PSY 395 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Common Cold, Intellectual Disability, Observer-Expectancy Effect
14 Feb 2020
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PSY 395
Exam 1 – Review Sheet
Chapter 1
Abnormality: Field of psychology concerned with the study, assessment, treatment, and
prevention of abnormal behavior.
1. Subjective distress: if people suffer or experience psychological pain we are inclined to
consider this as indicative of abnormality.
2. Mal-adaptiveness: mal-adaptiveness behavior is often an indicator of abnormality
interferes with our well-being and with our ability to enjoy our work and our
relationships.
3. Statistical deviancy: statistically rare behavior. Eg: common cold is very common,
regarded as an illness nonetheless. Intellectual disability is also abnormality.
4. Violation of the standards of society: when people fail to follow the conventional social
and moral rules of their cultural group, we may consider their behavior abnormal.
5. Social discomfort: when someone violates an implicit or unwritten social rule, those
around him or her may experience a sense of discomfort or unease.
6. Irrationality and unpredictability: it would be unpredictable, and it would make no
sense to you. Our evaluation of whether the person can control his or her behavior.
7. Dangerousness: it seems quite reasonable to think that someone who is a danger to him
or himself or to another person must be psychologically abnormal.
Acute: short in duration.急性 term used to describe of sudden onset, usually with intense
symptoms.
Bias: observer bias occurs when the researcher has preconceived ideas and expectations that
influence the observation he or she makes in the research study.
case study: an in-depth examination of an individual or family that draws from a number of data
sources, including interviews and psychological testing.
Pros: depth details, variety of methods, quantitative & qualitative of data, triangulate the
result, exploratory research, illustrating theory, adopt holistic approach
Cons: time and cost, researcher bias, long time→lose objectivity,
“unscientific”: numbers small, samples not representative, difficult to generalize to large
population, anecdotal & impressionistic.
Chronic: long in duration. 慢性
Comorbidity: is the term used to describe the presence of 2 or more disorders in the same
person.
comparison or control group: → test hypotheses. Group of subjects who do not exhibit the
disorder being studied abut who are comparable in all other respects to the criterion group. Also,
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an comparison group of subjects who do not receive a condition or treatment the effects of which
are being studied.
Correlation: the tendency of 2 variables to change together. It doesn’t mean causation, no way
affirm that one cause the other.
correlation coefficient: the magnitude of the correlation indicates the strength of the association,
and the sign indicates whether the correlation is positive or negative. +1.0→-1.0
correlational research: A research strategy that examines whether and how variables go together
without manipulating ang variables. The research selected certain groups of interest.
criterion group: people with the disorder being studied.
dependent variable: 因变量, the factor that is observed to change with changes in the
manipulated (independent) variables. I变，D变→I是原因
direct observation: method of collecting research data that involves directly observing behavior
in a given situation.
DSM: The accepted standard for defining various types of mental disorders is the
American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Providing descriptive info about the type and number of symptoms needed for each diagnosis
helps ensure diagnostic accuracy and consistency.
The DSM does not include info about treatment.
Epidemiology: 流行病学 The study of the distribution of diseases, disorders or health-related
behaviors in a given population. Mental health epidemiology is the study of the distribution of
mental disorders.
Etiology: 病因学 causes of diseases. Factors that are related to the development of a
particular disorder.
experimental research: research that involves the manipulation of a given factor or variable with
everything in some way, while other variable are held constant.
external validity: The extent to which we can generalize our findings beyond the study the
finding from a single study are relevant to other populations, contexts or times.
family aggregation: the clustering of certain traits, behaviors or disorders within a given family.
Family aggregation may arise because of genetic or environmental similarities.
Generalizability: the extent to which the findings from a single study can be used to draw
conclusions about other samples.
Hypothesis: statement or proposition, usually based on observation, that is tested in an
experiment; may be refuted or supported by experimental results but can never be conclusively
proved.
Incidence: Occurrence rate of a given disorder in a given population.
independent variable: Factor whose effects are being examined and which is manipulated in
some way, while other variables are held constant.
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internal validity: the extent to which a study is free of confounds, is methodologically sound, and
allows the researcher to have confidence in the findings. 研究在多大程度上使研究人员对研
究结果充满信心。
Labeling: assigning a person to a particular diagnostic category, such as schizophrenia.
lifetime prevalence: The proportion of living persons in a population who have ever had a
disorder up to the time of the epidemiologic assessment.
longitudinal design: a research design in which people are followed over time.
negative correlation: 相反方向的增长
Nomenclature: A formalized naming system
1-year prevalence: the total number of cases of a health-related state or condition in a population
for a given year.
placebo treatment: an inert pill or otherwise neutral intervention that produces desirable
therapeutic effects because of the subject’s expectations that it will be beneficial.
point prevalence: the number of cases of a specific condition or disorder that can be found in a
population at one given point in time.
positive correlation: 同方向的增长
prevalence: in a population, the proportion of active cases of a disorder that can be
identified at a given point in time or during a given period. 某一时间段，某一时间点，某
种病的发病率。
prospective research: method that often focuses on individuals who have a higher-than-average
likelihood of becoming psychologically disordered before abnormal behavior is observed.
random assignment: A procedure used to create equivalent groups in which every research
participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any group in the study.
retrospective research: research approach that attempts to retrace earlier events in the life of a
subject.
Sampling: the process of selecting a representative subgroup from a defined population of
interest.
self-report data: Data collected directly from participants, typically by means of interviews or
questionnaires
single-case research design: An experimental research design (eg. An ABAB design) that
involves only on subject.
Stereotyping: The tendency to jump to conclusions (often negative) about what a person is like
based on the beliefs about that group that exist (often incorrectly) in the culture.
Stigma: negative labeling.
Chapter 3
adoption method: comparison of biological and adoptive relatives with a without a given
disorder to assess genetic vs. environmental influences.
Attribution: process of assigning causes to things that happen.
Document Summary
Eg: common cold is very common, regarded as an illness nonetheless. Our evaluation of whether the person can control his or her behavior: dangerousness: it seems quite reasonable to think that someone who is a danger to him or himself or to another person must be psychologically abnormal. Acute: short in duration. term used to describe of sudden onset, usually with intense symptoms. Cons: time and cost, researcher bias, long time lose objectivity, Unscientific : numbers small, samples not representative, difficult to generalize to large. Pros: depth details, variety of methods, quantitative & qualitative of data, triangulate the population, anecdotal & impressionistic. Comorbidity: is the term used to describe the presence of 2 or more disorders in the same person. comparison or control group: test hypotheses. Group of subjects who do not exhibit the disorder being studied abut who are comparable in all other respects to the criterion group.
