Therapy

Question 1

eclectic approach

Answer 1

an approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client’s problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy.

Question 2

meta-analysis

Answer 2

a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies.

Question 2

systematic desensitization

Answer 2

a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.

Question 3

active listening

Answer 3

empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers’ client-centered therapy.

Question 3

exposure therapies

Answer 3

behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid.

Question 3

psychoanalysis

Answer 3

(1) Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; (2) Freud’s therapeutic technique used in treating psychological disorders. Freud believed that the patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences-and the therapist’s interpretations of them-released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.

Question 3

psychodynamic therapy

Answer 3

therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition that views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and that seeks to enhance self-insight.

Question 4

counterconditioning

Answer 4

a behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning.

Question 4

interpretation

Answer 4

in psychoanalysis, the analyst’s noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight.

Question 5

psychopharmacology

Answer 5

the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior.

Question 6

repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)

Answer 6

the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity.

Question 8

aversive conditioning

Answer 8

a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol).

Question 8

evidence-based practice

Answer 8

clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences.

Question 9

insight therapies

Answer 9

a variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing the client’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses.

Question 9

lobotomy

Answer 9

a psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain.

Question 9

psychosurgery

Answer 9

surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior.

Question 11

biomedical therapy

Answer 11

prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person’s physiology.

Question 13

electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

Answer 13

a biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient.

Question 14

token economy

Answer 14

an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats.

Question 15

resilience

Answer 15

the personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and recover from adversity and even trauma.

Question 16

regression toward the mean

Answer 16

the tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average.

Question 17

psychotherapy

Answer 17

treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.

Question 19

antianxiety drugs

Answer 19

drugs used to control anxiety and agitation.

Question 21

cognitive-behavioral therapy

Answer 21

a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior).

Question 22

transference

Answer 22

in psychoanalysis, the patient’s transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).

Question 24

antipsychotic drugs

Answer 24

drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder.

Question 25

unconditional positive regard

Answer 25

a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients to develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Question 27

antidepressant drugs

Answer 27

drugs used to treat depression and some anxiety disorders. Different types work by altering the availability of various neurotransmitters.

Question 28

resistance

Answer 28

in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material.

Question 29

rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)

Answer 29

a confrontational cognitive therapy, developed by Albert Ellis, that vigorously challenges people’s illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions.

Question 30

client-centered therapy

Answer 30

a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients’ growth. (Also called person-centered therapy.)

Question 31

family therapy

Answer 31

therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual’s unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members.

Question 32

behavior therapy

Answer 32

therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.

Question 33

virtual reality exposure therapy

Answer 33

an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to electronic simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking.

Question 35

cognitive therapy

Answer 35

therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.

Question 36

hypothalamus

Answer 36

a neural structure lying below (hypo) the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion and reward.

Question 37

therapeutic alliance

Answer 37

a bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client’s problem.

Question 38

group therapy

Answer 38

therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permitting therapeutic benefits from group interaction.