Abnormal Psychology Notes

Week 1&2 - Chapter 1 – Conceptual Issues in Abnormal Psychology Mental illness: Severe abnormal thoughts, behaviours and feelings cause by a physical illness Affect: Experience of feeling or emotion Dementia: Cognitive disorder in which a gradual decline of intellectual functioning occurs Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): Treatment for mood disorders that involves the induction of a brain seizure by passing electrical current through the patient’s brain while they are anesthetised Psychosurgery: Biological treatment (such as lobotamy0 for a psychological disorder in which a neurosurgeon attempts to destroy small areas of the brain thought to be involved in producing the patients symptoms Prefrontal cortex: Region at the front of the brain important in language, emotional expression, the planning and producing of new ideas, and the mediation of social interactions Biological approach: Theories that explain abnormal behaviours in terms of a biological dysfunction (medical approach) Enlarged ventricles: Fluid-filled spaces in the brain that are larger than the normal and suggest a deterioration in brain tissue Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs): Class of antidepressant drugs (such as fluroxetine) that inhibit the reuptake of serotonin Psychopharmacological treatment: The use of drugs to treat psychological disturbances Psychoanalysis: Form of treatment pioneered by Freud that entails alleviating the unconscious conflicts driving psychological symptoms by helping the patient gain insight into his/her conflicts through techniques such as dream analysis and free association Psychological approaches: Theories that explain abnormality in terms of psychological factors such as disturbed personality, behaviour and ways of thinking Unconscious: In psychoanalytic theory, the part of the personality of which the conscious ego in unaware. Id: In psychodynamic theory, most primitive part of the unconscious; consists of drives and impulses seeking immediate