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Delirium is an acute disturbance in attention and awareness that develops over a short period. It commonly occurs due to underlying medical conditions such as infections. Fluctuating attention, visual hallucinations and sleep-wake disturbances are characteristic features.
A conditioned stimulus is initially a neutral stimulus that acquires the ability to elicit a response after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus. In Pavlov's experiment, the bell became a conditioned stimulus after being paired with food. It eventually elicited salivation independently.
Displacement is a defence mechanism in which an individual redirects an emotional impulse from its original source towards a less threatening target. In this example, the student redirects anger towards their sibling instead of expressing it towards their supervisor.
According to Aaron Beck, the negative cognitive triad consists of negative views about the self, the world and the future. Individuals experiencing depression may perceive themselves as inadequate, their surroundings as hostile and their future as hopeless.
A paired samples t-test compares the means of two related measurements. It is commonly used in pre-test and post-test research designs involving the same participants. Here, anxiety scores before and after the mindfulness intervention are compared.
According to Piaget, conservation develops during the concrete operational stage (7–11 years). Children understand that properties such as number, mass and volume remain constant despite changes in appearance. For example, water retains the same quantity when transferred into differently shaped containers.
Contemporary trait theory recognises that personality traits represent relatively stable behavioural tendencies. However, their expression may vary depending on situational demands. Stress can influence how an individual expresses traits such as conscientiousness without necessarily changing their underlying personality.
Consistency of measurement across occasions is known as test-retest reliability. It indicates whether a psychological test produces similar results when administered to the same individuals on different occasions. This is particularly relevant when measuring relatively stable characteristics.
Developing discrepancy is a central principle of motivational interviewing. It involves helping clients recognise the gap between their current behaviour and their personal values or long-term goals. Here, the therapist highlights the conflict between drinking for relaxation and concerns about health.
Empathic reflection involves recognising and communicating an understanding of a client's emotional experience. The therapist reflects the client's disappointment and underlying need for recognition without offering advice or imposing interpretations. It helps establish a therapeutic relationship based on understanding and acceptance.
According to Petty and Cacioppo's Elaboration Likelihood Model, the central route involves careful evaluation of the content and quality of persuasive arguments. It is more likely when individuals have sufficient motivation and ability to process information. Attitude changes through this route tend to be more enduring.
Borderline personality disorder is characterised by pervasive instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, emotions and impulse control. Common features include fear of abandonment, intense emotional fluctuations and impulsive behaviours. It belongs to Cluster B of personality disorders.
According to the empirical rule, approximately 68% of scores in a normal distribution fall within one standard deviation above and below the mean. Approximately 95% fall within two standard deviations and 99.7% within three standard deviations. This is also known as the 68–95–99.7 rule.
The hippocampus, located in the medial temporal lobe, plays an important role in the formation and consolidation of new declarative memories. These include episodic memories (personal experiences) and semantic memories (facts and knowledge). It is also important for spatial memory.
According to Erikson's psychosocial theory, adolescence is characterised by the conflict of identity versus role confusion. During this stage, individuals explore their values, beliefs and social roles to develop a coherent sense of identity. Successful resolution contributes to the development of fidelity.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on developing psychological flexibility. It encourages individuals to accept uncomfortable thoughts and emotions rather than attempting to eliminate them. Clients are encouraged to take meaningful actions aligned with their personal values.
A false negative occurs when a screening test incorrectly identifies an individual with a disorder as not having it. It represents a failure to detect an existing condition. Sensitivity measures a test's ability to correctly identify individuals who have the condition.
Avolition is a negative symptom of schizophrenia characterised by reduced motivation and difficulty initiating or sustaining goal-directed activities. Negative symptoms involve a reduction or absence of normal psychological functions. Delusions and hallucinations, in contrast, are positive symptoms.
Authoritative parenting combines high responsiveness with high demandingness. Parents provide warmth and emotional support while maintaining clear expectations and boundaries. They also encourage independence and explain the reasoning behind rules.
A correlation coefficient of −0.82 indicates a strong negative linear relationship between two variables. The negative sign represents the direction, while the magnitude indicates the strength of the relationship. As one variable increases, the other tends to decrease.
