AP Psychology Ch17 and 18 vocab

self concept
This component of self involves the beliefs people hold about who they are, as well as what characteristics they have.

reference groups
Festinger’s theory of social comparison states that people assess their own value based on those around them. This terms refers to the people to whom you feel are similar to you that serve as your basis of comparison.

relative deprivation
This phenomenon is produced when individuals feel their status is unfavorable compared to that of others. It is the belief that no matter how much a person gets, they deserve more.

social identity
This term refers to a person’s beliefs about the groups they belong to (nationally, religiously, etc.); it is a large part of their self concept.

self-schema
This term refers to a person’s mental representation of himself, which may shape that individual’s thoughts, experiences, and emotions.

self-fulfilling prophecy
This process occurs when a person does something that causes others to confirm that person’s impressions or beliefs or when schemas cause people to inadvertently lead people to behave according to our expectations.

attribution
This term deserves the process people go through to explain the causes of behaviors, both their own and that of others. This process helps us to understand and predict later actions, as well as try to control situations.

fundamental attribution error
This term describes people’s tendency to overattribute others’ behaviors to internal factors (i.e. their personality), instead of external factors (i.e. stress).

actor-observer bias
This term describe people’s tendency to attribute their own behavior to external causes, even while attributing the behavior of others to internal causes, due to the different kinds of information they have about the behavior of themselves versus the behavior of others. This phenomenon is especially common inappropriate or inadequate behavior is concerned.

self-serving bias
This term describes the tendency people have to take personal credit for success (internal cause), while blaming failures on external causes.

attitude
This tendency to act, feel, or think negatively or positively towards things in our environment is a part of social cognition that has been studied for an extremely long time. This tendency guides how we react to others, what we do, what we support, and so on. There are three components: cognitive (beliefs), affective/emotional (feelings), and behavioral (actions).

cognitive dissonance theory
This theory states that people want their attitudes, beliefs, and thoughts to be consistent with each another and with the individual’s behavior. When inconsistencies are noticed, people feel anxious and attempt to reduce the dissonance—often by changing attitudes rather than behaviors.

self-perception theory
This theory challenges the cognitive dissonance theory. It states that individuals often find themselves unsure about their attitudes, and thus must reflect on their behaviors under certain circumstances and then infer what their attitude should be. There is no tension in this process.

contact hypothesis
This belief is based on the idea that prejudices and stereotypes towards certain people will diminish as contact with the people increases.

matching hypothesis
This belief is based on the idea that individuals have a tendency to date, marry, or form relationships with people of the same level of physical attractiveness. People compromise because they are afraid of rejection from those with physical appeal greater than their own.

norms
This term refers to learned, socially based rules that prescribe what people should or shouldn’t do in certain situations. We inherit them from our teacher, parents, and peers. They describe what is expected of people and help make social situations less ambiguous and more comfortable.

deindividuation
This psychological state occurs when a person—often a member of a group—loses his sense of individuality. This loss heightens feelings of cohesiveness with his group and increases emotional arousal. The focus of attention on membership in the group and the values of group serves to reduce a sense of personal responsibility by creating a feeling of anonymity, and also shifts attention away from internal thoughts to external environment.

empathy-altruism theory
This beliefs states that the likelihood of people engaging in unselfish helping acts (altruism) will do so even when the cost is high when they feel empathetic toward the person in need.

social loafing
This terms describes how people have a tendency to not work as hard when in a group, as it is difficult to identity an individual’s contributions. Individuals often exert more effort when performing alone.

conformity
This terms describes when a person changes their beliefs or behavior to match those around them. It is the result of group pressure.

compliance
This terms describes when people adjust their behavior after requested to do so. Explicit requests are spoken or directly indicated. Implicit requests are unspoken but understood.

frustrating-aggression hypothesis
Originally developed by John Dollard, this idea states that frustration always results in aggression, and that aggression will not occur unless someone is frustrated. This hypothesis, however, is said to be too simply and general.

prisoner’s dilemma game
This situation occurs when two criminals are separated after a crime. They have the choice of confessing or remaining silent. If neither confess, they will mostly likely be jailed for only 1 year for a minor offense. If both confess, they are likely to get a 5 year sentence. However, if one confesses and the other does not, the one that confessed will be released while the non-confessor will be jailed for up to 10 years. Responses can be cooperative or competitive. It is a mixed-motive conflict.

altruism
This term describes an unselfish concern for another’s welfare. It is a helping behavior.

arousal: cost-reward theory
This belief states that people find the sight of a victim anxiety-provoking and distressing. Their emotions motivate them to reduce their unpleasant arousal, namely the victim’s situation.
As physiological arousal of bystanders increases, so does the likelihood of them offering assistance.

group think
This phenomenon occurs when members of a group are not able to completely or realistically evaluate the potential negative consequences of a decision or the options open to them. Three conditions increase the likelihood of this to occur: isolation from outside influence, time pressure or extremely stress, biased leadership.

zero-sum games
This terms describes situations in which conflict is extremely likely. In these cases, the gains of one person is subtracted from another person’s resources; the sum of losses and gains is zero.

