Describe and
evaluate one
treatment or
therapy from
each of the
approaches
Joelle Cornwall
Social Approach: Family
Therapy
 Describe:
therapy sessions often involve
the whole family. During a session a
therapist will show the family members
how to deal with disruptions caused by an
eating disorder.
 Evidence:
The therapy was developed at
the Maudsley hospital and they have
provided case studies.
Social Approach: Family
Therapy
 Evaluate:
 Strength:
 Weakness:
 Strength:
 Weakness:
Social Approach: Family
Therapy
 Ethical
Issues:
 Social Control: this therapy is evidence of
social control as it does not just target an
individual but includes the entire family
and teaches them to adjust to a socially
acceptable ‘healthy’ way of interacting
with each other.
Cognitive Approach: Rational
Emotive Therapy
 Describe:
This therapy helps the client identify with
negative irrational thoughts and replace them with
more rational positive ways of thinking. Therapy
involves both cognitive and behavioural elements.
 Evidence:
Ellis 1991 developed the ABC model to
illustrate how thoughts can lead to maladaptive
behaviour:
 Activating Event: Occurrence of an unpleasant
event
 Beliefs: Cognitive reaction to unpleasant event
 Consequences: State of anxiety
Cognitive Approach: Rational
Emotive Therapy

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

Evaluate:
Strength: Brandsma et al 1978 reported RET us
effective in producing behaviour change
amongst those who feel guilty for not living up to
their own high standards.
Weakness: The argumentative nature of the
therapy has been questioned by those who stress
the importance of empathy in therapy.
Strength: RET is seen to be more effective than
psycho analytic therapies as it aims to get people
to accept reality no matter how bad it is.
Weakness: Fancher 1995 argues cognitive
therapists may not be able to identify faulty
thinking.
Cognitive Approach: Rational
Emotive Therapy
 Ethical
Issues: the argumentative nature
may cause psychological distress.
 Social Control: Some thoughts may be
seen as irrational due to social norms
therefore these thoughts are seen to
need to be ‘rationalised’ therefore society
is controlling what thoughts are ‘normal’
Psychodynamic Approach:
Free association
 Describe:
this therapy gets the patient to
say whatever comes into their mind. this
enables people to cope with internal
conflicts that cause disturbance by
bringing them to a more conscious level.
The analyst responds o this with
interpretations of links.
 Evidence: Axline 1947:Dibs
Psychodynamic Approach:
Free association
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


Evaluate:
Strength: This therapy includes all aspects of
functioning from early childhood onwards.
Weakness: encouraging a client to talk at
length may reinforce thoughts that are
already obsessive.
Strength: it is a unique method as is needed
to uncover the immeasurable unconscious.
Weakness: interpretation is subjective and
therefore may be considered unscientific.
Psychodynamic Approach:
Free Association
 Ethical
issues: May bring up unwanted
traumatic memories causing emotional
distress to the client.
 Social Control:
Learning Approach: Token
Economy


Describe: this approach uses positive
reinforcement. In institutional settings the
frequency with which particular behaviours
are performed can be increased. The desired
responses are reinforced with tokens
(secondary reinforcers) which can be saved
up and exchanged for privileges (primary
reinforcers)
Evidence: Petry et al 2006 found use of
rewards in alcoholics to be highly effective.
Learning Approach: Token
Economy
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Evaluate:
Strength: Evidence suggests these techniques are
extremely effective e.g. Sindelar 2007 used token
economy and found it made significant
improvements to the individuals.
Weakness: in cases where genes have played a role
in development of symptoms, techniques such as
token economy can only alter performance of
behaviours they do not solve the cause of the
problem.
Strength: changes in behaviour are based on sound
experimental evidence and credible techniques.
Weakness: could be seen as ethically unsound as
withholding rights from people could cause
psychiatric o even physical harm such as food or
contact with family.
Learning Approach: Token
Economy
 Ethical
Issues: May withhold basic human
rights to use as tokens.
 Social Control: strong form of social
control as people are manipulated to
perform socially desirable behaviours
decided by the institution they are in and
repeat them.
Biological approach: Electro
convulsive therapy
 Describe:
this involves inducing a
convulsive seizure. It was original based
on the incorrect premise that
schizophrenia and epilepsy do not occur
in he same person and hence that if one
can induce an epileptic fit in a
schizophrenic patient they should be
cured of their condition.
 Evidence: Cerletti
Biological approach: Electro
convulsive therapy
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Evaluate:
Strength: ECT can often be effective when anti
depressant drugs have failed.
Weakness: ECT can cause memory disruptions
ranging from minor short term memory loss to an
impaired ability to acquire new memories.
Strength: Compared with depressive patients who
receive psychotherapy alone, those who have
received CT treatment are much less likely to commit
suicide.
Weakness: There are a number of ethical objections
as often it is used on patients who are unable to give
informed consent due to their condition.
Biological approach: Electro
convulsive therapy
 Ethical
Issues: Mental and physical harm.
The inability to give informed consent
 Social Control: