Deck 1: Abnormal Psychology: Past and Present

Question 1

Today, the dominant form of insurance coverage for mental health patients is:

A) Medicare.
B) managed care.
C) private insurance.
D) Social Security.

Answer 1

managed care.

Question 2

The area of psychology concerned with the study and enhancement of positive feelings, traits, and abilities is:

A) psychoanalysis.
B) Gestalt psychology.
C) positive psychology.
D) humanistic psychology.

Answer 2

positive psychology.

Question 3

Hippocrates believed that abnormal behavior was caused by:

A) evil spirits.
B) blood clots.
C) bone splinters.
D) imbalance in bodily fluids.

Answer 3

imbalance in bodily fluids.

Question 4

Before the 1950s, psychotherapy was offered only by:

A) neurologists.
B) hypnotists.
C) psychiatrists.
D) psychotherapists.

Question 5

The job of _____ is to gather information systematically so that they may describe, predict, and explain the phenomena they study.

A) clinical phenomenologists
B) clinical scientists
C) clinical practitioners
D) clinical psychometrists

Question 6

The "four Ds" of abnormality are:

A) deviance, dysfunction, disturbance, and danger.
B) danger, dread, deviance, and disturbance.
C) deviance, distress, dysfunction, and danger.
D) dysfunction, disturbance, delirium, and danger.

Question 7

Roman is a loner. He lives in a cabin in the woods with no running water or electricity. While he manages to survive this way, living so far from the closest city makes it very hard for him to get and keep gainful employment. He is often unhappy with his situation, yet he feels that he can do nothing to change it and has lived this way for years. Which term could NOT be used to describe Roman's behavior?

A) deviant
B) dysfunctional
C) dangerous
D) distressful

Question 8

The French physician ______ was associated with asylum reform at La Bicêtre.

A) Jean Esquirol
B) Philippe Pinel
C) William Tuke
D) Johann Weyer

Question 9

What percentage of current psychology graduate students are female?

A) 40 percent
B) 28 percent
C) 72 percent
D) 37 percent

Question 10

One of the most prominent forerunners to the modern community mental health program was at Gheel, which was located in:

A) Belgium.
B) Germany.
C) Spain.
D) England.

Question 11

Trying to correct the social conditions that give rise to psychological problems and identifying individuals who are at risk for developing emotional problems is known as:

A) positive psychology.
B) trephination.
C) triage.
D) prevention.

Question 12

Which nineteenth-century perspective held the view that abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes?

A) psychogenic
B) somatogenic
C) psychotropic
D) moral

Question 13

According to research conducted on eccentric people, which statement is true?

A) They have fewer emotional problems than the general population.
B) They know they are different and usually wish to be more like others around them.
C) They visit their physicians an average of once every three months.
D) Most are unhappy, malcontented individuals who feel that life treats them very badly.

Question 14

In the Middle Ages in Europe, people who suffered the bite of a "wolf spider" believed that the only way to rid themselves of the resulting symptoms was to do a dance called a:

A) purificado.
B) chastenette.
C) tarantella.
D) sanctifica.

Question 15

Which term is NOT used to describe behavior that is psychologically abnormal?

A) psychopathology
B) emotional disturbance
C) mental instability
D) mental illness

Question 16

_____ is generally defined as a procedure designed to change abnormal behavior into more normal behavior.

A) Assessment
B) Treatment
C) Remediation
D) Psychodiagnosis

Question 17

Which German physician was the first to specialize in mental illness and is now considered the founder of the modern study of psychopathology?

A) Wilhelm Wundt
B) Hippocrates
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Johann Weyer

Question 18

The main difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist is that:

A) a psychiatrist is usually a psychoanalyst, while a psychologist is usually a behaviorist.
B) a psychologist is a medical doctor, while a psychiatrist is a researcher who studies illnesses.
C) a psychiatrist is a medical doctor who can provide therapy, while a psychologist is not a medical doctor but can provide therapy.
D) a psychiatrist works exclusively in hospitals, while a psychologist works exclusively in mental health clinics.

Question 19

The _____ perspective views the chief causes of abnormal functioning as psychological.

A) moral
B) somatogenic
C) psychogenic
D) positive

Question 20

At present, which single viewpoint dominates the clinical field as the psychoanalytic perspective once did?

A) gestalt
B) behavioral
C) cognitive
D) No one perspective dominates the clinical field.

Question 21

Which statement is true about the "four Ds" of abnormality?

