Abnormal Psychology

• Psychological Disorders

  Deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional behavior patterns. Persistent, harmful, thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)


  A widely used system for classifying psychological disorders
• Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

  a psychological disorder marked by the appearance of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity by age 7.
• Medical Model

  diseases have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and cured in most cases. Assumes that these mental illnesses can be diagnosed based on their symptoms and cured through therapy, which may include treatment in a psychiatric hospital.
• Biopsychosocial model

  There are biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors in psychological disorders.
• Anxiety Disorders

  psychological disorders that are distressing, persistent anxiousness, and maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety. Examples: Generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder, and specific phobia disorder.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder

  Excessive, ongoing anxiety and worry that are difficult to control and it interferes with day to day activities. Can develop as a child or as an adult. Can be a long term challenge. 
• Panic Disorder

  When you have unpredictable and sudden panic attacks that are long and you can't help it. Symptoms: racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, and shaking of limbs.
• Agoraphobia

  avoiding places and situations that could cause panic and help unavailable.
• Phobias

  an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

  unwanted repetitive thoughts and/or actions.
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

  haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience.
• Dissociative Disorder

  conditions in which conscious awareness seems to become separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings.
• Mood disorders

  A psychological disorder characterized by emotional extremes. Examples: major depressive disorder, mania, and bipolar disorder.
• Major depressive disorder

  A person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities.
• Mania

  a mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state.
• Bipolar disorder

  a mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania.
• Schizophrenia

  a group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions.
• Delusions

  false beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders.
• Delusions of Persecution

  when you're convinced that someone is mistreating, conspiring against, or planning to harm you or your loved one
• Delusions of Grandeur

  extraordinary belief that one is famous, omnipotent, wealthy, or otherwise very powerful.
• Personality Disorders

  psychological disorders characterized by inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning.
• Antisocial Personality Disorder

  a personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist.
• Psychotherapy

  an emotionally charged, confiding interaction between a trained therapist and someone who suffers from psychological difficulties.
• Biomedical Therapy

  prescribed medications or medical procedures that act directly on the patient's nervous system.
• Eclectic approach

  an approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client's problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy.
• Psychanalysis

  Sigmund Freud's therapeutic technique. Freud believed that a patient's free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences-and the therapist's interpretations of them-released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.
• Resistance


  in psychanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden memories.
• Interpretations

  in psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight.
• Transference

  in psychanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).
• Client-Centered Therapy

  a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth.
• Active Listening

  empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Roger's client-centered therapy.
• Behavior Therapy

  therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.
• Counterconditioning

  a behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors; based on classical conditioning. Includes exposure therapy and aversive conditioning.
• Exposure Therapies

  behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that treats anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear or avoid.
• Systematic Desensitization

  a type of counterconditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.
• Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

  an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking.
• Aversive Conditioning

  a type of counter-conditioning that associates an unpleasant state(such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol).
• Token Economy

  an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats.
• Cognitive Therapy

  therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.