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Definition
| The study of psychological change as people get older. The fastest growing area of psychology is gerontology (the study of the elderly, and of the aging process itself). |
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| Developmental psychologists are interested in two types of pschological change- |
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Definition
1.Learning- change in the way one thinks, feels, or acts due to enviornment.
2. Maturation- physically, maturation refers to normal changes that the body goes through as it gets older. Pschological changes can result from these physical changes. |
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| Physical and psychological changes in the womb. When biologists and psychologists refer to pre-natal development, they divide pregnancy into three stages: Germinal stage, Embryonic stage, and Fetal stage. |
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Definition
| Period between conception( when sperm fertilizes egg) and implantation (when fertilized egg attaches to uterine wall). In this stage, the fertilizzed egg is called a GERM. In this stage, the cell divides. (Conception and pregnancy are not the same thing. Conception is when sperm fertilizes egg, but a woman is not pregnant until that egg attaches to uterine wall.) |
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Definition
| Begins when egg is implanted in uterine wall. At this point, it is no longer called a germ, it is called an EMBRYO. In this stage, specialized parts of your body begin to develop. Regulatory genes turn on and off different coding genes. These coding genes turn stem cells into specialized cells, such as bone, brain, and skin cells. By the end of embryonic stage, the embryo doesn't look quite human, but one can make out a head and limbs. Embryonic period ends when ossification of bones begins. |
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| Embryonic period ends and fetal stage begins. Ossification is when the bones harden from cartilage into what we think of as hard bones. This happens about 8 weeks after conception. You know the baby's bones have ossified when the baby starts kicking. |
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Definition
| All the systems of the body develop even more all the way until birth. Now called a FETUS. Fetal stage occurs at about 2 months into the pregnancy and lasts until birht. |
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| Critical periods of development vs. Sensitive periods |
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Definition
| These refer to pre- and post- natal stages. In each of these stages there is a window of times in which specific things develop. |
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Definition
| If the body that is supposed to develop during this time does NOT develop (for one reason or another) it will NEVER develop. Everything has to be right in order for normal development. When you look at pregnancies as a whole, there is always a critical period occuring at any given moment of the pregnancy. If the embryo does not go through its critical stages normally, the results are especially serious when the baby is born (as opposed to trauma to the fetus during the critical period). |
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| If whatever is supposed to develop does not, there is a possibility that it may develop later. There are not a lof sensitive pre-natal stages- most sensitive stages occur post natal. The development of language is a sensitive period. Human children are biologically programmed to learn language quickly. If children are not exposed to language during childhood, they do not learn language normally. If they try and learn language later on, it is very difficult b/c their brains do not have as much plasticity as they did when they were younger. They can usually learn to memorize names for things, but can never be totally comfortable or fluent with grammer and putting sentances together. |
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Definition
| Any substance that causes an abnormality in prenatal development. Teratogens affect the regulatory genes which in turn affect the coding genes which in turn affect the way genes are expressed in the child. Teratogens do NOT change a child's genes. Alcohol is a teratogen. If a woman drinks during pregnancy, the child could have Fetal Alcohol Syndrom (FAS), resulting in a smaller birth weight, mental retardation, and abnormal facial and body features. Exposure to disease, sickeness, the flu, or even cat feces (like when cleaning litter box) can result in birth defects b/c of exposure to teratogens. |
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Definition
| Occurs from the time you are born to the time you die. Physical development changes. Motor skills develop as well as other aspects such as senses. |
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Definition
| Important for psychological development, so babies can explore and learn about the world. Babies are born uncoordinated, but they still have reflexes. If you brush their palms, their fingers will close. That is a reflex. If a baby does not exhibit this reflex, there is probably something wrong neurologically. Babies usually gain control of their bodies from the top down. They can move their head and arms around to push themselves up before they can use their legs to move around. |
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Term
| Gross vs. Fine motor skills |
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Definition
