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Abnormal Psychology (Butcher et al.)
Chapter 1
abnormal psychology - field of psychology concerned with the study, assessment, treatment, andprevention of abnormal behavior
also called psychopathology family aggregation - the clustering of certain traits, behaviors, or disorders within a given family. Familyaggregation may arise because of genetic or environmental similarities
karo-kari - example of cultural abnormality in which a woman is murdered by a male relative; it isnormal in Pakistan but not in other countries
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - accepted standard for defining various types ofmental disorders in the US; more than four symptoms have to be present for a diagnosis to happen
nomenclature - a formalized naming system stigma (or disgrace) - negative labelling mental health literacy - knowledge about mental illness stereotyping - the tendency to jump to conclusions (often negative) about what a person is like based onthe beliefs about that group that exist (often incorrectly) in the culture (e.g. French people are rude, mentally ill people are violent, etc.) labeling - assigning a person to a particular diagnostic category, such as schizophrenia
epidemiology - study of the distribution of diseases, disorders, or health-related behaviors in a givenpopulation
prevalence - the proportion of active cases of a disorder in a population that can be identified at a givenpoint in time or during a given period
point prevalence - the number of cases of a specific condition or disorder that can be found in apopulation at a given point in time
1-year prevalence - the total number of cases of a health-related state or condition in a population for agiven year
lifetime prevalence - the proportion of living persons in a population who have ever had a disorder atany time in their lives up to the time of the epidemiological assessment
incidence - number of new cases that occur over a given period of time comorbidity - occurrence of two or more identified disorders in the same individual acute - symptoms that are short in duration; used to describe a disorder of sudden onset, usually withintense symptoms
chronic - symptoms that are long in duration; term used to describe a long-standing or frequentlyrecurring disorder, often with progressing seriousness
etiology - causes of disorders
criterion group - group of subjects who exhibit the disorder correlational research - a research strategy that examines whether and how variables go together(covary) without manipulating (changing) any variables
positive correlation - a relationship between two variables such that a high score on one variable isassociated with a high score on the other variable
negative correlation - a relationship between two variables such that a high score on one variable isassociated with a low score for the other variable
correlation - the tendency of two variables to change together correlational coefficient - a statistic that ranges from +1.0 to -1.0 and reflects the degree of associationbetween two variables. Magnitude of correlation indicates strength of association; plus or minus indicates positive or negative correlation statistical significance - a measure of the probability that a research finding could have occurred bychance alone
effect size - a statistical term referring to the size of the association between two variables in a statisticalpopulation
meta-analysis - a statistical method used to combine the results of a number of similar research studies.The data from each study are transformed into a common metric called the "effect size". This allows the data from various studies to be combined and then analyzed. You can think of a meta-analysis as beinglike research that you are already familiar with, except that the "participants" are individual research studies, not individual people
third variable problem - refers to the problem of making causal inferences in correlational research,where the correlation between two variables could be due to shared correlation with an unmeasured third variable retrospective research - research approach that attempts to retrace earlier events in the life of thesubject
prospective research - method that often focuses on individuals who have a higher than averagelikelihood of becoming psychologically disordered before abnormal behavior is observed
longitudinal design - a research design in which people are followed over time direction of effect problem - refers to the fact that, in correlational research, it cannot be concludedwhether variable A/B causes variable B/A
experimental research - research that involves the manipulation of a given factor or variable witheverything else held constant
independent variable - factor whose effects are being examined and which is manipulated in some way,while other variables are held constant
dependent variable - the factor that is observed to change with changes in the manipulated variable random assignment - a procedure used to create equivalent groups in which every research participanthas an equal chance of being assigned to any group in the study
standard treatment comparison study - two or more treatments are compared in differing yetcomparable groups
