Clinical Psychology Exam #1

Rupture

Deterioration of a therapy relationship signaled by disagreement about goals, reduced collaboration, and a strained emotional bond between client and therapist.

Psychotherapies can most logically be grouped according to their theoretical _____________ to behavior disorder.

approach

A behavioral technique designed to help clients clearly express their feelings and wishes is called ___________ , a type of __________ .

assertiveness training; social skills training

The contents of an assessment report usually reflect the clinician's ______________ and ___________ .

assessment outline; theoretical orientation

Giving more weight to information that is consistent with a clinician's initial impression of a client is an example of ___________ .

confirmation bias

A therapist is contemplating selling his house to a client. Actually doing so would create a _______________ for the therapist.

conflict of interest

If people who are known to be anxious score high on a new test of anxiety, this would be evidence of the test's _____________ .

construct validity

Therapists and patients collaboratively select one of the following four interpersonal problem areas to focus on in therapy: _____________ , ______________ , ___________ , ____________ .

death of a loved one; conflict with family members, friends, or coworkers; a significant role transition; or insufficient meaningful interpersonal relationships.

Projection, reaction formation, and displacement are all examples of what Freud called ______________ .

defense mechanisms

Many of the most influential alternatives to clinical diagnosis are called _______________ approaches.

dimensional

Transference

A process in which a client's typical relationship patterns and defense mechanisms appear in the therapy relationship.

Resistance

A process in which clients behave in ways that interfere with the psychoanalytic treatment process.

Progressive relaxation training (PRT)

A set of muscle tension and release procedures designed to create feelings of relaxation that are incompatible with anxiety.

Aversion therapy

A set of techniques that employ painful or unpleasant stimuli to decrease unwanted behaviors.

Interpersonal psychotherapy

A time-limited treatment that focuses on resolving the interpersonal problems that underlie psychological problems such as depression.

Cognitive therapy

A treatment approach that aims at identifying, evaluating, and changing clients' maladaptive cognitions.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

A treatment whose goal is to help clients engage fully in the present and respond to situations in ways that are consistent with their lives.

Clients' feelings of anger toward or affection for their psychoanalyst are seen as examples of _______________ .

transference

For Freud, insight meant understanding the role of __________ processes in disorder. In behavioral and other forms of treatment, insight is more about more general __________________ .

unconscious; self-knowledge

One of the most difficult ethical situations arises when therapists are working with clients whose __________ differ significantly from their own.

values

Cognitive, behavioral, and acceptance-based approaches all emphasize the importance of ___________ research to guide treatment planning and evaluation.

empirical

The most philosophically based form of humanistic treatment is ____________ therapy.

existential

True or False? The first step in most forms of humanistic therapy is to give psychological tests to establish a diagnosis of the client's problems.

false

When Freud found that not all his clients could be hypnotized, he substituted a method known as _____________ to help them uncover unconscious material.

free association

Carl Rogers emphasized the importance of three main therapist characteristics, including _____________, ________________, and _________________ .

genuineness, empathy, and unconditional positive regard

Psychodynamic clinical training programs typically require trainees to ___________ in order to become more effective therapists.

have their own therapy

A fear _____________ is a series of increasingly difficult steps designed to reduce ____________ behavior and test feared outcomes.

hierarchy, avoidance

The therapists most likely to engage in a lot of self-disclosure tend to take a __________ approach to treatment.

humanistic

If an assessment report provides no information beyond what a report consumer already knows about the client, it is low on ____________ .

increment validity

Calling oneself an "idiot" is an example of the cognitive distortion called ___________ .

labeling

Media misrepresentations of psychotherapy can make it _____________ likely that troubled people will seek help when they need it.

less

A life history structured interview that focuses almost entirely on a client's high school years would be said to have ___________ bandwidth and _______________ fidelity.

low; high

The most important goals of diagnostic classification are to __________, ___________, and _____________ .

matching disorders to treatment, helping researchers identify clients' disorders, ease communication among mental health professionals.

Internal consistency

measured by comparing the conclusions drawn by different clinicians using the same assessment system to diagnose, rate, or observe the same clients.

