Psychotherapy

Question 1

What is the goal of family therapies involving paradoxical directives?

Answer 1

To shift how family members solve problems and interact.

Question 2

Describe a paradoxical directive used in family therapy.

Answer 2

A couple was asked to increase their arguing to learn more about their love for one another.

Question 3

What is the goal of structural family therapy?

Answer 3

To change how family members arrange and organize interactions.

Question 4

Provide an example of successful structural family therapy.

Answer 4

Minuchin and colleagues treated a 14-year-old girl named Laura who obtained her father’s attention by refusing to eat.

Question 5

What is the focus of behavioral therapists?

Answer 5

Specific problem behaviors and the variables that maintain them.

Question 6

What are the two forms of conditioning emphasized in behavioral approaches?

Answer 6

Classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

Question 7

What is systematic desensitization and how is it used?

Answer 7

It is a form of exposure therapy where clients are gradually exposed to what they fear in a stepwise manner.

Question 8

What is the principle behind systematic desensitization?

Answer 8

Reciprocal inhibition, which states that we can’t experience two conflicting responses simultaneously.

Question 9

What is exposure therapy and what is its goal?

Answer 9

Confronting clients with what they fear to reduce the fear.

Question 10

Describe the process of flooding in exposure therapy.

Answer 10

Exposing clients to the stimuli they fear the most for prolonged periods.

Question 11

What is modeling in therapy?

Answer 11

Observational learning where clients learn from modeling therapist’s positive behaviors.

Question 12

How is modeling used in assertion training?

Answer 12

To facilitate the expression of thoughts and feelings in a forthright and socially appropriate manner.

Question 13

What are the core assumptions shared by all cognitive-behavioral therapies?

Answer 13

1. Cognitions are identifiable and measurable. 2. Cognitions are key in both healthy and unhealthy psychological functioning. 3. Irrational beliefs or thinking can be replaced by more rational and adaptive cognitions.

Question 14

What is Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and who developed it?

Answer 14

It’s a therapy that emphasizes changing how we think and act, developed by Albert Ellis.

Question 15

What are the primary goals of assertion training?

Answer 15

To facilitate the expression of thoughts and feelings in a forthright and socially appropriate manner and to ensure that clients aren’t taken advantage of, ignored, or denied their legitimate rights.

Question 16

What is stress inoculation training and how is it used?

Answer 16

It’s a therapy where therapists teach clients to prepare for and cope with future stressful life events.

Question 17

Describe the third wave of cognitive-behavioral therapies.

Answer 17

Therapies that focus on acceptance rather than changing maladaptive behaviors and negative thoughts.

Question 18

What is the dodo bird verdict in psychotherapy?

Answer 18

The claim that all psychotherapies produce equivalent outcomes.

Question 19

Describe some potentially harmful therapies.

Answer 19

Facilitated communication, scared straight programs, recovered memory techniques, DID-oriented psychotherapy, critical incident stress debriefing, DARE programs, coercive restraint therapies.

Question 20

What are common factors that may make therapy effective?

Answer 20

Empathic listening, instilling hope, establishing a strong emotional bond with clients, providing a clear theoretical rationale for treatment, and implementing techniques that offer new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Question 21

What are empirically supported therapies (ESTs)?

Answer 21

Interventions for specific disorders supported by high-quality scientific evidence.

Question 22

Why can ineffective therapies appear to be helpful?

Answer 22

Due to spontaneous remission, placebo effect, self-serving biases, regression to the mean, and retrospective rewriting of the past.

Question 23

What is psychopharmacotherapy?

Answer 23

The use of medications to directly alter the brain’s chemistry or physiology to treat psychological disorders.

Question 24

What are some cautions to consider with psychopharmacotherapy?

Answer 24

Side effects, over prescription, potential for abuse, and polypharmacy.

Question 25

What is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and when is it used?

Answer 25

It involves patients receiving brief electrical pulses to the brain to produce a seizure and is used to treat severe problems as a last resort.

Question 26

What is vagus nerve stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation used for?

Answer 26

To treat treatment-resistant depression.

Question 27

What is psychosurgery and when is it used?

Answer 27

Brain surgery to treat psychological disorders, used as an absolute last resort with severe conditions.

Question 28

What is psychotherapy?

Answer 28

A psychological intervention designed to help people resolve emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal problems and improve the quality of their lives.

Question 29

How many “brands” of psychotherapy are there?

Answer 29

Over 500.

Question 30

Who typically seeks psychotherapy?

Answer 30

Persons contending frequently with feelings of helplessness, social isolation, and a sense of failure, as well as those wanting to expand their self-awareness and learn better ways of relating to others.

Question 31

Who are the mainstays of the mental health profession who provide psychotherapy?

Answer 31

Clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers.

Question 32

What is transference in psychoanalytic therapy?

Answer 32

Projecting intense, unrealistic feelings and expectations from the past onto the therapist.

Question 33

What is person-centered therapy?

Answer 33

A therapy developed by Carl Rogers that centers on the client’s goals and ways of solving problems, emphasizing empathy, authenticity, and unconditional positive regard.

Question 34

What is motivational interviewing used for?

Answer 34

Used in cases where clients are ambivalent about changing longstanding behaviors, such as substance use.

Question 35

What is Gestalt therapy?

Answer 35

A psychotherapeutic approach developed by Fritz Perls that aims to integrate differing and sometimes opposing aspects of clients’ personalities into a unified sense of self.

Question 36

What are group therapies?

Answer 36

Therapies that treat more than one person at a time, ranging from 3-20 people, and can be efficient, time-saving, and less costly than individual therapy.

Question 37

What is the purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)?

Answer 37

To provide support and mentorship for people struggling with alcohol addiction based on the “12 Steps” method.

Question 38

How is Gestalt therapy different from other therapies?

Answer 38

It focuses on integrating conflicting aspects of clients’ personalities into a unified sense of self and emphasizes the importance of awareness, acceptance, and expression of feelings.

Question 39

What is the role of the therapist in person-centered therapy?

Answer 39

To be authentic and genuine, express unconditional positive regard, and show empathic understanding.

Question 40

What is the main goal of psychoanalysis?

Answer 40

To decrease guilt and frustration, make the unconscious conscious, and bring repressed impulses, conflicts, and memories to awareness.

Question 41

What is the focus of humanistic psychotherapy?

Answer 41

Insight, development of human potential (self-actualization), and the belief that human nature is basically positive.

Question 42

What are some criticisms of psychodynamic therapies?

Answer 42

They are difficult to falsify, interpretations tend to be subjective, and improvement could be due to chance rather than correct interpretation.

Question 43

What are the conditions for effective therapists in person-centered therapy?

Answer 43

To be authentic and genuine, express unconditional positive regard, and show emphatic understanding.

Question 44

What is the focus of strategic family interventions?

Answer 44

To remove barriers to effective communication and address the unhealthy communication patterns and unsuccessful approaches to problem-solving within the family.