| Gross motor skills refer to large muscle control, like crawling, walking, etc. Fine motor skills refer to small muscle control, as used when writing. Babies learn gross skills first. They learn to roll over, then sit up, then crawl, then walk, etc it that order. Babies can even swim before they can walk b/c swimming takes less fine motor skills. Babies also know instinctively to hold their breath when underwater, all baby mammals do. |
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Term
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Definition
| All senses have sensory neurons associated with them. When babies are born, their senses are not as developed as adults'. Their sense organs and their brains are still developing. When born, babies have a good sense of smell, tough and taste. They can tell difference b/w the smell of their parents and that of other people. Their sense of hearing is less developed. Their sense of sight is the least development. They have blurry vision. Normal is 20/20 Better is 20/10 and poor is 20/40. Babies have 20/100. Can see things best 18 inches from their faces. This is probably evolutionary bc we naturally hold babies at about 18 inches from our own faces. By age 2 kids have normal vision. |
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Definition
| (post natal). Brain "growth spurt" Babies brains grow quickly. When the neurons in the brain are activated, the dendrites and the axons get a big thicker, so the brain actually becomes heavier as more connections are made. The neurons that don't get stimulated get weaker. If some specific neuron connections are not made in childhood, they will never be made in adulthood, such as with language. |
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Definition
| death of connections b/w neurons that don't get used, get weaker and die off. |
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| (post-natal) Cognitive development refers to developing how humans think, remember things, and perceive the world. Babies are more likely to spend time looking at something new than something they have seen many times before. They are also more likely to spend more time looking at complicated pictures than simple ones. They are universally more likely to spend the MOST time looking at human faces or things that resemeble human faces. Babies kind of understand the law of physics and know what kinds of things cannot physically happen. For example, babies seem to know that when you push something toward the edge of a table, it should fall to the ground. If you hook it up to something to keep it from falling and make it look like it's floating in mid-air, the babies will stare at it a long time. You can't ask the babies if they understand what is going on, but they obviously are trying to make sense of what they know should not be happening. They pay more attention to things they don't expect to happen. |
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Term
| Piaget's theory of cognitive development |
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Definition
| There are stages that each child passes through and at each stage, children develop new cognitive skills. They jump from one stage to another is due to physical maturation, not learning new things. So as your body matures, you gain more cognitive skills. There is NOT good evidence to support this idea. In reality, children do go through stages, but they are not immediate jumps. Piaget believed in two basic types of learning: assimilation and accomodation. There are four stages of Piaget's theory: Sensory-motor stage, Pre-operational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage. All these occur in this order as gradual changes and not sudden stages. No part can be skipped, though in reality, the stages are more influenced by learning than by physical maturation. |
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Term
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Definition
| Most basica type of learning. When you encounter something new, the first thing you do is relate it to something you already know. You relate it to your previous SCHEMA, or general idea of how something works. For example, if you have only been to fast food restaurants and never fine dining, than when you do go into a regular restaurant for the first time, you will think you should pay first and take your food to your seat. You are basing your assumptions on the schema you have of fast food restaurants. |
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Definition
| You have to create a brand new schema for something. Have to create a new idea of thinking about something. |
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Definition
| 0-2 years old. Babies are learning to makes sense of the smells, sounds, sights, etc that they encounter. Learn hand eye coordination. Learn Visually-directed reaching and object permanence. |
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Term
| Visually-directed reaching |
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Definition
| Learned during sensory-motor stage. Occurs when babies can visually see something and direct their hands to the object. This is different from just reaching in the general direction of the object. This takes muscular development, depth perception, eye maturation, etc. It is a significant step in cognitive development. |
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Definition
| Part of the sensory motor stage. When babies understand that just b/c they cannot see an object, that does not mean that it is not there. For example, they understand that when you put a toy under a blanket, it has not disappeared. Before babies understand object permanence, they think that peek-a-boo is very exciting. They think that when you put your face behind your hands you have disappeared and they are very excited when you "reappear." |
