Psychological Therapy

Question 1

Psychoanalysis:

Answer 1

Psychodynamic form of psychotherapy developed by Freud that attempts to recover unconscious conflicts, motives, and defense mechanisms.

Question 2

Client-centred Therapy:

Answer 2

Humanist-Existentialist form of psychotherapy in which the client determines the pace and direction of therapy, and the therapist provides a supportive climate.

Question 3

Cognitive Therapy:

Answer 3

A form of psychotherapy that helps individuals recognize and change negative thoughts and maladaptive beliefs.

Question 4

Behavioural Therapy:

Answer 4

A form of psychotherapy that utilizes the principles of classical and operational conditioning.

Question 5

Biomedical Therapy:

Answer 5

Interventions into an individual’s biological functioning, which can include drugs, psychosurgery, or electroconvulsive shock.

Question 6

to manage the anxiety

Answer 6

we rely on various defence mechanisms such as repression, projection, and displacement

Question 7

As unresolved conflicts accumulate in the unconscious over time

Answer 7

they begin to manifest anxiety, and because anxiety is unpleasant

Question 8

This is the goal of Freud’s psychoanalysis.

Answer 8

However, because defence mechanisms do not address the source of anxiety, they are insufficient for reducing one’s tendency to experience anxiety. To do that, one would need to identify the unresolved conflicts hiding in the unconscious in order to bring them into the conscious part of the mind where they can be addressed.

Question 9

Dream Analysis

Answer 9

bring unconsious to consious

Recall the wish-fulfillment theory of dreams presented in Module 5? Freud believed that dreams have two types of content. The Manifest content is the literal representation of your dream that you are aware of, whereas the Latent content is the symbolic representation of your dream that expresses unconscious desires. If you want to know what’s in the unconscious, Freud thought, just look at the Latent content in your dreams. Freud famously described dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious”. This process requires training the patient to remember and record their dreams for the psychoanalyst to review.

Question 10

Free Association

Answer 10

Another way to probe the unconscious is to engage in Free Association, whereby the patient expresses their thoughts and feelings spontaneously and without censorship. They simply verbalize whatever pops into their head, no matter how interesting, how silly, or how trivial they might consider it. To facilitate this process, Freud would invite patients to relax on his couch in a reclined position, resulting in one of the most pervasive and ubiquitous memes in psychology.

Question 11

For their part, the job of the psychoanalyst is to provide

Answer 11

Interpretation. That is, the therapist explains the inner significance of thoughts, feelings, memories, and behaviour by analyzing the patient’s free associations and dreams.

Question 12

But how does the therapist know if the interpretation is accurate? A key indication that progress is being made occurs

Answer 12

s when the patient begins to demonstrate Resistance.

Question 13

Transference

Answer 13

Another indication of successful therapy, according to Freud, is Transference. This occurs when the patient unconsciously relates to the therapist in ways that simulate critical relationships in their life. For instance, the patient may begin to interact with the therapist as if he or she was a former spouse or a rejecting parent. The patient transfers their thoughts and feelings about these relationships to the therapist.

Question 14

Like the Freudians, Rogers was interested in helping

Answer 14

individuals suffering from anxiety originating from their personality development.

Question 15

If incongruence and anxiety result from Conditional Regard, Rogers reasoned

Answer 15

then the solution is to change the client’s belief about affection to reflect Unconditional Regard instead. This should reduce incongruence in the self-concept, which should foster personal acceptance and alleviate anxiety.

Question 16

How does Rogers accomplish the treatment

Answer 16

By fostering a Therapeutic Climate that is warm, supportive and accepting of the client.

First, the therapist gives the client Unconditional Positive Regard (client is welcomed no mater what)

The second characteristic of the therapeutic climate is Genuineness. The therapist must be willing to share their feelings with the client, and be able to talk about their own mistakes, failures, and shortcomings. Moreover, they should do so as honestly and as spontaneously as possible. This helps to build trust in the relationship and also models positive communication to the client.

The final characteristic of the therapeutic climate is Empathy. The therapist must try to understand the client’s experiences from the client’s point of view. The therapist must then express this understanding to the client. In Rogers own words, “empathy is in itself a healing agent.”

