Psychology 270 exam 1

• The scientific study of abnormal behavior....
• description (what)
• expanation (why or cause)
• prediction (outcomes)
• also treatment (change)
• and sometimes prevention

Too little or too much away from normal

• Faulty perceptions- distortions
• Distress- significantly unpleasant & upsetting
• Maladaptive- causes inteerference with daily functioning
• Danger- threat of harm to self &/ or others
• Statistical rarity- infrequent
• Social deviance- violations of social cultural norms; cultural relativism important

• D_x = Diagnosis
• R_x = Prescription
• T_x = Treatment, therapy
• D/o = Disorder
• MZ = Monozygotic; one egg, identical twins
• DZ = Dizygotic; 2 eggs, fraternal twins
• Ψ = Psychology

Affect the mind

Lose touch with reality

When someone falls under 2 or more disorders

The likelyhood of you inheriting a biological disorder

world views to explain phenomena are known as models (or paradigms)

provide assumptions about causality

• Somatogenic = abnormal behavior has physical causes (aka medical model) E.g., ECT
• Psychogenic = abnormal behavior has psychological causes E.g., hypnosis

• Increasing identification of sociocultural factors such as gender, ethnicity, poverty => sociogenic
• Advances in technology led to increasing recognition that no one worldview was sufficient; a complex, integrated model is necessary => biopsychosocial model

• 1950's & 1960's
• Psychotrophic medications discovered, especially antipsychotics
• Legislative reform led to development of community mental health centers

• Psychological abnormality is a disease caused by malfunctioning of physical self, especially the brain, thus, a medical perspective.
• kinship
• twin (MZ cvs. DZ)
• adoption

• Brain anatomy = distortions in size, shape and/ or structure
• Nervous System - chemical messengers called neurotransmittters, imbalance related to specific d/o's
• Brain Chemistry,Endocrine system - chemical messengers called hormones
• Genetics - chromosomes defects related to specific d/o's

• Models: Common features
• Behavior determined by intrapsychic forces-> not freely chosen
• Primarily unconscious
• Affected by childhood experiences

Freud

• Id: insticnts/ drives; pleasure principle
• Ego: "self"; reality principle. balances the personalities
• Superego: conscience and ego-ideal; moral principle

Imbalance/conflict => abnormal behavior

talking cure: patient should not be able to see doctor they should be able to talk freely. Bringing unconscious truama and conflict.

• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Social-cognitive

• Stimulus response
• T_x counterconditioning/ phobias
• US- unconditioned stimulus
• UR- uncondtioned response
• CS- conditioned stimulus
• CR- conditioned response

• Positive/negative reinforcement increases likelihood of behavior
• Positive/negative punishemnt decreases likelihood of behavior
• T_x involves behavior modification

• Individuals learn behaviors by observing social context aka modeling
• Learning can occur without direct consequences because of expectancies
• T_x involves modeling, manipulating expectancies

• Focus is on attention, thoughts, interpretations--perceptions
• Faulty thinking is cause of abnormal behavior

Emphasis on self-actualization

Focus on social and culural forces that influences and individual

• Covariation of events
• Time-order relationship
• Elimination of plausible alternatives

• Case study
• provides detailed data

• Correlational study-predictable relationship between 2+ variables
• +1 perfect positive
• -1 perfect negative
• 0 no consistent relationship

• Experimental study- variable is manipulated; manipulations effect on another variable is observed
• manipulated=independent variable
• observed=dependent variable

• Reliability = consistency
• Validity = usefulness, revelance
• Standardization; is how the assessment is done

• Observation
• Interviews
• Psychological tests
• Behavioral assessment
• Cognitive assessment
• Physiological measures

• Observation
• in natiralistic environment
• Interviews
• clinical interview
• Pychological test
• iq test
• achievement test
• adaptive test
• personality test
• neuropsychological test
• Behavioral & Cognitive
• behavioral assessment- based on learning models
• cognitive assessment- focus on cognitions

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
• improved reliabilty; validity concerns
• prototypical approach
• descriptive only, not explanatory
• multi-axial system

• Stress
• adjustment d/o's
• mild; in response to stressor
• acute stress d/o and post-traumatic stress d/o
• in response to trauma; differ re onset and length

• General adaptation syndrome
• within the person
• alarm- sympathetic n.s. and endocrin
• resistence- parasympathetic n.s.
• exhaustion- illness
• Life change model
• within the environment
• re stress potential of life events
• Transaction model
• within the interaction between the person & the environment

• Biological
• genetic vulnerabilites
• Environmental
• stressful events
• Sociocultural
• social support
• Psychological
• Locus of Control
• Hardiness
• Self-efficacy
• behavioral patterns
• coping styles