Chapter 17: Therapy

Outline

Terms
1) Psychotherapy:
2) Eclectic Approach:
3) Psychoanalysis:
4) Resistance:
5) Interpretation:
6) Transference:
7) Client-centered Therapy:
8) Active Listening:
9) Behavior Therapy:
10) Counter conditioning:
11) Exposure Therapies:
12) Systematic Desensitization:
13) Aversive Conditioning:
14) Token Economy:
15) Cognitive Therapy:
16) Cognitive-behavior Therapy:
17) Family Therapy:
18) Lithium:
19) Electroconvulsive Therapy:
20) Psychosurgery:
21) Lobotomy:

Treatment of psychological disorders

Mental illnesses are brought on by a variety of causes therefore therapists must use a
variety of methods to treat them.

Research shows that about two-thirds of adults who undergo psychotherapy show marked
improvement or recover however, about the same number improve without treatment
also.
Psychodynamic approaches
-Also known as insight therapies, based on Freud’s ideas
-goal is to uncover the material in the unconscious mind
-psychoanalysis -hypnosis
-Free association -dream analysis
-symptom substitution -transference

Humanistic therapy
-Emphasize peoples’ positive capacities, ability to self-actualize
-Carl Rogers, client-centered therapy, Unconditional positive regard
-Gestalt therapy -Existential therapies

Cognitive therapy
-Attempts to directly manipulate the client’s thinking and reasoning processes
-rational-emotive therapy -attribution style
-beck cognitive triad

Somatic therapy
-The most common somatic therapy is drug therapy or psychopharmacology
-electroconvulsive therapy, shock treatment
-psychosurgery

What is behavior therapy?

-Behavior therapists use various behavior modification techniques that apply learning
principles to change human behavior.
-In aversion therapy, classical conditioning is used to associate maladaptive behavior
(such as smoking or drinking) with pain or other aversive events in order to inhibit
undesirable responses.

How is behavior therapy used to treat phobias, fears, and anxieties?

-Classical conditioning also underlies systematic desensitization, a technique used to

overcome fears and anxieties. In desensitization, gradual adaptation and reciprocal
inhibition break the link between fear and particular situations.

-Typical steps in desensitization are: Construct a fear hierarchy, learn to produce total
relaxation, and perform items on the hierarchy (from least to most disturbing).

Can therapy change thoughts and emotions?

-Cognitive therapy emphasizes changing thought patterns that underlie emotional or
behavioral problems. Its goals are to correct distorted thinking and/or teach improved
coping skills.
-In a variation of cognitive therapy called rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT),
clients learn to recognize and challenge their own irrational beliefs.