Behavioural activation is a therapeutic approach commonly used for depression. It involves scheduling small, meaningful and value-consistent activities to increase engagement with rewarding experiences. Rather than waiting for mood to improve, clients gradually resume activities that help interrupt the cycle of withdrawal and low mood.
Transference occurs when a client unconsciously transfers feelings, expectations and attitudes associated with significant past relationships onto the therapist. These emotional responses may influence how the client perceives and interacts with the therapist during treatment.
A false alarm occurs when a person reports detecting a stimulus even though it was not actually presented. Here, the person claims to have heard a tone when no tone was played. It represents an incorrect detection of an absent stimulus.
Interoceptive exposure is a CBT technique particularly used in the treatment of panic disorder. It involves deliberately inducing feared bodily sensations, such as palpitations, dizziness or breathlessness, in a controlled setting. This helps clients learn that these sensations do not necessarily indicate danger or lead to catastrophic outcomes.
Theory of Mind refers to the ability to understand that other people have their own beliefs, thoughts, intentions and perspectives, which may differ from one's own. Recognising that another person can hold a false belief about an object's location demonstrates false-belief understanding, a key component of Theory of Mind development.
A variable-ratio schedule reinforces behaviour after an unpredictable number of responses. Since the individual cannot predict when the next reinforcement will occur, they tend to maintain a high and steady rate of responding with very little post-reinforcement pause. Gambling is a classic example.
The dialectical stance in DBT involves balancing two seemingly opposing principles: acceptance and change. The therapist validates the client's current emotions and experiences while simultaneously encouraging healthier behaviours and coping strategies. This balance is central to DBT.
The independent variable is the factor that a researcher manipulates or controls to examine its effect on another variable. Here, the number of hours participants are allowed to sleep is manipulated to determine its effect on attention, which is the dependent variable.
The diathesis-stress model explains psychological disorders through the interaction of an underlying vulnerability (diathesis) and environmental stressors. The vulnerability may involve genetic, biological or psychological predispositions, while stressors may include trauma, chronic stress or significant life events.
Social loafing refers to the tendency of individuals to exert less effort when working in a group compared with when working individually. It occurs partly because individual contributions may be less identifiable, allowing individuals to reduce their effort while relying on others to compensate.
Repeated outcome monitoring involves systematically measuring a client's symptoms, functioning or progress at multiple points during treatment. Using anxiety ratings at the beginning and end of each session allows the clinician to track changes over time and evaluate the client's response to therapy.
In a positively skewed distribution, the mean is usually the highest measure of central tendency because it is pulled towards the longer tail on the right by extreme high values. The typical relationship is Mean > Median > Mode. The standard deviation is a measure of dispersion, not central tendency.
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays an important role in integrating emotional information with decision-making processes. Damage to this region can impair the ability to evaluate emotional consequences, make advantageous decisions and use emotional signals to guide behaviour.
A delusion is a firmly held false belief that persists despite clear evidence contradicting it and is not better explained by the person's cultural or social background. An overvalued idea is an exaggerated or strongly held belief that dominates an individual's thinking but may still be open to some degree of questioning or modification.
A Type I error occurs when a researcher incorrectly rejects a true null hypothesis, concluding that a statistically significant effect or relationship exists when it actually does not. It is also known as a false positive. In contrast, a Type II error involves failing to reject a false null hypothesis.
Assimilation occurs when a child incorporates new information into an existing cognitive schema without changing the schema itself. Here, the child applies the existing schema for "dog" to all four-legged animals, including cats and other animals, rather than creating a new schema.
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), proposed by Lev Vygotsky, refers to the gap between what a child can accomplish independently and what they can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable person. Through scaffolding, support is gradually reduced as the child develops the ability to perform the task independently.
This technique is characteristic of CBT and involves using a thought record to identify connections between situations, automatic thoughts, emotions and behaviours. The client examines their initial interpretation of a distressing event and develops alternative, more balanced interpretations to address unhelpful thinking patterns.
Parkinson's disease is primarily associated with the degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, leading to reduced dopamine levels in the striatum. This disrupts basal ganglia circuits involved in motor control, contributing to tremors, rigidity and bradykinesia (slowness of movement).
