Clinical Psychology Case Studies: Quiz & Flashcards

Study Notes

Jack's father was worried about people like Jack being violent, and the landlord admitted not wanting any trouble.
Felicia had attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and was diagnosed by a psychologist in 4th grade.
She experienced difficulties in elementary school, including:
- Not being able to sit still or follow directions
- Blurring out answers when it wasn't her turn
- Making mistakes on class papers
- Being teased by other girls
Felicia began seeing a psychologist and taking medication (Ritalin), which helped her:
- Concentrate better
- Not blurt out things as much
- Learn to deal with teasing from others
Now in high school, Felicia is much happier and has:
- A good group of close friends
- Better grades than ever before

Insidious onset: a disorder that comes on slowly and doesn't have obvious symptoms at first.
Episodic course: a disorder that has a few months of recovery and improves on its own shortly.
Chronic course: a disorder that lasts a long time or is persistent.
Good prognosis: a positive outcome, while guarded prognosis is an outcome in doubt.
Fair prognosis: a moderate outcome, and poor prognosis: a negative outcome.

Etiology: the study of what contributes to the development of psychopathology, including biological, psychological, and social dimensions.
Treatment development: how to help alleviate psychological suffering, including pharmacological, psychosocial, and/or combined treatments.
Treatment outcome research: studying how to know if a treatment has been effective.

The supernatural tradition:
- Mass hysteria: a phenomenon where a group of people experience intense emotions and behaviors, often due to suggestion or contagion.
- Emotion contagion: when people experience an emotion that seems to spread to those around them.
- Mob psychology: when people in a group are influenced by a single idea or suggestion.
The biological tradition:
- Greek physician Hippocrates: abnormal behavior as a physical disease.
- Psychological disorders can be treated like any other physical disease.

Melanie Klein, Otto Kernberg, and object relations theory:
- Emphasized how children incorporate (introject) objects, including significant others and their images, memories, and values.
Later developments in psychoanalytic thought:
- The "Neo-Freudians": Jung, Adler, Horney, Fromm, and Erickson, who departed from Freud's ideas.
- Jung emphasized the "collective unconscious", while Adler focused on inferiority and striving for superiority.

The "talking" cure:
- Unearth hidden intrapsychic conflicts.
- Therapy is often long-term.
- Techniques include free association and dream analysis.
Examine transference and counter-transference issues.
Little evidence supports the efficacy of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Major themes:
- People are basically good.
- Humans strive toward self-actualization.
- Person-centered, unconditional positive regard.
Major players: Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
Person-centered therapy:
- Therapist conveys empathy and unconditional positive regard.
- Minimal therapist interpretation.
No strong evidence that purely humanistic therapies work to treat mental disorders.

Derived from a scientific approach to the study of psychopathology.
Classical conditioning (Pavlov; Watson):
- A form of learning.
- People learn associations between neutral stimuli and stimuli that already have meaning.
Operant conditioning (Thorndike; Skinner):
- People learn to repeat or decrease behaviors based on the consequences that follow them.
Example of classical conditioning: developing an association between the taste of tuna salad and nausea.

Psychopathology is multiply determined.
Unidimensional accounts of psychopathology are incomplete.
Must consider reciprocal relations among biological, psychological, social, and experiential factors.
Defining abnormal behavior is complex, multifaceted, and evolving.
Science of psychopathology is evolving, and the supernatural tradition no longer has a place in it.