Abnormality & Classification
Mood Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
Etiology & the Biopsychosocial Model
Epidemiology & Treatment
100
This paradigm asserts that maladaptive (abnormal) behavior is a result of unconscious conflicts that emerge out of early child experiences.
What is the Psychodynamic Paradigm? [What are the other Paradigms? What do we mean when we say they are reductionistic? What are the methods of the Psychodynamic Paradigm?]
100
One of the two symptoms of Persistent Depressive Disorder that is not included in the symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder.
What is Low Self-Esteem or Hopelessness? [What are other differences between Persistent Depressive Disorder and MDD?]
100
In addition to requiring at least 4 symptoms, this is a necessary feature of a panic attack.
What is sudden onset in 10 minutes or less? [What anxiety disorders can include panic attacks? What's the difference between a cued and uncued panic attack?]
100
The Biopsychosocial Model is holistic, meaning that it focuses on how the various etiological factors that contribute to a given outcome do THIS.
What is interact?
100
A researcher is interested in examining the heritability of social anxiety disorder, so she identifies and recruits 250 children with this disorder. She also assesses the biological parents of all of these children. This term describes the role of the children in this study.
What is the proband? [What type of behavioral genetics study might the researcher be conducting? What are her other options? Who is included in each type?]
200
Several individuals witness a terrible car accident in which a person died. One of the witnesses develops posttraumatic stress disorder, another develops a specific phobia of driving, and another develops no mental health concerns. This example demonstrates:
What is multifinality? [What is an example of equifinality?]
200
According to Lyn Abramson, individuals with depression will attribute negative events to these three kinds of causes.
What are Internal, Stable, & Global causes? [Abramson's work was an extension of what original theory? What does that theory say contributes to depression? Why did Abramson think it needed to be extended?]
200
Omar gets very anxious when riding elevators, unless there is someone else on it with him -- anyone else. So he'll wait in front of the elevator until someone else comes along to take it up/down with him. Omar is engaging in this.
What is a safety behavior?
200
This type of stressful life event is most associated with onset of manic episodes.
What are schedule disruptions? [What type of factor is a stressful life event? How does it interact with biological factors?]
200
Psychologists cannot provide treatment to patients with anxiety disorders effectively when the patient is taking this type of medication.
What are benzodiazepines? [Why do psychiatrists and patients like to use benzos to treat anxiety? What other types of medications are sometimes used to treat anxiety?]
300
This is the consistency across psychologists in classifying the same individual.
What is inter-rater reliability? [What other type of reliability have we discussed? What types of validity have we discussed?]
300
Kara has a history of major depressive episodes and was diagnosed with MDD in 2015. Last week, she experienced 4 symptoms of mania for 4 days in a row. Her mood then returned to baseline. What (if anything) should a psychologist due regarding Kara's diagnosis?
Change her diagnosis to Bipolar II Disorder. [What would it take to diagnose her with Bipolar I Disorder?]
300
What are two techniques used to treat anxiety disorders that help the patient better understand and recognize physiological symptoms?
Progressive muscle relaxation and breathing retraining. [What is the value of each of these techniques?]
300
After her dance audition, Elsa gets written feedback from 4 judges. Three are totally positive, but the last one has two negative comments along with many positive comments. Explain how cognitive biases might affect Elsa in this situation.
Elsa might pay more attention to the negative comments, remember them better, and even interpret them as even more negative than they really are. [Which anxiety disorder is most associated with these cognitive biases? What type of factor are cognitive biases?]
300
Research has found that people born after WWII have higher rates of depression than people born before WWII, which is an example of this.
What is a Cohort Effect? [These groups will also always differ in age; what else do we know about age and depressive disorders?]
400
Dr. Jones has two clients. Keith exhibits 5 symptoms of MDD. Jen exhibits 4 symptoms of MDD. Dr. Jones only gives Keith the diagnosis of MDD. The best name for Dr. Jones' approach to classification is this.
What is a Threshold Approach? [The threshold approach artificially creates what? In reality, what are most behaviors/illnesses best considered?]
400
The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis is related to depression because THIS NEUROTRANSMITTER influences the amount of THIS HORMONE that is released by the Axis's activity.
What are Serotonin and Cortisol? [What other brain regions are relevant to depression?]
400
Provide enough of the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder to warrant a diagnosis.
What is excessive worry about at least 2 life domains that is difficult to control, along with at least 3 of the following: restlessness, becoming easily fatigued, irritability, muscle tension, sleep disturbance, or difficulty concentrating?
400
Explain the Tripartite Model.
Comorbidity between depression and anxiety occurs because both share high levels of negative affect. When this is paired only with low levels of positive affect, you have "pure" depression. When this is paired only with high levels of somatic arousal, you have "pure" anxiety. But when you have all three, you have comorbid depression and anxiety. [Low levels of positive affect are reflected in which symptom of depression? Approximately what is the rate of comorbidity between MDD and the various anxiety disorders?]
400
Hector attempts to take the last seat at the lunch table, but Gigi tells him that he can't sit there today. Hector thinks "My friends don't like me anymore." Name the technique that a CBT provider would use here and give an example of what it might "look" like.
What is Cognitive Restructuring? (Example can be anything that sticks to the facts; "Your friends were not able to let you sit with them that day, but you do often sit with them." "Letting you sit with them may or may not be an indication of whether they are your friends.")
500
Name the two ways of defining abnormal behavior that preceded Harmful Dysfunction, and provide a limitation of each.
What are Personal Distress and Statistical Deviation. Personal distress is limited because sometimes a behavior is distressing to others but not to the person. Statistical deviation is limited because we don't know how rare it needs to be and we don't discriminate between rarities that are helpful vs. harmful. [What is harmful dysfunction? Does it have any limitations?]
500
Provide an accurate explanation of what Caspi and colleagues found when they examined the 5-HTT (serotonin transporter gene) and stressful life events.
Caspi and colleagues found a Gene x Environment Interaction, meaning that the association between the genetic predisposition (2 short alleles) and depression increased as the level of exposure to stressful life events increased (a multiplicative -- not additive -- effect).
500
Provide enough symptoms to warrant a diagnosis of specific phobia.
What are fears/anxiety about a specific object or situation, that is invariably elicited when the object or situation is present and is out of proportion with the real level of threat, leads to avoidance behaviors (or intense anxiety if it can't be avoided), and interferes with life. The person needs all 5 of these symptoms. [What's the difference between these symptoms and those for social anxiety disorder? How does classical conditioning play a role in specific phobias?]
500
Explain how a biological factor and a psychological factor come together to make it difficult for a person to stop having an obsessive thought.
As a psychological factor, people attempt to engage in thought suppression (i.e. to not think about things they find unpleasant). This interacts with biological processes in the brain, wherein one part of the brain tells another part to stop thinking about that thing, but this just reactivates the first part of the brain, which then re-sends the same message, which reactivates the first part again, and so on. [What is this biological cycle called?]
500
Explain the steps in using Exposure as a technique for treating a phobia of spiders.
First, you need to make a Fear Hierarchy, that involves a variety of in-vivo, imaginal, and/or interoceptive exposures. Then, complete Systematic Desensitization to have the patient Habituate to the stuff near the bottom and work your way up over time. [What is habituation? What's the difference between types of exposure? What disorder is interoceptive exposure most important for?]
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