Module 7 Study Guide

Chapters 14 and 15

Learning Objective 1

Sections 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, Disorders; Causes of Disorders; Categorizing and Assessing Disorders

  1. What term do psychologists use to refer to a sickness or disorder of the mind? (p. 547)
  2. What are the four main criteria psychological professionals use to diagnose psychological disorders? What are the limitations if we use only one specific criteria? (p. 547)
  3. Why are psychologists concerned with the etiology of a disorder? (p. 548)
  4. What is the advantage of grouping symptoms into categories of disorders? (p. 548)
  5. How does the diathesis-stress model include both nature and nurture in the emergence of psychological disorders? (p. 549)
  6. What three factors influence the emergence and progression of psychological disorders according to the biopsychosocial approach? (pp. 549-551)
  7. Describe the four main methods of symptom assessment. How does psychological testing differ from self-report? (p. 552)
  8. What is the DSM? What kind of information does it contain? How is it used? (p. 552)
  9. What is the value of a dimensional approach to psychological disorders? (p. 553)
  10. How does comorbidity complicate the process of diagnosis? (p. 553)
  11. What is a cultural syndrome? Can you think of something that is an American cultural syndrome? (pp. 553-554)

Learning Objective 2

Sections 14.4, 14.5, Anxiety-Related Disorders

  1. How do people with anxiety disorders typically feel? How do they tend to react to ambiguous situations? (pp. 555-559)
  2. Describe and distinguish the symptoms of the five anxiety disorders listed in our textbook. (pp. 556-558)
  3. What would the biopsychosocial approach look at to explain the development of anxiety disorders? (pp. 558-559)
  4. What is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)? How does it develop? (pp. 559-561)
  5. What is post-traumatic stress disorder? Who are most at risk of developing it? (p. 561)

Learning Objective 3

Sections 14.6, 14.7, 14.8, 14.9, Depressive Disorders; Development of Depressive Disorders; Bipolar Disorder

  1. What are the main differences between major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder? (pp. 562-563)
  2. What are typical bio, psycho, and social contributors to depressive disorders? (pp. 563-565)
  3. What have twin studies revealed about the likelihood of developing depressive disorders? (p. 564)
  4. How might a person’s relationships affect their reactions to life stressors? (p. 564)
  5. What are the three topics of Aaron Beck’s cognitive triad? How would a depressed person usually interpret their life across these three topics? (p. 564)
  6. How does a person learn helplessness? (pp. 564-565)
  7. What kinds of societal conditions are associated with greater rates of depression? (p. 565)
  8. What three things can you do if you think a friend or loved one might be considering suicide? (p. 566)
  9. What are the typical moods and actions of someone who is experiencing a manic episode? (p. 567)
  10. What is the difference between bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder? (pp. 567-568)
  11. Compared to depressive disorders, how common are bipolar disorders? (p. 568)
  12. What kind of evidence has revealed a genetic component to bipolar disorders? (pp. 568-569)

Learning Objective 4

Sections 14.10, 14.11, 14.12, Schizophrenia; Causes of Schizophrenia; Personality Disorders

  1. What is schizophrenia? (p. 569)
  2. In schizophrenia, what is the difference between positive and negative symptoms? (What do “positive” and “negative” mean in this context?) (pp. 569-570)
  3. List and describe the five major symptoms (according to the DSM) of schizophrenia. (pp. 569-571)
  4. What evidence suggests that schizophrenia is caused by biological factors? What suggests that environmental factors can cause schizophrenia to develop? (pp. 572-574)
  5. What are personality disorders? (p. 575)
  6. Describe borderline personality disorder and the environmental factors that may be associated with it. (pp. 576-577)
  7. Describe antisocial personality disorder. (pp. 577-578)
  8. What is the distinction between a psychopath and someone diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder who is not psychopathic? (p. 577)

Learning Objective 5

Sections 14.14, 14.15, 14.16, 14.17, Eating Disorders, Disorders Affecting Children

  1. What are eating disorders? (p. 580)
  2. Describe the symptoms of anorexia nervosa, along with its health problems. (pp. 580-581)
  3. Describe the symptoms of bulimia nervosa, along with its health problems. (pp. 581-582)
  4. Describe the symptoms of binge eating disorder, along with its health problems. (p. 582)
  5. What are neurodevelopmental disorders? Recognize the six examples shown in Table 14.10. (pp. 582-583)
  6. Describe the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder in terms of its three types of deficits. (pp. 584-585)
  7. What biological factors might lead to the development of autism spectrum disorder? Why are vaccines falsely assumed to be related to autism? (p. 585)
  8. What are some symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? (p. 586)
  9. What environmental and biological factors might contribute to the development of ADHD? (pp. 586-587)
  10. How early in the lifespan is ADHD typically diagnosed? What is the prognosis as these children age and grow into adults? (p. 587)

Learning Objective 6

Sections 15.1, 15.2, 15.4, How Are Psychological Disorders Treated?

  1. What are the goals of psychotherapies? (p. 595)
  2. What do practitioners of psychoanalysis believe is an underlying cause of psychological disorders? (p. 595)
  3. In psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy, how do free association or dream analysis lead to important insights? (p. 596)
  4. What do practitioners of humanistic therapy believe are the important insights to help clients overcome their disorders? (p. 596)
  5. In Carl Rogers’ client-centered therapy, what is the purpose of active listening and unconditional positive regard? (pp. 596-597)
  6. What is the main idea behind behavior therapy? What would be rewarded or punished? (p. 597)
  7. Describe how a token economy might work when training social skills. What role does modeling play in behavior therapy? (p. 597)
  8. What is the target of cognitive restructuring or rational-emotive therapy? (p. 598)
  9. What conditions is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) especially effective in treating? (p. 598)
  10. What do practitioners of biological therapies believe about the underlying causes of psychological disorders? (p. 600)
  11. How do psychotropic medications work within the brain? (p. 601)
  12. What are the five classes of psychotropic medications? What is each used to treat? (pp. 601-602)
  13. What do each of the three electrical-based treatments for extreme cases of psychological disorders do to the brain? When should such treatments be considered? (p. 602)

Learning Objective 7

Sections 15.5, 15.6, Scientific Evidence; Providers of Treatment, Technology and Treatment

  1. How can you distinguish between a fringe therapy and an evidence-based one? (p. 604)
  2. How does empirical research tell us whether a treatment for a psychological disorder is valid? (p. 604)
  3. What are randomized clinical trials, and how does random assignment play a part in them? (p. 604)
  4. What is so important about using evidence to decide on a treatment method? (p. 604)
  5. What are the differences, in terms of training, degree, and employment opportunities, between clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists, and psychiatrists? (p. 605)
  6. How has technology broadened the reach of psychotherapy? (p. 606)

Learning Objective 8

Sections 15.8, 15.9, Cognitive-behavioral Therapies for Anxiety and OCD; Treatments for Depressive Disorders

  1. What are the effective treatments for anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder? (pp. 609-614)
  2. What is the goal of exposure, and how is it related to classical conditioning? (p. 609)
  3. How might people learn specific phobias? (p. 611)
  4. What are the steps of systematic desensitization? (pp. 611-612)
  5. What are the treatment options for panic disorder? (p. 612)
  6. How is exposure and response prevention used for obsessive-compulsive disorder? Which type of psychotropic drug seems effective for OCD? (pp. 612-614)
  7. What kind of psychotropic drugs are normally used to treat depression? What are these drugs assumed to do in the brain? (pp. 614-615)
  8. How can cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) help treat depression? What does the research suggest about combining CBT with psychotropic drugs to treat depression? (pp. 615-616)
  9. What do we know about the effectiveness of these alternative treatment methods for depressive disorders: phototherapy, exercise, electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and deep brain stimulation (DBS)? (pp. 616-617)

Learning Objective 9

Sections 15.10, 15.11, 15.12, 15.13, Treating Bipolar Disorder; Treating Schizophrenia; Treating Borderline Personality Disorder; Treating Antisocial Personality Disorder

  1. Which psychotropic medications are most typically used to treat bipolar disorders? Which symptoms do they target? Are they equally effective? (pp. 618-619)
  2. Which types of symptoms of schizophrenia have conventional antipsychotics been shown to effectively treat? What is tardive dyskinesia, and how is it related to these conventional antipsychotics? (p. 620)
  3. How do atypical antipsychotics differ in their functions from conventional antipsychotics? (pp. 620-621)
  4. What are the goals of behavioral therapy for schizophrenia? (p. 621)
  5. What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)? Why is its third phase crucial? (pp. 622-623)
  6. Why is it so difficult to treat antisocial personality disorder? (pp. 623-624)
  7. What is the prognosis for people diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder? (pp. 623-624)

Learning Objective 10

Sections 15.13, 15.14, 15.15, Treating Depressive Disorder in Adolescents; Treating Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children; Treating ADHD in Children

  1. How are structured behavior therapies, such as applied behavioral analysis, used to treat autism? (pp. 625-626)
  2. How does naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention help make applied behavioral analysis more thorough? (pp. 625-626)
  3. What does the research say about the use of biological treatments for autism spectrum disorder? (p. 626)
  4. What psychotropic drugs are used to treat ADHD? How do they seem to work? (pp. 626-628)
  5. Is there evidence that behavioral therapy alone can treat the symptoms of ADHD? Why might combining behavior therapy with psychotropic medication be effective? (p. 628)