Interrater reliability

measured by comparing the conclusions drawn by different clinicians using the same assessment system to diagnose, rate, or observe the same clients.

One of the most important elements in third-wave behavioral therapies is a concept known as _____________ .

mindfulness or acceptance

Interpersonal therapy is playing an increasingly important role in advancing global mental health given it can be administered by _____________ .

non-specialist providers

The nature of attachment that develops between infants and their earliest caregivers is emphasized most by _____________ therapies.

object relations

The positive expectations that help clients succeed in psychotherapy are related to the ____________ , a phenomenon long recognized as part of the success of medical treatment.

placebo effect

Psychotherapy is defined as treatment procedures provided within a _____________ .

professional relationship

Longer treatment durations tend to be associated with ___________ approaches to treatment.

psychoanalytic (or psychodynamic)

psychotherapists who develop treatments based on Freud's classical methods are known as _____________ therapists.

psychodynamically oriented

Clinicians generally choose assessment instruments that have the best __________ .

psychometric properties

The biggest problem for clinicians attempting to identify murderers and other dangerous people is the fact that violent acts are _____________ .

rare

The goals of clinical assessment are determined mainly by the ________

referral question

In behavioral activation, clients plan activities that will provide _____________ from the environment, and increase their experiences of ___________ and ______________ .

reinforcement, pleasure, mastery

Interpersonal therapy is based on the idea that a key factor maintaining depressive symptoms and other psychological problems is _______________ .

relationship distress

A treatment planning approach based on the therapists' theoretical orientation is called ____________ .

top-down (or therapist based)

construct validity

the degree to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring

Unified protocol

A CBT approach aimed at treating several disorders at once by addressing the common mechanisms maintaining all of them.

Behavioral activation

A behavioral treatment method to help clients engage more often in behaviors that will provide reinforcement from the environment.

Insight

A client's conscious awareness of the underlying causes of psychological problems.

Case formulation (case study guide)

A clinician's conceptualization of the client's problems, strengths, and protective factors, along with their interconnections, origins, and the factors that maintain problems.

Behavior Therapy:

A collection of learning-based treatment techniques that includes exposure therapies, behavioral activation, and contingency management.

Assertiveness training

A form of social skills training focused on helping clients to effectively express their needs and wishes.

Psychoanalysis

A method of psychotherapy that seeks to help clients gain insight into, and work through, unconscious thoughts and emotions presumed to cause psychological problems.

Gestalt therapy

An active form of humanistic treatment that seeks to create conditions in which clients can become more unified, more self-aware, and more self-accepting.

Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)

An approach to cognitive therapy that directly attacks irrational beliefs that support psychological problems and teaches more rational ways of thinking.

Mindfulness

An important element of third-wave treatments that encourages observation and acceptance of one's current experience.

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)

An integrated cognitive behavior and acceptance based approach being used with borderline personality disorder and other treatment-resistant problems

Exposure treatments

Arranging for clients to have extended contact with a feared situation so that they can gain mastery over it and discover that it is not harmful.

Insight

Clients' awareness and understanding of the nature, causes, and factors maintaining their problems.

Premature termination

Clients' leaving psychotherapy before the treatment process has been completed.

Statistical prediction

Drawing clinical inferences based on probability data and formal procedures for combining information.

Clinical prediction

Drawing clinical inferences based primarily on intuition, informal observations, assumptions, and experience.

Working through

Fully exploring the implications of insights gained in psychoanalysis.

Functional analysis

Gathering information about the personal and environmental factors that trigger and support a client's adaptive and maladaptive behaviors.

Reliability

In clinical assessment, the consistency with which an instrument measures some target, such as depression or intelligence.

Validity

In clinical assessment, the degree to which an instrument measures what it is supposed to measure.

Congruence

In person-centered therapy, a consistency between the way therapists feel and the way they act toward clients.

Unconditional positive regard

In person-centered therapy, the therapist attitude that expresses caring for and acceptance of the client as a valued person.

