Chapter 15: Therapy Flashcards
Psychotherapy
When a therapist aids a client in developing awareness and changing problem behavior, thoughts, or feelings
Behavior Therapy
Use of learning principles to make constructive changes in behavior
Behavior Modification
Using any classical or operant conditioning principles to directly change human behavior
-Deep insight is often not necessary
Counterconditioning
a procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors
Counterconditioning includes
exposure therapy, aversive conditioning, and systematic desensitization
Exposure Therapy
involves exposing people to fear-driving objects in real or virtual environments
Through repeated exposures, anxiety lessens because they habituate to the things feared.
Aversion conditioning
repeatedly pairing the problematic behavior with an aversive stimulus
Conditioned Aversion
Learned dislike or negative emotional response to a stimulus
Rapid Smoking
Prolonged smoking at a rapid pace
Systematic Desensitization
A type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli commonly used to treat phobias
Reciprocal Inhibition
One emotional state is used to block another (e.g., impossible to be anxious and relaxed at the same time)
Hierarchy
Rank-ordered series of steps, amounts, or degrees
Vicarious Desensitization
Reduction in fear that takes place secondhand when a client watches models perform the feared behavior
Virtual Reality Exposure
Presents computerized fear stimuli to patients in a controlled fashion
Operant conditioning procedures enable therapists to use ———–, where desired behaviors are rewarded and undesired behaviors are either unrewarded or punished
behavior modification
Reinforcement
Increases behavior
Positive Reinforcement
Give something to increase behavior
Negative Reinforcement:
Take something away to increase behavior
Punishment
Decreases behavior
Positive Punishmen
Give something to decrease behavior
Negative Punishment
Take something away to decrease behavior
Tokens
Symbolic rewards like poker chips, gold stars, or stamps that can be exchanged for real rewards
Token Economy
Patients get tokens for many socially desirable or productive behaviors; they can pay tokens for tangible rewards and for undesirable behaviors
Psycholanalysis
The first formal psychotherapy to emerge, developed by Sigmund Freud.
Problems arise from unconscious feelings and conflicts.
Goal of psycholanalysis
Goal = the uncovering and resolving of unconscious conflicts
Freud developed the method of ————– to unravel the unconscious mind and its conflicts.
free association
During free association, the patient edits his thoughts, resisting his or her feelings to express emotions. Such ——— becomes important in the analysis of conflict-driven anxiety.
resistance
Eventually the patient opens up and reveals his or her innermost private thoughts, developing positive or negative feelings (————-) towards the therapist.
transference
Criticisms of Psychoanalytic Therapy
- Long and costly -Can go on for years, several sessions or weeks
- Useless for treating more severe disorders
Brief Psychodynamic Therapy
Based on psychoanalytic theory but designed to produce insights more quickly
Spontaneous Remission
Improvement of a psychological condition due to time passing without therapy
Waiting-List Control Group
People who receive no therapy as a way to test the effectiveness of psychotherapy.
Cognitive Therapy
Focuses on changing negative thoughts and beliefs in order to eliminate maladaptive behaviors.
Selective Perception
Perceiving only certain stimuli in a larger group of possibilities
Overgeneralization
Allowing upsetting events to affect unrelated situations
All-or-Nothing Thinking
Seeing objects and events as absolutely right or wrong, good or bad, and so on
Humanistic therapies
assume that it is possible for people to use their potentials fully and live rich, rewarding lives
Client-Centered Therapy
- Developed by Carl Rogers, client-centered therapy is a form of humanistic therapy.
- The therapist listens to the needs of the patient in an accepting and non-judgmental way, addressing problems in a productive way and building his or her self-esteem.
Four Basic Rogerian Condition
- Unconditional Positive Regard: Unshakable acceptance of another person, regardless of what they tell the therapist or how they feel
- Empathy: Ability to feel what another person is feeling; capacity to take another person’s point of view
- Authenticity: Therapist is to be genuine and honest about his or her feelings
- Reflection: Rephrasing or repeating thoughts and feelings of the clients’; helps clients become aware of what they are saying
