Clinical & Abnormal - GRE Subject Test: Psychology

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs when a person who has gone through a significant trauma shows stress symptoms that impair the person's ability to function. The trauma can be combat, torture or abuse, a life-threatening accident, a natural disater, or loss of a loved one.

Generalized anxiety disorder consists of persistent, excessive worrying that is not focused on one particular situation. Panic disorder is characterized by sudden, brief attacks of intense fear that rise abruptly, often for no reason. Situational phobias involve a fear of specific situations; crowded spaces, heights, flying, and confined spaces. Somatoform disorder occurs when there is no identifiable physical cause to explain physical symptoms.

The double-bind hypothesis suggests that in childhood, individuals with schizophrenia received disorganized and contradictory messages from his or her mother. For instance, a child may have been told to eat as much as he wanted, but punished after he finished eating. According to the theory, these individuals internalize the disorganized messages and lead to a warped perception of reality.

Aaron Beck—a cognitive psychologist—hypothesized that depression was the result of cognitive errors. In other words, depressed people were more likely to interpret the world in a maladaptive way. They have negative thoughts about themselves, the world around them, and the future. He hypothesized that all three of these cognitive beliefs feed into one another and fuel depressive thoughts that produces a vicious cycle.

Sensation seeking is an important factor in understanding the cause and development of addictions—including substance abuse. When sensation seeking is elevated in a given individual, it can sometimes be channeled into healthy avenues that include competitive sports and leadership; however, it often results in seeking pleasurable experiences that end up becoming harmful habits. Individuals with elevated sensation seeking tendencies require more stimulation than the average individual to feel the same amount of pleasure or satisfaction.

Prosopagnosia is also known as face blindness. It results from head trauma or degenerative diseases. One symptom indicative of this disorder is the patient’s reliance on non-facial cues, such as hair, clothing, or accessories, to distinguish between individuals' faces.

All of the listed answer choices are Adlerian counseling pillars except psychosexual development. Adler developed the technique of "spitting in a client's soup" in order to provide a prospective of reality to the client. Adler focused strongly on birth order as well as early medical trauma that may cause difficulty with self-actualization later in life. This led to Adler’s understanding of an inferiority complex.

Prosopagnosia is a condition distinguished by a loss in the ability to recognize faces. The condition is also known as "face blindness," and is typically the result of brain damage. This damage usually occurs in the fusiform gyrus, a region of the brain which is associated with facial recognition.

A lack of color vision is more often genetic in origin. Achromatopsia is a condition involving a lack of color vision. Other conditions may describe an inability to describe emotion or to distinguish between voice or produce speech, but none of these are classified under prosopagnosia.

Erika is displaying several of the classic signs of borderline personality disorder. She is experiencing mood swings, paranoia, and a lack of self identity. She is also displaying pleading and impulsive behaviors. While elements of her feelings and actions could be symptoms of the other disorders listed, no alternate answer encompasses all these symptoms like borderline personality disorder.

Concealment or lying is not a part of the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5 for drug addiction, only gambling addiction. The rest of these options apply to both drug and gambling addicts.

Enuresis is characterized by an elimination or urine. While children with elimination disorders often experience disregulated emotional states, Enuresis is not characterized by an emotional tantrum prior to elimination.

There remains a stigma attached to mental illness and all too often common parlances mixes "going crazy" with having a mental illness. "A marked break with reality" is not often involved in having a mental illness while the other three options are almost always present. In other words, maladaptive behavior can be thought of as including the loss of full functioning in a given area of life (e.g. getting to work on time and performing well on exams at school).

Autism spectrum disorder is a pervasive developmental disorder that includes all of the following: deficits in social communication and interactions and restrictive or repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities. In order for a diagnosis to be made, symptoms must be present early in development and cause impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. "Excessive distress upon separation from attachment figures" is one of the criteria for separation anxiety disorder, and does not fit with the criteria for autism spectrum disorder. Separation anxiety disorder involves excessive anxiety about actual or possible separation from a major attachment figure, like a parent.

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, and/or negative symptoms. Joe is experiencing hallucinations in which he hears voices that are not actually there. Bryan is experiencing a delusion of reference, where he believes that the television is falsely referencing him. Peter is displaying disorganized speech. Jason is experiencing negative symptoms, including anhedonia, lack of motivation, and poverty of speech. Mark would be least likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia. His symptoms are more consistent with antisocial personality disorder, which is a disregard and violation of the rights of others.

Ellen's symptoms are consistent with “borderline personality disorder,” which involves instability in relationships, mood, and self-image. “Antisocial personality disorder” includes disregard for and violations of the rights of others. “Narcissistic personality disorder” also involves difficulty in relationships, but its primary feature is grandiosity. “Schizoid personality disorder” includes a restricted range of emotions and detachment from others. Last, “bipolar disorder” may have a negative impact on relationships, but its primary feature is the presence of at least one manic episode.

Negative symptoms are defined as the absence of feelings, thoughts or behaviors that are present in healthy individuals. Delusions, on the other hand, are a positive symptom of mental illness- something that healthy individuals do not experience.

While many Bipolar I patients do experience paranoia in their manic states, the hypomanic periods experienced by Bipolar II patients is characterized by a reduced severity of manic symptoms and an absence of any psychotic symptoms (including paranoia).

Aphasia is a class of language disorders that affect a person's ability to communicate. In Broca's aphasia, damage to Broca's area in the left frontal lobe impairs a person's ability to speak (though their capabilities of understanding speech are not affected); in Wernicke's aphasia, damage to Wernicke's area in the left temporal lobe impairs a person's ability to correctly choose the words they wish to say (though their physical capabilities of speech are unaffected).

In order to be diagnosed with depression, you need to exhibit a certain number of diagnostic criteria. Change in sleep (insomnia or hypersomnia), suicidal thoughts and plans, and loss of interest in things you previously found interesting are among the criteria. Though anxiety is often co-morbid with depression, it is not one of the diagnostic criteria listed in the DSM-5.

Many women with depression possess an underdeveloped hippocampus—a key component in mood stabilization. Early stress can cause the development of the hippocampus to halt; therefore, the hippocampus is unable to do its job proficiently. Over time, antidepressants may assist with neurogenesis and improve Jeanie's depression but the effects will not be felt as quickly as they might be in someone with an average sized hippocampus.