A) Most clinicians agree on what qualifies under each of "the four Ds."
B) Every culture has generally identical criteria of what constitutes abnormality.
C) An individual can only be diagnosed with a mental illness if (s)he has all "four Ds."
D) None of the "four Ds" is, by itself, an adequate gauge of psychological abnormality.

Question 22

The term "eugenics" refers to:

A) a public policy of providing free medication to those who suffer from mental illness.
B) a political policy of preventing those who suffer from mental illness from reproducing.
C) a private policy of linking mental illness to religion for the purpose of promoting a different religion.
D) the practice of diagnosing all patients with the same illness, regardless of symptoms, so that insurance companies will provide payment for services.

Question 23

Before the 1950s, almost all outpatient care for psychological disturbances took the form of:

A) hospitalization.
B) private psychotherapy.
C) treatment at community mental health centers.
D) treatment by social services agencies.

Question 24

Which was one of the different mental disorders described by ancient Greeks and Romans?

A) melancholia
B) anorexia
C) dyspareunia
D) bulimia

Question 25

Which term was the earliest used to describe those who we now refer to as "mentally ill"?

A) "crazy"
B) unbalanced
C) madness
D) unstable

Question 26

According to ancient views of abnormality, if a standard exorcism failed to rid a person of abnormal behaviors, which step would be taken?

A) The shaman would perform a more extreme exorcism, such as whipping or starving the person.
B) The person would be burned alive because they were believed to be "beyond saving."
C) The person would be cast out of the society with no means for survival.
D) The person would be accepted by society as being a marked child of "God," and the abnormal behavior would be celebrated.

Question 27

_____ argues that societies invent the concept of mental illness so that they can control people whose unusual patterns of functioning upset or threaten the social order.

A) Carl Rogers
B) Jerome Frank
C) Thomas Szasz
D) Dick Gregory

Question 28

The work of Dorothea Dix led to the establishment of many _____ around the country.

A) psychiatric surgery centers
B) American asylums
C) state hospitals
D) clinical practices

Question 29

A trephine is:

A) a trick used in hypnosis.
B) an instrument used to remove blood from the veins.
C) an instrument used in a twentieth-century lobotomy.
D) a stone instrument used to cut away a circular section of the skull.

Question 30

Which three essential features are included in all forms of therapy?

A) a patient, a physician, and an insurance company
B) a client, an insurance company, and treatment goals
C) a sufferer, a healer, and a series of contacts between healer and sufferer
D) a sufferer, a healer, and managed care

Question 31

One who systematically gathers information in order to describe, predict, and explain abnormality is a clinical:

A) mentalist.
B) legalist.
C) scientist.
D) practitioner.

Question 32

Which term has come to mean "a chaotic uproar" and derived its name from a London hospital where mentally ill patients were treated in horrendous ways?

A) Bedlam
B) Hysteria
C) Furor
D) Turmoil

Question 33

The Boston schoolteacher who made humane care a public and political concern in nineteenth-century America was:

A) Margaret Meade.
B) Dorothea Dix.
C) Carrie Nation.
D) Mary Baker Eddy.

Question 34

General paresis, an irreversible disorder that causes physical and mental symptoms that include paralysis and delusions of grandeur, was found to be caused by:

A) the HIV virus.
B) tuberculosis.
C) syphilis.
D) gonorrhea.

Question 35

Judgments of abnormality depend on _____ as well as on cultural norms.

A) geography
B) specific circumstances
C) politics
D) our health care system

Question 36

The policy of releasing patients from public mental hospitals was known as:

A) moral treatment.
B) the community mental health model.
C) the managed care model.
D) deinstitutionalization.

Question 37

The role of a clinical practitioner in abnormal psychology is to:

A) detect, assess, and treat abnormal patterns of functioning.
B) research, detect, and assess abnormal functioning.
C) research, assess, treat, and speak about abnormal functioning.
D) research about abnormal functioning.

Question 38

Those who suffered from the form of mass madness called lycanthropy may have believed themselves to be possessed by:

A) bats.
B) wolves.
C) tigers.
D) spiders.

Question 39

Insurance parity laws are concerned with:

A) government payment for mental health care.
B) licensing health care providers.
C) providing equal coverage for mental and medical problems.
D) providing malpractice insurance for clinical mental health practitioners.

Question 40

The treatment mechanism associated with touching a troubled area of a patient's body with a special rod was:

A) trephination.
B) exorcism.
C) mesmerism.
D) hypnotism.

