1. Treatment for Psychological Disorders
Chapter 16
5-7% of the AP Exam

2. Psychological Treatment
When a psychological disorder becomes serious enough to cause problems in everyday functioning, the client may seek to have the disorder treated.

3. 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

4. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis – understanding unconscious conflicts
Freud’s one-on-one method
Aims to help clients gain insight into and work through problems

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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
“Lose your mind and come to your senses.” (Fritz Perls)

10. 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

11. Behavior Therapy (con’t)
Behavior Therapy – classical conditioning
Behavior Modification – operant conditioning
Cognitive-behavior therapy – altering both thinking patterns and behavior

12. 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

13. 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 confronts irrational (illogical, maladaptive) beliefs and teaches client to create a realistic perspective

14. Beck’s Cognitive Therapy
Aaron Beck
Widely used for depression
Patient’s cognitive schemas, (methods for organizing the way we view the world) have evolved into a distorted perception
Therapist draws attention to patient’s faulty reasoning
Help change way of thinking = will change behavior

15. 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-VERY RARE!
Prefrontal lobotomy—cut connections from prefrontal cortex to rest of brain

16. 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

17. 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

18. Effectiveness of Treatment