Ap Psychology Notes

AP Psychology Notes 1
Anxiety Disorder

• group of conditions where the primary symptoms are anxiety or defenses against anxiety
• patient fears something awful will happen to them
• a state of intense apprehension and uneasiness

Phobia

• person experiences sudden episodes of intense dread

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• a person is continuously tense, apprehensive and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal. constantly tense and feels inadequate

Panic Disorder

• anxiety disorder marked by a minute-long episode of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and chest pain, frightening sensations

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• persistent unwanted thoughts cause someone to feel the need to engage in a particular action

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

• flashbacks or nightmares following a person's involvement in or observation of an extremely stressful event

Somatoform Disorder

• a person manifests a psychological problem through a physiological symptom
• Hypochondriasis- frequent physical complaints for which doctors are unable to find cause
• Conversion Disorder- report the existence of severe physical problems with no biological reasons

Dissociative Disorder

• include a disruption in the conscious process
• Psychogenic Amnesia
• person cannot remember things with no physiological basiSs for the disruption inventory
• Dissociative Fugue- people with psychogenic amnesia find themselves in an unfamiliar environment
• Dissociative Identity Disorder- used to be known as multiple personality disorder, person has several rather than one integrated personality, people with DID commonly have a history of childhood abuse or trauma

Major Depression

• unhappy for at least 2 weeks with no cause
• depression is the common cold of psychological disorders
• Dysthymic Disorder- suffering from mild depression everyday for at least 2 years
• Seasonal affective Disorders- experience depression during the winter months, based not on temperature but sunlight

Structuralism- first psychological school. Broke down mental processes into the must basic components of conscious experience. Hear? Taste? Smell? Feel? (Introspection)

Wilhelm Wundt- Father of Psychology

Functionalism- Focused less on the how of sensation and perception, but rather on why (William James)

Seven Perspective

1. Neuroscience Perspective- Focus on how the physical body and brain creates our emotions, memories, and sensory experiences
2. Evolutionary Perspective- (Darwinism) behave the way we do because we inherited those behaviors from our ancestor
3. Psycho-dynamic Perspective- (Sigmund Freud) behavior comes from unconscious drives usually from childhood
4. Behavioral Perspective- Focuses on observable behaviors
5. Cognitive Perspective- Focuses on how we think
6. Social-Cultural Perspective- Focus on how your culture affects your behavior
7. Humanistic Perspective- Focuses on positive growth and attempt to seek self-actualization

Abnormal Psychology- A "harmful dysfunction" in which behavior is judge to be a typical, disturbing, maladaptive, and unjustifiable

DSM4- Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, DSM will classify disorders and describe the symptoms, will not explain the causes or possible cures

Neurotic Disorders- Distressing but one can still function in society and not rationally
Psychotic Disorder- loses contact with reality, experiences distorted perceptions

Bipolar Disorder

•  formally manic depressions
• involves periods of depressions and manic episodes
• manic episodes involve feelings of high energy

Personality Disorder

• well established maladaptive ways of behaving that negatively affect people's ability to function
• dominates personality

Antisocial Personality Disorder

• empathy lack
• little regard for other's feelings
• view the world as hostile and look out for themselves

Dependent personality disorder

• rely to much on the attention and help of others

Histrionic personality disorders

• need to be center of attention

Narcissistic personality disorder

• unwarranted sense of self-importance
• thinking that you are the center of the universe

Schizophrenia Disorders
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Symptoms-disorganized thinking, disturbed perceptions, inappropriate emotions and action

1. disorganized thinking- fragmented and bizarre and distorted with false beliefs; breakdown in selective attention
2. Delusions-delusions of persecution, grandeur
3. Disturbed perceptions-hallucinations
4. inappropriate emotions and actions- laugh at inappropriate times, flat effect, senseless, catatonia

Positive Symptoms

• inappropriate symptoms

Negative

Disorganized Schizophrenia- Disorganized speech or behavior, or flat, or inappropriate emotion. imagine the worst

Paranoid Schizophrenia- preoccupation with delusions or hallucination.

Catatonic- Parrot like repeating of another's speech and movements

Undifferentiated Schizophrenia- Many and varied symptoms

Schizophrenia to me seems to be the topic that stuck with me the most because of their loss of control, and sense of reality. I hope that the number of people affected by this disorder reduces to zero. I especially feel for the people who suffer from hearing voices like the video above shows.

Interesting

Psychology is truly an interesting subject because we dive into the depths of the human mind. What do you think?