Question 41

Which person would NOT be considered abnormal, despite the fact that the person's behavior is dysfunctional?

A) someone who is too confused to drive safely
B) someone who parties so much that he or she cannot go to class
C) someone who goes on a hunger strike to protest social injustice
D) someone who cannot stay alone for even one night

Question 42

Using "the four Ds" to define abnormal behavior:

A) allows us to create diagnoses that are clear-cut and not debatable.
B) allows us to eliminate those who are merely eccentric.
C) allows us to include those who experience no distress.
D) is still often vague and subjective.

Question 43

Which aspect of the definition of abnormality includes the inability to care for oneself and work productively?

A) distress
B) deviance
C) dysfunction
D) danger to self or others

Question 44

People who engage in frenetic, manic activity may not experience distress. They are:

A) nevertheless considered to be abnormal.
B) not abnormal because abnormality requires distress.
C) doing something illegal, not abnormal.
D) no longer considered abnormal but were considered abnormal in the past.

Question 45

Just decades ago, a woman's love for racecar driving would have been considered abnormal. This statement illustrates:

A) how dangerous most mentally ill people actually are.
B) that abnormality can be situational.
C) that everyone is a little eccentric.
D) that drug use causes people to become mentally ill.

Question 46

According to Thomas Szasz's views, the deviations that some call mental illness are really:

A) mental illnesses.
B) problems in living.
C) caused by one's early childhood experiences.
D) eccentric behaviors with a biological cause.

Question 47

A Secret Service agent steps in front of the president of the United States, prepared to be killed or injured if the president's safety is threatened. Psychologically speaking, the Secret Service agent's behavior is:

A) functional but psychologically abnormal.
B) functional and not psychologically abnormal.
C) dysfunctional and psychologically abnormal.
D) dysfunctional but not psychologically abnormal.

Question 48

College students who drink so much that it interferes with their lives, health, and academic careers are often not diagnosed as engaging in abnormal behavior because:

A) the behavior is not illegal.
B) they are just considered eccentric.
C) they don't harm anyone but themselves.
D) drinking is considered part of college culture.

Question 49

A researcher spends 15 or more hours per day conducting experiments or doing library reading and records observations on color-coded index cards. This person lives alone in the country but doesn't interfere with others' lives. The BEST description of the researcher's behavior is that it is:

A) eccentric.
B) abnormal.
C) dangerous.
D) dysfunctional.

Question 50

Research shows that danger to self or others is found in:

A) all cases of abnormal functioning.
B) most cases of abnormal functioning.
C) some cases of abnormal functioning.
D) no cases of abnormal functioning.

Question 51

George hears voices that others do not but is not distressed by them. This illustrates that:

A) distress must always be used to determine abnormality.
B) behavior that is not really dangerous can never be considered abnormal.
C) distress does not have to be present for a person's behavior to be considered abnormal.
D) behavior that is not distressful is not abnormal.

Question 52

A person who is suicidal and can see no reason for living BEST fits which definition of abnormality?

A) deviance
B) distress
C) danger
D) dysfunction

Question 53

Which depressed person would be the LEAST likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder, because of specific circumstances?

A) someone whose mother was depressed
B) someone whose community was destroyed by a tornado
C) someone who was experiencing a chemical brain imbalance
D) someone who was also an alcoholic

Question 54

Behavior that violates legal norms is:

A) deviant and criminal.
B) distressful and criminal.
C) deviant and psychopathological.
D) distressful and psychopathological.

Question 55

The stated and unstated rules for proper conduct that a society establishes are referred to as:

A) norms.
B) culture.
C) morality.
D) conventions.

Question 56

Despite popular misconceptions, most people with psychological problems are not:

A) dysfunctional.
B) dangerous.
C) distressing.
D) deviant.

Question 57

If a person wants a career focused on detecting, assessing, and treating abnormal patterns of functioning, that person should look into becoming a clinical:

A) practitioner.
B) researcher.
C) historian.
D) statistician.

Question 58

If a person experienced anxiety or depression following a significant natural disaster, we would say that the person was:

A) suffering from a mental illness.
B) deviant but not dangerous.
C) exhibiting a typical reaction.
D) statistically deviant.

Question 59

The history, values, institutions, habits, skills, technology, and arts of a society make up that society's:

A) laws.
B) norms.
C) culture.
D) conventions.