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Term
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Definition
| (2-6/7 years) When "operation is used, it refers to logic, so pre-operational refers to the stage before children learn to use logic to figure things out. A lot of imagination and make-believe play goes on during this stage. Egocentric though, Animism, revrisibility, and lack of conservation occcur during this stage. |
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Term
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Definition
| (2-6/7 years) When "operation is used, it refers to logic, so pre-operational refers to the stage before children learn to use logic to figure things out. A lot of imagination and make-believe play goes on during this stage. Egocentric though, Animism, revrisibility, and lack of conservation occcur during this stage. |
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Term
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Definition
| Part of pre-operational stage. Babies in this stage think egocentrically, which means they are unable to take other people's perspective. They think that everyone sees and feels the same things as them and are unable to comprehend that just b/c they know or feel something, it does not mean everyone else does. For ex., if a child sees his mom crying, he will bring her his favorite toy. He thinks it will make her feel better bc it makes him feel better when he is sad. If a kid is looking at a picture of something, and you tell her to show you the picture, she will hold it up, but not turn it around for you to see. She thinks that you can see what she sees. When children are able to lie, they are no longer thinking egocentrically and have come out of pre-operational stage. When children think egocentrically, they think that everyone knows what they know, so there is no point in lying. If a child eats a cookie and realizes that mommy may never know that he ate the cookie, he is thinking in terms of other people. |
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Definition
| Part of pre-operational stage. Kids at this age think that everything that moves is alive- clouds, the moon, moving toys, etc. |
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Definition
| Part of pre-operational stage. children of this age have no understanding that there are certain characteristics of objects that do not change even when their appearance changes. For example, if you have two same-sized sandwiches, and you cute one into two pieces and another into four pieces, children in this stage will think that the four small pieces are more than the two big pieces, even though in total they are the same. Classic example: You show a child two same sized cups w/ the same amount of water in them. You pour the water from one cup into a tall tube right in front of the child. The child will still say the tall tube has more water, even though you just showed him that it is the same amount. The child does not understand that just b/c it looks like more, it is not. You can teach a child to understand this concept by teaching them the concept of reversibiltity. |
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Term
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Definition
| Part of pre-operational stage. To be able to mentally rewind an event. In the above example, if you are mentally rewind and think about putting the water from the tall tube back into the short glass, you are able to see that the amount of water in each container is equal. Once children understand reversibility and conservation they are in the concrete operational stage. |
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Term
| Concrete operational stage |
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Definition
| (7-12 years old) They can think logically in this stage. Usually stop believeing in Santa Claus b/c the stories are not logical. They also have a sense that traveling to other places takes a while, and to get all the way around the world in one night is impossible. They can answer simple questions, but not abstract questions. For example, if you ask: 3+4= , they will be able to write in a 7. But if you ask 3+4=x, what is x? They will say that x is a letter. They will not be able to understand that x represents a number. |
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Definition
| (13 years- death) Can think logically, hypothetically, and abstractly. Can think idealistically. In other words, they can realize that the world may be better if something was done differently. They are able to say "what would it be like if...?" Develop the IMAGINARY AUDIENCE, which is the thought that you are always on a stage and at any given moment someone may be paying attention to you. |
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Term
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Definition
| Language is a combination of sounds, structures, and rules. Animals have sounds, but no grammer rules. Composed of Phonemes and Morphemes. Grammer is the rules of putting morphemes together and is composed of semantics and syntax. There is a universal pattern of child language development. First you learn sounds, then words, then grammer. Up until about 12 months, babies make sounds, but not words. These sounds evolve, however. When first born, all babies coo and sound alike. Then they start to make vowel sounds. At 6 months they make sounds specific to their native language. At this stage, people who study linguistics can tell what language the baby is being rais to speak. They also start to use voice inflection, even though they don't speak words. At about 12 months, they can say single words, mimic words and sounds, and understand some words. They speak and understand mostly nouns and names. At 18-20 months, they can use two-word sentences, a noun + a verb. They speak and understand about 50 words. Overextension is common. By 3 years old, they know general grammer rules but don't know the exceptions to the rules. For example, they may know that adding an s to the ends of words makes the words plural, so they may say "My shoes are on my feets" or "I throwed the ball." |
