THERAPY

INSIGHT THERAPIESA variety of individual psychotherapies

designed to give people a better awareness and understanding of their feelings, motivations, and actions in the hope that this will help them adjust.

Psychoanalysis Client-centered therapy Gestalt therapy

PSYCHOANALYSISBased on the belief that anxiety and other

problems are symptoms of inner conflicts stemming from childhood.

Free Association: A technique that encourages the patient to talk without inhibition about whatever thoughts or fantasies come to mind.

PSYCHOANALYSIS Transference: The patient’s carrying over to the

analyst feelings held toward childhood authority figures.

Insight: Awareness of previously unconscious feelings and memories and how they influence present feelings and behavior.

CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY Nondirectional form of therapy developed

by Carl Rogers that calls for unconditional positive regard of the client by the therapist with the goal of helping the client become fully functioning.

“CLIENT” VS. “PATIENT” Rogers used the term client rather than

patient to highlight the more active and equal role he assigned to the person seeking therapy.

ROLE OF THE THERAPIST Rogers emphasized understanding life from

the client’s point of view. A therapist must be nondirective and reflect

back to the client what he/she has said.

GESTALT THERAPY A therapy that emphasizes the

wholeness of the personality and attempts to reawaken people to their emotions and sensations in the here-and-now.

GESTALT THERAPY Fritz Perls encouraged face-to-face

confrontations to help people become more genuine or “real” in their day-to-day interactions.

The therapist is active and directive.

BEHAVIOR THERAPIES

Therapeutic approaches that are based on the belief that all behavior is learned, and that the objective of therapy is to teach people new, more satisfying ways of behaving.

Classical conditioning Operant conditioning Modeling

USE OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Systematic desensitization: A

technique for reducing fear and anxiety by gradually associating a new response (relaxation) with stimuli that have been causing the fear and anxiety.

Flooding: A method of desensitization through intense and prolonged exposure to anxiety-producing stimuli.

USE OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Aversive Conditioning: Techniques

aimed at eliminating undesirable behavior patterns by teaching the person to associate them with pain and discomfort.

USE OF OPERANT CONDITIONING Behavior Contracting: The client and

therapist set behavioral goals and agree on reinforcements the client will receive upon reaching those goals.

Token Economy: Patients earn tokens (reinforcers) for desired behaviors and exchange them for desired items or privileges.

MODELING A behavior therapy in which the person

learns desired behaviors by watching others perform those behaviors.

COGNITIVE THERAPIESEmphasize changing clients’ perceptions of their life

situation as a way of modifying their behavior. Stress-inoculation therapy Rational-emotive-therapy Beck’s cognitive therapy

STRESS-INOCULATION THERAPY Trains clients to cope with stressful

situations by learning a more useful pattern of self-talk.

Stress-inoculation therapy works by turning the client’s own thought patterns into a kind of vaccine against stress-induced anxiety.

RATIONAL-EMOTIVE THERAPY (RET)A directive therapy based on the idea

that clients’ psychological distress is caused by irrational and self-defeating beliefs and the therapist’s job is to challenge such dysfunctional beliefs.

Irrational/self-defeating beliefs involve absolutes (e.g., “musts” and “shoulds”) that allow no room for mistakes.

BECK’S COGNITIVE THERAPYTherapy that depends on identifying and

changing inappropriately negative and self-critical patterns of thought.

Therapists try to help clients examine each dysfunctional thought in a supportive but objectively scientific manner.

GROUP THERAPYClients meet regularly to interact and help

one another achieve insight into their feelings and behavior.

family therapy couple therapy

ADVANTAGES OF GROUP THERAPY Allows client and therapist to see how client

acts around others. Offers a client social support. Can help the client learn new behaviors. Interaction with others may lead to insight

into one’s own behavior. Less expensive than individual therapy.

FAMILY THERAPY The family is seen as partly responsible for

the individual’s problems. Family therapy seeks to change all family

members’ behaviors to the benefit of the family unit as well as the troubled individual.

COUPLE THERAPYA form of group therapy intended to help

troubled partners improve their problems of communication and interaction.

Empathy Training: Each person is taught to share inner feelings and to listen to and understand the partner’s feelings before responding to them.

EFFECTIVENESS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY Therapy benefits two-thirds of the people

undergoing it. Only 1 out of 3 people improve without

therapy. In general, no one therapy appears to be

more effective than another.

EFFECTIVENESS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

BIOLOGICAL TREATMENTS A group of treatment approaches, such as

medication, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychosurgery.

These treatments are sometimes used to treat psychological disorders in conjunction with, or instead of, psychotherapy.

REASONS FOR USE OF DRUG THERAPY The development of several effective drugs. Drug therapies cost less than

psychotherapy. Critics contend that drugs are used because

of our society’s “pill mentality.”

CLASSES OF DRUGS USED FOR THERAPY Antipsychotics: Drugs (e.g., Thorazine)

used to treat very severe psychological disorders, particularly schizophrenia.

Antidepressants: Drugs (e.g., MAO inhibitors, Prozac) used to combat depression.

LITHIUM CARBONATE Lithium is a naturally occurring salt that

is used to treat bipolar disorder. Lithium helps level out the extreme

highs of mania and the extreme lows of depression.

ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY (ECT) A mild electrical current is passed through

the brain for a short period, often producing convulsions and temporary coma; used to treat severe, prolonged depression.

The reason ECT works remains unknown.

PSYCHOSURGERY Brain surgery performed to change a

person’s behavior and emotional state (e.g., prefrontal lobotomy).

This therapy is rarely used today.

DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION The policy of treating people with severe

psychological disorders in the community rather than in large public hospitals.

PROBLEMS WITH DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION Community mental-health centers

are poorly funded or non-existent. Ex-patients are poorly prepared to

live in the community. Not enough housing available. Social stigma of having a mental

disorder. Large insurance companies

discourage outpatient care.

TYPES OF MENTAL ILLNESS PREVENTION Primary prevention

Techniques and programs to improve the social environment so that new cases of mental disorders do not develop.

Secondary prevention Programs to identify groups that are at high risk

for mental disorders and to detect maladaptive behavior in these groups and treat it properly.

Tertiary prevention Programs to help people adjust to community life

after release from a mental hospital.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN TREATMENT Women are more likely than men to be

in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is more socially accepted

for women than men. Traditionally, women have received a

disproportionate share of psychotropic drugs.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN TREATMENT Our ideas of what constitutes normal

behavior may not be viewed as normal by another culture.

Some psychological disorders only occur within a specific culture.