatment focused on what? Focused on the work of Philippe Pinel and William Tuke using treatment focusing on patients’ social, individual and occupational needs and moral/spiritual development. Moral management in asylums emphasized the patients' moral and spiritual development and the rehabilitation of their “character” rather than their physical or mental disorders, in part because very little effective treatment was available for these conditions at the time. The treatment or rehabilitation of the physical or mental disorders was usually attempted through manual labor and spiritual discussion. 23. What discovery resulted in the rise of the mental hygiene movement and the occurrence of biomedical advances? (1) biological discoveries, (2) the development of an agreed-upon classification system for mental disorders, (3) the emergence of scientifically informed views about the causes of abnormal behavior, and (4) the emergence of experimental psychology.

24. What early findings are recognized as a major biomedical breakthrough in psychopathology because it established the link between mental and physical illnesses? General Paresis and Syphilis 1897: Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s experiments helped establish a relationship between syphilis (a biological condition) and paresis (a mental disorder) 1906: August von Wassermann devised a blood test for syphilis 1917: Julius von Wagner-Jauregg successfully treated syphilis and paresis with malarial fever: showed that brain pathology can cause a specific disorder and be treated medically 1757: Albrect von Haller (1708–1777)’s Elementa physiologae corporis humani emphasizes importance of brain in psychic functions 1845: Wilhelm Griesinger (1817–1868)’s The Pathology and Therapy of Psychic Disorders argues that all mental disorders can be explained in terms of brain pathology Alois Alzheimer and others established brain pathology cause of cerebral arteriosclerosis and senile mental disorders 1900s: Discovery of organic pathologies underlying toxic mental disorders, types of mental retardation, other mental illnesses 25. The first modern classification of mental disorders involved ________ Noted that certain symptoms occurred together regularly enough to be regarded as specific types of mental disease 26. The Nancy School was critical for conceptualizing mental disorders because it Believed that hysteria was a form of self-hypnosis OR advanced the recognition that psychological factors were involved in the development of mental disorders 27. In 1893, Breuer and Freud published a paper on hysteria. In it they announced that ________

Unconscious factors can determine behavior and produce mental health disorders 28. The emergence of Behaviorism was critical because it provided ________ Asserted that psychology should only observe behavior 29. A psychologist who takes a behavioral perspective would focus on ________ learning 30. The central principle of classical conditioning is that ________ after repeated pairings with a stimulus that naturally causes a response, a neutral stimulus will cause a similar response 31. There are different types of etiologies (i.e., causes) in abnormal psychology. For instance, having a gene for Parkinson’s disease guarantees that Parkinson’s disease will develop, but this is not the only factor that can lead to Parkinson’s disease. The presence of the gene is a ________, but not a ________. Sufficient cause / necessary cause 32. A diathesis can best be described as what type of causal factor? A contributory cause 33. A couple is in counseling. She states that she drinks because he rejects her. He states that he rejects her because she drinks. This is an example of bi-directionality which means effects can serve as feedback that can in turn influence the causes. In other words, the effects of feedback and the existence of mutual, two-way (bidirectional) influences must be taken into account. 34. Suppose that low self-esteem is a diathesis for developing depression later in life. This means that

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People with low self-esteem are predisposed for developing depression 35. When psychologists say that a person shows resilience , it means ________ Ability to successfully adapt to very difficult circumstances 36. What do different viewpoints of abnormal behavior provide? Different views of the origins of various forms of psychopathology 37. The disorders first recognized as having biological bases are best characterized as disorders that ________ resulted from neurological diseases or damage to the brain 38. Norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, and GABA are all ________ neurotransmitters 39. Suppose the reuptake of a specific neurotransmitter were deficient and the deactivation enzymes associated with the neurotransmitter were also deficient. What effect would this have? There would be a surplus of the neurotransmitter in the synapses 40. Cortisol is a hormone that ________ Is released by the adrenal gland in response to stress; therefore mobilizes the body to deal with stress 41. When examining heredity, mental disorders are almost always ________ based not on studies of genes but on studies of people who are related to each other. 42. Genes and environment can interact or be correlated. Highly coordinated children are picked out at an early age by coaches and given special opportunities to excel at sports. Extraverted children seek out social situations and become comfortable with strangers. Both of these phenomena illustrate _____ When the genotype shapes the environmental experiences a child has in this way, we refer to this phenomenon as a genotype–environment correlation 43. John Bowlby’s attachment theory emphasized ________

the importance of early experience, especially early experience with attachment relationships, as laying the foundation for later functioning throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. 44. Primitive defense mechanisms do not generally not work because they ________ Ego-defense mechanisms: irrational protective measures that reduce anxiety by helping a person push painful ideas out of consciousness rather than dealing directly with the problem; can be maladaptive 45. After being bitten by a dog, Jose finds that he feels afraid whenever he sees a dog. In classical conditioning terms, the dog can be described as a(n) ________ Conditioned stimulus 46. Due to ________, we can learn from the experiences of others. Observational learning 47. Cognitive-behavioral psychologists believe that abnormal behavior ________ focuses on how thoughts and information processing can become distorted and lead to maladaptive emotions and behavior. 48. Schemas are/ are not important in cognitive psychology because they an underlying representation of knowledge that guides the current processing of information and often leads to distortions in attention, memory, and comprehension. People develop different schemas based on their temperament, abilities, and experiences. 49. Children raised in orphanages tend to have what biological characteristics? Show severe emotional, behavioral, and learning problems... biologically they show significant reductions in both gray and white matter volume 50. Which parental style is characterized by warmth, control, and communication? Authoritative parenting 51. Studies on the cultural differences in parental tolerance of under- or over- controlled behavior suggest that