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Definition
| Basic sounds of a language |
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Definition
| Combinations of sounds that have meaning, such as simple words, suffixes, and prefixes. Not all morphemes are words. |
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Definition
| Rules for generating the meaning of words. |
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| Common at around 18 to 20 month babies. Means they use one word to refer to a lot of things. For example, they say mamma to refer to their mothers, to be fed, to be picked up, etc. |
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Term
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Definition
| Thoughts, feelings, or behaviors that are dysfunctional and/or distressing to the individual. A lot of disorders are dysfunctional AND distressing b/c the person knows he/she has the disorder and that it is interrupting his/her life. Some disorders are just dysfunctional b/c the patient doesn't know he/she has a disorder. |
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| Abnormal- word to describe psychological disorders |
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Definition
| Not a good way to describe psychological disorders. Everyone is abnormal in their own ways. Plus, many psychological disorders are quite common. for example, depression occurs in 1 out of every 4 women at some point in their lives. It's not rare or abnormal for a woman to experience depression, even though depression is serious. It is DANGEROUS however, most disorders ane not dangerous to the patient or to others but depression IS dangerous b/c of increased risk of suicide. |
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Definition
| For any disorder there are several factors that contribute to/influence the disorder: biological, enviornmental, sociological, etc. Diathesis- refers to a person's degree of predisposition to show the symptons of a particular disorder. For example, some people are more prone to have the flu b/c they were very sick as children or did not build up immunities. This is a HIGH diathesis. Of course, these people will not get the flue unless exposed to the flue virus , which is the STRESS. Stress- current factors that make symptoms more likely to emerge. For example, current home/work enviornment, recnet traumatic experiences. The higher the diathesis, the lower the stress has to be to trigger symptoms. A person with a high diathesis toward flu will contract the virus if exposed to just a little bit of the flu virus. Everyone has a predisposition to depression, but the diathesis in each person varies. If you have a high diathesis for depression (if it is in your genes), it takes just a small stress to set off depression. If you have a low diathesis, a bigger stress is needed to trigger depression. Childhood traumas can contribute to high diathesis for adults. |
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Term
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Definition
| refers to a person's degree of predisposition to show the symptons of a particular disorder. For example, some people are more prone to have the flu b/c they were very sick as children or did not build up immunities. This is a HIGH diathesis. Of course, these people will not get the flue unless exposed to the flue virus , which is the STRESS. |
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Term
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Definition
| current factors that make symptoms more likely to emerge. For example, current home/work enviornment, recnet traumatic experiences. The higher the diathesis, the lower the stress has to be to trigger symptoms. |
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| Risk vs. Resilience Factors |
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Definition
| Risk factors make a physical or mental illness more likely, resilience factors make them less likely. Example for the flue: Risk- Exposure to a lot of little kids. Resilience- Good diet, adequate sleep. Common risk factors for mental illness: (these are all correleations, not causations) Low socioeconomic status/poverty, Any sort of very stressful enviornment, Low parent education, mistreatement as a child, poor physical health, If your parents had mental illness. Any sort of mental illness in the parents makes the children more prone to any type of mental illness, not necessarily the same kind. Common resilience factors for mental illness: High socioeconomic status. (Richer people can afford better healthcare and can afford to take vacations from their stresses), High IQ, Sociable, easygoing personality, close with parents, social support network of friends and family. |
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| Prevalence of psychological disorders |
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Definition
