Question:prognosis Answer: Predicted Development Of A

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Abnormal Psychology Test ! Questions

with Detailed Verified Answers

Question: Psychological Disorder

Answer: Psychological dysfunction associated with distress or impairment in

functioning and a response that is not typical or culturally expected

Question:Phobia

Answer: Psychological disorder characterized by marked and persistent fear

of an object os situation

Question:Prevalence

Answer: Number of people with a certain disorder in the total population at

any time

Question:Incidence

Answer: Number of new cases of a disorder during a specific period

Question:Course

Answer: Pattern of development and change of a disorder over time, could be

chronic, episodic or time-limited

Question:Onset

Answer: The way in which a disorder shows itself, could be acute (suddenly) or

insidious (gradually)

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Question:Prognosis

Answer: Predicted development of a disorder over time

Question:Etiology

Answer: Study of origins- why a disorder begins. Includes biological,

physiological and social dimensions

Question:Treatment

Answer: If a new drug or treatment is successful in treating a disorder, it may

give insight into the causes of the disorder, however effect does not always

imply cause

Question:Demons & Witches

Answer: People blamed abnormal behavior on the evil acts of entities such as

demons & witches, continued into the 15th century

Question:Stress & Melancholy

Answer: Reflected the view that psychological disorders were caused by

mental or emotional stress and were curable. Common remedies included

rest, healthy environment, potions etc.

Church condemned certain symptoms of depression and other disorders as sin

(acedia)

Question:Charles VI

Answer: “The Mad King” French King went insane and killed several members

of his court, people believed this was due to some sort of outside evil power

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Question:Treatments for Possession

Answer: Exorcisms, confinements, beating, torture, shock therapy,

hydrotherapy, people hung over snake pits

Question:Mass Hysteria

Answer: Large scale outbursts of bizarre behavior. Also known as Saint Vitus’

Dance and Trantism

Also happens in modern day- school example of 17 students and 4 teachers

with no physical abnormalities hospitalized

Question:Emotion Contagion

Answer: Experience of an emotion can spread to those around us

Question:Moon & Stars

Answer: Paracelsus ( Swiss physician) suggested that the movement of the

moon & stars had effects on psychological functioning (where the word lunatic

derives from)

Question:Biological Tradition

Answer: Belief that psychological disorders are biologically caused, the mind

can influence the body and the body can influence the mind

Question:Hippocrates

Answer: Considered the father of western medicine, wrote Hippocratic

Corpus, suggested that psychological disorders could be treated like any other

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disease. Thought that disorders could be caused by pathogens or head trauma

or be hereditary

Question:Galen

Answer: Roman physician who went further into Hippocrates’ ideas and

developed the Humoral Theory of disorders, first example of associating

psychological disorders with an internal chemical imbalance

Question:Humoral Theory

Answer: Hippocrates believed that normal brain functioning was related to 4

bodily fluids or humors- blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm. Blood came

from the heart, black bile from the spleen, phlegm from the brain and yellow

bile from the liver. Physicians believed that disease came from too much or

too little of one or more of the humors. Humors related to 4 basic qualities-

heat, moisture, dryness and cold (Greek conception.)

Question:Treatment for Excess Humors

Answer: Regulating the environment to increase or decrease moisture, heat,

dryness or cold.

Rest, nutrition

Bleeding/ bloodletting- blood removed form body often by leeches

Induced vomiting

Question:Somatic Symptom Disorders

Answer: Disorders in which symptoms such as paralysis are the result of a

problem for which no physical cause can be found. Ancient societies believed

these were only prevalent in women and blamed them in a “wandering uterus”

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Question:Syphilis

Answer: In advanced syphilis, a bacterial microorganism enters the brain and

causes delusions of persecution, delusions of grandeur. Patients would

deteriorate steadily, becoming paralyzed and dying w/in 5 years of onset→ in

1825 it was designated the disease of general paresis

Patients with malaria recovered more so than others , the fever “burned out”

the bacteria causing the psychosis– disease linked to curable infection

Penicillin late discovered as the cure

Question:John P. Grey

Answer: Most influential American psychiatrist of the time. Held that the

causes for insanity were always physical→ therefore, mentally ill patients

Should be treated as physically ill→ conditions in hospitals improved and they

became more humane institutions, however they became so large that

individual treatment was often impossible

Question:Development of Biological Treatments

Answer: 1930s electro shock therapy & brain surgery were often used

Insulin shock therapy used to induce convulsions in patients, many recovered

their mental health but many others died or became comatose

Electroconvulsive therapy→ Hungarian physician Jospeh von Meduna in the

1920s suggested that induced brain seizures could cure schizophrenia, 6 small

shocks delivered to the brain has been known to cure patients

1950s→ use of sedative medicines were employed

• fauwolfia serpentine (reserpine) & neuroleptics, and benzodiazepines