Therapy Theories

Question 1

• Aims to change behavioral, emotional, and thinking patterns associated with dysfunction
• Developed to treat intense emotional swings, impulsiveness, confusion regarding the self (identity), and suicidal behavior
• Teaches mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, distress, tolerance, and self-management
• Good for Borderline Personality Disorder

Answer 1

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Question 2

• Change through understanding multigenerational dynamic
• Individuals cannot be understood in isolation from one another, but rather as part of their family
• Family members are driven to achieve a balance of internal and external differentiation, which causes anxiety, triangulation, and emotional cutoff.
• This can be changed by understanding multigenerational or current family dynamics and patters.

Answer 2

Bowen Family Therapy

Question 3

• Change through finding meaning in life
• Founded upon the belief that it is the striving to find a meaning in one’s life that is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force
• Understanding purpose

Answer 3

Logotherapy

Question 4

• Change through increased awareness of here-and-now experience
• Focuses on the process, what is actually happening, and the content, what is being talked about
• Emphasizes what is going on in the present moment within both the client and the therapist rather than what has happened
• Empty Chair technique example of bringing issue into present moment

Answer 4

Gestalt Therapy

Question 5

• Change through insight/understanding of early unresolved/unconscious issues
• Insight oriented therapy
• Explore client’s transference
• Identify defense mechanisms

Answer 5

Psychodynamic Therapy

Question 6

• Change behavior through reinforcements and punishment
• Identify the problem, monitor behavior, reinforce desired behavior
• Shaping is a form of operant conditioning in which the increasingly accurate approximations of a desired response are reinforced
• Good for children with behavioral problems

Answer 6

Behavioral Therapy

Question 7

• Change happens by learning to modify dysfunctional thought patterns
• Clients explore patterns of thinking and beliefs that lead to self-destructive behaviors
• Once an individual understands the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, he or she is able to modify or change his or her patterns of thinking to cope with stressors in a more positive manner
• Focus on automatic thoughts, schemas, assumptions, beliefs

Answer 7

Cognitive Therapy

Question 8

• Change happens through supporting clients to take actions to address the problems in their lives.
• Focus of help is on -defined problems and goals; Social worker is open about purposes and nature of service, eschews hidden agendas
• The client’s problems, goals and the nature and duration of service are explicitly stated and agreed upon by both the social worker and the client
• Change is affected primarily through problem-solving actions or tasks the client and practitioner undertake OUTSIDE the interview. The social worker helps clients select tasks.

Answer 8

Task-Centered/Problem-Solving Therapy

Question 9

• Change through remodeling the family’s organization
• Many family problems arise as a result if maladaptive boundaries and subsystems within the family system
• A systems approach that address relationship dynamics of whole family
• The therapist helps the family understand how family structure (relationships and hierarchies) can be changed, the impact of rituals and rules, and how new patterns of interaction can be integrated into the family

Answer 9

Structural Family Therapy

Question 10

• Change through recognizing disempowering social forces and empowering client. The therapist helps the client recognize these disempowering forces or influences, a process which can ultimately empower the client
• The therapist recognizes that with every symptom there is a strength and also shows the client that she is her own rescuer and equal to the therapist
• Good for eating disorders

Answer 10

Feminist Therapy

Question 11

• Change occurs through accessing client’s strengths and resources
• This is a brief, goal-directed therapy focused on client’s strengths and resources
• Focuses on what the client wants to achieve instead of focusing on the problems
• Focuses on the client’s strengths and resources in order to create a more effective future

Answer 11

Solution Focused Therapy

Question 12

In order for this theory to occur, a person must want to emulate the person they’re watching. The individual pays close attention to the action and retains the action in memory. Then, the individual must experience a situation where the behavior can be repeated and must be motivated to repeat the behavior.

This theory relates to social work because social workers may want to understand how role models affect the behaviors and moods in those they work with. It can also help social workers form intervention strategies that use positive modeling and reinforcement to create new positive behaviors in their clients.

Answer 12

Social Learning Theory, which is also known as social cognitive theory. This theory posits that learning occurs by observing others and modeling their behavior.

Question 13

This theory proposes that people are products of complex systems, rather than individuals who act in isolation. In this theory, behavior is influenced by a variety of factors that work together. These factors include family, friends, social settings, religious structure, economic class and home environment, which can all influence how individuals act and think.

This theory can be used to treat issues like eating disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, school trauma and risky behavior.

Answer 13

Systems Theory; Social workers using this theory will work to understand how their clients are influenced by the systems they’re a part of. Social workers then identify where systemic breakdowns are affecting behavior.

