Abnormal Psychology: Chapters 5 and 6

A friend says, "I'm going to get some therapy to help reduce my headaches. What do you suggest?" Based on current research on the effectiveness of treatments for stress-related physical disorders, your BEST answer would be:

"A combination of psychotherapy and drug therapy works better than any therapy by itself."

The most appropriate motto for someone with generalized anxiety disorder is:

"Better safe than sorry."

A friend asks you, "You're taking an abnormal psychology course; what's the MOST effective treatment for social anxiety disorder?" Your BEST research-based answer is:

"The best psychotherapy eliminates symptoms as fast, and longer, than the best drug therapy."

About what proportion of the US population experiences insomnia in a given year?

1/4

Those MOST likely to experience substantial stress symptoms after the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001:

Lived near New York City

If you wanted a drug to improve the functioning of GABA, you would choose:

a benzodiazepine

If someone were to correlate scores on the Social Readjustment Rating Scale with the numbers of physical (health) complaints, one would MOST likely find:

a significant positive correlation

A comprehensive approach that involves several techniques in treating anxiety disorders is called:

a stress management program

The phobia MOST often associated with panic disorder is:

agoraphobia

Psychodynamic therapies as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorders:

appear to work better when used in short-term rather than traditional ways

Which one of the following is the BEST example of a broad social anxiety?

apprehension about being evaluated by others

Cognitive theorists have found that people who develop obsessive-compulsive disorder also:

believe their thoughts are capable of causing harm to themselves or others

Which of the following medications works primarily by enhancing GABA?

benzodiazepines

Narcolepsy is a:

biological disorder often triggered by strong emotions

A neurologist who was working with a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder would be suspicious of abnormality in what region of the brain?

caudate nuclei

The MOST common of the following psychophysiological disorders is:

hypertension

Ideally, critical incident stress debriefing occurs:

immediately, and is short-term

Which of the following is an anxiety disorder?

obsessive-compulsive disorder

Research using the Social Readjustment Rating Scale indicates that:

the greater the life stress, the greater the chance of illness

According to the psychodynamic perspectives, if someone keeps engaging in immoral sexual behavior and repeatedly scrubs his or her face and hands in response to those thoughts:

the immoral images represent id impulses

If you were working in the field of psychoneuroimmunology, you would be studying:

the links between stress and illness

People with low incomes are ___________ as likely as people with higher incomes to experience one of the stress disorders

twice

Of the following, those LEAST likely to experience specific phobias are:

white American males

A friend says to you, "I know someone who is a combat veteran who was just diagnosed with PTSD. Do you think therapy will help this person?" Which of the following is the BEST answer you can give based on current research?

"Probably---about two-thirds of those receiving therapy for PTSD eventually show improvement."

A friend asks you whether to try relaxation or biofeedback to reduce anxiety. Based on present research, your best answer is:

"Try either on; they're about equally effective."

"The therapist wants me to imagine scenes where I was in combat and imagine them like I was there. I don't want to do that! How can this possibly help me?" Which of the following is the BEST answer you can give to a combat veteran who says this?

"Your therapist is suggesting an effective form of exposure called 'flooding.'"

A friend says, "I feel like I'm stressed out and sick all the time. What kind of person is least likely to have an immune system messed up like mine?" Your BEST answer is:

"an optimist who is highly spiritual"

Your abnormal-psychology instructor asks in class, "What kinds of treatments are commonly used to treat obsessive-compulsive-related disorders?" Confidently (and accurately), you reply:

"exposure therapies and antidepressant drugs."

What do obsessions and compulsions have in common?

Both are used to deal with or ward off anxiety

Which of the following is TRUE about drug and cognitive treatments for panic disorders?

Both drug treatments and cognitive treatments are effective

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

What is one important way obsessions and compulsions are related?

Compulsions help people control their obsessions

Which one of the following statements about the use of antidepressants, such as Xanax, to treat a panic disorder is MOST accurate?