AP Psychology Ch16 vocab

CHAPTER 16 - Treatment and Therapy

Psychoanalysis
This method of treatment was developed by Sigmund Freud, and focuses on the affect of the ego (a referee between superego and id) and unconscious conflicts on a client. Freud examined the relationship between a person’s history and their current problems, and searched for hidden meanings in people’s dreams and actions.

Client-Centered Therapy
This treatment method is part of the phenomenological approach. It focuses on how therapists needs to establish relationships with their clients through the use of positive regard, empathy, and congruence. In this method, a client decides when to talk about whatever they want without being directed, judged, or interpreted by the therapist. The client solves his own problem with little advice from his therapist.

Unconditioned Positive Regard
This attitude involves treating a client as valued person, no matter what. Therapists should listen to their clients and accept their statements without interrupting or judging.

Empathy
This attitude involves appreciation of how the world looks from client’s perspective. Therapists must look at the client with an internal frame of reference and try to gain an emotional understanding of client’s thoughts and feelings.

Reflection
This feature of client-centered therapy helps a patient focus the thoughts and feelings they are expressing by confirming communication between the patient and therapist. The therapist confirms communication by paraphrasing his patient’s words, their meaning, and their emotions.

Congruence
This attitude is also known as “genuineness,” and involves consistency between a therapist’s feelings and actions.

Gestalt Therapy
This method, developed by Frederick S. Perls and his wife Laura, is direct and dramatic. It tries to help people grow by making them more self accepting, self aware, and unified. Clients are prodded towards certain feelings and impulses. Incongruities between what a person says and does are pointed out.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
This type of behavioral treatment focuses on changing thinking patterns as well as behaviors.

Systematic Desensitization
This method of modifying behavior (specifically phobias and anxieties) involves visualizing the negative stimuli while remaining relaxed in order to unlearn the learned association between the stimuli and the negative response.

Modeling
In this technique, therapists teach their clients certain behaviors by demonstrating them themselves. Skills are learned by the client vicariously.

Token Economy
This technique of positive reinforcement involves rewarding desired behaviors with items (tokens) that can later be exchanged for actual rewards (i.e. a cookie).

Extinction
This technique involves operant conditioning and is a process of removing reinforcers to make undesired behaviors stop.

Flooding
This method of behavior therapy keeps people in feared but harmless situations, depriving them of their normal escape patterns. Slowly, their negative response diminishes and eventually is extinguished.

Aversive Conditioning
This classical conditioning technique involves turning habitual but undesirable behaviors into less attractive options so that a client will be less likely to perform the behaviors.

Rational Emotive therapy
This form of cognitive behavior therapy is based upon the idea that depression, guilt, anxiety, etc. are caused by people’s thoughts and interpretations of events. Individuals must learn to recognize self-defeating thoughts and replace them with beneficial ones.

Neuroleptics
This psychoactive drug, also called an antipsychotic, helps decrease symptoms of several mental disorders, including incoherence, paranoia, and hallucinations. Phenothiazines are the most common type.

Antidepressants
This drug helps individuals with mood disorders by helping them resume normal eating and sleeping habits as well as improving their disposition.

Anxiolytics
This drug helps individuals with anxiety disorders by reducing mental and physical tension (symptoms of anxiety).

AP Psychology Ch15 vocab, test notes

Psychological Disorders

Culture-general disorders - appear almost worldwide, but symptoms differ according to cultural backgrounds.

Culture-specific disorders – observed in only certain areas and are unique to certain cultures.

Diathesis-stress model - focuses on biological imbalances, inherited traits, brain damage, enduring psychological traits, and early learning experiences (biopsychosocial causes) that may create a predisposition for a psychological disorder; appearance of a disorder depends on stressors encountered by individual… when stress levels exceed coping capacity, panic response is triggered and psychological disorders may arise

Positive symptoms: unwanted additions to a person’s mental life... include distortions or exaggerated behavioral, perceptual, or cognitive functioning (i.e. delusions or hallucinations)

Negative symptoms: take away from elements of normal mental life; decrease or cause a loss of normal functioning... [ex: flat affect (restricted emotional expression), alogia (lack of speech)]

Personality disorder - long-standing, inflexible patterns of behavior, affects all areas of functioning
10 types: paranoid, schizoid (detached, restricted emotions), schizotypal (detached, odd perceptions/thoughts/ behaviors), dependent, obsessive-compulsive, avoidant, histrionic (overly dramatic, shallow, desire to be center of attention), narcissistic, borderline (unstable, impulsive, angry, suicidal), antisocial

