Chapter 14: Therapies Flashcards
Trephination
An early therapy for mental disorders that involved cutting a hole in the skull
Subsyndromal disorders
Versions of psychological disorders that don’t meet the DSM-5 criteria for diagnosis but that may nonetheless cause significant problems
Rapport
A client’s sense of trust in, respect for, and comfort with the treatment provider.
Cultural competence
An understanding of how clients’ cultural backgrounds shape their beliefs, values, and expectations for therapy
Culturally appropriate therapy
Therapy that is conducted in a manner that is sensitive to the client’s cultural background and expectations
Hysteria
An older term for a group of presumably psychogenic disorders that included a wide variety of physical and psychological symptoms; the term used today is conversion disorder.
Psychogenic
Resulting from a psychological cause rather than from organic damage to the nervous system
Free association
A method used in psychoanalytic therapy in which the patient says anything that comes to mind, no matter how apparently trivial, embarrassing, or disagreeable
Resistance
In psychoanalysis, a patient’s self-censorship or avoidance of certain topics.
Psychoanalysis
A method of therapy, developed by Sigmund Freud, asserting that clinical symptoms arise from unconscious conflicts rooted in childhood
Interpretations
In psychoanalysis, explanations of how various thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are linked to prior experiences.
Transference
The tendency to treat one person as if they possess the traits or characteristics of another more familiar person. For example, in psychotherapy, clients might respond to a therapist in ways that resemble the dynamic they have with major figures in their own lives
Psychodynamic approaches
Therapeutic approaches that derive from psychoanalytic theory, which asserts that clinical symptoms arise from unconscious conflicts rooted in childhood
Ego psychology
A school of psychodynamic thought that emphasizes the skills and adaptive capacities of the ego
Object relations
A school of psychodynamic thought that emphasizes the real (as opposed to fantasized) relationships an individual has with important others
Interpersonal therapy (IPT)
A form of therapy focused on helping patients understand how they interact with others and then learn better ways of interacting and communicating
Humanistic approach
An approach to therapy centered around the idea that people must take responsibility for their lives and actions
Client-centered therapy
A form of humanistic therapy, pioneered by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist’s genuineness, unconditioned positive regard, and empathic understanding are crucial to therapeutic success; also known as person-centered therapy, client-centered therapy seeks to help clients accept themselves as they are without pretense or self-imposed limits
Motivational interviewing
A brief, non confrontational, client-centered therapy designed to change specific problematic behaviours such as alcohol or drug use
Gestalt therapy
A form of humanistic therapy, pioneered by Fritz Perls, that aims to help patients integrate inconsistent aspects of themselves into a coherent who by increasing self-awareness and self-acceptance
Experimental therapies
The collective term for modern humanistic therapies
Behavioural approches
A family of therapeutic approaches based on the idea that problematic behaviours are the result of learning
Exposure techniques
Behavioural techniques designed to remove the anxiety connected to a feared stimulus through repeated approach toward the feared stimulus
In vivo exposure
A key step in the behavioural treatment of a phobia in which the individual is exposed to the phobic stimulus in the real world or through interactive computer programs
Token economies
A behavioural therapy technique based on operant conditioning in which patient’s positive behaviours are reinforced with tokens that they can exchange for desirable items
Contingency management
A behavioural therapy in which certain behaviours are reliably followed by well-defined consequences
Modeling
A behavioural therapy technique based on observational learning in which patients learn new skills or change their behaviour by watching and imitating another person
Vicarious reinforcement
A form of modeling in which the learner acquires a conditioned response merely by observing another participant being conditioned
Cognitive approaches
A family of therapeutic approaches based on the idea that maladaptive behaviours arise due to errors in thinking
Rational emotive behavioural therapy
A form of cognitive therapy, pioneered by Albert Ellis, in which the therapist actively challenges the patient’s irrational beliefs
Cognitive therapy
An approach to therapy that tries to change patient’s habitual modes of thinking about themselves, their situation, and their future
Negative cognitive triad
Three types of dysfunctional beliefs related to oneself (I am unlovable), the world (it’s a cruel world out there), and the future (things are only going to get worse)
Cognitive restructuring
A set of cognitive therapy techniques for changing a person’s maladaptive beliefs or interpretations through persuasion and confrontation
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)
