What is important to remember about the apparent high lifetime rate of mental disorders?
Many people with disorders are not seriously affected by them or may have them for only a short time.
A significant positive correlation is found between variables x and y. Which of the following may be safely inferred?
as x increases, y increases
A researcher says, "These studies make it too easy for investigators to find the background factors they expect to find. However, they are more valid if we find documents like school reports that show the background factor before the disorder emerges.
" What kind of research strategy is the researcher referring to?
retrospective strategies
The central principle of operant conditioning is that
the consequences of behavior influence its likelihood of being repeated.
According to the DSM-IV's definition of mental disorder, impairment in one or more areas of functioning (disability)
may be present but is not a necessary condition for making a diagnosis.
Which statement about treatment of abnormal behavior in the Middle Ages is accurate?
Islamic forms of treatment were more humane than European approaches.
Practically speaking, "abnormal" behavior means
unusual behaviors that are not consistent with the norms of the society in which they are displayed.
What is wrong with describing someone as being "schizophrenic"?
Labels should be applied to disorders, not to people.
What is Galen credited with
recognizing that psychological disorders could have both biological and psychological causes.
The role of learning is the central theme in
the behavioral perspective.
Suppose the re-uptake of a specific neurotransmitter were deficient and the deactivation enzymes associated with the neurotransmitter were also deficient. What effect would this have?
There would be more of the neurotransmitter in the synapse.
Which of the following is not a misconception about genetic influence on behavior?
Many genetic effects on psychological characteristics increase with age.
Which of the following statements about brain dysfunction and psychiatric disorders is FALSE?
Identifiable brain damage is often the cause of psychiatric disorders.
Suppose that the presence of a particular gene is a sufficient cause for the occurrence of schizophrenia. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
There are other things besides this gene that can cause schizophrenia.
Children born with a genetic predisposition to be introverted
are likely to be more or less introverted depending on childhood experiences growing up.
When psychologists say that a person shows resilience it means
the person can successfully adapt and survive in threatening circumstances.
Understanding the causes of mental disorders is important because
such knowledge might make both the prevention and cure of mental disorders possible.
Why is it difficult to determine the nature of the relationship between divorce and the psychological functioning of family members?
Cause and effect cannot be determined as preexisting behavioral abnormalities in either the parents or the children may make divorce more likely.
From the cognitive-behavioral perspective, an important limitation with the behavioral perspective is the fact that
behaviorists failed to attend to the importance of mental processes.
A diathesis can best be described as a
contributory cause.
What recent changes have altered the types of therapy that are available?
There is an increased need to prove that therapy is effective.
Freud called dreams "the royal road to the unconscious" because
he believed defenses were lowered during sleep and repressed material would start to come out in dreams.
Intelligence and personality tests can best be described as
indirect means of assessing psychological characteristics.
A person comes to a mental health professional with a certain complaint. The professional attempts to understand the nature and extent of the problem. This process is called
assessment.
Cultural competence involves
using testing procedures that have been adapted to and validated for different cultures.
Humanistic-existential therapies are based in the belief that psychopathology is a result of
lack of fulfillment.
Which of the following is a drawback of a structured interview?
They may include questions about areas that are of no concern to the patient.
Which of the following is an advantage of using Beck's cognitive treatment for depression, as compared to drugs?
The likelihood of relapse is decreased.
Dr. Smith believes that a decrease in frontal lobe function underlies the cognitive deficits seen in schizophrenia. He has hypothesized that effective drug therapy serves to selectively increase metabolic activity in this part of the brain. Which of the following is Dr. Smith most likely to use to test his hypothesis?
positron emission tomography (PET) scans.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
assumes that cognitive processes influence emotion, motivation, and behavior.
Despite all the criticisms of the use of life stress scales,
the finding that life change produces stress has been supported by other work.
When do the effects of cortisol become a problem?
when the cortisol response is not terminated
Stress-inoculation training:
is a form of cognitive preparation that can be used to minimize the impact of an anticipated threat.
Which of the following provides evidence of the role that psychosocial factors play in AIDS?
Dissatisfaction with social support was predictive of faster development of AIDS.
The Social Readjustment Rating Scale
is an imperfect means of quantifying the level of stress experience over a period of time.
Behavioral medicine emphasizes
the role of psychological factors in the occurrence, maintenance, and prevention of physical illness.
The development of new methods of coping
may be an outcome of a crisis.
Which statement about behavioral medicine is accurate?
It is a field that has developed rapidly over the past 30 years and has had a major impact on virtually the entire range of clinical medicine.
Today there is a growing recognition of the fact that
behavioral and biological factors interact to determine health.
What is the difference between a stressor and a crisis?
While all crises are stressors, not all stressors are crises.
If a pharmaceutical company were looking for a drug that would maximally treat generalized anxiety disorder they would want one that
increased GABA levels while regulating serotonin.
Neurobiological factors involved in panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder provide evidence for the hypothesis that
fear and anxiety are fundamentally distinct.
Social phobics are likely to
attribute events in their lives to external factors.
Why do people with phobias continue to avoid the thing they fear?
Avoidance is reinforced by anxiety reduction.
Which of the following is likely to maintain or strengthen conditioned fears over time?
overestimating the likelihood that the event will reoccur
High levels of anxiety sensitivity
are a diathesis for panic attacks.
Compared to anxiety, panic is
more intense.
Mowrer's two-process theory of avoidance learning provides a theoretical rationale for an effective treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. What is this treatment?
exposure therapy with response prevention
Research on the role of genetics in the development of OCD suggests that
there may be personality factors that increase susceptibility to OCD.
Which of the following provides a unique challenge when trying to eliminate the obsessions seen in OCD?
Attempting to not think about something may lead to thinking about it more.
