PSY 3604 FINAL EXAM 2026/2027 QUESTIONS AND
SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔psychological tests - ✔✔intelligence (wechsler adult intelligence tests)
personality (rorschach inkblot, sentence completion, objective q+a)
✔✔diagnostic classification of mental disorders - ✔✔dsm in north america and icd in
europe
✔✔models of classification - ✔✔categorical, dimensional, prototypal
✔✔categorical approach - ✔✔sort behavior as healthy or unhealthy
✔✔dimensional approach - ✔✔how people vary in terms of certain characteristics
✔✔prototypal approach - ✔✔compare patient to "perfect case" of disorders
✔✔neuropsychological assessment - ✔✔measures a person's cognitive, perceptual,
motor performance and tells us the extent and locus of brain damage
✔✔culturally sensitive assessment - ✔✔translated western-developed tests, but
interpreter need to be mindful of the possible differences that can come from these
versions
✔✔trust and rapport - ✔✔client must be comfortable with opening up
✔✔neurological tests - ✔✔ct scan, eeg, other neuroimaging
✔✔homeostasis - ✔✔process where physiological parameters are maintained in a
healthy way (blood pressure, ph balance). stress challenges homeostasis
✔✔allostasis - ✔✔response to stress aimed at maintaining homeostasis
✔✔dysregulated allostasis - ✔✔1) repeated hits from multiple stressors
2) failure to habituate to some repeated stressor
3) delayed shutdown (consequences... hypertension, heart disease)
4) inadequate response (consequences... inflammation, autoimmunity)
✔✔Hormonally Driven Stress-Response Systems - ✔✔sympathetic adrenomedullary
system (SAM) and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal system (HPA)
✔✔sympathetic adrenomedullary system - ✔✔fight/flight response, doesn't cross blood
brain barrier, quick response
, ✔✔hypothalamic pituitary adrenal system - ✔✔produces glucocortisoids (GCs), crosses
blood brain barrier to attach to receptors, slow and sustained response
✔✔effects of chronic stress - ✔✔decreased glucose utilization in brain leads to cell
death, decreased neural substrates of learning and memory
✔✔posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - ✔✔a disorder characterized by chronic
physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and
avoidance of things that call the traumatic event to mind
✔✔PTSD: Criterion A - ✔✔-Trauma exposure
-Experienced, witnessed, learning, repeated exposure to actual or threatened death,
serious injury, or sexual violence
✔✔PTSD: Criterion B - ✔✔Reexperiencing cluster
- nightmares, flashbacks, intense distress
✔✔PTSD: Criterion C - ✔✔avoidance of stimuli associated with trauma
✔✔PTSD: Criterion D - ✔✔Neg. cognitions/Mood Cluster
- inability to recall details of trauma, neg. thoughts about oneself or others, distorted
blame, decreased interest in activity
✔✔PTSD: Criterion E - ✔✔hyperarousal cluster
- irritable aggression, hyper-vigilance, sleep problems
✔✔PTSD: Criterion F - ✔✔-Duration of disturbance is more than 1 month
✔✔PTSD: Criterion G - ✔✔significant distress/impairment in important areas of function
✔✔acute stress disorder - ✔✔immediate response to trauma, same criteria as ptsd,
within 30 days of trauma fro 2+ days, risk factor for ptsd
✔✔adjustment disorder - ✔✔difficulty coping with stressful life event of any severity,
symptoms occur within 3 months of stressor, requires more dysfunction than would be
expected, disorder goes away within 6 mo
✔✔characteristics of stressors - ✔✔severity, chronicity, level of human malice, level of
expectation, perceived controllability, how overwhelming
✔✔factors creating predisposition to stress - ✔✔goal oriented coping, social support,
external resources, genetic makeup, previous history of stress, nature of the stressor
✔✔normal v pathologic anxiety - ✔✔normal: signal of genuine threat
SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔psychological tests - ✔✔intelligence (wechsler adult intelligence tests)
personality (rorschach inkblot, sentence completion, objective q+a)
✔✔diagnostic classification of mental disorders - ✔✔dsm in north america and icd in
europe
✔✔models of classification - ✔✔categorical, dimensional, prototypal
✔✔categorical approach - ✔✔sort behavior as healthy or unhealthy
✔✔dimensional approach - ✔✔how people vary in terms of certain characteristics
✔✔prototypal approach - ✔✔compare patient to "perfect case" of disorders
✔✔neuropsychological assessment - ✔✔measures a person's cognitive, perceptual,
motor performance and tells us the extent and locus of brain damage
✔✔culturally sensitive assessment - ✔✔translated western-developed tests, but
interpreter need to be mindful of the possible differences that can come from these
versions
✔✔trust and rapport - ✔✔client must be comfortable with opening up
✔✔neurological tests - ✔✔ct scan, eeg, other neuroimaging
✔✔homeostasis - ✔✔process where physiological parameters are maintained in a
healthy way (blood pressure, ph balance). stress challenges homeostasis
✔✔allostasis - ✔✔response to stress aimed at maintaining homeostasis
✔✔dysregulated allostasis - ✔✔1) repeated hits from multiple stressors
2) failure to habituate to some repeated stressor
3) delayed shutdown (consequences... hypertension, heart disease)
4) inadequate response (consequences... inflammation, autoimmunity)
✔✔Hormonally Driven Stress-Response Systems - ✔✔sympathetic adrenomedullary
system (SAM) and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal system (HPA)
✔✔sympathetic adrenomedullary system - ✔✔fight/flight response, doesn't cross blood
brain barrier, quick response
, ✔✔hypothalamic pituitary adrenal system - ✔✔produces glucocortisoids (GCs), crosses
blood brain barrier to attach to receptors, slow and sustained response
✔✔effects of chronic stress - ✔✔decreased glucose utilization in brain leads to cell
death, decreased neural substrates of learning and memory
✔✔posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - ✔✔a disorder characterized by chronic
physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and
avoidance of things that call the traumatic event to mind
✔✔PTSD: Criterion A - ✔✔-Trauma exposure
-Experienced, witnessed, learning, repeated exposure to actual or threatened death,
serious injury, or sexual violence
✔✔PTSD: Criterion B - ✔✔Reexperiencing cluster
- nightmares, flashbacks, intense distress
✔✔PTSD: Criterion C - ✔✔avoidance of stimuli associated with trauma
✔✔PTSD: Criterion D - ✔✔Neg. cognitions/Mood Cluster
- inability to recall details of trauma, neg. thoughts about oneself or others, distorted
blame, decreased interest in activity
✔✔PTSD: Criterion E - ✔✔hyperarousal cluster
- irritable aggression, hyper-vigilance, sleep problems
✔✔PTSD: Criterion F - ✔✔-Duration of disturbance is more than 1 month
✔✔PTSD: Criterion G - ✔✔significant distress/impairment in important areas of function
✔✔acute stress disorder - ✔✔immediate response to trauma, same criteria as ptsd,
within 30 days of trauma fro 2+ days, risk factor for ptsd
✔✔adjustment disorder - ✔✔difficulty coping with stressful life event of any severity,
symptoms occur within 3 months of stressor, requires more dysfunction than would be
expected, disorder goes away within 6 mo
✔✔characteristics of stressors - ✔✔severity, chronicity, level of human malice, level of
expectation, perceived controllability, how overwhelming
✔✔factors creating predisposition to stress - ✔✔goal oriented coping, social support,
external resources, genetic makeup, previous history of stress, nature of the stressor
✔✔normal v pathologic anxiety - ✔✔normal: signal of genuine threat