| compared to other physical illnesses, mental illnesses have a social stigma associated with them. People often think mental illnesses are a result of lack of will. They think that people with depression should "just cheer up," but this is not possible. Remember, your brain controls YOU, not the other way around. Prevalence of having mental illness in the US is 35- 50%. Females have higher cases of anxiety and mood disorders, such as depression, than men do. This may be b/c of social stigma. Men have more cases of substance abuse and antisocial personality than women. The prevalence of having a psychological disorder is increasin in the U.S. This may be due to an increased willingness to seek treatment on the part of the patient and an increased willingness to diagnose mental disorders on the part of the doctor. It may also be the result of more stress and work and less vacations in our lives. |
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Definition
| Happens with medical students. Often, when students start studying disorders, they begin to think they have one of the disorders. It is a type of confirmation bias. Often, students study test anxiety disorder, and think they have it. It is normal and good to feel nervous about an exam. The disorder occurs when people can't even go into the room or can't do the test once it is in front of them b/c they are too nervous. |
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| Types of disorders (categories) |
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Definition
| 100s of known disorders but they are grouped into categories. Sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, Mood (affective) disorders, disorders with "physical symptoms" |
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Definition
| Most common of all mental illnesses. Phobias, panic related disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, general anxiety disorder. |
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Definition
| Most common kind of anxiety disorder. Phobias are irrational avoidance of something. The avoidance behavior does not match the objective dangers of the situation. For example, lots of people are afraid of snakes and will run away if they see a snake on the ground in front of them. A lot of people think snakes are gross, this is normal. It becomes a phobia if the person cannot hold a toy snake or look at a picture of the snake w/o feeling fear, even though they know they toy will not hurt them. Lots of people have snake phobias but there is not reason to treat them b/c avoiding snakes does not interfere w/ most people's daily lives. Fear of flying is a phobia that usually needs treatment b/c it may interfere with jobs or relationshiops. A flying phobia is much more likely to be dysfunctional. Phobia categories: Animals/insects- these are the most common. Snakes, spiders, bees. Natural evnivorntment- fear of the dark, thunderstorms, natural enviornment acrophobia (fear of standing on mountains). These are common in childhood but many people outgrow them. Medical problems- Blood, injections, injury. People with this phobia often avoid doctors. You are moe likely to pass out from the sight of blood if you have a blood phobia than you are to pass out from sight of a snake if you have snake phobia. Situations- Driving across bridges, situational acrophobia (fear of standing on edge of buildings). |
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Definition
| Effective for other anxiety disorders as well. Medications reduce or even eliminate the symptoms, but do not cure them. You must also weigh the treatment against side effects that can be severe in some drugs. Most effective is the exposure and escape prevention method. Bad way- "flooding" technique. Systematic Desensitation is gradual exposure and is the best way. |
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Term
| Exposure and Escape prevention method (Systematic Desensitation) vs. "flooding" or "implosion" |
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Definition
| Treatment for phobias. Expose the person to the thing and then prevent escape. The reason that people maintain phobias is b/c they learn that they feel afraid when they are exposed to their phobia and they feel better when they avoid it. A BAD WAY of doing this is by "flooding" also known as "implosion". In this technique, the patient is exposed to the phobia right away. For example, putting a person w/ a snake phobia in a room full of snakes would be flooding them w/ the phobia. This is not usually effective. Gradual exposure is better. Systematic Desensitation- Gradual exposure. Involves: fear hierarchy- Making a list of the things that are phobic and putting them in order from the least scary to most scary. For example, looking at a picture of a snake might be least frightening and holding live snake might be most. Relaxation techniques- Learn how to control feelings of panic, such as by deep breathing or visualization. Gradual exposure- The patients works up the fear hierarchy. As the patient is exposed to each thing on the list, he performs relaxation techniques. |
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Definition
| (type of anxiety disorder). Panic attack- extreme anxiety and fear. May feel like a heart attack. People with phobias may have panic attacks when encountered w/ their phobia. Panic disorder- Constant panic attacks that come out of the blue and are not triggered by anything. Associated w/ agoraphobia. Treatable w/ medication and systematic desensitization. |
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Term
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Definition
| Often definted as "fear of open places," "fear of public places," or "fear of fear." People who have panic disorder have agoraphobia b/c they are afraid of having a panic attack in a public area where no one can help them or where they will e embarrassed. They often fear locations where they have had panic attacks in the past or places that are similar to locations where they have had panic attacks. They will often go places w/ people they trust, though, b/c those people can help them if they have an attack. Treatable w/ medication and systematic desensitization. |