For the drugs to be effective, one has to keep taking them, even when symptoms are lessened

Benzodiazepines are believed to be effective in treating generalized anxiety disorder because they mimic the effect of __________ at certain receptor sites in the brain.

GABA

Which of the following reflects the MOST common obsessive thought?

If I touch that doorknob, I will be dirty and contaminated

If you were taking an antidepressant that increases levels of serotonin and improves brain function for symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, you could expect that:

It would lead to short-term relief, but relapse would occur if you stopped the medication

Based on current research, what is the BEST conclusion about the cause of acute and posttraumatic stress disorders? Is nature or nurture more responsible for these disorders?

It's probably an interaction. Both nature and nurture are important.

Which of the following behavior patterns is NOT listed in the DSM-5 as an obsessive-compulsive-related disorder?

Most disorder-specific behaviors would be considered "normal" for a teenager

Which of the following statements about rape is MOST accurate?

Most rape victims are young

A clinician who is not up-to-date uses the term "excessive behaviors" to describe a category of disorder. According to the DSM-5, that category is now called:

Obsessive-compulsive-related disorders

Surveys suggest that about what percent of female rape victims in the United States are teenagers or younger?

Over 70 percent

Which of the following statements accurately reflects what we know from recent studies?

Phobias ordinarily are a result of classical conditioning.

A torture victim who is subjected to threats of death, mock executions, and degradation is experiencing what type of torture?

Psychological

Which of the following accurately describes the sympathetic nervous system pathway of the stress response?

The hypothalamus excites the sympathetic nervous system, which then excites body organs to release hormones that serve as neurotransmitters, causing even more arousal

Which of the following accurately describes the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal pathway of the stress response?

The hypothalamus stimulates the pituitary to produce a stress hormone that causes the adrenal gland to release corticosteroids

What do acute and posttraumatic stress disorder have in common with dissociative disorders?

They are triggered by traumatic events

According to behaviorists, why do patients engage in compulsive behaviors?

Those behaviors reduce anxiety and are thus negatively reinforced

How do phobias and common fear differ?

a phobia leads to a greater desire to avoid the object

Someone with skin-picking disorder would be LEAST likely to pick skin in which area of the body?

abdomen

A pattern of anxiety, insomnia, depression, and flashbacks that begins shortly after a horrible event and persists for less than a month is called:

acute stress disorder

A person who witnessed a horrible accident and then became unusually anxious and depressed for three weeks is probably experiencing:

acute stress disorder

According to DSM-5, the most common diagnosis for those receiving outpatient therapy is:

adjustment disorder

People who experience a positive event, get excited, breath harder, and have an increase in their heart rate, then interpret the symptoms as a heart attack, are experiencing what cognitive theorists call:

anxiety sensitivity

Those people MOST likely to develop stress disorders are:

anxious, and think they cannot control negative things that happen to them.

In order to determine if a person's fear of snakes is severe enough to be categorized as a phobia, you could:

ask him if anxiety about snakes interferes with daily living; if he says "yes," he most likely has a phobia

Those who are anxious unless their books are perfectly lined up on their desks and who must eat the food on their plates in a balanced order are exhibiting a:

balancing compulsion

The therapy Eliot is receiving emphasizes dealing with his compulsions, but not his obsessions. In addition, he does "homework" in the form of self-help procedures between therapy sessions. Most likely, Eliot is receiving which kind of therapy?

behavioral

If you live in a city, you own your home, and you pay taxes, you are LEAST likely to experience which of the following events next year?

being diagnosed with cancer

When he was 5 years old, Samir was almost struck by lightning while walking through a forest during a rainstorm. Today he is extremely afraid of trees. A behaviorist would say that he has acquired this fear by:

classical conditioning

In the face of fear, a person is unable to concentrate and develops a distorted view of the world. This person is showing which of the following fear response?

cognitive

Which of the following therapies is an effective long-term, nonpharmacological treatment for panic attack that involves teaching patients to interpret their physical sensations accurately?

