Quality of Life therapy Flashcards
Applying QOLT to the approaches
One of the approaches is the focus on the good life. Three of these dimensions look to the pleasant life, the good life, and a meaningful life.
A meaningful life can come from identifying and pursuing goals that give us a sense of direction, whilst the good life can come from engaging in activities that absorb us, and form relationships.
Low satisfaction and lack of fulfilment in these three types of life can lead to maladaptive behaviours and psychological problems such as anxiety and depression.
Quality of life therapy is to identify areas of the individual’s life that they would like to improve and then develop interventions in these areas. They could be focus on developing relationships with friends (the good life) or work towards goals and values (the meaningful life)
What is QOLT
Was developed my Michael Frisch with the aim of increasing life satisfactions and happiness amongst individuals. Also been applies with those of psychiatric problems. Therapists and coaches use techniques from cognitive therapy to teach individuals skills that will help them identify and reach their personal goals across different areas of life,
QOL Inventory
First stage of the therapy is for an individual to complete the quality of life inventory, a self-report questionnaire which covers 16 areas of life such as learning work and health. The questionnaire assesses the importance the individual gives to each areas of life as well as rating their current satisfaction with each one.
These scores determine an individual;as overall quality of life. It also highlights the areas of life an individual has to improve on and prioritise and that should be in the focus of any interventions.
This can be used during and after the process to allow monitoring of progress and follow up on how well improvements have been maintained.
CASIO Model
C - Charateristics. Physical and social characteristic of an area that contribute to how satisfied they are with it.
A - Attitude. An individuals subjective perception of an area
S - Standards. These are standards people expect for a particular area of life
I - Importance. This is the importance placed on the area of life by the individual. This has an impact on overall satisfaction
O- Overall satisfaction. The final part of the model recognises that satisfaction in areas of life that might not be a key focus can also have an impact on areas seen as more important.
Used for
Used as a structure for therapist/coaches to work with the client to develop problem solving strategies.
In the standard area of the model, the individual can be guided to more realistic goals like readjusting expectations of career progression in work.
By improving life satisfaction and helping the individual on their needs and goal, this will enhance well being and happiness.
Abedi and Vostanis
Abedi and vostanis randomly allocated mothers of children with OCD to either a quality of life therapy group or control group. Mothers in therapeutic group showed increase of life satisfaction after the 4 week programmer. In addition, the children also showed a reduction of OCD.
Toghyani et al
Investigates the effectiveness of QOLT on on 20 male adolescents with low levels of subjective well being. Randomly allocated to experiment group (8 sessions of QOLT) to a control group. Those in in experimental condition showed an increase in well being compared to control group.
An ethical therapy
Has few side effev=ct particularly compared to biological therapies such as psychosurgeries and drugs. Individuals do not have to dwell on past events or bring up previous trauma but can instead focus on goals in their life.
Promotes free will
Quality of life therapy takes a highly positive attitude towards individual well being. It promotes free will, empowering people to make changes in their own lives. It also highly personalised to the areas that the individual sees as important and would like to work on.