Identity moratorium, proposed by James Marcia, refers to a status in which an individual is actively exploring different identity options but has not yet made a firm commitment. In this example, the adolescent is exploring various career possibilities without settling on one.
The Chi-square test of independence is used to examine whether a statistically significant association exists between two categorical variables. Here, gender and counselling preference (online or face-to-face) are both categorical variables. The test determines whether their observed association could be due to chance.
Third-person auditory hallucinations involve hearing voices that refer to the individual as "he" or "she" and discuss their actions, often as if having a conversation about them. This is a characteristic form of auditory hallucination described in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
In ambivalent attachment, the child experiences distress when the caregiver leaves but shows resistance or difficulty accepting comfort upon reunion. This pattern was identified by Mary Ainsworth through the Strange Situation procedure.
Convergent validity is demonstrated when a scale correlates highly with another measure of the same construct. Discriminant validity is demonstrated through a low correlation with measures of unrelated constructs.
Maslow's hierarchy places belongingness and love needs at the third level, following physiological and safety needs. These include affection, social acceptance, interpersonal relationships and a sense of belonging.
Narcissistic personality pathology can involve fragile self-esteem that depends heavily on external validation and admiration. Individuals may be particularly sensitive to criticism, rejection and perceived failures to receive recognition.
In Eysenck's model, neuroticism represents emotional instability and a tendency towards anxiety, worry and negative emotional states. High neuroticism is associated with greater autonomic nervous system reactivity.
Normative social influence occurs when individuals conform to group expectations to gain acceptance or avoid rejection. Here, the student publicly agrees with the group despite privately believing its answer is incorrect.
Group polarisation occurs when discussion strengthens the group's initial attitudes, resulting in a more extreme collective decision. When this shift specifically involves increased risk-taking, it is called the risky shift phenomenon.
Cognitive dissonance arises when behaviour conflicts with personal beliefs or values, producing psychological discomfort. The individual rationalises continued plastic use by claiming that individual actions do not matter, thereby reducing the discomfort.
Age norms allow an individual's test performance to be compared with that of others in the same age group. Here, the child's intelligence score is interpreted relative to the performance of other 10-year-olds.
The left posterior temporal gyrus is classically associated with Wernicke's area, which plays an important role in language comprehension. Damage can produce fluent speech, impaired comprehension and paraphasic errors. However, intact repetition is not typical of classical Wernicke's aphasia and may suggest transcortical sensory aphasia.
Stratified sampling involves dividing a population into subgroups based on relevant characteristics and randomly selecting participants from each. Here, 140 undergraduate and 60 postgraduate students are selected to maintain the population proportions.
Thought-action fusion is a cognitive distortion commonly associated with OCD. It involves believing that having a particular thought either increases the likelihood of the event occurring or is morally equivalent to performing the action.
Anterograde amnesia involves difficulty forming and retaining new memories following brain injury or neurological damage. Previously stored memories, such as childhood memories, may remain relatively intact.
A significant interaction indicates that the effect of one independent variable depends on the level of the other variable. In a factorial design, significant interactions can occur even when neither variable has a significant main effect, because the effects may differ across conditions and cancel out when averaged.
This PTSD symptom cluster includes persistent negative beliefs, guilt, emotional detachment and difficulty experiencing positive emotions. Avoiding driving, in contrast, falls under the avoidance symptom cluster.
Sensitivity refers to the proportion of individuals with a disorder who are correctly identified as positive by a test. Specificity of 60% means that 60% of individuals without the disorder are correctly identified as negative.
The symptoms are characteristic of hypothyroidism, which involves insufficient production of thyroid hormones. Reduced thyroid activity can cause fatigue, weight gain, cold intolerance and slowed cognitive functioning.
Actor-observer bias involves explaining our own behaviour through situational factors while explaining others' behaviour through dispositional factors. Here, the individual blames an unfair examination for their own poor performance but attributes a classmate's poor performance to inadequate preparation.
Multicollinearity occurs when two or more independent variables in a regression model are highly correlated. This can produce unstable regression coefficients and inflate standard errors, even when the overall model is statistically significant.
REM sleep is characterised by rapid eye movements, vivid dreaming and skeletal muscle atonia. Brain activity is relatively high during this stage, despite the temporary inhibition of most skeletal muscle activity.
Dopamine blockade in the nigrostriatal pathway can produce extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS). These include rigidity, tremors and bradykinesia, commonly associated with typical antipsychotic medications.
Inter-rater reliability refers to the degree of agreement between two or more independent assessors evaluating the same behaviour or phenomenon. Similar scores obtained by the two psychologists indicate high inter-rater reliability.
The Stroop effect occurs when an individual takes longer to identify the ink colour of an incongruent colour word. This involves inhibiting the automatic tendency to read the word and focusing instead on the ink colour.
Animism is a characteristic of Piaget's preoperational stage in which children attribute life, feelings or intentions to inanimate objects. Here, the child assumes that the moon has human-like intentions.
A longitudinal research design involves studying the same participants over an extended period through repeated assessments. Here, the researcher follows the same individuals from age 15 to age 25.
Cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to shift between mental sets, strategies or rules in response to changing demands. Difficulty abandoning a previously reinforced sorting rule despite feedback indicates impaired set-shifting.
Factor analysis identifies underlying dimensions by examining patterns of correlations among questionnaire items. The two clusters suggest that the questionnaire captures distinct but related dimensions of depressive symptoms.
Thought-action fusion involves believing that having a particular thought makes the feared event more likely to occur or is morally equivalent to acting on it. Repeating a prayer mentally to reduce the associated anxiety represents a covert neutralising ritual.
Delirium involves an acute disturbance in attention and awareness, developing over hours or days and typically fluctuating throughout the day. In older adults, infections such as urinary tract infections are common precipitating factors.
A p-value of .03 indicates statistical significance at the conventional .05 level. However, Cohen's d of 0.12 indicates a very small effect size, suggesting that the difference between the treatment groups is minimal.
According to Kohlberg, preconventional morality involves making moral decisions based on personal consequences, particularly punishment and rewards. Avoiding punishment represents Stage 1, known as Obedience and Punishment Orientation.
Selection bias occurs when participants enter treatment groups based on their own preferences or characteristics rather than random assignment. Pre-existing differences in symptom severity and treatment motivation can influence outcomes and threaten internal validity.
A delusion of reference involves interpreting ordinary events, remarks or media content as having specific personal significance directed towards oneself. Here, the patient believes the television anchor is deliberately sending them messages.
Informed consent is an ethical process in which clients receive relevant information about therapy, including its procedures, potential benefits and risks, confidentiality limits and fees. It ensures that participation is voluntary and based on adequate understanding.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) involves exposing clients to anxiety-provoking stimuli while preventing their usual compulsive responses. This helps reduce reliance on compulsions and develop tolerance for anxiety and uncertainty.
Executive functions are higher-order cognitive processes associated primarily with the prefrontal cortex. They include planning, cognitive flexibility, error monitoring, problem-solving and response inhibition.
High sensitivity helps identify most individuals who have the disorder, whereas low specificity increases false-positive results. When disorder prevalence is low, the positive predictive value decreases, meaning a greater proportion of positive results may be false positives.
Emotional reasoning is a cognitive distortion in which individuals assume that their feelings reflect objective reality. Here, the client interprets feeling abandoned as evidence that their partner is losing interest, despite recognising an alternative explanation.
Section 18 of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, recognises every person's right to access affordable, good-quality mental healthcare services. The Act adopts a rights-based approach that emphasises accessibility and non-discrimination.
In the Rorschach Comprehensive System, FC indicates that form is the dominant determinant, with colour playing a secondary role. CF indicates colour predominance with form as a secondary influence, whereas C represents a colour response without form involvement.
Panic disorder involves recurrent unexpected panic attacks accompanied by persistent concern about further attacks or their consequences. Avoidance of malls, buses and crowded queues due to difficulty escaping is characteristic of agoraphobia.
Multicollinearity occurs when independent variables are highly correlated with one another. It can inflate standard errors and make individual regression coefficients statistically non-significant even when the overall F-test indicates that the model is significant.
The sympathetic nervous system mediates the fight-or-flight response, preparing the body to respond to perceived threats. It increases heart rate, dilates pupils, reduces digestive activity and redirects blood flow towards skeletal muscles.
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