Credit Sprint / Study guides / Psychology Unit 5

Credit Sprint's Guide to AP® Psychology, Unit 5: Mental and Physical Health

Unit 5 covers abnormal behavior, how disorders are diagnosed and treated, and how stress affects the body and mind. Questions often describe symptoms and ask for the disorder, or describe a therapy and ask for its type.

What you need to know

• Psychologists define abnormal behavior as behavior that is atypical, disturbing, maladaptive and often dysfunctional. The DSM-5-TR classifies disorders. Explanations use the medical model, the biopsychosocial model and the diathesis-stress model (a vulnerability plus a stressor).
• Anxiety-related disorders include generalized anxiety disorder (constant worry), panic disorder (sudden panic attacks), specific phobia, social anxiety disorder and agoraphobia. OCD involves obsessions and compulsions, and PTSD follows trauma with flashbacks, avoidance and hyperarousal.
• Mood disorders include major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder and bipolar disorder (episodes of mania and depression). Explanations include low serotonin and norepinephrine, learned helplessness and negative thinking (Beck's cognitive triad). Risk factors and warning signs for suicide are discussed in psychology courses, and anyone struggling should contact a professional or the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the United States.
• Schizophrenia involves positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech) and negative symptoms (flat affect, withdrawal), with links to dopamine and brain structure. Dissociative disorders include dissociative identity disorder. Personality disorders include borderline, antisocial and narcissistic types. Neurodevelopmental disorders include ADHD and autism spectrum disorder. Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.
• Psychotherapy types: psychoanalysis (free association, dream interpretation, transference), humanistic therapy (Rogers' client-centered therapy with empathy and active listening), behavior therapy (systematic desensitization, aversive conditioning, token economies, exposure), cognitive therapy (Beck, Ellis' REBT) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), the best-supported approach for many disorders. Group, family and couples therapy also exist.
• Biomedical treatment includes antipsychotics (reduce dopamine activity), antidepressants (SSRIs raise serotonin), anti-anxiety drugs (benzodiazepines), mood stabilizers (lithium), electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for severe depression and psychosurgery in rare cases. Therapy effectiveness is judged by evidence, and the placebo effect and the therapeutic alliance matter.
• Stress and health: Selye's general adaptation syndrome has alarm, resistance and exhaustion stages. Lazarus describes primary and secondary appraisal. Type A personality and chronic stress raise heart disease risk, and psychoneuroimmunology studies how stress affects immunity. Coping includes problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies, social support, exercise, mindfulness and sleep. Positive psychology studies well-being, optimism and resilience.

Exam traps

Key terms

• Biopsychosocial model: The view that disorders result from the combined influence of biological, psychological and social factors.
• Diathesis-stress model: The idea that a disorder arises when a predisposition meets a stressful experience.
• DSM-5-TR: The manual psychologists use to classify and diagnose psychological disorders.
• Generalized anxiety disorder: A disorder marked by continuous, uncontrollable worry for six months or more.
• Panic disorder: A disorder marked by sudden, repeated episodes of intense fear with physical symptoms.
• Specific phobia: An intense, irrational fear of a particular object or situation.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder: A disorder with unwanted repeated thoughts (obsessions) and repeated behaviors (compulsions).
• Posttraumatic stress disorder: A disorder after trauma with flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance and being easily startled.
• Major depressive disorder: A mood disorder with at least two weeks of depressed mood or loss of interest plus other symptoms.
• Bipolar disorder: A mood disorder that alternates between depressive episodes and episodes of mania.
• Mania: A hyperactive, wildly optimistic state with little need for sleep.
• Schizophrenia: A disorder with disorganized thinking, hallucinations, delusions and inappropriate emotions.
• Positive symptoms: Symptoms of schizophrenia that are present but should not be, such as hallucinations and delusions.
• Negative symptoms: Symptoms of schizophrenia that are absent but should be present, such as flat affect.
• Delusion: A false belief that persists despite evidence, often of persecution or grandeur.
• Hallucination: Sensing something that is not there.

Practice questions

Five of the 88 Unit 5 questions in Credit Sprint. Every choice is explained in the app.