408 pre-final material Flashcards
(206 cards)
Zeitgeist and contextual considerations
- “spirit of the times”
- the dominant form of therapy has changed over time, dependent on culture
- what is the believed etiology of psychological problems?
- who is believed to be qualified to perform psychotherapy?
- can we use the scientific method to understand human behaviour?
- can we study psychotherapy using the scientific method?
early treatment (prior to 19th century)
- removal from society = prisons where people were treated like prisoners
- the animal tradition like zoos
19th century treatment
- moral treatment: giving people relaxing environments and allowing them to contribute to society
- big nice asylums with gardens and a ballroom for socializing, everyone given a job
psychoanalysis
- the first formal outpatient psychotherapy (used to be only medication)
- Freud trained as a neurologist and established the first private psychotherapy practice
- hysteria and dream interpretation (case of Anna O. translated into English)
Freud’s major contributions
- drive theory: everything comes down to sex instinct, avoiding death, facing mortality
- levels of consciousness: pre-conscious, conscious, unconscious
- personality structure: id, ego, superego
- psychosexual stages of development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital stage
- defense mechanisms: repression (preventing thoughts from consciousness), denial
- therapy techniques: dream analysis and free association didn’t stick around
- therapy processes: transference and counter-transference (client-therapist relationship)
transference and counter-transference
- transference: client projecting feelings onto the therapist
- counter: therapist feeling some way about the client related to the behaviours the client is showing
Stanley Hall
- established APA dedicated to research (science not practice)
Lightner Witmer
- first to use the term clinical psychology and to develop a training clinic at a university
psychological developments in 1900s
- intelligence testing
- personality testing
- WWII soldiers returning with shell shock syndrome, so academics became interested in practice, not just academics
Eysenck’s critique of psychotherapy
- examine 19 studies for psychoanalytic or eclectic psychotherapy looking at neurotic patients for ‘recovery’ (defined by practitioner)
- 44% recovered from psychoanalytic
- 64% with eclectic
- 72% with general practitioner
- concluded that recovery was inversely correlated with amount of psychotherapy received
- 2/3 of patients recovered regardless of psychotherapy
- inspired controlled research studies of psychotherapy (this critique wasn’t based on random assignment or follow-up)
- inspired development of alternatives to psychoanalysis
client-centered therapy
- Carl Rogers
- focused on the therapy process and the therapeutic relationship over the techniques
- success of therapy depends on the therapist (different from psychoanalysis where the therapist is a blank slate for the client to project onto)
- focus on person over problem, developing a relationship with the client
- three core therapist qualities: genuineness, empathy, unconditional positive regard
- mobilize self-actualizing tendency (people have the ability to get better)
- Rogers was the first to conduct research on psychotherapy process and outcomes
three waves of behaviour therapy
- first: focus on observable behaviour and objective environment (learning and behaviour)
- second: focus on cognitive representations of the environment (your interpretation of the objective environment), emotions and behaviour not just reinforcement
- third: focus on how internal processes are functionally related to the objective environment (thoughts and emotions are normal outcomes of the world)
origins of behaviour therapy
- british empiricism: knowledge comes from experience (a blank slate for experience)
- learning theory: we can shape people based on experience (Pavlov’s classical conditioning and Edward Thorndike’s Law of Effect)
Behaviourism
- John Watson: Little Albert conditioning and generalization (father of behaviourism)
Behaviour therapy
- Mary Cover Jones: de-conditioning a fear in Little Peter (precursor to treatment of phobias and anxiety)
- Mowrer & Mowrer: Bell and pad method for treating enuresis
- Skinner: applied operant conditioning to increase social behaviour in patients with psychosis
- Joseph Wolpe: systematic desensitization (based on classical conditioning) for fear and anxiety - first formal alternative treatment to psychoanalysis
Cognitive therapy Bandura & Beck
- Albert Bandura: social learning theory (behaviour influenced by stimuli, reinforcement AND cognitive processes), learning through modelling not just reinforcement
- Aaron Beck: cognitive theory (people respond to cognitive representations of the environment that aren’t always right), biased information processing
Cognitive therapy Mahoney & Ellis
- Mahoney mediational approach: need cognition for things to generalize beyond a single situation (goes from stimulus-response to stimulus-organism/interpretation-response)
- Ellis: rational emotive behaviour therapy (unsatisfied with psychoanalysis, so involved cognitions), beliefs as irrational so used persuasion to help patients see thinking errors and adopt more rational philosophies (ABCDE model, therapist has an active role), a clinician but not a researcher
ABCDE model
Activating Event/Adversity (situation) = Belief about adversity (interpretation) = Consequences (emotions) = Disputations (therapy challenging beliefs) = Effective new beliefs to replace irrational ones
Aaron Beck
- depression due to beliefs of inadequacy and being unlovable (generalized beliefs that people had trouble unlearning)
- beliefs as inaccurate but not irrational
- used empirical disconfirmation to test beliefs (helping people see inaccuracy for themselves, therapist is more passive)
- negative cognitive triad in schemas (negative beliefs about self, world, future)
- conducted RCTs on cognitive therapy vs. medication and showed that it was as effective as pharma, and maintained at follow-up
- developed treatment manuals for research and practice (disseminating)
third wave behaviour therapy
- distinct from traditional CBT; emphasis on learning to accept emotions, cognitions, behaviours rather than trying to change them
- thoughts don’t correspond to objective reality, distance yourself instead of engaging with them (don’t need to act in accordance with them)
- focus on valued living instead of symptom reduction (change impairment from Sx)
- ACT, mindfulness-based CT, dialectical behaviour therapy
CPA principles for psychotherapy
in ascending order of importance:
(1) respect for dignity of persons and peoples
(2) responsible caring
(3) integrity in relationships
(4) responsibility to society
(1) respect for dignity of persons and peoples
- informed consent: understanding the nature of psychotherapy, limits of confidentiality, opportunity to ask questions
- privacy: collect minimal information necessary and keep all records secure
- confidentiality: do not share client information unless required by law
(2) responsible caring
- competence and self-knowledge: practice within areas of competence or seek consultation, supervision, training, engage in self-care
- maximize benefit: provide best service possible according to research
- minimize harm: be aware of power differential in therapy, no sexual intimacy
integrity in relationships
- accuracy/honesty: accurately represent your credentials and qualifications
- straightforwardness, openness: be clear about fees, policies, limits of confidentiality
- avoidance of conflict of interest: avoid anything that gets in the way of treating your client (avoid multiple relationships)