Ch 15 – Treatment of Psychological Disorders

The Elements of the Treatment Process
What are the 3 major approaches to the treatment of psychological disorders?

insight therapies aka talk therapy clients engage in complex verbal interactions with their therapists goal is to find possible solutions to the client’s problems

behaviour therapies based on principles of learning therapists make direct efforts to alter problematic responses and inappropriate habits procedures involve classical conditioning, operant conditioning or observational learning

biomedical therapies involve changing a person’s biological functioning common procedures are drug therapy and shock therapy

What professions are involved in the treatment of psychological disorders?

psychologist focus on insight or behaviour therapy psychiatrist physicians who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders rely more heavily on drug therapy clinical social workers psychiatric nurses

Insight Therapies psychoanalysis What are the goals and techniques of psychoanalysis?

goal is to recover unconscious conflicts, motives and defences that cause the client’s neurotic behaviour

techniques probing the unconscious free association clients express anything that comes to mind therapist studies free associations for clues to what is going on in the client’s unconscious dream analysis therapist interprets the symbolic meaning of the client’s dreams

interpretation therapist attempts to explain the inner significance of the client’s thoughts, feelings, memories and behaviours

transference clients unconsciously start relating to their therapist in ways that mimic critical relationships in their lives encouraged so that clients can re-enact relations with crucial people

Client-centered therapy
What are the goals and techniques of client-centered therapy?

goals to provide a supportive emotional climate for clients therapists help clients become more aware of their true feelings

techniques therapeutic climate create atmosphere of emotional support by: genuineness unconditional positive regard empathy Cognitive Therapy
What are the goals and techniques of cognitive therapy?

goal to change the way clients think help client use more reasonable standards of evaluation

techniques use homework assignments that focus on changing clients’ overt behaviours

Group Therapy
How is group therapy conducted? simultaneous treatment is given to several clients in a group participants act as therapists for one another therapist selects participants, set goals for the group, initiates and maintains the therapeutic process and protects clients from harm

Behaviour Therapies
What assumptions are behaviour therapies based on?

behaviour is the product of learning what has be learned can be unlearned

How do behaviour therapists treat phobias?

through systematic desensitization used to reduce phobic clients’ anxiety responses through counterconditioning

step 1 therapist helps the client build an anxiety hierarchy hierarchy is a list of things that cause anxiety client ranks the things from least anxiety arousing to most anxiety arousing

step 2 train the client in deep muscle relaxation

step 3 client tries to work through the hierarchy, learning to remain relaxed while imagining each stimulus

client may be encouraged to confront the real stimuli

Aversion Therapy
How does aversion therapy work?

pairs desired thing with an undesirable response ex/ alcoholic has an emetic drug paired with their favourite drink