Approaches Flashcards
Why adopt an approach?
Pros
●Help organize thinking (so much info coming in an approach help CP narrow that down)
●Suggest assessment and treatment strategies
●Facilitate communication (eg. behaviourist to behaviourist communication)
Cons
●Can be incorrect
●Can serve as blinders (where you disregard important information)
Psychoanalytic Approach
Freud’s personality theory consists of two separate (but interrelated) theories.
•A structural drive theory (emphasized the sexual drives of the ID)
•Developmental theory
***Ego is the bridge between Id and Superego
Important to note these are all driven by the subconscious
***4 Notable features of psychoanalysis:
• Therapists try to be “blank screens.”
●Emphasis on “transference” and “catharsis”
●Therapy occurs over a period of years and involves multiple sessions per week.
●Focus on personality change rather than symptom reduction
***Psychoanalytic concepts:
Transference – When the client reacts to the therapist as if the therapist were some important person in his or her early development
Catharsis – the expression of emotions connected to memories and conflicts
6 Criticism of Psychoanalysis:
- Concepts are too vague to be measured and tested
- Based on clinical experience with upper-class Viennese (lack of generalizability)
- Weak support for measures designed to measure Freudian constructs
- Too much emphasis on sexual and aggressive instincts
- Emphasis on childhood causes results in a neglect of more immediate influences on adult behavior
- Biased view of women
Current Psychodynamic theory:
• Therapists are more active (not blank screens)
●More focused on current relationships
●More time limited
●But are still not well researched
To about Psychoanalysis for exam:
Criticisms; concepts of id/ego/super ego; general idea of it
Adler’s Individual Psychology
• Disagreed with Freud’s emphasis on the role of unconscious instinctual forces and his lack of attention to social factors.
●Believed behavior was motivated by future goals rather than determined by past events.
Key concepts of Individual Psychology
- Inferiority feelings
- Striving for superiority
- Style of life
- Social interest
Adler believes Psychopathology…
Is compensating for feelings of inferiority. Thinks social internet is imperative for a “healthy lifestyle”.
Behaviourist Approach (Behaviourism)
• Based on principles of learning
●Emphasis on assessing and treating behaviors
●Empirical research is paramount
●3 variations
–Classical conditioning or respondent conditioning
–Operant learning
–Social cognition (observational learning)
Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov
●Studying salivation in dogs
●Noted that they would salivate in response to meat powder and experimenters
●Unconditioned stimulus is one that naturally elicits the target response
●E.g., Initially an unconditioned stimulus (meat powder) led to the unconditioned response (salivation).
●Through conditioning a neutral stimulus (the experimenter), called a conditioned stimulus, produces a conditioned response (salivation)
Operant Conditioning
BF Skinner
•believed that most complex behaviors are operant behaviors that are voluntarily emitted as the result of the way they “operate” on the environment.
●The consequences that follow behaviors determines whether they will be repeated.
Cognitive Theories (2)
- Focus on the role that thoughts have in psychopathology.
* Maladaptive thinking and thought processes are responsible for disorders.
3 Levels of Cognitive Distortion
- Automatic Thoughts – come spontaneously, if they are negative they would lead to psychopathology.
- Assumptions – more abstract and generalized. Often take the form of “shoulds,” imperatives, or “if-then” statements.
- Schemas reflect deep-seated models of self and other.
Examples of Distorted Automatic thoughts (Cognitive Theory) 3
• Dichotomous thinking: viewing events or people in all-or-nothing terms. “It was a complete waste of time.”
●Mind reading: assuming that you know what people think without having sufficient evidence. “He thinks I’m a loser.”
●Emotional reasoning: letting feelings guide interpretation of reality. “I feel anxious, so this really is a dangerous situation.”
Examples of Maladaptive Assumptions (Cognitive Theory) 3
• “I should be successful at everything I try.”
●“I should get the approval of everyone.”
●“If I let my guard down, something bad with happen.”
The Humanistic Approach (3)
• Focused on understanding individuals’ perceptions of the world
●Emphasis on meaning and values
●Emphasis on personal growth
Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory
Sometimes considered Humanistic as well as Cognitive Clinician.
●Construct
–Represents the unique view that you have constructed (history)
–Indicates how you are likely to construe the world (predispositions)
–Behavior is determined by personal constructs
●Disordered behavior is the result of inaccurate, oversimplified, or faulty constructs about social experiences
Humanistic Approach (3)
Carl Roger most well know Humanist Approach
- Focused on understanding individual perceptions of the world.
- Emphasis in meaning & values
- Emphasis on personal growth
Actualizing Tendency - Carl Rogers (Humanist App)
“the directional trend which is evident in all organic and human life—the urge to expand, extend, develop, mature—the tendency to express and activate all the capacities of the organism” - Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers 1961
•Individuals strive to obtain positive regard.
●Only some actions, thoughts, or feelings will be approved of by significant others (Conditions of Worth).
●Incongruence is a discrepancy between one’s self-concept based on conditions of worth and one’s true nature. (difference between who we think we are vs. Who others want us to be.
Rogers (Humanistic) 6 Conditions regarding necessary & sufficient condition of therapeutic personality change:
1.Two persons are in psychological contact.
2•The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious.
- The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship.
4•The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client
5•The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client.
6•The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved.
Timothy Leary - Interpersonal Circumplex
Theory that all social behaviour can be captured in 2 dimensions:
Hate/Love
Dominance/Submission
- Ideally you want to be in the middle; key is to be flexible
- Nuance - hate can pull hate but submission can pull dominance.
Relates to PSY in 2 ways: CP relies on interpersonal behaviour, what reaction are pulled from client. Depressed people come in submissive, what if roles are reversed?
Eclecticism Approach (2)
Technical Eclecticism—using 1 primary theoretical orientation (explain disorder, identify change processes, plan treatment) and willingness to use techniques from other approaches.
Theoretical Eclecticism—no clear orientation and using techniques “based on whatever seems interesting or convenient.”
Integrative Approach
“New” theory of Theoretical Eclecticism
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory founded on the idea that…(2)
Human behaviour is derived from:
- The constant struggle to satisfy inborn sexual & aggressive instincts.
- The need to respect social rules & realities.
Psychodynamic approach emphasized:
Unconscious mental processes explaining human thought, feelings & behaviour.
