WK 12 - PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES Flashcards
(42 cards)
Approach differences: psychotherapy
Involves psychological techniques derived from psychological perspective, trained therapist uses psychological techniques to assist someone seeking to overcome difficulties to achieve personal growth
Approach differences: Eclectic approach
Approach to psychotherapy that uses techniques from various forms of therapy
Biomedical therapy
Involves treatment with medical procedures; trained therapist, most often medical doctors, offers medications and other biological treatment
Psychoanalysis
1) Goals > to bring patients’ repressed feelings into conscious awareness: to help patients release energy devoted to id-ego-superego conflicts so they may achieve healthier, less anxious lives
2) Techniques > historical reconstruction, initially through hypnosis and later through free association; interpretation of resistance, transference
Psychodynamic therapy
1) Goals > to help people understand current symptoms, to explore and gain perspective on defended-against thoughts and feelings
2) Techniques > client-centred face-to-face meetings; exploration of past relationship troubles to understand origins of current difficulties
Face-to-face therapy is a type of psychodynamic therapy > in this type of therapy session, the couch has disappeared. But the influence of psychoanalysis theory may not have, especially if the therapist seeks information from the patient’s childhood and helps the patient reclaim unconscious feelings
Psychodynamic therapy: differences
Psychodynamic therapy is influenced by traditional psychoanalysis, but differs from it:
1) Lack of belief in id, ego and superego
2) Briefer, less expensive and more focused on helping the client find relief from current symptoms
3) Helps clients understand how past relationships create themes that may be acted out in present relationships
Interpersonal therapy: brief 12 to 16 session form of psychodynamic therapy that has been effective in treating depression
Humanistic therapies: perspective
1) Theme > emphasis on people’s potential for self-fulfilment; to give people new insights
2) Goals > to reduce inner conflicts that interfere with natural development and growth; help clients grow in self-awareness and self-acceptance promoting personal growth
3) Techniques > client-centred therapy; focus on taking responsibility for feelings and actions and on present and future rather than past
Humanistic therapies: Rogers
Person-centred therapy focuses on person’s conscious self-perceptions; non-directive; active listening; unconditional positive regard > most people possess resources for growth, therapists foster growth by exhibiting genuineness, acceptance and empathy
Behaviour therapies: classical conditioning
1) Counterconditioning > uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviours
2) Systematic desensitisation > associates a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing, anxiety-triggering stimuli
3) Aversion therapy > associates noxious state with previously craving-triggering stimuli
4) Exposure therapies > treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid
Virtual reality exposure therapy
Treats anxiety by creative electronic simulations in which people can safely face their greatest fears such as airplane flying, spiders or public speaking
Behaviour therapies: aversion conditioning
1) Goal > substituting negative response for a positive response to a harm stimulus; conditioning an aversion to something the person should avoid
2) Techniques > unwanted behaviour is associated with unpleasant feelings; ability to discriminate between aversive conditioning situation in therapy and all other situations can limit treatment effectiveness
Aversion therapy: alcohol abuse
Therapist gave people with a history of alcohol abuse a mixed drink containing alcohol and a drug that produces severe nausea > after repeated treatments some people developed at last a temporary aversion to alcohol
Operant conditioning therapy
Consequences drive behaviour > voluntary behaviours are strongly influenced by the consequences
Behaviour modification
Desired behaviour reinforced, undesired behaviour not reinforced, sometimes punished
Token economy
People earn a token for exhibiting a desired behaviour and can alter exchange those tokens for privileges and treats
Critics maintain
Techniques such as those used in token economies may produce behaviours change that disappear when rewards end, deciding which behaviours should change is authoritarian and unethical
Proponents argue
Treatment with positive rewards is more human than punishing people or institutionalising them for undesired behaviours
Cognitive behavioural therapies
Helps people discover new, more adaptive ways of thinking > based on assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions. Gentle questioning seeks to reveal biased or distorted thinking, explore evidence for and against beliefs to ‘discover’ healthier, more balanced perspectives, verbally/intellectually and behavioural experiments (experimentally. Also commonly involves self-monitoring and skills training
Behavioural disorders: cognitive perspective
The person’s emotional reactions are produced not directly by the event but by the person’s thoughts in response to the event
Group therapy
Conducted with groups rather than individuals, providing benefits for group interaction > often used when client problems involves interactions with others. Benefits = save therapists’ time and clients’ money, encourages exploration of social behaviours and social skill development, enables people to see that others share their problems, provides feedback as clients try out new ways of behaving
Family therapy
Attempts to open up communication within the family and help family members to discover and use conflict resolution strategies > treats the family as a system and views an individual’s unwanted behaviours as influenced by, or directed at, other family members. This type of therapy often acts as a preventative mental health strategy > the therapist helps family members understand how their ways of relating to one another creates problems > the treatment’s emphasis is not on changing the individuals, but on changing their relationships and interactions
Is psychotherapy effective?
Clients’ and therapists positive testimonials cannot prove that psychotherapy is actually effective, the placebo effect makes it difficult to judge whether improvement occurred because of the treatment. Research indicates that those not undergoing treatment often improve, but those undergoing psychotherapy are more likely to improve quickly, with less chance of relapse
Why psychotherapies works best?
CBT has a larger and better quality evidence base, for a greater range of problems than other psychotherapeutic approaches:
1) Most common finding in psychotherapy research > no difference between bona fide therapies (but superior to no treatment)
2) Trans-theoretical qualities of therapy delivery more important (e.g. structure, clearly explained and acceptable rationale, reduce avoidance)
3) Evidence-based practice > integration of best available research with clinicians’ expertise and patients’ characteristics, preference and circumstances
Evaluating therapies
1) Alternative therapies > abnormal states often return to normal and the placebo effect can mislead effectiveness evaluation
2) Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) > recommended treatment for PTSD; component studies support role of eye movements and patterns of response is different to exposure
3) Light exposure therapy > relief from depression symptoms for those with a seasonal pattern of major depressive disorder by activating a brain region that influences arousal and hormones