A hybrid form of psychotherapy focused on changing the patient’s habitual interpretations of the world and ways of behaving; it combines cognitive and behavioural approaches to therapy
Third wave therapies
The latest generation of cognitive-behavioural therapies, including acceptance and commitment therapy as well as mindfulness-based stress reduction
Group therapy
A form of therapy in which two or more patients meet with one or more therapists at a time
Telehealth
The use of telephone, videoconferencing, internet, and streaming media technologies to support health care at a distance
Cybertherapy
A nontraditional form of therapy in which the therapy is conducted over the internet
Web-based therapy
A nontraditional form of therapy in which the therapy is conducted over the internet
Psychotropic medications
Medications that control, or at least moderate, the symptoms of some psychological disorders
Typical antipsychotics
First-generation antipsychotic medications that block the neurotransmission of dopamine
Flat affect
Diminished or absent facial expressions of emotion
Atypical antipsychotics
Newer antipsychotic medications that block the neurotransmission of dopamine but have enhanced benefits in terms of limiting or eliminating negative symptoms
Deinstitutionalization
A movement that began in the 1950s that aimed to provide better, less expensive care for chronically mentally ill individuals in their own communities rather than at large, centralized hospitals
Antidepressants
A medication intended to treat the symptoms of depression
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)
A medication (such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil) that increases serotonin turnover in the brain and is widely used to treat depression, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and many other disorders
Atypical antidepressant
A medication that works in various ways on serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine systems to combat the symptoms of depression
Placebo effect
The influence of a patient’s beliefs and expectations in bringing about a cure
Mood stabilizers
A medication (such as lithium) that treats manic, mixed, or depressive states
Anxiolytics
A type of drug that alleviates the symptoms of anxiety; also called a tranquilizer.
Benzodiazepine
A common type of drug (such as Xanax, Klonopin, and Activan) used to treat anxiety disorders
Beta blocker
A medication that controls autonomic arousal and thereby decreases the negative spiral that occurs when an anxious person feels even more anxious when sensing a bodily response to an anxiety-producing situation
Psychosurgery
Brain surgery performed to alleviate symptoms of psychological disorders that cannot be alleviated using psychotherapy, medication, or other standard treatments; the surgery removes sections of the brain or disconnects them from each other
Lobotomy
A type of psychosurgery in which the neurosurgeon severs some or all of the connections between subcortical brain structures such as the thalamus and the frontal lobes
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
A biological treatment, most used for cases of severe depression, in which a brief electric current is passed through the brain to produce a convulsive seizure
Vagal nerve stimulation
An emerging biological treatment for depression that involves electrically stimulating the vagus nerve with a small battery-powered implant
Deep brain stimulation (DBS)
The insertion of an electrode deep in a patient’s brain to alter the activity of specific brain regions (e.g., treat depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder)
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)
An emerging biological treatment for depression that involves applying rapid pulses of magnetic stimulation to the brain from a coil held near the scalp
Spontaneous improvement
Clinical improvement not associated with a clinical intervention
Wait-list control condition
In randomized controlled trials, a control condition in which patients receive delayed treatment rather than no treatment. Before being treated, they are compared to patients treated earlier
Double-blind study
A study in which participants are assigned to experimental conditions while keeping both the participants and the researchers unaware of who is assigned to which group
Common factor
A factor related to therapy outcome that is common to many different types of treatment (e.g., therapeutic alliance)
Meta-analysis
A statistical technique for combining the results of many studies on a particular topic
Dodo bird verdict
An expression used to summarize the comparative effectiveness of different forms of psychotherapy. According to the dodo bird in Alice and Wonderland, “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.” With regard to psychotherapy, the dodo bird verdict means that all the major forms of psychotherapy are equally effective
Therapeutic alliance
The relationship between therapist and client that helps many clients feel hopeful and supported
Eclecticism
An approach to treatment that deliberately weaves together multiple types of therapy
Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
An eclectic therapy for treating borderline personality disorder, pioneered by Marsha Linehan, that includes elements of cognitive, behavioural, humanistic, and psychodynamic therapies
Empirically supported treatment (EST)
A clinical method that research has to shown to be effective for treating a given disorder
