Hans Selye’s three-stage model (Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion) of how the body responds to persistent stressors.
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
This term describes a person's self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life, often used as a measure of psychological well-being.
Subjective Well-Being (SWB)
The primary manual used by clinicians in the U.S. to diagnose and classify psychological disorders.
DSM-5
A psychotic disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech or behavior.
Schizophrenia
This humanistic therapy developed by Carl Rogers emphasizes active listening and unconditional positive regard.
Client-Centered Therapy
This stress hormone is released by the adrenal glands; while helpful in the short term, chronic levels can suppress the immune system.
Cortisol
The personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and recover from adversity or even significant trauma.
Resilience
This perspective emphasizes that disorders are the result of an interaction between biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors.
Biopsychosocial Approach
This category includes disorders where a person experiences "free-floating" worry, panic attacks, or specific irrational fears.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
A behavior therapy technique that treats phobias by gradually exposing people to the things they fear in a relaxed state.
Systematic Desensitization
A coping strategy where an individual tackles the stressor directly to change the situation.
Problem-focused coping
This phenomenon explains why a huge salary increase only provides a temporary boost in happiness before we get used to the new "wealth."
Adaptation-level phenomenon (or Hedonic Treadmill)
This model suggests that a person’s genetic predisposition combined with environmental stress triggers the onset of a disorder.
Diathesis-stress model
A mood disorder in which a person alternates between the hopelessness of depression and the overexcited state of mania. In This case, more Depression than Mania
This type of medication is typically used to treat schizophrenia by blocking dopamine receptors.
Antipsychotics
This alternative to "fight-or-flight" involves reaching out to others for support and caring for offspring during stress.
Tend-and-befriend.
This concept refers to the positive psychological changes some individuals experience as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises.
Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG)
To be classified as a "disorder," behavior must typically be deviant, distressful, and this (interfering with daily life).
Dysfunctional/Maladaptive
This disorder involves a lack of conscience for wrongdoing and may involve aggressive or ruthless behavior toward others.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
This popular integrative therapy aims to change both self-defeating thinking and maladaptive behaviors.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
This subfield of psychology focuses on how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system.
Psychoneuroimmunology
This psychological principle suggests that people's tendency to be helpful is increased when they are already in a happy mood.
Feel-good, do-good phenomenon
This 1973 study illustrated the "labeling effect" by showing how healthy people were treated differently once they were admitted to a hospital with a fake diagnosis.
Rosenhan Study
A dissociative disorder marked by a sudden loss of memory and while rare, can have a psychological state where a person suddenly and unexpectedly travels away from home. Not caused by drug intoxication or other medical causes.
Dissociative Amnesia with Fugue
This biomedical treatment involves sending a brief electrical current through the brain, primarily used for treatment-resistant depression.
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)