13 - 4 Flashcards
Humanistic therapy
people have control of their behaviour, can make choices about their lives, and are
essentially responsible for solving their own problems.
humanistic therapists view themselves as guides or facilitators.
Therapists using humanistic techniques seek to
lead people to realizations about themselves
and to help them find ways to come closer to the ideal they hold for themselves.
Humanistic therapy says psychological disorders
are the result of people’s inability to find meaning in life and of feeling lonely and unconnected to others.
Person-centred therapy
Humanistic perspective
aims to enable people to reach their potential for self-actualization.
By providing a warm and accepting environment, therapists hope to motivate clients to air their problems and feelings, which in turn, this enables clients to make realistic and
constructive choices and decisions about the things that bother them in their current lives.
Therapists provide unconditional positive regard
Advantages of Humanistic Therapy
The notion that psychological disorders result from restricted growth potential appeals philosophically to many people.
Furthermore, when humanistic therapists acknowledge that the freedom we possess can lead to psychological difficulties, clients find an unusually supportive environment for therapy,
which In turn, can help clients discover solutions to difficult psychological problems.
Disadvantages of Humanistic Therapy
Humanistic treatments lack specificity, a problem that has troubled their critics.
Humanistic approaches are not very precise and are probably the least scientifically and theoretically developed type of treatment.
Moreover, this form of treatment works best for the same type of highly verbal client who profits most from psychoanalytic treatment.
Interpersonal Therapy
focuses on the individual’s current social relationships.
Often focuses on interpersonal issues such as social skills deficits, conflicts with others, grief,
or major life transitions (e.g., divorce)
The goal is to help the client improve his/her current social relationships.
interpersonal therapy is especially effective in
dealing with depression, anxiety, addictions, and eating disorders.
Group therapy
people meet in a group with a therapist to discuss their problems and receive support and advice from group members.
Self-help groups
People who have experienced similar problems get together to discuss their shared feelings and experiences without a professional therapist.
Ex. AA
Family therapy
approach that focuses on the family and its dynamics.
By meeting with the entire family simultaneously they expect each member to contribute to the resolution of the problem as they try to understand how the family members interact with one another.
Many family therapists believe that family members fall into rigid roles or set patterns of behaviour, with one person acting as the scapegoat, another as a bully, and so forth, with such roles perpetuating family disturbances.
Thus, a goal is to get the family members to adopt new, more constructive roles and patterns of behaviour
1952 psychologist Hans Eysenck claimed that people who received psychodynamic treatment and related therapies
were no better off at the end of treatment than
were people who were placed on a waiting list
for treatment but never received it.
Eysenck concluded that people would go into spontaneous remission (recovery without treatment) if they were simply left one.
today most psychologists
agree:
that Therapy does work!
therapy brings about greater improvement than does no treatment at all, with the rate of spontaneous remission being fairly low.
In most cases, then, the symptoms of abnormal behaviour do not go away by themselves if left untreated
Therapists usually use an eclectic approach to therapy
(an approach that uses techniques taken from a variety of treatment methods, rather than just one) so they can use the techniques that work best for each individual client.
Drug therapy
Biomedical Therapy
control of psychological disorders using drugs.
Drug therapy works by altering the operation of neurotransmitters or neurons in the brain.
Some drugs increase synaptic transmissions (allowing the particular neurons to
fire more), while some decrease synaptic transmissions (allowing the particular neurons to fire less).
chlorpromazine drug
changed mental hospitals in 1950s and became the most popular and successful treatment for schizophrenia.
Antipsychotic drugs
are a class of drugs that temporarily reduce psychotic symptoms such as agitation, hallucinations, and delusions.
Today drug therapy is the preferred treatment
for most cases of severely
abnormal behaviour and, as such, is used for most patients hospitalized with psychological disorders.
Most antipsychotics block dopamine receptors at the brain’s synapses.
Despite the effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs, they do not produce a
“cure” in the same way that, say, penicillin cures an
infection.
Most of the time, when the drug is withdrawn, the symptoms reappear.
Such drugs can have long-term side effects, such as dryness of the mouth and throat, dizziness, and sometimes tremors and loss of muscle control, which may continue after drug treatments are stopped
Antidepressant drugs
are a class of medications that improve a severely depressed patient’s mood and feeling of well-being.
Most antidepressant drugs work by changing the concentration of particular neurotransmitters in the brain.
Tricyclic drugs
Antidepressant drugs
increase the availability of norepinephrine at the synapses of
neurons.
MAO inhibitors
Antidepressant drugs
prevent the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO) from breaking down neurotransmitters.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
Antidepressant drugs
target the neurotransmitter serotonin, permitting it to linger at the synapse.
Unlike antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants can produce
lasting, long- term recovery from depression (In many cases, even after patients stop taking the drugs, their depression does not return)
Mood stabilizers
are used to treat mood disorders characterized by intense mood dysregulation, particularly the bipolar disorders.
Lithium
is a drug made up of mineral salts, which is used to treat and prevent manic episodes of bipolar disorder.
Antianxiety drugs
are a class of drugs that reduce the level of anxiety a person experiences, essentially by reducing excitability and increasing feelings of well-being.
Long-term use can lead to dependence.
Can be lethal when combined with alcohol.
Almost every therapeutic approach to psychological disturbance views continuing anxiety
as a signal of some other sort of problem.
Thus, drugs that mask anxiety may simply be hiding other difficulties.
Consequently, rather than confronting their underlying problems, people may be hiding from them through the use of antianxiety drugs.
ketamine
blocks the neural receptor NMDA, which affects the neurotransmitter Glutamate.
researchers believe that ketamine shows promise in the helping patients with treatment-resistant depression.
micro-dosing
chronic use of what the individual interprets as a small dose of psilocybin (“magic
mushrooms”) or another psychedelic—in order to manage the symptoms of depression,
anxiety, post-traumatic, or even to to treat alcohol or substance-use disorders.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
is a procedure used in the
treatment of severe depression in which an electric current of 70 to 150 volts is briefly administered to a patient’s head.
controversial technique with serious potential side effects.
Finally, we still do not know why ECT works, and critics suggest that the treatment may produce permanent damage to the brain.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
is a depression treatment in which a precise magnetic pulse is directed to a specific area of the brain, by activating particular neurons.
However, the therapy can produce side effects, such as seizures and convulsions
Psychosurgery
is brain surgery once used to reduce the symptoms of mental disorder but rarely used today.
Prefrontal lobotomy:
Psychosurgery
Surgically destroying or removing parts of
a patient’s frontal lobes that were thought to control emotionality.
Cingulotomy
Psychosurgery
A precise form of psychosurgery where tissue in
the anterior cingulate of the brain are destroyed.
used in rare cases of OCD
Community psychology
is a branch of psychology that focuses on the
prevention and minimization of psychological disorders in the community.
Deinstitutionalization
Community Psychology
was the transfer of former mental patients from institutions to the community.
Community psychology movement has had some positive
outcomes:
Its emphasis on prevention has led to new approaches to psychological disorders.
The creation of telephone hotlines (ex. Suicide hotline).
The innovation of college, university, and high school crisis centers
Eye Movement Desensitization and
Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy
Treatment for acute stress and PTSD
EMDR targets memory networks related to traumatic incidents and simultaneously targets thoughts and sounds, sensations, emotions, images, acts/urges/states, and beliefs.
