Term
| Mental disorders are quite common. At least 50 percent of all men and women will experience a serious form of abnormal behavior, such as depression, alcoholism, or schizophrenia, at some point during their lives. Mental disorders are defined in terms of typical signs and symptoms rather than identifiable causal factors. A group of symptoms that appear together and are assumed to represent a specific type of disorder is called a _____. There are no definitive psychological or biological tests that can be used to confirm the presence of psychopathology. At present, the diagnosis of mental disorders depends on observations of the person's behavior and descriptions of personal experience. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| No one has been able to provide a universally accepted definition of abnormal behavior. One useful approach defines mental disorders in terms of _____. The official classification system, DSM-5, defines mental disorders as a group of persistent maladaptive behaviors that result in personal distress or impaired functioning. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Various forms of voluntary social deviance and efforts to express individuality are excluded from the definition of mental disorders. Political and religious actions, and the beliefs on which they are based, are not considered to be forms of abnormal behavior, even when they seem unusual to many other people. Nevertheless, culture has an important influence on the process of defining psychopathology. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The scientific study of the frequency and distribution of disorders within a population is known as _____. The global burden of mental disorders is substantial. Some severe forms of abnormal behavior, such as schizophrenia, have been observed in virtually every society that has been studied by social scientists. There are also forms of psychopathology--including eating disorders--for which substantial cross-cultural differences have been found. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Many forms of specialized training prepare people to provide professional help to those who suffer from mental disorders. A _____ is licensed to practice medicine and is therefore able to prescribe medication. A _____ has received graduate training in the use of assessment procedures and psychotherapy. Most psychologists also have extensive knowledge regarding research methods, and their training prepares them for the integration of science and practice. |
|
Definition
| psychiatrist, clinical psychologist |
|
|
Term
| Throughout history, many societies have held different ideas about the problems that we consider to be mental disorders. Although the earliest asylums were little more than human warehouses, the moral treatment movement introduced improved conditions in some mental hospitals. The creation of large institutions for mental patients led to the development of psychiatry as a profession. These physicians, who served as the superintendents of asylums, developed systems for describing, classifying, and treating people with various types of mental disorders. Their efforts led to the use of scientific methods to test these new ideas. A person who proposes a new theory about the causes of a form of psychopathology, or someone who advocates a new form of treatment, should be expected to prove these claims with scientific evidence. The burden of proof falls on the clinical scientist who offers a new prediction. In other words, the _____ (the alternative to the _____) is assumed to be true until it is contradicted by systematic data. Individual _____ do not provide conclusive evidence about the causes of, or treatments for, mental disorders. |
|
Definition
| null hypothesis, experimental hypothesis, case studies |
|
|
Term
| the application of psychological science to the study of mental disorders. Includes investigation of the causes and treatment of psychopathological conditions |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| a careful description and analysis of the problems experienced by one person |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| the profession and academic discipline that is concerned with the application of psychological science to the assessment and treatment of mental disorders |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| the simultaneous manifestation of more than one disorder |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| the shared way of life of a group of people; a complex system of accumulated knowledge that helps the people in a particular society adapt to their environment |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| the scientific study of the frequency and distribution of disorders within a population |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| a prediction about the expected findings in a scientific study |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| a concept used in one approach to the definition of mental disorder. A condition can be considered a mental disorder if it causes some harm to the person and if the condition results from the inability of some mental mechanism to perform its natural function |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| the number of new cases of a disorder that appear in a population during a specific period of time |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| the prediction that an experimental hypothesis is not true. Scientists must assume that the null hypothesis holds until research contradicts it |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| an epidemiological term that refers to the total number of cases that are present within a given population during a particular period of time |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| the branch of medicine that is concerned with the study and treatment of mental disorders |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| the manifestations of (and the study of the causes of) mental disorders. Generally used as another term to describe abnormal behavior |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| a term that refers to several types of severe mental disorder in which the person is out of contact with reality. Hallucinations and delusions are examples of psychotic symptoms |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| a profession whose primary concern is how human needs can be met within society |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| a group of symptoms that appear together and are assumed to represent a specific type of disorder |
|
Definition
|
|