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Term
| Obsessive Compulisive Disorder |
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Definition
| (type of anxiety disorder) Combination of two disorders: Obsession and compulsion. Gets worse w/ anxiety and high stress levels. The most common: obsession about germs resulting in constant hand washing, bathing, house cleaning, etc. If people w/ OCD do not perform their compulsions, they think about it all day. Treatable w/ medication and systematic desensitization. Seems to run in families. To be diagnosed w/ OCD, it has to interfere w/, interrupt your life. Ifyou clean and bathe a lot but lead an otherwise normal life, you do not have OCD. |
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Term
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Definition
| Having recurrent unpleasant/negative thoughts. Usually about germs, doubts, aggressive, impulses. |
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Definition
| Feel as if you have to do the same actions or behaviors repeatedly to alleviate or prevent the obsessive thoughts. Compulsive hair pulling, counting, checking things. |
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Term
| Post-traumatic stress disorder |
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Definition
| (type of anxiety disorder) Occurs after a traumatic event. After a traumatic event, everyone is, of course, upse for a while. The disorder occurs when people are anxious and have flashbacks/hallucinations months or years after a traumatic event. For example, 80% of the population of NYC was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder after 9/11. |
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Term
| Generalized anxiety disorder |
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Definition
| Constant feeling of panic or doom. Only treatable through medication, since there is no specific thing people with generalized anxiety disorder are afraid of. |
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Term
| Mood (affective) Disorder |
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Definition
| Characteristics- hopelessness, gloominess, irritability, social withdrawal, decreased motor activitiy and sex drive, decreased appetite, fatigue, negative thoughts, negative self-image, slowness of thought, thoughts about death in general (their deaths and other peoples deaths), delusional especially delusions of guilt. Most people, who attempt sucicide have major depressive disorder. Women attempt suicide more than men; men commit suicide more than woman. This may be b/c women usually take pills and pills are not very effective. The social cost of depression is very high b/c people can't work properly when they have the disorder. The average depressive episode lasts 6-8 months. To be diagnosed, you have to have had several symptoms for several weeks. |
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Definition
| Part of mood disorder. Beliefs about things that are not based in reality and could in no way be true. People who have delusions of grief think they are responsible for things that they could in no way be responsible for, such as earthquakes. |
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Definition
| Part of Depression (mood disorder). Having one episode of depression neurologically changes one's brain in a way that one has a higher chance of having another episode in the future. The more episodes one has, the more likely it is that another episode will occur. This is why it is best to treat depression early to limit the number of episodes and thus reduce the risk of future episodes. |
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Term
| Treatment for depression (mood disorders) |
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Definition
| Best way to treat depression is to treat it early to limit the number of episodes and thus reduce the risk of future episodes. Medication, Cognitive therapy, Combination of both (most effective). MEdication starts ppl on the right path to feeling better and cognitive therapy teaches ppl to lthink good things about themselves to help in long term. Exercise is one of the best non-medical ways to treat and prevent depression. E.C.T (electroconvulsive therapy) strong electric shocks that cause seizures. Get rid of depression for a week or two at a time, but not permanently. NOt often used, only for severe cases, when there is a high risk of suicide, or for ppl who don't respond to medication or cognitive therapy. Causes serious side effects- brain damage, memory loss. |
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Term
| Bipolar disorder (manic depressive) |
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Definition
| A person with just major depressive disorder goes through periods of being normal and being depressed. A person w/ bipolar disorder goes through periods of normal, depressed, and manic. Characteristics of manic behavior: emotional-elation, euphoria, extremely social, impatient. Cognitive- distractibility, impulsive, talkative, inflated self-esteem. Motor- hyperactivity, very productive, decreased need for sleep resulting in sleep deprivation, sexual indiscretion, flutuating appetite. A lot of artists, musicians, and otherwise creative people have bipolar disorder. They do their creative work when they are manic. Lengths of manic and depressive episodes are shorter w/ /bipolar than with just depression. |
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Term
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Definition
