An Integrative Approach to Psychopathology

Question 1

Approach to the study of psychopathology that holds psychological disorders as always being the products of multiple interacting causal factors.

Answer 1

multidimensional integrative approach

Question 2

Long deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, the basic physical units of heredity that appear as locations on chromosomes. A single gene is a subunit of DNA that determines inherited traits in living things.

Answer 2

genes

Question 3

Hypothesis that both an inherited tendency (a vulnerability) and specific stressful conditions are required to produce a disorder.

Answer 3

diathesis–stress model

Question 4

Susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder.

Answer 4

vulnerability

Question 5

Hypothesis that people with a genetic predisposition for a disorder may also have a genetic tendency to create environmental risk factors that promote the disorder.

Answer 5

gene–environment correlation model

Question 6

The study of factors other than inherited DNA sequence, such as new learning or stress, that alter the phenotypic expression of genes.

Answer 6

epigenetics

Question 7

Study of the nervous system and its role in behavior, thoughts, and emotions.

Answer 7

neuroscience

Question 8

Individual nerve cell; responsible for transmitting information.

Answer 8

neuron

Question 9

Short periods of electrical activity at the membrane of a neuron, responsible for the transmission of signals within the neuron.

Answer 9

action potentials

Question 10

The end of an axon (of a neuron) where neurotransmitters are stored before release.

Answer 10

terminal button

Question 11

Space between nerve cells where chemical transmitters act to move impulses from one neuron to the next.

Answer 11

synaptic cleft

Question 12

Chemicals that cross the synaptic cleft between nerve cells to transmit impulses from one neuron to the next. Their relative excess or deficiency is involved in several psychological disorders.

Answer 12

neurotransmitters

Question 13

Causing excitation. Activating.

Answer 13

excitatory

Question 14

Causing inhibition. Suppressing.

Answer 14

inhibitory

Question 15

Chemical messenger produced by the endocrine glands.

Answer 15

hormone

Question 16

Neurotransmitter currents or neural pathways in the brain.

Answer 16

brain circuits

Question 17

Chemical substance that effectively increases the activity of a neurotransmitter by imitating its effects.

Answer 17

agonist

Question 18

In neuroscience, a chemical substance that decreases or blocks the effects of a neurotransmitter.

Answer 18

antagonist

Question 19

Chemical substance that produces effects opposite those of a particular neurotransmitter.

Answer 19

inverse agonist

Question 20

Action by which a neurotransmitter is quickly drawn back into the discharging neuron after being released into a synaptic cleft.

Answer 20

reuptake

Question 21

Amino acid neurotransmitter that excites many different neurons, leading to action.

Answer 21

glutamate

Question 22

Neurotransmitter that reduces activity across the synapse and thus inhibits a range of behaviors and emotions, especially generalized anxiety.

Answer 22

gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

Question 23

Neurotransmitter involved in processing of information and coordination of movement, as well as inhibition and restraint. It also assists in the regulation of eating, sexual, and aggressive behaviors, all of which may be involved in different psychological disorders. Its interaction with dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia.

Answer 23

serotonin

Question 24

Neurotransmitter active in the central and peripheral nervous systems, controlling heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration, among other functions. Because of its role in the body’s alarm reaction, it may also contribute generally and indirectly to panic attacks and other disorders.

Answer 24

norepinephrine (also noradrenaline)

Question 25

Neurotransmitter whose generalized function is to activate other neurotransmitters and to aid in exploratory and pleasureseeking behaviors (thus balancing serotonin). A relative excess of dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia (although contradictory evidence suggests the connection is not simple), and its deficit is involved in Parkinson’s disease.

Answer 25

dopamine

Question 26

Field of study that examines how humans and other animals acquire, process, store, and retrieve information.

Answer 26

cognitive science

Question 27

Martin Seligman’s theory that people become anxious and depressed when they make an attribution that they have no control over the stress in their lives (whether or not they do in reality).

Answer 27

learned helplessness

Question 28

Learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of other individuals and consequences of that behavior.

Answer 28

modeling (also observational learning)

Question 29

An ability that has been adaptive for evolution, allowing certain associations to be learned more readily than others.

Answer 29

prepared learning

Question 30

Condition of memory in which a person cannot recall past events despite acting in response to them (contrast with explicit memory).

Answer 30

implicit memory

Question 31

Biological reaction to alarming stressors that musters the body’s resources (for example, blood flow and respiration) to resist or flee a threat.

Answer 31

flight or fight response

Question 32

Pattern of action elicited by an external event and a feeling state, accompanied by a characteristic physiological response.

Answer 32

emotion

Question 33

Enduring period of emotionality.

Answer 33

mood

Question 34

Conscious, subjective aspect of an emotion that accompanies an action at a given time.

Answer 34

affect

Question 35

A model describing different emotions as points in a 2-dimensional space of valence and arousal.

Answer 35

circumplex model

Question 36

Developmental psychopathology principle that a behavior or disorder may have several causes.

Answer 36

equifinality