1. Psychology in Action (9e)
Chapter 15: Therapy

2. Introductory Definitions
Psychotherapy: techniques employed to improve psychological functioning & promote adjustment to life
Three major approaches to therapy:
Insight (personal understanding)
Behavior (maladaptive behaviors)
Biomedical (mental illness & medical treatments, such as drugs)

4. Four Major Forms of Insight Therapy
Psychoanalysis/psychodynamic
Humanistic
Cognitive
Group, Family, & Marital

5. Insight Therapies: Psychoanalysis/Psychodynamic
Psychoanalysis: Freudian therapy designed to bring unconscious conflicts into consciousness

6. Insight Therapies: Psychoanalyis/Psychodynamic
Five major techniques of psychoanalysis:

7. Insight Therapies: Psychoanalysis/Psychodynamic
Evaluation of psychoanalysis: limited applicability & lack of scientific credibility
Psychodynamic Therapy: briefer, more directive, & more modern form of psychoanalysis focusing on conscious processes & current problems

8. Insight Therapies: Cognitive
Cognitive Therapy: focuses on faulty thinking & beliefs
Improvement comes from insight into negative self-talk (internal dialogue)
Cognitive Restructuring: process of changing destructive thoughts or inappropriate interpretations

9. Insight Therapies: Cognitive (Continued)
Albert Ellis’s Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT): eliminates emotional problems through rational examination of irrational beliefs
Aaron Beck’s form of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy works to change both thoughts & behaviors

10. Ellis’s Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

11. Beck’s Cognitive-Behavior Therapy
Depressive thought patterns:
selective perception
overgeneralization
magnification
all-or-nothing thinking

12. Insight Therapies: Cognitive (Continued)
Evaluation of cognitive therapy
Pro: Considerable success with a range of problems
Con: Criticized for overemphasizing rationality, ignoring unconscious dynamics, minimizing importance of the past, etc.

13. Insight Therapies: Humanistic
Humanistic therapy: maximizes
personal growth through affective restructuring (emotional readjustment)
Key assumption: Problems = blockage or disruption of normal growth potential, which leads to a defective self-concept.

14. Insight Therapies: Humanistic (Cont.)
Rogers’s Client-Centered Therapy: emphasizes client’s natural tendency to become healthy & productive
Techniques include:
empathy
unconditional positive regard
genuineness
active listening

15. Insight Therapies: Humanistic (Continued)
Evaluation of humanistic therapy
Pro: Evidence for success
Con: Basic tenets, such as self-actualization, difficult to test scientifically

16. Insight Therapies: Group, Family, & Marital Therapies
Group Therapy: a number of people meet together to work toward therapeutic goals
Family & Marital Therapies: work to change maladaptive family & couple interaction patterns

17. Behavior Therapies
Behavior Therapy: group of techniques based on learning principles used to change maladaptive behaviors
Three foundations of behavior therapy:
classical conditioning
operant conditioning
observational learning

18. Behavior Therapies: Classical Conditioning
Systematic Desensitization: gradual process of extinguishing a learned fear (or phobia) by working through a hierarchy of fearful stimuli while remaining relaxed

19. Behavior Therapies: Classical Conditioning & Driving Phobia

20. Behavior Therapies: Classical Conditioning
Aversion Therapy: pairing an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus with a maladaptive behavior

21. Behavior Therapies: Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning techniques used to INCREASE adaptive behaviors:
Shaping: successive approximations of target behavior are rewarded; includes role-playing, behavior rehearsal, assertiveness training
Tokens: symbolic rewards used to immediately reinforce desired behavior

22. Behavior Therapies: Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning techniques used to DECREASE maladaptive behaviors:
Extinction: withdrawal of attention
Punishment: adding or taking away something (e.g., time-out)

23. Behavior Therapies: Observational Learning
Modeling: watching & imitating models that demonstrate desirable behaviors
Participant Modeling: combining live modeling with direct & gradual practice
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010

24. Behavior Therapies (Continued)
Evaluation of behavior therapies:
Pro: Strong evidence for success with a wide range of problems
Con: Questioned & criticized for generalizability & ethics

25. Biomedical Therapies
Biomedical Therapy: uses physiological interventions, such as drugs, to treat psychological disorders
Three forms of biomedical therapy:
Psychopharmacology
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Psychosurgery

26. Biomedical Therapies: Psychopharmacology
Four major categories of drugs:
Antianxiety (increases relaxation, reduces anxiety & muscle tension)
Antipsychotic (treats hallucinations & other symptoms of psychosis)
Mood Stabilizer (treats manic episodes & depression)
Antidepressant (treats symptoms of depression)

28. Psychopharmacology— How Antidepressants Work

29. Biomedical Therapies (Continued)
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT): based on passing electrical current through the brain; used almost exclusively when other methods have failed
Psychosurgery: operative procedures on the brain designed to relieve severe mental symptoms that have not responded to other forms of treatment

30. Therapy & Critical Thinking Therapy Essentials--Five Common Goals

31. Therapy & Critical Thinking: Institutionalization
Institutionalization—criteria for involuntary commitment:
dangerous to self or others
believed to be in serious need of treatment
no reasonable alternatives

32. Therapy & Critical Thinking: Institutionalization (Continued)
Deinstitutionalization: discharging as many people as possible from state hospitals & discouraging admissions
Community services such as community mental health (CMH) centers work to cope with problems of deinstitutionalization.