Chapter 16
5-7% of the AP Exam
Psychological Treatment
 When a psychological disorder becomes
serious enough to cause problems in
everyday functioning, the client may
seek to have the disorder treated.
Psychotherapy – An Overview
 The treatment of disorders
through psychological
methods
 Clients
 Inpatient
 Outpatient
 Treatment from
 Psychiatrists
 Psychologists
 Counselor
 Medical Doctor
 Basic goal = help people change
their way of thinking, feeling,
and/or behavior
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
 Psychoanalysis – understanding unconscious conflicts
 Freud’s one-on-one method
 Aims to help clients gain insight into and work through
problems
Other psychoanalytic
therapies
 Contemporary
Psychoanalysis =
less emphasis on
Freud’s “unconscious
impulses”
 All seek to
understand the
patient’s past to
help understand the
future
 Help client function
in everyday life
 Carl Jung
 Karen Horney
Humanistic Psychotherapy
 Emphasize the way in which
people interpret the events in
their lives
 behavior = motivated by an
innate drive toward growth
 Clients (not patients) will
improve on their own, given
the right conditions
 Patients must feel equal,
accepted, and supported
 Emphasis on free-will of
client
Humanistic Client-Centered
Therapy
 Carl Rogers
 nondirective therapy
 allow clients to decide what to
talk about and when
 Genuineness- completely
honest and open
 Unconditional Positive
Regard- fully accepting the
worth of the client
 Empathy- emotional
understanding
Other humanistic therapies
 Group and Family therapies
 emphasis placed on growth of the individual
 Group Therapy – simultaneous treatment of several clients – no single
theoretical approach used
 allows interaction
 clients feel less alone
 boost each other’s confidence
 more willing to share
 Family & Couples Therapy – treatment of two or more from same
family system – goal is to create harmony and balance
Gestalt Therapy
 Fritz and Laura Perls
 perspective that people create
their own understanding of the
world
 continue to grow as long as they
have insight into their feelings
 Help clients see inconsistencies
between how clients see
themselves and how they act in
the world
“You cannot achieve happiness.
Happiness happens and is a
transitory stage. Imagine how
happy I felt when I got relief from
bladder pressure. How long did
that happiness last?” (Fritz Perls)
“Lose your mind and come to
your senses.” (Fritz Perls)
Behavior Therapy
 Clients see their problems as learned behaviors that
can be changed (without searching for hidden
meanings or unconscious causes)
 Based on the work of Watson, Pavlov, & Skinner
 Features:
 Development of a productive therapist-client
relationship
 Careful listing of the behaviors and thoughts to be
changed – assessment and establishment of goals
 Learning-based treatments – giving “homework”
 Continuous monitoring and evaluation of treatment
Behavior Therapy (con’t)
 Behavior Therapy – classical conditioning
 Behavior Modification – operant conditioning
 Cognitive-behavior therapy – altering both thinking
patterns and behavior
Techniques for Modifying
Behavior
 Systematic Desensitization
 Visualization then progressive relaxation
 Modeling
 Training in assertiveness and social skills
 Positive reinforcement
 Token economy—desirable behaviors are positively reinforced
 Extinction
 Flooding-continuous exposure to feared stimuli
 Aversive Conditioning
 associate behavior with negative experience
Rational Emotive Behavioral
Therapy (REBT)  Albert Ellis
 People engage in self-talk that
is false
 If they can change their
beliefs, this will produce a
change in emotion
 Therapist confront
irrational (illogical,
maladaptive) beliefs and
teaches client to create a
realistic perspective
Beck’s Cognitive Therapy
(for depression)
 Aaron Beck
 Widely used for depression
 Cognitive schemas, methods for
organizing the way we view the
world, have evolved into a
distorted perception
 Therapist draws attention to
faulty reasoning, challenges
validity of statements
 Helps change way of thinking
using assignments to see cognitive
schema
Biological Treatments
 Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) –
“shock treatment”
 Early use – physicians passed electric
currents through brains of people with
schizophrenia
 Modern use – shock is applied to one
side of the brain at a time – used to treat
patients with severe depression, who
do not respond well to medication
 Still controversial
 Psychosurgery – destruction of brain
tissue for treating mental disorders
 Prefrontal lobotomy—cut connections
from prefrontal cortex to rest of brain
Biological Treatments
Psychoactive Drugs (con’t)
 Neuroleptics (Antipsychotics)–
reduce psychotic symptoms such as
hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, &
disordered thinking
 Antidepressants – help relieve
symptoms of depression – immediate
effect on neurotransmitters

increasing serotonin or
norepinephrine
 Lithium –reduce frequency and
intensity of manic and depressive
phases of bipolar patients
 Anxiolytics (tranquilizers) – treats
anxiety

most widely prescribed and used of all
legal drugs
Evaluating Psychoactive Drug
Treatments
 Limitations –
 Drugs may cover up the problem without permanently
curing it
 Relieve symptoms without addressing underlying causes
 Drug abuse – physical and psychological dependence
 Side effects
Effectiveness of Treatment
 https://www.ted.com/talks/david_anderson_your_brai
n_is_more_than_a_bag_of_chemicals?language=en