Chapter 17: Therapy

Cognitive Therapy

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

Person-Centered Therapy

(Rogers), An approach to therapy that assumes all individuals have a tendency toward growth and that this growth can be facilitated by acceptance and genuine reactions from the therapist.

Latent Content of Dreams

According to Freud, the "disguised" meanings of dreams, hidden by more obvious subjects

Individual Therapy

Adler, psychodynamic approach, unconscious feelings play a role, examination of a person's lifestyle and choices: motivations, perceptions, goals, resources

Antidepressant Drugs

Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil; drugs used to treat depression; also increasingly prescribed for anxiety; different types work by altering the availability of various neurotransmitters

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud's therapeutic technique; designed to bring repressed feelings and thoughts to conscious awareness so the person can deal with these issues more effectively; uses free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences--and the therapist's interpretations of them--released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight

Modeling

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

Group Therapy

Therapy in which multiple participants (who often do not know one another at the outset) work on their individual problems in a group atmosphere

Antipsychotic Drugs

Thorazine, drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder, can lead to Tardive Dyskinesia

Humanistic Therapy

Treatments designed to help clients gain insight into their fundamental self-worth and value as human beings; therapy is a process of discovering our own unique potential

Antianxiety Drugs

Valium, Xanax; drugs which relieve tension, apprehension, and nervousness

Counterconditioning

a behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors; based on classical conditioning. Includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning.

Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy

a breif electric shock administered to the brain, usually to reduce profound depression hat does not respond to drug treatments

Gestalt Therapy

a form of humanistic therapy associated with Fritz Perls that aims to help the patient integrate inconsistent aspects of herself into a coherent whole by increasing self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Meta-Analysis

a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies

Systematic Desensitization

a type of counterconditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli

Aversive Conditioning

a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol)

Operant Conditioning

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

Classical Conditioning

a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Insight Therapies

a variety of therapies which aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing the client's awareness of underlying motives and defenses

Manifest Content of Dreams

according to Freud, the apparent story line of dreams

Psychotherapy

an emotionally charged, confiding interaction between a trained therapist and someone who suffers from psychological difficulties

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.

Rational Emotive Therapy

based on Albert Ellis' theory that cognitions control our emotions and behaviors; therefore, changing the way we think about things will affect the way we feel and the way we behave.

Exposure Therapies

behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear and avoid

Psychosurgery

brain surgery on human patients intended to relieve severe and otherwise intractable mental or behavioral problems

Behavior Modification

changing one's choices or actions by manipulating the cues that trigger the actions, the actions themselves, or the consequences of the actions

Psychoactive Drugs

chemical substances that modify mental, emotional, or behavioral functioning

Free Association

in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.

Resistance

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

Transference

in psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships

Positive Reinforcement

increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.

Extinction

the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced.

Psychopharmacology

the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

Eclectic Therapy

therapeutic approach that draws upon principles and techniques representing different schools of therapy

Behavior Therapy

therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors

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; attempts to guide family members toward positive relationships and improved communication