| bipolar disorder. The rate in which a person changes b/w normal and depressive or b/w normal, manic, and depressive (not necessarily in that order.) The slower the cycles, the more treatable. For example, if someone only suffers one manic and one depressive episode a year, they will be more treatable than someone who has four a year. Bipolar is more rare than depression. Runs in families. |
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Term
| Seasonal affect disorder (SAD) |
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Definition
| Feelings of depression associated w/ winter and longer periods of darkness. The closer to the equator, the less common SAD is. similar to symptoms of depression. Occurs b/c of less light, not the cold. Controlled by the neurotransmitter melatonin. When it gets dark, your melatonin elvels go up, making you sleepy. In the winter, ppl who are sensitive to melatonin levels feel sleepy, depressed, etc. b/c their bodies produce more melatonin. Treatment- medication to lower melatonin levels. Light therapy- exposure to lamps that are similar to sunlight fo r a period of time during the day. |
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Term
| Disorders w/ "physical symptoms" |
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Definition
| Somatoform disorders, complains of physical problems w/o physical evidence of the problems and w/o a diagnosed physical causes. Facticious disorders- when a person intentionally creates an actual physical problem in order to get medical attention. Psychophyscial (psychosomatic) disorder- physical problems caused or made worse by psychological factors. Dissociative disorders- Disruptions or breaks in the normally integrated functions of memory, consciousness or perception. |
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Term
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Definition
| Somatoform disorders, complains of physical problems w/o physical evidence of the problems and w/o a diagnosed physical causes. Somatization disorder- vauge symptoms of many physical ailments, pain, etc. Genearl. Somatoform pain disorder- Complaints of pain w/o any physical evidence of causes of pain. Somatization disorder and somaform pain disorder are treated w/ cognitive therapy. Hypocondriasis- Complaints of diseases and physical illness. Treated w/ placebos. The doctors must tell patient that they DO have illness and give them pill to "cure" it. Pill is really just sugar pill. If doctors try to tell hypochondriacs that they are just imagining they illness, they won't believe it and will go to another doctor. Conversion disorder- complain about loss of physical functions, such as loss of sight or paralysis. Often this is result of psychologically traumatic event. The function returns w/ cognitive therapy and/or when enough time has passed. |
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Definition
| When a person intentionally creates an actual physical problem in order to get medical attention. There are two versions. Munchausen's syndrome- When a person intentionally creates physcial problems in themselves, such as taking a lot of laxatives or breaking their own bones. Munchausen's syndrome by proxy- Create symptoms in someone else. often parents create symptoms in their children. This is abuse and not many ppl get diagnosed b/c they just get put in jail. These are NOT the same as creating or faking phsycial symptoms in order to get out of work, school etc. |
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Term
| Psychophyscial (psychosomatic) disorder |
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Definition
| Physical problems caused or made worse by psychological factors. For example, ulcers are created by stress. |
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Term
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Definition
| Disruptions or breaks in the normally integrated functions of memory, consciousness or perception. Amnesia- memory loss. Dissociative amnesia-caused by psychologically traumatic experience two types: Localized- loss of memory occuring around a particular event. For example, some ppl who were at ground zero during 9/11 do not remember anything that happened that day or in the following day. Selective- Memory loss for certain single events during episode of psychological trauma. For exampe some ppl at ground zero remember something things that day but not other things even if they were present when it occured. |
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Term
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Definition
| Known as "amnesia plus leaving" Occurs when they forget who they are and go somewhere else and start a new life. Can last a year or more but usually sevearl months. When they return to their old life they may or may not remember what happened during the fugue. |
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Term
| Dissociative identity disorder |
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Definition
| Also called multiple personality disorder- patients switch back and forth b/w different personalities. Sometimes the diff personalities know about each other and sometimes they don't. This is NOT schizophrenia. B/w personalities, patient acts differently, speacks differenlty, and seems completely different. B/w personalities, brain chemistry can also be totally different. When scans are done on brain it can look like two totally diff braings. Exhibit different allergies and different handidness. Not clear what causes it, but connection b/w childhood abuse and dissociative identity disorder. Treatmen- In the past, therapist tried to make one personality dominant but didn't work, just created fights b/w other personalities. Now they try to merge all personalities into one and show they are all same person. |
