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Abnormal Psychology Midterm 1) Dissociation is something: Answer: sort of like daydreaming, something that young children are especially apt to use as a defense against trauma, a natural part of human psychology and it’s not necessarily pathological. 2) Jeff seems alright at work… Answer: Jeff has disthymia disorder, because he lives a functional life, and his symptoms are milder from depression, but he’s been the same for years, and disthymia lasts at least two years. ) In order to meet the requirement for a DSM diagnosis there are three categories which must meet: Answer: duration of symptoms, intensity of symptoms, and impingment on functionality 4) Thomas Szasz would not agree with the following statement: Answer: Persons should be held responsible for their actions even if their behavior and beliefs are outlandish. 5) Anxiety disorders are all, ultimately caused by fear 6) John freaks out whenever he sees a spider. Answer: John has arachnophobia ) Rita suffers from OCD surrounding germs and cleanliness… Answer: Should be RPT or Response Prevention Therapy. 8) Three criteria by which we commonly determine abnormality of any behavior Answer: Statistically Abnormal, Deviation from social norms and morality and Maladaptive. 9) Three situations which could cause Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Answer: trauma from the war, trauma from terrorist attack and trauma from plane crash. 10) Phobias, PTSD, and panic disorders are all classified as anxiety disorder 1) Randy goes to a psychologist to treat his phobia of trains. Answer: The psychologist who is Freudian would say: I think the train is a clear phallic symbol for you and probably represents repressed sexual urges which you would find repugnant to acknowledge. 12) Marcia has been diagnosed with a disorder called “maladaptive daydreaming” which is a class of the dissociative disorder. 13) Rita goes to the therapist to treat her PTSD and finds out the she will engage in EMDR.
Answer: EMDR is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing where the patient would talk about the trauma while they follow an object with their eyes from left to right and back and forth, in order to make sure that both sides of the brain working which will show all the hidden emotions. 14) Bob says to his wife, Mary, “Honey, I’m going out for a pack of cigarettes…” Answer: Bob is suffering from Dissociative fugue or was just sick of life with Mary and was looking for a way out without paying alimony. 15) What is the problem with using pure statistical frequency as the basis of determining abnormality?
Answer: The statistical abnormality is based on quantities and objective reasoning, which for some people can be very well developed and for others it might not be as developed but it doesn’t make them abnormal. For example: Some people have higher IQ than average and some people have lower IQ than average but they still have a perfectly functional life. 16) What is the basic idea behind all cognitive psychotherapy? Answer: Cognitive therapy helps patients overcome difficulties by adopting realistic and constructive attitudes toward the difficulty by testing the assumptions of the patient and correcting the assumptions. 7) After staying awake for three days, Jerry invests $25,000 in a business scheme with a guy he met at a bar to sell cell phones… Answer: Jerry has Bipolar I disorder, because he for three days he felt brilliant and had a lot of energy toward the business but in a short period of time it changed to extreme sadness, which according to his wife happened before. 18) What does it mean to be Psychotic? Answer: Being psychotic means that the person has lost contact with reality, severe cases show??depression which sometimes includes psychotic features such??hallucinations and delusions. 9) After being robbed and beaten by three hoodlums, Drake finds it impossible to remember. Answer: Drake suffers from Dissociative amnesia, which is a disorder caused by emotional trauma where the patient experiences a significant loss of memory about the incident. 20) Which therapy is most likely to be used if a severely depressed person has been unresponsive to psychotherapy and medication? Answer: ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) would be used in order to shock the brain and have the chemical and receptors to reset. 21) If children or any other person react to a trauma by dissociating, what purpose would the dissociation serve?
Answer: People or children who suffer from dissociative disorder have developed it in order to help them live through the trauma. It is a defense system for the patient toward the harm that they have experienced. 22) Panic attacks often lead to agoraphobia because people develop the intense fear of having a panic attack and not being able to escape from it. 23) What bacteria are believed to contribute to some cases of OCD? Answer: streptococcus, the bacterium that causes strep throat 24) Drake feels mildly anxious all the time. His discomfort is not focused n any one situation… Answer: Drake suffers from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) 25) What drug is usually used to treat Bi-Polar disorder? Answer: There are three types of drugs that can be used: Selective Seratonin Reuptake inhibitors such as Prozac, Seratonin and norepinefrin reuptake inhibitors such as Effexor and Tricyclicks for the anti-depression. Extra credit: It would be difficult to distinguish the influence of genes from the influence of environment on the development of a disorder because psychological problems are very individually based and people respond to different situations differently.