PSYC 308 Abnormal Psychology Final
Exam Questions and All Correct
Answers 2025-2026 Updated.
Pre-scientific psychology - Answer Ancient world views (ends at 500 BCE): supernatural forces,
demonic or spiritual possession, punishment for transgressions.
Classical world (begins at 500 BCE): rejection of supernatural forces (classical Greeks),
imbalance of bodily fluids (Hippocrates, Galen).
Middle age views (Europe 5-16th centuries): supernatural forces invoked again, visionaries
inspired by God's will, possessed by the devil.
Hippocrates' Early Medical Concepts - Answer -Proposing that mental disorders had natural
causes
-Categorizing disorders as mania, melancholia, or phrenitis
Asylums - Answer Began as early as 16th century, institutions to house and care for those with
mental illness, but to also remove them from society.
Scientific era of psychology - Answer Behaviorism, cognition, social forces, biology and
synthesis.
Operant conditioning - Answer New responses are learned and tend to reoccur if they are
reinforced. (Positive or negative)
Cognitive-behavioral perspective - Answer Focuses on how thoughts and information
processing become distorted and leads to maladaptive behavior.
Biological viewpoint - Answer Four categories: neurotransmitter and hormonal abnormalities
in brain, genetic vulnerabilities, temperament, and brain dysfunction and neural plasticity.
Necessary cause - Answer -Must exist for a disorder to occur.
-Most disorders don't have necessary causes except for trauma-related disorders.
Sufficient cause - Answer -If condition is satisfied, it guarantees the occurrence of a disorder.
, -a.k.a. risk factors
-Diatheses (genes, personality traits, early life experiences, etc.
Distal causal factor - Answer May precede a disorder by many decades.
Proximal causal factor - Answer Occurs close in time of disorder onset.
Stress - Answer -Physiological response to a stressor.
-Causal contributory factor for multiple DSM-5 diagnostic categories.
Resilience - Answer -The personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and
recover from adversity and even trauma.
-Factors; male gender, older age, higher education, economic resources, positive life outlook,
self confidence.
Adjustment disorder - Answer -Maladaptive response to common stressor within 3 months of
stressor. Symptoms do not persist more than 6 months after stressor ends.
-Clinically significant distress or impaired functioning.
Acute stress disorder - Answer -Must have a traumatic stressor (actual/perceived life threat or
injury)
-Different time frame from PTSD, 3 days to 4 weeks after stressor.
-Symptoms; intrusive re-experiencing (nightmares, flashbacks, unbidden images, memories),
avoidance, negative mood, dissociative symptoms (depersonalization, derealization,
psychogenic amnesia), hyper-arousal (insomnia, excessively startled, irritability). Must have 9 or
more of these symptoms.
Post-traumatic stress disorder - Answer - 4 weeks post-stressor
-Symptoms; intrusions (1), avoidance (1), negative alterations in cognitions and mood (2),
arousal and reactivity (2).
PTSD biological factors - Answer -Reduced size of hippocampus in brain site related to memory
and stress response.
-5HTTLPR Gene; encodes "serotonin transporter" protein
Exam Questions and All Correct
Answers 2025-2026 Updated.
Pre-scientific psychology - Answer Ancient world views (ends at 500 BCE): supernatural forces,
demonic or spiritual possession, punishment for transgressions.
Classical world (begins at 500 BCE): rejection of supernatural forces (classical Greeks),
imbalance of bodily fluids (Hippocrates, Galen).
Middle age views (Europe 5-16th centuries): supernatural forces invoked again, visionaries
inspired by God's will, possessed by the devil.
Hippocrates' Early Medical Concepts - Answer -Proposing that mental disorders had natural
causes
-Categorizing disorders as mania, melancholia, or phrenitis
Asylums - Answer Began as early as 16th century, institutions to house and care for those with
mental illness, but to also remove them from society.
Scientific era of psychology - Answer Behaviorism, cognition, social forces, biology and
synthesis.
Operant conditioning - Answer New responses are learned and tend to reoccur if they are
reinforced. (Positive or negative)
Cognitive-behavioral perspective - Answer Focuses on how thoughts and information
processing become distorted and leads to maladaptive behavior.
Biological viewpoint - Answer Four categories: neurotransmitter and hormonal abnormalities
in brain, genetic vulnerabilities, temperament, and brain dysfunction and neural plasticity.
Necessary cause - Answer -Must exist for a disorder to occur.
-Most disorders don't have necessary causes except for trauma-related disorders.
Sufficient cause - Answer -If condition is satisfied, it guarantees the occurrence of a disorder.
, -a.k.a. risk factors
-Diatheses (genes, personality traits, early life experiences, etc.
Distal causal factor - Answer May precede a disorder by many decades.
Proximal causal factor - Answer Occurs close in time of disorder onset.
Stress - Answer -Physiological response to a stressor.
-Causal contributory factor for multiple DSM-5 diagnostic categories.
Resilience - Answer -The personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and
recover from adversity and even trauma.
-Factors; male gender, older age, higher education, economic resources, positive life outlook,
self confidence.
Adjustment disorder - Answer -Maladaptive response to common stressor within 3 months of
stressor. Symptoms do not persist more than 6 months after stressor ends.
-Clinically significant distress or impaired functioning.
Acute stress disorder - Answer -Must have a traumatic stressor (actual/perceived life threat or
injury)
-Different time frame from PTSD, 3 days to 4 weeks after stressor.
-Symptoms; intrusive re-experiencing (nightmares, flashbacks, unbidden images, memories),
avoidance, negative mood, dissociative symptoms (depersonalization, derealization,
psychogenic amnesia), hyper-arousal (insomnia, excessively startled, irritability). Must have 9 or
more of these symptoms.
Post-traumatic stress disorder - Answer - 4 weeks post-stressor
-Symptoms; intrusions (1), avoidance (1), negative alterations in cognitions and mood (2),
arousal and reactivity (2).
PTSD biological factors - Answer -Reduced size of hippocampus in brain site related to memory
and stress response.
-5HTTLPR Gene; encodes "serotonin transporter" protein