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Term
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Definition
| Worst of all disorders. 1 - 2% of the human population has it. Schizophrenia is like havin many disorders at once. Patient must have 4 or more of the following symptoms to be schizophrenic: Delusions, hallucinations, loose associations, unusual movements, innapropriate or flat affect, unusual speech patters. |
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Term
| Symptoms of Schizophrenia |
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Definition
| Any symptom by itself is a disorder. With schizophrenia, there are "positive" and "negative" symptoms this does NOT mean good and bad. Positive- refer to behaviors that schizophrenics do exhibit that non-schizophrenics do no not exhibit. Negative- refer to behaviors that schizophrenics do NOT exhibit that non-schizophrenics do exhibit. |
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Term
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Definition
| (positive symptom of schizophrenia) Thoughts and beliefs that are not supported by realitiy. Delusions of perscution- patients think ppl are trying to sabatage them to make them fail or make them unhappy. Delusions of paranoia- think ppl are out to physcially harm or kill them. Delusions of grandeur- think they are great/ and or somehow very important to the world.This often goes along w/ delusions of persecution or paranoia b/c they think ppl are out to get them b/c they are so great or important. Delusions of reference- believe that things that in reality have nothing to do w/ them DO have somehting to do w/ them. For example, the may think that a commercia is made specifically for them, or that the news anchor is talking directly to them. |
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Definition
| (positive symptom of schizophrenia) Perceptions that are not based in reality. Often these are sights, smells, tastes, or sounds. W/ drugs, visual hallucinations occur. W/ schizophrenia, patients often experience audtiory hallucinations (voices in their heads) |
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Definition
| (positive symptom of schizophrenia) Switch back and forth b/w subjects when talking. To them, the associations make sense, but to everyone else, they seem totally random. Little kids often talk in loose associations b/c one subject will loosely remind them of another. |
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Definition
| both positive and negative symptoms of schizorphreniacs. Catatonic immobility (negative) do not move for long periods of time. Catatonic excitablity (positive) wild excitable movements. Waxy flexibility (positive) When they are being still you can pose them in any way and they will stay that way, like sttatue. |
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Term
| Inappropriate or flat effect |
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Definition
| both positive and negative symptoms of schizorphreniacs. Inappropriate (positive)-show the wrong emotion at wrong time. Flat (negative) show no emotional reactions. |
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Term
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Definition
| both positive and negative symptoms of schizorphreniacs. Neologisms (positive) Use made-up words when speaking. Alogia (negative) Does not speak; often associated w/ flat affect and catatonic immobility. Perseveration(positive) Become fixated on one idea or sound and talk in them over and over again. |
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Term
| "Old" ways of categorizing people w/ schizophrenia |
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Definition
| Classifying them by their most prominent symptoms. Paranoid- any delusions. Catatonic- any odd movements. Disorganized- inappropriate affect, loose cognitive associations, hallucinations, perceptions are unorganized. Undifferentiated- Have symptoms of schizophrenia, but none of the symptoms are more prominent than the others. Usually when first diagnosed, patients are undifferentiated. As they get older, one type of symptom takes over as prominent |
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Term
| "New" ways of categorizing people w/ schizophrenia |
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Definition
| Type I (mostly positive symptoms) and Type II (mostly negative symptoms) Type I- symptoms are associated w/ a chemical imbalance in the brain. Medication can correct it and prognosis for recovery is good. Type II- symptoms caused by abnormal brain structure. Nothing can caorrect and prognosis for recovery is very poor. Either institutionalized if they have money, or left to fend for themsleves and left homeless (homeless pop has large percentage of schizophrenics b/c schizophrenics cannot usually hold jobs and therefore have no money for treatment. |
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Term
| Treatment for schizophrenia |
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Definition
| Often diagnosed in late teens/early 20s. Diagnosis of schizophrenia in childhood is terrible b/c will probably never get better. Medication used more than therapy. Rule of quarters- 25% of schizophrenics have one episode, do not take medication and never have another. 25% have one episdoe, take medication to stop episode and never have another and do not need meds. 25% Need to take constant medication to keep from having an episode. 25% will never get better even w/ medication. Schizophrenia does have genetic components. The more closely related you are to someone w/ it , the more likely you are to have itl. |
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