Ch. 17 - Therapy

What types of psychological therapies are there?
 Psychoanalysis
 Humanistic therapy
 Behavior therapy
 Cognitive therapy
 Group & family therapy

Psychoanalysis
 Sigmund Freud
 Assumes problems are created by childhood memories, impulses and conflicts
 Psychoanalysis brings these childhood memories and conflicts into consciousness to be “worked through” and resolved.

Psychoanalysis (cont.)
 Therapist uses “free association” (say what comes to mind) and dream analysis
(interpretation of latent content of dreams) to get at repressed impulses.
 Problems with psychoanalysis
–
Difficult to determine effectiveness scientifically
–
Too lengthy - takes years with several sessions a week.

Humanistic Therapy
 Client Centered Therapy
–
Carl Rogers
– Emphasizes your potential for self fulfillment
–
Focus on the present, not the past
– Conscious not unconscious
–
You are responsible for your actions.

Client Centered Therapy (cont.)
 Unconditional positive regard
–
I accept what you say without judgment
 Active listening
–
Paraphrasing -Restate the ideas in your own words.
 Invite clarification - Do you have an example? I want to understand.
 Reflect feelings - “That sounds frustrating?”

Client Centered Therapy (cont.)
 Results
–
As therapist reflects unconditional positive regard (acceptance), the clients begins to accept themselves and feel valued.

Behavior Therapy
 Views problems as learned behavior, not based on unresolved childhood conflicts
 Applies learning principles to eliminate unwanted behavior.

Classical conditioning
 Bedwetting alarm pad

Systematic Desensitization
 You can not be both relaxed and have high anxiety
 Paring relaxation with what creates fear
–
Spider example

Aversive conditioning
 Associates negative behavior with negative feelings
 Mother spanks child for running into the street
 Pedophiles & shock
 Alcohol & nausea

Token economy
 Reward for positive behavior
 When patient makes his bed, he gets a token
(plastic coin) that can be exchanged for candy, T.V. viewing, etc.

Cognitive therapy

Cognitive therapy
 Assumes: Thinking effects feelings
 Event - your mind - your response
 E.g. self-blame and overgeneralization of negative events creates depression.

Cognitive therapy

Cognitive therapy

Group and Family Therapy
 Group therapy
–
6 - 10 people
–
Often as effective as individual therapy
–
Cheaper
– Allows a social content
• Feedback from others
• You are not alone

Group and Family Therapy
(Cont.)
 Support groups
–
Not quite the same as group therapy
– No “therapist” - members support each other with a director
 Family therapy
– No person is an island
–
The family is the patient - not just the person with the
“symptoms”.

Evaluating Psychotherapies

How effective are psychotherapies?
 Regression toward the mean
–
Will people get better anyway?
– The tendency for unusual events to return to normal

Alternative Therapies
 Light Exposure Therapy
–
For seasonal affective Disorder (SAD)
– Winter depression
– Light boxes used in the morning appear to be effective.

Biomedical therapies

Effectiveness of drug therapies
 Placebo effect
–
You get what you expect
– If you think something will help, often it does.
 Double blind technique
–
Used to determine the extent of the placebo effect.
–
Separating the direct effect of the drug from the expectations of its effectiveness.
 E.g. Testing antianxiety medication.