Empathy

In person-centered therapy, the therapist's attempt to appreciate how the world looks from the client's point of view.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts, or rules of thumb people use to help them make judgements and decisions.

Schemas

Organized knowledge that influences how we anticipate, perceive, interpret, and recall information.

Social skills training

Procedures designed to improve the skills clients need to interact successfully with other people.

Prognosis

Refers to the outcome of a treatment, but can also refer more generally to predictions about changes in symptoms without treatment or under certain circumstances.

Free Association

Saying whatever comes to mind, without censorship, to provide clues to unconscious memories, impulses and fantasies.

Instead of arguing with clients, cognitive therapists use _____________ questioning and ___________ to help clients change unhealthy thinking patterns.

Socratic; guided discovery

Incremental validity

The ability of an assessment report to add something important to what is already known about a client.

Placebo effect

The appearance of treatment benefits based on clients' belief that the treatment will help.

Therapeutic alliance

The emotional bond between therapist and client and their shared understanding of treatment tasks and goals.

Bandwidth-fidelity dilemma

The fact that in clinical assessment, the more detailed one's exploration is, the fewer topics can be addressed, and the more topics explored, the less detailed the exploration can be. Clinicians seek assessment strategies and measurement tools that yield an optimum balance of bandwidth and fidelity for the assessment tasks at hand.

Standardization

The process of administering a test or other assessment method to samples of people that are large enough and representative enough to establish clinically useful norms for interpreting a client's score on those assessments.

Cognitive restructuring

The process of generating more balanced and helpful alternative ways of thinking.

Transference

The reenactment of the causes of the client's problems within the therapy relationship.

predictive validity

The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior.

Referral question

The trigger that shapes the clinician's choice of assessment instruments and the interpretation and communication of results. Also called the presenting problem. First step in shaping the ultimate goal of assessment. Often relate to diagnosis, description, treatment planning, or prediction.

Interpretation

Therapist comments designed to prompt clients to examine their thoughts and actions and reach more informed conclusions about them.

Cognitive behavior therapy

Treatment packages for psychological disorders that combine elements of behavior therapy and cognitive therapy.

Psychotherapy

Treatment techniques administered by mental health professionals in a professional relationship to help clients overcome psychological problems.

Person-centered therapy (client-centered therapy)

Treatment that focuses on creating a client-therapist relationship characterized by unconditional positive regard, empathy, and congruence that allows clients to become aware of their true thoughts and feelings and thus remove blockages to their personal growth.

Defense mechanisms

Unconscious mental strategies designed to keep anxiety-provoking material from reaching consciousness.

Psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy

Variations on psychoanalytic treatment that departed significantly from the principles and methods of Freud's original theories.

Educating clients requires that the therapist be able to present information at what level?

a level the client can understand

Decisions about what assessment information to focus on are determined mainly by the _________ and ____________ .

characteristics of client, goals of assessment

Assessment reports cannot be useful if they are not ______________ .

clearly written

The most accurate clinical judgements are likely to arise when clinicians collect _____________ and then use _____________ to make ____________ .

clinical data; statistical formulas; final decisions

The underlying associations in memory that serve as a script or lens that guide how we view situations reflect out _________ .

schemas

discriminant validity

scores on the measure are not related to other measures that are theoretically different

In the evolution of behavioral approaches to treatment, cognitive behavior therapy would be considered to be in the __________ wave.

second

Therapists should consult with __________ or _________ when unsure how to handle an ethically tricky situation.

supervisors; colleagues

A test that yields about the same score when taken by the same person 6 months apart is said to have ___________ .

test-retest reliability

criterion validity

the extent to which a measure is related to an outcome

concurrent validity

the extent to which two measures of the same trait or ability agree

Clinicians who rely on their intuition to predict clients' responsiveness to psychotherapy have greater confidence in the value of ____________ than in the value of ______________ .

their own experience; evidence from clinical research

The ___________ describes the emotional bond that develops between the therapist and client.

therapeutic alliance

In most forms of humanistic psychotherapy, the most important curative factor is thought to be the ____________ .

therapeutic relationship