1. Describe and evaluate one treatment or therapy from each of the following approaches
By Bekki Poland

2. SOCIAL APPROACH Family Therapy
During family therapy sessions a therapist will show the family members specifically how to deal with the disruptions specifically how to deals with the disruptions caused by certain issues. It also teaches them about the issues affecting their child, like eating disorders. Dysfunction among the family is a key competent addressed at family therapy, forming solutions and determining roles in the home may help to relieve this dysfunction and ease the stress.
The aim of Family Therapy is to help family members find ways to help each other, whether the issue is believed to be an individual issue or whether it is believed to be a family issue. Family relationships are considered to be an important factor in the emotional health of each member within that family, and this approach to counselling emphasises that
Strength:
High rate of improvement in AN sufferers
Gives the family an input in helping them get better making them feel involved
Weaknesses:
Therapy does not work in all cases, doesn’t have any affect in 1/3 of cases
Mainly focused on young girls so maybe hard to apply to older women or men.

3. COGNITIVE APPROACH Cognitive behavioural therapy
This therapy combines the cognitive and behavioural approaches. It focuses on present behaviour and thoughts instead of focusing on how those thoughts developed. The therapist accepts the patients perception of reality and use this misperception to help the patient manage. It tries to allow the patient to use the info from the world to make adaptive decisions, doesn't cure schizophrenia but aims to help the patient function more normally. They set an agenda so that both the patient and therapist no what they’re trying to get out of the sessions. The therapist helps the patient identify their faulty interpretations of the world and correct them, they do this by using questions to challenge maladaptive thoughts so that they can get the patient to realise they are incorrect and change them.
Evidence:
Chadwick (2000) 22 schizos all had reduced negative beliefs.
Gould (2001) meta-analysis, large reduction in positive symptoms
Pfammatter (2006)meta-analysis again
Strengths:
Not only effective for patients on antipsychotic drugs but also patients who do not respond to drugs
No side effects
Weaknesses:
Although it has been proved to reduce symptoms hasn’t actually been proved to be a cure
It reduces positive symptoms but not negative which suggests that negative symptoms have a different cause

4. PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
Dream analysis
For this treatment the analyst has to access the patients unconscious mind because it is seen that mental disorders arise due to repressed thoughts or emotions from childhood. They use dreams analysis for this as when we sleep our egos defences are more relaxed so material that is normally in our unconscious enters our conscious in the form of a dream. But because the material is still threatening to our mind it isn't allowed directly into the conscious mind, its disguised with symbols that represent the real content. The content of the dream that we remember is called the manifest content whilst the actual meaning is called the latent content. The analyst has to uncover the true meaning of a dream which can take some time, it may involve looking at many dreams rather than just one.
Evidence:
Heaton(1998) 88% of patients prefer a therapist analysing their dreams rather than themselves
Kolchakian and Hill (2002) females in heterosexual relationships gained more insight into their relationship through dream analysis so improved their relationship.
Strengths:
Evidence of it working from studies such as Heaton (1998) and Kolchakian and hill (2002)
Is an ethical therapy as patients give fully informed consent and no one is getting hurt (ETHICS)
Weaknesses:
Dream analysis is very subjective, different analysts may interpret the same dream differently.
The client may not tell the analyst the whole dream, they might have forgotten some, and these bits may be important so the analysis may not be reflective of what was actually in the unconscious.
Espostio (1999)’s study suggests that we don't symbolizes things in our dreams as much as originally thought.
Eyssenck (1952) suggests that dream analysis is no more effective than having no treatment.

5. BIOLOGICAL APPROACH Electro convulsive therapy
Some people assume that psychological problems begin on a biological level and therefore should be treated using a biological treatment. ECT involves inducing a convulsive seizure. It was introduced in the 1930’s and was based on the premise that schizophrenia and epilepsy do not occur in the same person so if you can induce an epileptic fit in a schizophrenic patient then that patient should be cured of their condition. The process of ECT begins with preparation, this means a medical examination is carried out and the patient isn't aloud food for six hours. The patient is then put to sleep to minimize the danger of physical injury and given oxygen to protect them against brain damage. The second stage is administration, two electrodes are attached to the patients head and an electrical current from 65v to 140v is passed through the brain for up to half a second. The current causes convulsion that lasts from 25seconds to a few minutes. You can either have a bilateral ECT where the current is passed through both temples simultaneously or a unilateral ETC where its only passed through one temple. Bilateral is normally used for severely depressed patients as it acts more quickly and has fewer treatments however a unilateral has fewer side effects. The last stage is recovery, the patient usually awakens around 10 minutes after the current. A person with depression will normally have 6-9treatments over 2-4weeks.
Evidence:
Clare (1980) says that ECT is overused and abused as its quick and relatively easy to administer.
Without ETC treatment 11% of depressives commit within a five year period, so ECT is low risk
Strengths:
ECT has a 60% to 90% success rate for psychotic, depressive and manic patients
Can often be successful when anti-depressant drugs have failed.
Weaknesses:
Can cause memory disruptions like short term memory loss and impaired ability to acquire new memories
MIND and PROMPT say as we don't know how or if ECT works it shouldn't be used (ETHICS)
They also object as its often used on patients unable to give informed consent due to there condition.
Social control (ETHICS)

6. LEARNING APPROACH Token economy
Token economy is therapy developed from the learning approach. Token economy is used in places such as prisons to encourage pro-social behaviour. Its based on the principle of operant conditioning, using rewards to encourage desirable behaviour. The person wanting to use the token economy therapy draws up a list of appropriate behaviours and then if someone performs one of these desirable behaviours they get a token. These tokens can then be exchanged for rewards. The rewards must be negotiated on between the enforcer and the person receiving the reward because if the reward isn't desirable then the system wont be effective.
Evidence:
Pearson et al (2002) meta-analysis gave evidence that cognitive behavioural therapies help to reduce recidivism.
Strengths:
TEPs give people like prisoners a sense of control over their behaviour and the rewards they earn.
Weaknesses:
System could be open to abuse
Some say programme can lead to ‘learned helplessness’ where people feel they have no choice but to comply or basic privileges are withheld.
Basic privilege being withheld could also be sign as breaking human rights (ETHICS)