Therapy
What types of psychological
therapies are there?
 Psychoanalysis
 Humanistic therapy
 Behavior therapy
 Cognitive 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
Operant conditioning
 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
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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”.
Biofeedback
 Feedback on muscle tension, heart rate
 Used to reduce stress
Biomedical therapies
 Drugs
 Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
– Depression
Evaluating Therapies
How effective are therapies?
 Regression toward the mean
– Will people get better anyway?
– The tendency for unusual events to return to normal
How effective are 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.