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 psychological
disorders through psychological
methods
 Clients


Inpatients
Outpatients
 Treatment from




Psychiatrists
Psychologists
Counselor
Medical Doctor
 Basic goal = to help people change
their way of thinking, feeling, 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
 All seek to
understand the
patient’s past to
help understand
the future
 “Talk” therapy
 Help client
function in
everyday life
 Carl Jung
 Karen Horney
Contemporary Psychoanalysis = less emphasis
on Freud’s “unconscious impulses”
 Object-Relations Therapy
 most problems stem from the need for human
contact and support
 focus on relationships, interpersonal life events
 Psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy
 more flexibility and conversation between patient
and therapist
 patient focuses on more concrete goals
 Supportive-expressive therapy
 short-term treatment
 therapist looks for a core conflict that occurs
repeatedly in a variety of relationships
Humanistic Psychotherapy
 Emphasize the way in which
people interpret the events in
their lives
 behavior = motivated by an
innate drive toward growth
 Clients (not patient) 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
 allowed clients to decide what to
talk about and when, without
judgment or direction – now
referred to as client-centered
therapy
 Genuineness- completely honest
and open
 Unconditional Positive Regardfully accepting the worth of the
client
 Empathy- emotional
understanding
Gestalt Therapy
 Fritz and Laura Perls
 Developed therapy from the
perspective that people create
their own understanding of the
world and 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)
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
 disorders are rooted in family conflicts
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 (John Wolpe)
 Visualization then progressive relaxation
 Modeling
 Assertiveness and social skills training
 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
 Neuroleptics (Antipsychotics)– reduce psychotic
symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, &
disordered thinking
Biological Treatments
Psychoactive Drugs (con’t)
 Antidepressants – help relieve
symptoms of depression –
immediate effect on
neurotransmitters (usually
increasing serotonin or
norepinephrine)
 Lithium – mineral salt found
to 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
 http://education-
portal.com/academy/lesson/treatmenteffectiveness.html#lesson