Psychology in Action (8e) PowerPoint  Lecture Notes Presentation Chapter 15: Therapy 1

Psychotherapy: techniques employed to improve psychological functioning and promote adjustment to life Three Major Approaches to Therapy:  Insight (personal understanding)  Behavior (maladaptive behaviors)  Biomedical (mental illness and medical treatments, such as drugs) Introductory Definitions 2

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Four Major Forms of Insight Therapy Psychoanalysis/ psychodynamic Cognitive Humanistic Group, Family, and Marital 4

Insight Therapies: Psychoanalysis/Psychodynamic Psychoanalysis: Freudian therapy designed to bring unconscious conflicts into consciousness 5

Insight Therapies: Psychoanalyis/Psychodynamic Five Major Techniques of Psychoanalysis: 1. Free association 2. Dream analysis 3. Analyzing resistance 4. Analyzing transference 5. Interpretation 6

Insight Therapies: Psychoanalysis/Psychodynamic Evaluation of psychoanalysis: Limited applicability and lack of scientific credibility Psychodynamic Therapy: briefer, more directive, and more modern form of psychoanalysis that focuses on conscious processes and current problems 7

Insight Therapies: Cognitive Cognitive Therapy: focuses on faulty thinking and beliefs  Improvement comes from insight into negative self-talk (unrealistic things a person has been telling himself or herself)  Cognitive Restructuring (process of changing destructive thoughts or inappropriate interpretations) 8

Insight Therapies: Cognitive (Continued) Two Major Cognitive Therapies: 1. Albert Ellis’s Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) 2. Aaron Beck’s Cognitive-Behavior Therapy 9

Insight Therapies: Cognitive (Continued) Ellis’s Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT): eliminates self-defeating beliefs through rational examination 10

Beck’s Cognitive-Behavior Therapy: confronts and changes behaviors associated with destructive cognitions Depressive Thinking Patterns:  selective perception  overgeneralization  magnification  all-or-nothing thinking Insight Therapies: Cognitive (Continued) 11

Insight Therapies: Cognitive (Continued) Evaluation of cognitive therapy: Pro: Considerable success with a range of problems Con: Criticized for overemphasizing rationality, ignoring unconscious dynamics, minimizing importance of the past, etc. 12

Insight Therapies: Humanistic Humanistic therapy: Maximizes personal growth through affective restructuring (emotional readjustment) Key assumption: People with problems are suffering from a blockage or disruption of their normal growth potential, which leads to a defective self-concept. 13

Rogers’s Client-Centered Therapy: emphasizes client’s natural tendency to become healthy and productive Techniques include:  Empathy  Unconditional positive regard  Genuineness  Active listening Insight Therapies: Humanistic (Cont.) 14

Insight Therapies: Humanistic (Continued) Evaluation of humanistic therapy: Pro: Evidence for success Con: Basic tenets, such as self- actualization, difficult to test scientifically 15

Insight Therapies: Group, Family, and Marital Therapies Group Therapy: a number of people meet together to work toward therapeutic goals Family and Marital Therapies: work to change maladaptive family and couple interaction patterns 16

Behavior Therapies Behavior Therapy: group of techniques based on learning principles used to change maladaptive behaviors Three foundations of behavior therapy:  Classical conditioning  Operant conditioning  Observational learning 17

Behavior Therapies: Classical Conditioning Systematic Desensitization: gradual process of extinguishing a learned fear (or phobia) by working through a hierarchy of fearful stimuli while remaining relaxed 18

Behavior Therapies: Classical Conditioning 19

Behavior Therapies: Classical Conditioning  Aversion Therapy: pairing an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus with a maladaptive behavior 20

Behavior Therapies: Operant Conditioning Operant Conditioning Techniques Used to INCREASE Adaptive Behaviors: Shaping--successive approximations of target behavior are rewarded (includes role-playing, behavior rehearsal, assertiveness training) Tokens: symbolic rewards used to immediately reinforce desired behavior 21

Behavior Therapies: Operant Conditioning Operant Conditioning Techniques Used to DECREASE Maladaptive Behaviors: Extinction: withdrawal of attention Punishment: adding or taking away something (e.g., time-out) 22

Behavior Therapies: Observational Learning Modeling: watching and imitating models that demonstrate desirable behaviors Participant Modeling: combining live modeling with direct and gradual practice 23

Behavior Therapies (Continued) Evaluation of behavior therapies: Pro: Strong evidence for success with a wide range of problems Con: Questioned and criticized for generalizability and ethics 24

Biomedical Therapies Biomedical Therapy: uses physiological interventions, such as drugs, to reduce or alleviate symptoms of psychological disorders Three forms of biomedical therapy:  Psychopharmacology  Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)  Psychosurgery 25

Biomedical Therapies: Psychopharmacology Four major categories of drugs: Antianxiety (increases relaxation, reduces anxiety and muscle tension) Antipsychotic (treats hallucinations and other symptoms of psychosis) Mood Stabilizer (treats manic episodes and depression) Antidepressant (treats symptoms of depression) 26

Biomedical Therapies: Psychopharmacology 27

Psychopharmacology— How Antidepressants Work 28

Biomedical Therapies (Continued) Electroconvulsive Therapy: based on passing electrical current through the brain and used when other methods have not been successful Psychosurgery: operative procedures on the brain designed to relieve severe mental symptoms that have not responded to other forms of treatment 29

Therapy and Critical Thinking Therapy Essentials--Five Common Goals 30

Therapy and Critical Thinking 31

Key considerations for women and therapy: 1. Higher rate of diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders 2. Stresses of poverty 3. Stresses of multiple roles 4. Stresses of aging 5. Violence against women Therapy and Critical Thinking: Gender and Cultural Diversity (Cont.) 32

Institutionalization— Criteria for involuntary commitment: – Dangerous to self or others – Believed to be in serious need of treatment – No reasonable alternatives Therapy and Critical Thinking: Institutionalization 33

Deinstitutionalization: discharging as many people as possible from state hospitals and discouraging admissions Community services such as community mental health (CMH) centers work to cope with the problems of deinstitutionalization. Therapy and Critical Thinking: Institutionalization (Continued) 34

Therapy and Critical Thinking: Evaluating and Finding Therapy Forty to 90 % who receive therapy are better off than people who do not. Guidelines for Finding a Therapist: Take time to “shop around.” If in a crisis, call 24-hour hotlines or college counseling centers. If others’ problems affect you, get help yourself. 35