Question 17

Cognitive Therapy locates

Answer 17

Cognitive Therapy locates the problem in people’s habitual thought patterns.

Question 18

the time horizon for cognitive therapy

Answer 18

Because the goal here is to reorganize automated thought patterns instead of personality, the time horizon is much shorter for cognitive therapy, typically requiring 4 to 20 sessions over weeks or months instead of years.

Question 19

n, the principles of cognitive therapy have been combined with

Answer 19

Although Beck’s approach specifically targets depression, the principles of cognitive therapy have been combined with behavioural therapies (described next) to treat a wide range of maladaptive behaviour. When cognitive therapies are combined with behavioural therapies, it is called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

Question 20

Just how effective are insight therapies?

Answer 20

Nevertheless, thousands of studies have been conducted to examine the effectiveness of different insight therapies used with different populations to address a variety of psychological conditions. The consensus is that insight therapies are superior to receiving no treatment and are at least as effective as drug therapies (Lambert, 2013), although combining drug and insight therapies together leads to the best results.

Question 21

Psychodynamic, Treatment for…, Method, Therapist provides, Goal, Reorganize, Duration

Answer 21

Neuroses

Free Association
Dream Analysis
Resistance
Transference

Interpretation

Resolve unconscious intrapsychic conflicts

Personality

3 to 5 years

Question 22

Humanist-Existentialist, Treatment for…, Method, Therapist provides, Goal, Reorganize, Duration

Answer 22

Neuroses

Unconditional Positive Regard
Genuineness
Empathy

Clarification

Reduce incongruence

Personality

3 to 5 years

Question 23

Cognitive, Treatment for…, Method, Therapist provides, Goal, Reorganize, Duration

Answer 23

Depression

Recognize maladaptive thought patterns
Promote realistic evaluations

Cognitive Training

Reappraise overly negative thoughts

Thought

4 to 20 sessions

Question 24

Given that insight therapies are effective, why is that the case? What is it about the therapeutic relationship that leads to improvement? A number of common factors have been identified, but this does not preclude the possibility that factors specific to different approaches are also relevant (Lambert & Ogles, 2014). Common Factors include:

Answer 24

A therapeutic alliance with a mental health professional.

Emotional support and empathy.

An expectation by the client to get better.

A rationalization for, and a strategy to address the individual’s problems.

A forum in which clients can express themselves without judgment.

Question 25

Behaviourist approaches to psychotherapy

Answer 25

apply the principles of classical and operant conditioning to modify problematic behaviour. From this perspective, the underlying root of a psychological condition is irrelevant.q

Question 26

To insight therapies, a maladaptive behaviour like substance abuse reflects an underlying problem that should be addressed. But to Behaviour Therapies, the

Answer 26

the maladaptive behvaiour is the problem, so let’s just address the substance abuse.

Question 27

An important assumption made from this perspective is that problematic behaviour has been learned by way

Answer 27

of classical or operant conditioning at some point in the past.

Question 28

A second assumption of the behaviourist perspective is that problematic behaviour can be unlearned by way of

Answer 28

classical or operant conditioning.

Question 29

exposure therapy and aversion therapy apply the principles of

Answer 29

classical conditioning to modify problem behaviour

Question 30

social skills training, uses

Answer 30

operant conditioning.

Question 31

Exposure Therapies refer

Answer 31

to a family of different techniques used to expose the individual to fear provoking stimuli without the possibility of harm. The idea is to promote extinction of the fear response

Question 32

in classical conditioning,

Answer 32

a neutral stimulus, like a rabbit, acquires its fear provoking power by way of association with an unconditioned stimulus, like a loud noise. But once the association is broken, that is the rabbit appears subsequently and repeatedly without the loud noise, then the classically conditioned fear response to the rabbit will extinguish.

Question 33

Systematic Desensitization

Answer 33

the goal of which is to replace a phobic response with relaxation.

Question 34

Aversion Therapy

Answer 34

also utilizes the principles of classical conditioning. However, instead of replacing an aversive response (e.g., fear) with a desirable response (e.g., relaxation), aversion therapy does the opposite. It replaces a desirable response with an aversive response.