Question 14

This theory was introduced by Erik Erikson, who believed personality develops in a series of stages. Erikson created an eight-stage theory of development. According to the theory, the eight stages of development that people pass through in life are:

Trust versus mistrust
Autonomy versus shame and doubt
Initiative versus guilt
Industry versus inferiority
Identity versus confusion
Intimacy versus isolation
Generativity versus stagnation
Integrity versus despair

Answer 14

Psychosocial Development Theory; can influence social workers, who can look at what stage of development their clients are going through and use the theory to better understand the challenges their clients are experiencing during certain stages of psychosocial development.

Question 15

This theory was introduced by the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. This theory is founded on the idea that humans are biologically driven to seek gratification. The theory states that people do this based on processes that have developed outside of conscious awareness, with origins in childhood experiences. This drive influences everyday behavior, leading to actions like aggression, sex and self-preservation.

Answer 15

Psychodynamic Theory; can help to explain the internal processes individuals use to guide their behavior, some of which may be unconsciously motivated. Social workers may also examine how early childhood experiences have played a role in influencing their clients’ behavior today.

Question 16

This theory originates with Austrian sociologist George Homans. It says that relationships are based on cost-benefit analysis. Each person seeks to maximize their benefits and is expected to reciprocate for the benefits they’ve received. When risks outweigh potential rewards, relationships may be abandoned. When one person in a relationship has greater personal resources than another, that person is predicted to have greater power as well.

Answer 16

Social Exchange Theory; Social workers can use this to understand the relationships their clients have new with others and why they continue to maintain certain relationships or abandon them.

Social exchange theory can also be applied to the techniques social workers use to connect with their clients. Social exchange theory can influence how social workers position the social worker-client relationship as one that benefits their clients.

Question 17

This theory helps explain why people make the choices they do, as people weigh risks, costs and benefits before making decisions. This theory says that all choices are rational because people calculate the costs and benefits before making a decision. Even when a choice seems irrational, there was reasoning behind it.

Answer 17

Rational Choice Theory; can help social workers understand the decision-making processes and motivations of their clients. Using rational choice theory, social workers can examine how their clients make decisions based on their rational preferences.

Question 18

This theory focuses on how thoughts and feelings influence behaviors, as well as how self-destructive behaviors can lead to psychological problems. Social workers using this therapy method help clients identify self-destructive thoughts and behaviors that influence negative emotions and behaviors.

This therapy is often used with individuals who are experiencing mental health issues, mental illness or depression resulting from crisis or trauma.

Answer 18

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Social workers using cognitive behavioral therapy help their clients eliminate destructive thoughts and behaviors and prevent negative outcomes from them.

Question 19

This social work model is used for clients who are experiencing crisis and trauma, such as victims of domestic violence, and for clients who require intervention to prevent physical harm or suicide.

The stages include;

Take a psychosocial and lethality assessment.
Rapidly establish rapport.
Identify the major crisis cause(s).
Enable the client to express their feelings and emotions.
Generate and explore safe alternatives for coping.
Create an action plan.
Follow up after the intervention.
This social work model is commonly used for clients who are experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm or who have undergone an acute crisis, like rape or violence.

Answer 19

Crisis Intervention Model; This social work model is commonly used for clients who are experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm or who have undergone an acute crisis, like rape or violence.

Question 20

This social work model is the process of removing an individual from their problem(s) and helping the individual to see that they have the power to change their life story. This intervention helps individuals realize that they are not their problems, but that they’re separate from them and can fix them when they view the narrative from an outside perspective.

Answer 20

Narrative therapy; a social worker would help an individual to create a new narrative with different positive actions. The social worker helps an individual understand how the broader context is contributing to their narrative, so they can be aware of things to avoid and ways to tackle their problems.

Question 21

With this model a social worker helps an individual identify a problem, create an action plan to solve it and implement the solution. Together, the social worker and individual discuss the effectiveness of the problem-solving strategy and adjust it as necessary.

Answer 21

Problem-solving model; enables the social worker and individual to focus on one concrete problem at a time.

Question 22

This therapy involves the social worker and client identifying a problem and creating a solution based on the individual’s strengths. It’s a short-term practice model that focuses on helping clients to cope with challenges using specific behaviors. Instead of focusing on changing who a client is, it concerns changing a client’s actions in certain situations to achieve more favorable outcomes.

Answer 22

Solution Focused Therapy; the social worker and the client work together to devise solutions. This gives the client the opportunity to play an essential role in the positive changes they’re going to make and helps them to implement those changes since they had a role in suggesting them.

Question 23

With this practice a social worker breaks down a problem into manageable tasks. The individual has deadlines to complete the tasks and agrees to meet them. This is a goal-setting form of social work that helps individuals make constant gains toward improving their lives.

It’s a form of social work brief therapy, that provides time-limited treatments to move individuals closer to success as they complete tasks. Instead of focusing on the past, social workers using this practice to focus on the present and how the work individuals do on certain tasks will positively impact their future.

Answer 23

Task centered-Practice