Question 60

An individual has a 9-to-5 job. However, this person seldom gets up early enough to be at work on time and expresses great distress over this behavior. This individual's behavior would be considered abnormal because it is:

A) disturbed.
B) deviant.
C) dysfunctional.
D) dangerous.

Question 61

Hippocrates believed that treatment for mental disorders should involve:

A) releasing evil spirits trapped in the brain.
B) bringing the four body humors back into balance.
C) punishing the body for its sins.
D) bloodletting.

Question 62

One who sees abnormality as a problem in living usually refers to those seeking help with problems in living as:

A) pupils.
B) patients.
C) trainees.
D) clients.

Question 63

The Ancient Greeks might find that a flash mob is MOST similar to:

A) mass madness.
B) melancholia.
C) trephination.
D) eco-terrorist.

Question 64

In the Middle Ages, which model of mental illness did MOST people believe in?

A) the moral model
B) the medical model
C) the psychogenic model
D) the demonology model

Question 65

Hippocrates thought that abnormal behavior resulted from an imbalance in the four humors, one of which was:

A) water.
B) lymph gland fluid.
C) phlegm.
D) cerebrospinal fluid.

Question 66

A person being treated by a shaman would MOST likely be undergoing:

A) psychoanalysis.
B) gender-sensitive therapy.
C) community-based treatment.
D) an exorcism.

Question 67

Which is NOT a disorder that people in the Middle Ages included in the general term "mass madness"?

A) tarantism
B) lycanthropy
C) exorcism
D) St. Vitus' dance

Question 68

Hippocrates attempted to treat mental disorders by:

A) hypnotizing patients.
B) chaining patients to walls.
C) correcting underlying physical pathology.
D) encouraging patients to speak about past traumas.

Question 69

Studies show that eccentrics are more likely than those with mental disorders to say:

A) I feel like my behavior has been thrust on me.
B) I'm different and I like it.
C) I am in a lot of pain and I suffer a great deal.
D) I wish I were not so "unique."

Question 70

Which "new diagnosis" would someone experiencing overwhelming concern about the security of travel on planes and subways MOST likely receive?

A) eco-anxiety
B) terrorism terror
C) crime phobia
D) cyber fear

Question 71

A person seeking help for a psychological abnormality is made to drink bitter herbal potions and then submit to a beating, in the hope that "evil spirits" will be driven from the person's body. This form of "therapy" is called:

A) exorcism.
B) shaman.
C) couvade.
D) trephination.

Question 72

Hippocrates' contribution to the development of understanding mental illness was the view that such conditions were the result of:

A) stress.
B) natural causes.
C) brain pathology.
D) spiritual deviations.

Question 73

The use of exorcism in early societies suggests a belief that abnormal behavior was caused by:

A) germs.
B) poisons.
C) evil spirits.
D) psychological trauma.

Question 74

Which component is NOT noted by clinical theorist Jerome Frank as essential to all forms of therapy?

A) series of contacts
B) healer
C) third-party payer
D) sufferer who seeks relief

Question 75

Bob experiences unshakable sadness. His friends have stopped trying to cheer him up because nothing works. An ancient Greek physician would have labeled his condition:

A) mania.
B) hysteria.
C) delusions.
D) melancholia.

Question 76

Which statement is NOT a reason that demonology dominated views of abnormality in Europe in the Middle Ages?

A) The power of the clergy increased greatly.
B) The Church rejected scientific forms of investigation.
C) The Church controlled education.
D) The culture rejected religious beliefs.

Question 77

Lady Gaga and other eccentrics are usually not considered to be experiencing a mental illness because:

A) they are not deviant.
B) they freely choose and enjoy their behavior.
C) they are only dangerous to others, not to themselves.
D) while they are distressed by their behavior, others are not.

Question 78

Which is NOT a characteristic of eccentrics noted by researchers in the field?

A) being a poor speller
B) having a diagnosable mental illness
C) being creative
D) enjoying one's life

Question 79

Which "new diagnosis" would someone experiencing overwhelming concern about where the safest neighborhoods and schools are located be MOST likely to receive?

A) eco-anxiety
B) terrorism terror
C) crime phobia
D) cyber fear

Question 80

Which "new diagnosis" would a person experiencing overwhelming concern about computer crashes, as well as computer hoaxes and scams, MOST likely receive?

A) eco-anxiety
B) terrorism terror
C) crime phobia
D) cyber fear