General anxiety disorder – aka free-floating anxiety, involves non-specific, excessive, and long-lasting anxiety; individuals feel worried, jumpy, and irritable, believing disaster is imminent

Abnormal behavior
-not psychologically healthy, prevent effective everyday functioning
-socially unacceptable
-faulty reality perception
-self defeating, causes personal destress

Historical treatment of the insane
-prehistoric: supernatural, valued
-Greek/Roman: God’s way, embraced mental problems, bodies different?, kind treatment
-Middle Ages: Satan made people that way, torture
-Colonial Times: “witches” often OCD

Criterion for Abnormal/Normal Behavior
statistical: anything seen only in small % of popu
concensual: whatever society dictates is normal is normal (general population’s beliefs)
functioning: if a person can function, they are normal
personal: how you feel about your situation

Models of Psychological Disorders
Biomedical: something physically wrong, i.e. chemical imbalances, genetics, endocrine system problems
Psychoanalytic: repressed past problems, unconscious conflict
Cognitive: faulty constructs, your perspective causes problems
Behavioral: learned to be sick to get rewards/attention
Sociological: has to do w/ social class and social stress (poor working class = lowest #)

Categorizing disorders
psychological – in the mind
systemic – disease/disorder
traumatic – environment or life experience

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)
DSM: 1962, 60 disorders
DSM II: 1968, original found not adequate, 2 categories created: neurotic (stress) & psychotic (imbalances)
DSM III: 1980, 150 disorders, based on what doctors saw in patients, neurotic/psychotic categories thrown out (not enough), homosexuality removed as disoder
DSM III-R: 1987, 250 disorders, 17 categories
DSM IV: 1994, close to 500 disorders, based on patient symptoms directly
axis
1. major clinical symptoms, basic disorders
2. personality/development disorders
3. physical problems
4. stress level in past year
5. independence

ESSAY
Create a case history for each of the disorders on the test. Make sure to describe the cause, type of onset, symptoms, behaviors, and treatments

Conversion Hysteria/Disorder: loss of physical functions w/o physical cause
onset – immediate
cause – traumatic
treatment – psychoanalysis
**type of somatoform disorder; occurs when an individual appears to be blind, deaf, paralyzed, or insensitive to pain when they are not; symptoms tend to appear with severe stress; individuals show surprisingly little concern over condition

Bipolar Disorder: manic & depressive states
onset – gradual
cause – genetic and biochemical (monoamide oxide)
treatment – neuroleptics (antipsychotics), lithium
*characterized by the appearance of 2 alternating emotional extremes: depression & mania
Mania describes an extremely elated, energetic, impulsive, reckless, agitated emotional state

Seasonal Affective Disorder: mood shifts with season, depression, weight gain
onset – gradual, episodic
cause – environmental
treatment – antidepressants, light therapy

Schizoprenia: hallucinations & delusions
1) paranoid – delusions of grandeur 2) catatonic – stupor/frozen to excited states
3) hebephrenic/disorganized – childish, word salads,
onset – can be gradual, reaction/immediate, or just happen upon adulthood
cause – organic brain disease, genetic, imbalance of dopamine
treatment – neuroleptics, pherothiazines

Paranoid Reaction: no hallucinations, delusional, lack insight
1) state: trauma and acute 2) true: always been a little off
onset – organized, gradual
cause – biochemical
treatment – neuroleptics, phenothiazines

OCD: thoughts that won’t go away & repetitive ritualistic behaviors that serve no purpose
onset –gradual or immediate
cause – antibodies for strep, chemical imbalance of serotonin
treatment – SSRI antidepressants, systematic desensitization, lobotomy (rare)

Panic Attacks: heart palpitations, chest pain, dizziness, difficulty breathing, episodic w/o cause or warning
onset – immediate, reactive?
cause – unequal blood flow to right side of brain, genetic?
treatment – drug therapy (Xanax), antidepressants, lobotomy

Post Traumatic Stress Disorders: flashbacks, nightmares
onset – reactive, immediate
cause – repression surrounding traumatic event
treatment – SSRI’s, psychoanalysis, EMDR

Phobias: unreasonable fears
onset –gradual or immediate
cause – trauma, associated with panic attacks
treatment – MAO inhibitors, systematic desensitization

Dissociative Disorders
1) amnesia: memory loss 2) fugue: memory loss plus flight, end up somewhere else 3) identity disorder: alters splitting from core personality 4) depersonalization: lose control of body
onset –gradual or acute
cause – repression, childhood abuse, trauma
treatment – psychoanalysis