cognitive

People who are coping with severe pain by telling themselves that they can get through it by focusing on the end of the pain, and by remembering that they have gotten through it before, are MOST likely to have received which of the following therapies?

cognitive intervention

Imagine that someone yells "Fire!" in a crowded theater, and audience members begin to try to leave the building. Some "panic," and begin pushing their way blindly through other people to an exit. This form of "panic" is:

common, and similar to the panic those with panic disorder experience

When I was a young child and watching TV with my mother, a mouse ran by. My mother screamed, scaring me. Subsequently, I have been afraid of mice. In this example, the mouse is the:

conditioned stimulus

If you criticized everything you did, looking for flaws, and never could measure up to your personal standards, you would be exhibiting what Rogers called:

conditions of worth

Obesity and lack of exercise have been linked MOST closely to which of the following psychophysiological disorders?

coronary heart disease

According to Freud, a generalized anxiety disorder is MOST likely to result when:

defense mechanisms are too weak to cope with anxiety

Which of the following convinces researchers that panic disorder is biologically different from generalized anxiety disorder?

differences in the brain circuitry in the two disorders

GABA is related to:

doubling the speed of neuronal firing

Someone who believes that experiences teach us early in life that certain objects are legitimate sources of fear represents the _______ explanation of the development of phobias.

environmental

Hypertension is more common among African Americans than among white Americans. Psychosocial stressors that can explain this difference include all of the following EXCEPT:

evolutionary factors, making African Americans more susceptible to hypertension

According to DSM-5 one must demonstrate which of the following set of symptoms in order to be diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder?

excessive worry for three months, restlessness, behavior changes, distress

People with one anxiety disorder are MOST likely to:

experience another anxiety disorder too.

A person with posttraumatic stress disorder who has symptoms of derealization is:

experiencing reduced responsiveness

A combat veteran undergoing "eye movement desensitization and reprocessing" is experiencing:

exposure therapy

If a physician believes that a patient's disorder is due to hidden needs, repression, or reinforcement, then the patient may receive a diagnosis of:

factitious disoder

Until recently, the evidence that generalized anxiety disorder is related to biological factors came larger from:

family pedigree studies

Fear differs from anxiety in that:

fear is to a specific threat and anxiety is more general.

Which of the following is an example of a specific social anxiety?

fear of public speaking

Which of the following is the BEST example of "reduced responsiveness" as it relates to posttraumatic stress disorder?

feeling detached or estranged from others and loss of interest in activities

Those who are MOST likely to experience a psychological stress disorder are:

female, or low-income individiuals

Your fear of spiders is debilitating because you are an entomologist. To treat this phobia, your therapist puts you in a room with spiders, even asking you to handle them. This technique might be used in:

flooding

If your parent has just been diagnosed with essential hypertension, you know that the physician thinks your parent's hypertension:

has both physical and psychological causes

Current research suggests that those who experience severe stress:

have abnormal levels of norepinephrine and cortisol following the trauma

Which of the following aspects of Type A personality make a person MOST vulnerable to heart disease?

hostility and time urgency

A phobic person is taken to a snake-handling convention in order to actually confront snakes as part of desensitization training. This is an example of the ________ technique.

in vivo

Antidepressants that are effective in treatment obsessive-compulsive disorder serve to:

increase serotonin actively in the brain

Which of the following is typical of posttraumatic stress disorder?

increased arousal, anxiety, and guilt

A patient who treats severe pain by meditating, paying attention to her thoughts and sensations, but remaining nonjudgmental is engaging in:

mindfulness meditation

Davon watched his father recoil from a snake in fear. Now he is afraid of snakes. This apparent acquisition of fear of snakes is an example of:

modeling

Harry is terrified of the snakes that his 8-year-old son brings home. During his therapy, his therapist demonstrated how to handle them. This is a form of therapy based on:

modeling

Imagine that you are being treated for a social anxiety disorder. Your therapist watches you act out a social scene, points out what you did correctly and incorrectly, and praises you for what you did well. Which behavioral technique did your therapist NOT use?

modeling

One procedure used to treat phobic disorders involves having the therapist confront the feared object or situation while the fearful client observes. This is called:

modeling

The white blood cells that destroy infected body cells are called:

natural killer T-cells

According to cognitive theorists, compulsive acts serve to

neutralize

A friend of yours has just been diagnosed with a dyssomnia. Your friend's particular diagnosis could be any of the following EXCEPT:

nightmare disorder

Someone you know has "tanorexia," and constantly tries to achieve a darker complexion through sun and tanning booth exposure. The MOST accurate diagnosis for this person is:

no diagnosis; "tanorexia" is not yet considered a DSM disorder

Panic disorder appears to be related to abnormal activity of which neurotransmitter?

norepinephrine

Someone you know has just been diagnosed with an adjustment disorder. You can be reasonably sure that this person's disorder is:

not normal, but less severe than acute distress disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder

More women than men experience all of the following disorders EXCEPT:

obsessive-compulsive disorder

Which of the following people is experiencing the MOST stress as measured by the Social Readjustment Rating Scale?

one whose spouse has just died

Agoraphobia is the fear of:

open spaces or crowds

Rosa's heart was racing (from the four cups of coffee she had just finished), but she thought that she might be having a heart attack. Her fear seemed to be increasing without end. This might be the beginning of a:

panic attack

A person who experiences unpredictable panic attacks combined with dysfunctional behavior and thoughts is probably experiencing:

panic disorder

Antidepressants and alprazolam (Xanax) have been found to be successful in treating:

panic disorders

Imagine that you just had a "close call" while driving, but now you feel your body returning to normal. Which part of your nervous system is controlling this return to normalcy?

parasympathetic nervous system

A student who turns pale and feels nauseated when called on to speak in class is experiencing a(n) __________ response to stress.

physical

For me, crossing a bridge is terrifying. If you hardly notice crossing a bridge, we differ in:

physiological anxiety

Dorian was only 10 miles away when Mt. St. Helens exploded with one of the largest blasts in history. There was ash and lava everywhere, and he was terrified and sure he was going to die. He was terrified to the core of his being. When rescue teams found him a week later, he was cold, hungry, and scared. More than a year later he still has nightmares and wakes up in a cold sweat. This description BEST fits a(n):

posttraumatic stress disorder

Raphael was just outside the parking garage of the World Trade Center when the explosion occurred. At the time he was terrified and had visions of the building falling on him. Ever since the bombing he has had periods of anxiety and sleeplessness. This is an example of a:

posttraumatic stress disorder

Almost every night, Cara wakes up terrified and screaming for the boys to get off her. Two years later she still can't get the gang rape out of her mind. The fear, anxiety, and depression are ruining her life. This is an example of a(n):

posttraumatic stress reaction

Apparently, people develop phobias more readily to such objects as spiders and the dark then they do to such objects as computers and radios. This observation supports the idea of:

preparedness

Disorders that are thought to have both biological and psychosocial causes are:

psychological disorders affecting medical conditions

Relaxation training, biofeedback, meditation, and hypnosis all illustrate the use of:

psychological treatments for physical illnesses

The therapy for generalized anxiety disorder developed by Albert Ellis is called:

rational-emotive therapy

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy:

receives support in therapy applications for a wide range of disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder

A person with posttraumatic stress disorder who is having "flashbacks" is:

reexperiencing the traumatic event

Which of the following is a nondrug biological treatment for anxiety that is in general use today?

relaxation therapy

A person who has difficulty expressing unpleasant emotions such as anger or hostility is displaying a ________ and is at greater risk for heart disease/asthma.

repressive coping style

Which of the following is BEST supported by current research?

social support stems to aid recovery in cancer patients

"Who wouldn't be afraid all the time? We have the bomb, overpopulation, AIDS, and violent crime everywhere. It is difficult to get a good job unless you understand all that complicated computer junk." This complaint is consistent with a ________________ explanation of generalized anxiety disorder.

