Psych Chapter 16: Therapies

Do many U.S therapists use tradition psychoanalysis?

Relatively few U.S. therapists now offer traditional psychoanalysis. Much of its underlying theory is not supported by scientific research.

What is psychoanalysis?

Sigmund Freud's therapeutic technique. Freud believed the patient's free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences—and the therapist's interpretations of them—released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.

What are exposure therapies?

behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid. expose people to what they normally avoid or escape (behaviors that get reinforced by reduced anxiety). Exposure therapies have them face their fear, and thus to overcome their fear of the fear response itself.

What is active listening?

echoing, restating, and seek- ing clarification of what the person expresses (verbally or nonverbally) and acknowledging the expressed feelings. A feature of Rogers' client-centered therapy.

What do humanistic therapists aim to do?

boost self-fulfillment by helping people grow in self-awareness and self-acceptance.

What do psychodynamic therapists do?

don't talk much about id, ego, and superego. Instead they try to help people understand their current symptoms. They focus on themes across important relationships, including childhood experiences and the therapist relationship. Rather than lying on a couch, out of the therapist's line of vision, patients meet with their therapist face to face. These meetings take place once or twice a week (rather than several times per week), and often for only a few weeks or months (rather than several years).

What is client-centered therapy?

humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genu- ine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth. (Also called person-centered therapy.) ocuses on the person's conscious self-perceptions.

What is interpretation?

in psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight.

What is resistance?

in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material.

What is transference?

in psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).

What is biomedical therapy?

prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person's physiology.

What is group therapy?

therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permitting therapeutic benefits from group interaction.

What is behavior therapy?

therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors. DOUBT THE HEALING POWER OF SELF-AWARENESS They assume that problem behaviors are the problems, and the application of learning principles can eliminate them.

What are cognitive therapies?

therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.

What is family therapy?

therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members.

What is psychotherapy?

treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained thera- pist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.

What is counterconditioning?

a behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning. Two techniques: exposure therapy and aversive conditioning.

What is interpersonal psychotherapy?

a brief (12- to 16-session) variation of psychodynamic therapy, has effectively treated depression

What is unconditioned positive regard?

a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients to develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.

What is rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)?

a confrontational cognitive therapy, developed by Albert Ellis, that vigorously challenges people's illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions.

What is cognitive-behavioral therapy?

a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior). aims not only to alter the way people think (cognitive therapy), but also to alter the way they act (behavior therapy). It seeks to make people aware of their irrational negative thinking, to replace it with new ways of thinking, and to practice the more positive approach in everyday settings. Behavioral change is typically addressed first, followed by sessions on cognitive change; the therapy concludes with a focus on maintaining both and preventing relapses

What is aversive conditioning?

a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol). the goal is substituting a negative (aversive) response for a positive response to a harmful stimulus (such as alcohol). Thus, aversive conditioning is the reverse of systematic desensitization—it seeks to condition an aversion to something the person should avoid.

What is systematic desensitization?

a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.

What are insight therapies?

a variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person's awareness of underlying motives and defenses.

What is virtual reality exposure therapy?

an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to electronic simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking.

What is the eclectic approach?

an approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client's problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy. combining psychotherapies.

What is a token economy?

an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats.

What are behavior modifications?

reinforcing desired behaviors, and withholding reinforcement for undesired behaviors.

What is inoculation training?

teaching people to restructure their thinking in stressful situations.

What is progressive relaxation?

the therapist would train you to relax one muscle group after another, until you achieve a blissful state of complete relaxation and comfort. Then the therapist would ask you to imagine, with your eyes closed, a mildly anxiety-arousing situation. This imagined scene is repeatedly paired with relaxation until you feel no trace of anxiety.