Psychology on Acculturation and Disorders

Acculturation

• A problem adapting to or finding appropriate ways to adapt to a different culture or environment.

Difficulty with Adjustment Disorder

• A different culture or environment.
• Behavior that expresses a feeling state.

Affect

• Responsive to changing emotional states.
• Mood is a pervasive and sustained emotion.
• Examples include euphoria, anger, and sadness.
• Types of affect disturbances: blunted, flat, inappropriate, restricted, constricted, aggressive, or agitation.

Agoraphobia

• Anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing.
• Help may not be available should a panic attack occur.

Anhedonia

• Inability to experience pleasure from activities that usually produce pleasurable feelings.

Anorexia Nervosa

• Eating disorder characterized by refusal or inability to maintain minimum normal weight for age and height.
• Intense fear of gaining weight.
• Denies the seriousness of low weight.
• Undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation.

Antisocial Behavior

• Conduct indicating indifference to another's person or property.
• Criminal behavior, dishonesty, or abuse are examples.

Anxiety

• Apprehension, tension, or uneasiness from anticipation of danger.
• The source is largely unknown or unrecognized.
• Primarily intra-psychic origin, distinct from fear (response to a recognized external threat).

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

• Problems with inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity.
• Symptoms appear before age 7.
• Inconsistent with developmental level.
• Severe enough to impair social or academic functioning.

Autistic Disorder

• Development disorder involving significant impairment in social interactions and communication.
• Restricted or stereotyped patterns of behavior, interest, and activities.
• Abnormal development prior to age 3.
• Delays or abnormal functioning in social development, language, and/or play.

Bipolar Disorder

• Mood disorders including bipolar disorders (single episode, recurrent), and cyclothymic disorder.
• Bipolar episode includes a manic episode at some time during its course.

Brief Psychotherapy

• Psychotherapy with an end point defined by the number of sessions or specific objectives.

Comorbidity

• Simultaneous appearance of two or more illnesses.

Compensation

• Defense mechanism to make up for perceived deficiencies.

Compulsion

• Repetitive ritualistic behaviors (e.g., hand washing) to prevent or reduce distress.

Conduct Disorder

• Disruptive behavior disorder in childhood characterized by persistent violations of others' rights.
• Examples include bullying, truancy, early use of substances, and property damage.

Coping Mechanisms

• Ways of adjusting to environmental stress without altering one's goals; conscious and unconscious ways.

Coprophagia

• Eating of filth or feces.

Countertransference

• Therapist's emotional reactions to the patient based on the therapist's unconscious needs and conflicts.

Cyclothymic Disorder

• Bipolar disorder characterized by numerous hypomanic episodes and frequent periods of depressed mood/loss of interest.

Decompensation

• Deterioration of existing defenses leading to an exacerbation of pathological behavior.

Delusion

• False belief based on incorrect inference about reality.

Grandiose Delusion

• Belief in exaggerated importance, power, knowledge, or identity.

Nihilistic Delusion

• Conviction of nonexistence of self, part of the self, or others, or of the world.

Persecutory Delusion

• Conviction that one (or one's group/institution) is being harassed, attacked, persecuted, or conspired against.

Somatic Delusion

• False belief about bodily functioning.

Depersonalization

• Feelings of unreality concerning either the environment, self or both.

Depression

• Sadness, despair and discouragement as a mood state.

Dissociation

• Splitting off of clusters of mental contents from conscious awareness.

Dysphoria

• Unpleasant mood.

Dysthymic Disorder

• Depressive disorder with a chronic course with lowered mood and other symptoms.

Eating Disorder

• Marked disturbance in eating behavior. Including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, eating disorder not otherwise specified.

Echolalia

• Parrot-like repetition of overheard words/fragments of speech.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

• Congenital disorder resulting from alcohol teratogenicity.
• Includes birth defects such as low birth weight, facial abnormalities, and development issues

Fetishism

• Paraphilia characterized by sexual urges involving use of nonliving objects (fetishes).

Flashback

• Reexperiencing perceptual symptoms after ceasing use of hallucinogens.

Flight of ideas

• Continuous flow of accelerated speech with abrupt changes in topic.
• Driven by associations, stimuli or words

Gender Identity Disorder

• Strong persistent identification with opposite sex (cross-gender identification) with associated discomfort.

Hallucination

• Sensory perception in absence of external stimulus.
• Distinguishing from illusion (misperception/interpretation of stimulus).

Hyperactivity

• Excessive motor activity, purposeful or aimless.

Hypomania

• Psychopathological state between normal euphoria and mania.
• Characterized by unrealistic optimism, pressure of activity and speed of speech, and a decreased need for sleep.

Identity Crisis

• Loss of sense of sameness and historical continuity (self-identity)
• Inability to accept perceived societal role expectations
• Often expressed as isolation, withdrawal, extremism or rebelliousness.

Impulse Control Disorders

• Inability to resist an impulse, drive or temptation to act in ways harmful to oneself or others.

Labile

• Emotions shift rapidly.

Mania

• Mood disorder characterized by excessive elation, high self-esteem, hyperactivity, accelerated thinking/speaking

Manic Episode

• Abnormally elevated/irritable mood persisting at least a week, accompanied by inflated self-esteem, reduced need for sleep, talkativeness, racing thoughts, and increased activity.

Mental Health

• State of relative, not absolute well-being.
• Measured by success at working, loving, creating, and flexible conflict resolution based on instinct, conscience, and reality.
• A state of mental well-being is relative, rather than absolute.

Mental Status

• Evaluating psychological and behavioral function.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• Anxiety disorder involving obsessions (intrusive thoughts) and compulsions (ritualistic behaviors)

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

• Negativistic and hostile behavior pattern lasting 6 months.
• Includes losing temper, arguing with adults, annoying others, and being resentful.

Overanxious Disorder

• Anxiety disorder related to unrealistic anxieties about performance in school, sports, hobbies, money matters, punctuality, health, or appearance.

Panic Attack

• Short episode of intense fear/discomfort with rapid development of fear of dying, losing control or going crazy.

Phobia

• Fear triggered by a specific object or situation.
• Response almost always involves anxiety or panic attack.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Anxiety disorder resulting from experiencing or witnessing a highly stressful or traumatic event. Characterized by re-experiencing of event, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli and increased arousal.

Reexperiencing the Trauma

• Intrusive recollections/memories, distressing dreams, sudden feeling of reliving the event, or intense distress on exposure to reminders.

Separation Anxiety Disorder

• Inappropriate anxiety concerning separation from home or attachment figures.

Sleep Terror Disorder

• Abrupt awakening from sleep with intense anxiety, confusion, and screaming.

Schizophrenia

• Psychotic disorder with positive (delusions, hallucinations) and negative (lack of motivation, flat affect) symptoms causing significant disruption in functioning.

Systematic Desensitization

• Behavior therapy procedure for phobias involving a hierarchy of anxiety-producing stimuli leading to modified behavior.

Tarasoff Decision

• Duty imposed on therapists to warn potential victims of patient's threats.

Thought Disorder

• Disturbances in speech, communication, or thought content, including delusions, ideas of reference, and loosening of associations.

Tic

• Nonrhythmic, sudden involuntary, rapid motor or vocal movements or vocalizations (e.g. stereotyped sounds)

Tourette's Disorder

• Tic disorder characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics (often concurrently, or separately) occurring most days for over a year.

Trichotillomania

• Pathological hair pulling resulting in noticeable hair loss.