sociocultural

Research suggests that which of the following people would be most likely NOT to develop a stress disorder following trauma?

someone who believes that events are generally under his or her control

Little Karen was bitten by a tan pony she was riding at a carnival. The experience left her hurt and frightened. The next month she was visiting her uncle, who had a tan Great Dane (dog). It frightened her even though she never had a bad experience with a dog. Karen's fear of this dog is an example of:

stimulus generalization

Having to walk the dog several times a day when it is raining is an example of a:

stressor

Poor health is BEST described as a:

stressor

In response to a threat, we prepare, breathe more quickly, get goose bumps, and feel nauseated. These responses are controlled by the:

sympathetic nervous system

Pairing the thought of feared objects and relaxation training is:

systematic desensitization

Which theoretical position explains the origin of anxiety disorders as the overrun of defense mechanisms by neurotic or moral anxiety?

the psychodynamic approach

Kelly was in a passenger plane that had engine trouble. She watched as all four engines quit, one at a time. Then the plane exploded and she was thrown free 5,000 feet in the air. It was a miracle that she survived, although severely injured. She had landed in a thick pine forest covered with 10 feet or more of snow. When she regained consciousness several weeks later, she had a stress reaction that lasted for years, and she could never fly again. The factor that probably MOST contributed to her extreme posttraumatic stress reaction was:

the severity of the trauma

Psychodynamic and humanistic therapies have in common:

their lack of strong support from controlled studies

If someone asked you about the effectiveness of psychological debriefing following a disaster, you would be MOST correct (based on the research) in saying that:

there is little evidence that debriefing works

An example of evidence for psychophysiological disorders is that:

ulcers, asthma, insomnia, and chronic headaches probably have physical and psychological causes

Research by cognitive theorists is on the topic of social anxiety disorder has shown support for the prevalence of all of the following among those with this diagnosis, EXCEPT:

underestimating how badly the social event went

If you are similar to most other people, which of the following are you MOST likely to do to relieve stress?

watch TV, read, or listen to music

Religious rituals and superstitious behavior (such as not stepping on cracks) would be considered a compulsive behavior:

when they interfere with daily function and cause distress

One limitation of the sociocultural approach to understanding generalized anxiety disorders is that it cannot explain:

why everyone who experiences danger doesn't experience generalized anxiety

Of the following, the BEST description of the "avoidance theory of generalized anxiety disorder" is:

worrying serves to reduce bodily arousal

Which of the following statements about the long-term effects of rape on women is MOST accurate?

Rape impacts a woman's psychological and physical health

Which of the following is the MOST common experience for a veteran of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars?

Seeing friends seriously wounded or killed

Based on recent research, it can be concluded that the impact of repeated combat deployments:

Significantly increases one's risk of developing PTSD

The effect of norepinephrine and corticosteroids on a body experiencing stress is:

initially to stimulate the immune system, then to inhibit it

A person who believes that one should be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving in all possible aspects is displaying:

irrational assumptions

If I believe that it is a dire necessity for me to be loved or approved by everyone and that it is catastrophic if things are not that way I want them, I am displaying basic:

irrational assumptions

One of the drawbacks of exposure and response prevention as a therapy is that it:

is less effective with clients with obsessions but no compulsions

According to "intolerance of uncertainty theory," those with generalized anxiety disorder are:

likely to overestimate the chances that any negative even will occur

A teammate of a basketball player says, "Congratulations on making those game-winning free throws. Weren't you bothered by the fans waving their arms behind the basket?" The basketball player replies, "Thanks. I felt a little nervous, but to tell the truth, I didn't even notice the fans." MOST likely, the player who made the foul shots has:

low situational and trait anxiety

Compare to white Americans and African Americans, Hispanic Americans have:

lower rates of high blood pressure and lower rates of high cholesterol

The generic term for the white blood cells that react to foreign invaders in the body is:

lymphocytes