Abnormal Psychology (Butcher et al.) Chapter 1

abnormal psychology - field of psychology concerned with the study, assessment, treatment, and prevention of abnormal behavior also called psychopathology family aggregation - the clustering of certain traits, behaviors, or disorders within a given family. Family aggregation may arise because of genetic or environmental similarities karo-kari - example of cultural abnormality in which a woman is murdered by a male relative; it is normal in Pakistan but not in other countries Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - accepted standard for defining various types of mental disorders in the US; more than four symptoms have to be present for a diagnosis to happen nomenclature - a formalized naming system stigma (or disgrace) - negative labelling mental health literacy - knowledge about mental illness 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 (e.g. French people are rude, mentally ill people are violent, etc.) labeling - assigning a person to a particular diagnostic category, such as schizophrenia epidemiology - study of the distribution of diseases, disorders, or health-related behaviors in a given population prevalence - the proportion of active cases of a disorder in a population that can be identified at a given point in time or during a given period point prevalence - the number of cases of a specific condition or disorder that can be found in a population at a given point in time 1-year prevalence - the total number of cases of a health-related state or condition in a population for a given year lifetime prevalence - the proportion of living persons in a population who have ever had a disorder at any time in their lives up to the time of the epidemiological assessment incidence - number of new cases that occur over a given period of time comorbidity - occurrence of two or more identified disorders in the same individual acute - symptoms that are short in duration; used to describe a disorder of sudden onset, usually with intense symptoms chronic - symptoms that are long in duration; term used to describe a long-standing or frequently recurring disorder, often with progressing seriousness etiology - causes of disorders case study - an in-depth examination of an individual or family that draws from a number of data sources, including interviews and psychological testing