psychology 133

• reputedly assess unconscious processes
• most renowned projective test is the Rorschach Inkblot Test
• PROBLEMS
• almost impossible to standardize
• statedependent (e.g., affected by mood)
• questionable reliability and validity can be dangerous when used forensically

• sometimes referred to as functional analysis
• A= Antecedent; B = Behavior; C = Consequence

EX. A; teased at school ->B. school refusual -> C. No teasing

• the purpose of behavioral assessment is to identify the function of a maladaptive behavior and eliminate that function
• example :if acting sick gets a child out of gong to school, acting sick is reinforced ,acting sick needs to be ignored, so it no longer serves the function of getting out of school positive vs. negative reinforcement

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
• empirical (vs. rational) test derivation
• face validity vs. criterion validity
• example MMPI questions:
• criterion valid: I like mechanics magazines
• face valid: I see things or animals or people around me that others do not see

assess what somthing is

predicts the assessment

• Think of it as adding something in order to increase a response.
• example, adding a treat will increase the response of sitting; adding praise will increase the chances of your child cleaning his or her room.
• The most common types of positive reinforcement are praise and rewards

• Think of negative reinforcement as taking something negative away in order to increase a response.
• strengthens a behavior because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the behavior.
• example Driving in heavy traffic is a negative condition for most of us. You leave home earlier than usual one morning, and don't run into heavy traffic. You leave home earlier again the next morning and again you avoid heavy traffic. Your behavior of leaving home earlier is strengthened by the consequence of the avoidance of heavy traffic.

• a set of basic assumptions, a general perspective, that defines how to hypothesize and study a subject.
• they specify what problems scientists will investigate and how they will go about the investigation

factors include those things that members of a family have in common. such as family income level, childprearing practices, and parents' marital status

• factors believed to be distinct among members of a family. such as relationships with friends or specific events unique to a person (being on the swim team)
• These are believed to be important in understanding why two siblings form the same family can be so different.

the study of the degree to which genes and environmental factors influence behavior

• the total genetic makeup of an individual, consisting of inherited genes
• (physical sequence of DNA)

the totality of observable behavioral characteristics, such as level of anxiety

studies seek to identify particular genes and their functions.

• scale 1-10
• scale abbrev. description constructed assessment item
• 6/ Pa/ Paranoia /level of trust; suspiciousness/ 40

• (know if the person is telling the truth)
• abbreviation description construct assessed
• CNS/ cannot say /questions not answered
• L/ lie/ client "faking good"

• abbreviation description
• Es / ego strength scale
• OH / over-controlled hostility

• a lengthy personality inventory that identifies individuals with states such as anxiety, depression, masculinity-feminity, and paranoia, through their true-false replies to groups of statements
• -hard to fake
• -all new clients take this test when they first com in

• a given person's sensitivity to an environmental event is influenced by genes
• Ex the likelihood of developing depression if: no maltreatment; possible maltreatment; severe maltreatment.
• 2 short alleles have the highest likelihood, then one long one short, and 2 longs aren't affected by maltreatment

• static- science is the systematic accumulation of knowledge
• dynamic- science is the activity of hypothesis generation and testing

• CNS neurotransmitter
• may be involoved in depression, mania, & schizophrenia
• precursor of norepinephrine

• CNS neurotransmitter
• may be involved in depression, maia, and schizophrenia

• neurotransmitter
• communicates with the sympathetic nercous system, where it is involved in producing states of high arousal and thus may be involved int he anxiety disorders and other stress-related conditions

• inhibitory neurotransmitter
• inhibits nerve impulses throughout most areas of the brain and may be involved in the anxiety disorders

different forms of the same gene

different genes contributing to a disorder

the process by which genes are turned on and off

• methods used to study how nuerotransmitters are working in the brain. a drug that stimulates a particular neurotransmitter's receptors is an agonist.
• an antagonist is a drug that works on a neurotransmitter's receptors to dampen the activity of that neurotransmitter.

• in the tip of the tempral lobe
• important area for attention to emotionally salient stimuli and memory of emotionally relevant events.
• key brain structures for psychopathology researchers given the amount of emotional problems in the psychological disorders

• tenacity- it's true because I know it's true
• authority- it's true because the Bible tells me so
• a priori- it's true because it stands to reason
• scientific- it's "true" if repeated empirical observation does not refute it

regulates metabolism. temp, BP, sleeping and appetite

• pg.40
• central to the bnody's response to stress, and stress figures prominently in many disorders
• not a fast moving system

referred to as the stress hormone

• sympathetic-prepares the body of "fight or flight"
• parasympathedic- helps calm down the body.

• hypothalamus
• anterior cingulate
• septal area
• hippocampus
• amygalda

• Gray- refers to the brain's cells or neurons
• White- consists of the tracts of myelinated fibers that connect cells

• invloves helping a person engage in tasks that provide an opportunity for positive reinforcement.
• uses exposure and systematic desensitization
• first use desensitization and imagine the different levels of phobia
• then, expose them to the real thing (in vivo)

term that groups together the mental processes of perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, judging, and reasoning.

focuses on how people structure their experiences, how they make sense of them, and how they relate their current experiences to past ones that have been stored in memory.

• color words in different color blue
• this method was modified to focus on emotion rather than colors.
• wrote emotion words such as happy, danger, threat in different colors
• tested ppl with anxiety disorder
• they showed more interference for threatening words

• Clinical disorders, and conditions that need clinical attention.
• Examples: schizophrenia
• mood disorders (major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, etc.)
• anxiety disorders
• eating disorders
• disorders first diagnosed in childhood (ADHD, conduct disorder, etc.)

• Personality disorders and mental retardation.
• Examples: antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)
• borderline personality disorder (BPD)
• schizotypal personality disorderany form of mental retardation

• General medical conditions.
• Examples: infectious diseases (e.g., AIDS, hepetitis)
• diseases of the circulatory system (e.g., hypertension, atherosclerosis)
• injuries,
• poisonings, etc.

• Psychosocial and environmental problems
• homelessness
• unemployment
• recent death of a loved one
• involvement with the criminal justice system

Global assessment of functioning scale (0-100)