these different styles can produce different rates of problem behaviours in different cultures 52. Psychological assessment refers to the ________ Procedure by which clinicians using psychological tests, observations, and interviews, develop a summary of a client’s symptoms and problems 53. The use of standardized psychological tests help to compare people because ________ a particular individual's test score on a distribution of test scores from a large normative population can enable the user to evaluate whether the individual's score is low, average, or high along the distribution of scores (referred to as a T score distribution ). 54. Ed has suffered a head injury in a car accident. He is referred to a psychologist to see what types of impairment now exist and to get some suggestions for treatment. The best assessment strategy would be Neuropsychological tests 55. The MMPI is ________ Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Clinically, the MMPI is used in several ways to evaluate a patient's personality characteristics and clinical problems. Includes 10 clinical scales measuring tendencies to respond in psychologically deviant ways 56. One criticism of diagnostic labels is that ________ influence both other people's and the diagnosed person's perception of themselves in negative ways. 57. The term “stress” is used in the text to refer to ________ Effects created on an individual by application of a stressor 58. What do positive and negative stressors have in common?

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Both can tax a person’s resources and coping skills. Distress or bad stress has the potential to do more damage. Eustress is positive stress from a positive event 59. What factors are linked to a person’s ability to cope better? Subjective social support Key factors that make one stressor more serious than another: severity of the stressor, chronicity, timing, how closely it affects our own lives, how expected it is, how controllable it is 60. What can help lessen the impact of a stressful situation? Higher levels of optimism, greater psychological control or mastery, increased self-esteem or self-efficacy, and better social support (subjective) 61. What is the name of the system that is designed to mobilize resources and prepare a fight-or-flight response? Sympathetic-adrenomedullary (SAM) system 62. Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the interaction between the ___________. Nervous system and the immune system 63. What factor(s) can cause stress-induced immunosuppression? Definition: is when a person’s behavior and psychological state affect immune system functioning Chronic stressors, depressive symptoms and cardiac disease 64. Fear is a basic emotion that involves ________ that involves activation of the “fight-or-flight” response of the autonomic nervous system. This is an almost instantaneous reaction to any imminent threat such as a dangerous predator or someone pointing a loaded gun.

65. A helpful way to tell someone is having a panic attack rather than just in a state of fear is ________ if the fear response is occurring in the absence of obvious external danger 66. What is one of the major ways the anxiety disorders differ from each other? types of objects or situations that lead to fear, anxiety, or avoidance behavior . 67. Gradual exposure to feared cues is used to treat? Specific phobias and other anxiety disorders 68. It is fairly easy to condition monkeys and humans to fear snakes but almost impossible to condition either to fear a flower. This supports the ________ theory of phobias. Evolutionary preparedness 69. What finding provides evidence against a role for inherited factors in the development of phobias? the impact of nonshared environmental factors 70. Kayla has just started college and wants to make friends. She refuses to go to large parties because she is afraid that she will blush and sweat, and that other people will laugh at her. She is fine when talking to people in one- on-one settings. Kayla’s most likely diagnosis is ________ social anxiety disorder 71. Cognitive approaches to social phobia focus on ________ Cognitive biases that people with social anxiety tend to expect that other people will reject or negatively evaluate them. Treatment focuses on cognitive restructing where the therapist attempts to help client identify their underlying negative thoughts and change them 72. Compared to anxiety, panic is ________

Symptoms often don’t appear to be provoked by identifiable aspects of the immediate situation. Sudden intense activation of the nervous system, typically in short duration only lasting 10 minutes. 73. Anxiety sensitivity is ________ neuroticism 74. Amber feels anxious almost all the time. She finds herself worrying that her husband will leave her (although he has never shown any indication that he would), that she chose the wrong job, that her children might not be safe at their school, and that she might get sick and leave her family in financial ruin. She calls her husband almost every day to find out when he will be home. She complains to her physician that she is always tired but cannot sleep or relax. Amber’s most likely diagnosis is ________ Generalized anxiety disorder 75. What have the studies of control in humans and monkeys provided support for? preparedness theory of phobias. In one important series of experiments using human subjects, Öhman and his colleagues (see Öhman, 2009; Öhman & Mineka, 2001, for reviews) found that fear is conditioned more effectively to fear-relevant stimuli (slides of snakes and spiders) than to fear-irrelevant stimuli (slides of flowers and mushrooms). Moreover, once the individuals acquired the conditioned responses to fear-relevant stimuli, these responses (including activation of the relevant brain area, the amygdala) could be elicited even when the fear-relevant stimuli (but not the fear-irrelevant stimuli) were presented subliminally (i.e., presentation was so brief that the stimuli were not consciously perceived; e.g., Carlsson et al., 2004; Öhman et al., 2007). This subliminal activation of responses to phobic stimuli may help to account for certain aspects of the irrationality of phobias. That is, people with phobias may not be able to control their fear because the fear may arise from cognitive structures that are not under conscious control (Öhman & Mineka, 2001).

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both monkeys and humans seem selectively to associate certain fear- relevant stimuli with threat or danger.

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