L3 - Does psychotherapy work? Flashcards
What is the cause and treatment of mental illness according to the Psychoanalytic Model?
According to the psychoanalytic model, mental illness is caused by unresolved unconscious conflicts.
Treatment aims to offer insight into these unconscious processes.
What is the cause and treatment of mental illness according to the Humanistic Model?
According to the humanistic model, mental illness is caused by thwarted/ not reaching self actualisation.
Treatment involves empathy and unconditional positive regard.
What is the cause and treatment of mental illness according to the Behavioural Model?
According to the behavioural model, mental illness is caused by learned responses to certain stimuli.
Treatment involves new learning to overwrite these old responses.
What is the cause and treatment of mental illness according to the Cognitive Model?
According to the cognitive model, mental illness is caused by negative core beliefs and biased thinking.
Treatment involves showing new ways of thinking through ‘cognitive restructuring’.
How does the Cognitive-Behavioural Model or CBT attempt to treat metal illness?
CBT or cognitive behavioural therapy aims to treat cognitive aspects through restructuring, challenging beliefs/expectations and judgements, while also promoting the learning of new behavioural aspects to cope with mental illness.
What are some characteristics of a good experimental design?
◦ Random allocation of participants to treatment groups
◦ Blind or Double Blind design
◦ Experiments must be conducted with treatment manuals or clear description of treatment
- To enable precise replication
◦ Characteristics of samples must be specified
- Diagnoses, exclusion criteria, etc (DSM)
◦ Characteristics of therapists must be specified
◦ Effects must be demonstrated by at least two different
investigators or teams
What defines a ‘Probably efficacious treatment’?
- At least two experiments show that the treatment
is superior to waiting-list control group (rather than
placebo control)
OR - Meets well-established criteria but experiments not
carried out by two different teams
What defines ‘Experimental treatments’?
not yet tested in randomised controlled trials with
adequate methodology
- e.g, not randomised, pre-post only, not manualised,
What are some criticisms of Empirically Supported Treatment research?
Reliance on DSM to describe samples
◦ Diagnosis is dehumanising
◦ DSM medical model is not appropriate
But: need to evaluate generalisability somehow
Reliance on treatment manuals
◦ Reduces treatment quality: treatment should be designed for individual cases
Reliance on Randomised Controlled Trials
◦ findings mightn’t generalise to real life cases
Name some mental disorders with EST’s and their specific treatments?
Anxiety disorders: CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy)
Obsessive compulsive disorder: Exposure and response prevention.
Major depression: CBT