Abnormal Psychology Quiz

Introduction to Abnormal Psychology

• Abnormal psychology studies unusual patterns of behavior, emotions, and thoughts that signify a mental disorder
• It involves understanding and managing mental health issues, developing treatments, and promoting mental health awareness

Statistical Data

• Prevalence: the number of people in the population who have a disorder
• Incidence: the number of new cases of a disorder during a given period
• Course of Disorder: the pattern of development, continuation, and outcome of a disorder
  • Chronic Course: lasting a long time, sometimes a lifetime (e.g., Schizophrenia)
  • Episodic Course: likely to recover within a few months, with recurrence at a later time (e.g., Mood Disorders)
  • Time-limited Course: improving without treatment in a relatively short period
• Onset of Disorder: the initial phase of a disease or condition, when symptoms first become apparent
  • Acute Onset: sudden onset
  • Insidious Onset: gradual development over an extended period

Defining Abnormality

• Dysfunction: a clinically significant disturbance in cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior
• Distress: a disabling condition that impairs social, occupational, or other important activities
• Deviance: behavior that fails to follow social norms
• Dangerousness: behavior that threatens the safety of oneself or others

Studying Psychological Disorders

• Psychopathology: the study of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders
• Classification: organizing and naming mental disorders
• Epidemiology: the scientific study of the frequency and causes of diseases in a population
• Prognosis: the anticipated course of a disorder

Learning

• Classical Conditioning: a type of learning where a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response
• Operant Conditioning: a type of learning where behavior is modified by its consequences
• Reinforcement: any event that strengthens a response
• Punishment: an aversive stimulus that suppresses a response

Memory

• Encoding: the process of taking in information from the environment
• Storage: the process of holding information for some period of time
• Retrieval: the process of accessing stored information
• Information-Processing Model: a model of memory that involves encoding, storage, and retrieval of information### Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) Model
• A model of memory derived from work in artificial intelligence (AI)
• Focuses on simultaneous processing of information across multiple neural networks
• Digit-Span Test: a memory test where a series of numbers is read to subjects, who then recall the numbers in order
• Magical Number Seven: the capacity of short-term memory to remember seven items or pieces of information, plus or minus two items
• Chunking: the process of recoding or reorganizing information into meaningful units or chunks to be held in short-term memory

Information-Processing Model: Three Memory Systems

• Proposes three stages of memory that vary in duration and capacity
• Information must be processed effectively at earlier stages before long-term storage occurs
• Three stages:
  1. Sensory Memory
     • First stage of memory, where information enters the nervous system through sensory systems
     • Encodes information as neural messages in the nervous system
     • Limited capacity and duration
  2. Short-Term Memory (STM)
     • Information from sensory memory enters consciousness
     • Lasts from 12 to 30 seconds
     • Selective attention focuses on specific stimuli while filtering out irrelevant information
     • Working memory actively processes information in short-term memory
  3. Long-Term Memory (LTM)
     • All information is placed to be kept more or less permanently
     • Duration is relatively permanent; capacity seems unlimited for practical purposes

Types of Long-Term Memory

• Declarative (Explicit) LTM
  • About all the things that people can know - facts and information
• Procedural Memory
  • Includes skills and habits
• Semantic Memory
  • Knowledge and understanding of general facts and concepts
• Episodic Memory
  • Personal knowledge of one's daily life
• Flashbulb Memory
  • Vivid and detailed recollection of a significant and emotionally charged event

Perception and Psychology

• Our minds naturally organize sensory information into meaningful patterns and wholes
• Perception involves recognizing patterns and wholes rather than individual elements
• Gestalt Psychology Principles:
  1. Figure-Ground
     • People perceive objects as either in the foreground or background
  2. Similarity
     • When things appear similar, we group them together
  3. Proximity
     • Things that are close together appear more related than things spaced farther apart
  4. Common Region
     • When objects are located within the same closed region, we perceive them as grouped together
  5. Closure
     • We tend to look for a single, recognizable pattern when looking at a complex arrangement of visual elements
  6. Focal Point
     • Whatever stands out visually will capture our attention first

Assessment and Gestalt Psychology

• Psychological assessment: the process of collecting information to develop an overall understanding of someone
• Psychological testing: a process of measuring psychology-related variables by means of devices or procedures
• Gestalt principles applied to psychology:
  1. Contact Boundary
     • The organism and the environment exist in a relationship of mutuality or dialectical relationship
  2. Psychological evaluations serve the same purpose as introducing oneself to a new context### Emotions
• Emotional appraisal refers to evaluating the personal meaning of a stimulus
• Emotional intelligence: the ability to perceive, use, understand, and manage emotions
• It enhances one's quality of agreeableness

Theories of Emotions

• James-Lange: emotional stimulus, then behavior, arousal, and emotional feeling
• Cannon-Bard: emotional stimulus, thalamus, ANS arousal, behavior, and emotional feeling
• Schachter: emotional stimulus, arousal, labeling, and emotional feeling

Intelligence

• Capacity to act purposefully and think rationally
• General intelligence (G factor): reasoning, problem-solving, memory, etc.
• Intelligence Quotient (IQ): person's mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100
• Types of intelligence tests:
  • Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales: measure 5 cognitive factors
  • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: measures verbal and performance (non-verbal) intelligence
  • Individual Intelligence Test: e.g. Bender Visual Motor Gestalt test
  • Group Intelligence Test

Theories of Intelligence

• Theory of General Intelligence (Charles Spearman): intelligence is one general mental capability represented as g factor
• Theory of Primary Mental Ability (Louis Thurstone): intelligence is not one general factor but a small set of independent factors
• Theory of Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence (Raymond Catell): fluid intelligence (biologically based) and crystallized intelligence (knowledge and skills acquired through experience)
• Triarchic Theory (Robert Sternberg): analytic, creative, and practical intelligence
• Multiple Intelligence (Howard Gardner): multiple independent types of intelligence

Thinking

• Internal representation of external stimulus or situation
• Basic unit of thought: images, concepts, and language
• Cognition: mentally processed information

Concept Formation

• Process of classifying information
• Concept Identification: using prototypes or models to identify concepts
• Conceptual Rule: guideline for determining whether objects or events belong to a concept class