Treating Psychopathology Flashcards
What are the four main goals of treating pathological issues?
providing relief from distress
increasing self awareness/insight into problems
Teaching coping skills to manage distress (i.e. in CBT)
Identifying and resolving “root causes” (i.e. in psychodynamics)
What is the main concept of psychoanalytic treatment?
Unconscious conflicts originate from early life experiences (i.e. with Little Albert being afraid of his Dad), causing us to create defence mechanisms (Albert displacing this onto his fear of horses) which then cause observable symptoms of mental disorder
What are the six defence mechanisms in psychoanalysis?
Repression, minimisation, denial, displacement, projection and sublimation
What is sublimation?
When we channel unacceptable urges or thoughts into a more socially acceptable. productive outlet (i.e. getting back in shape after a break up)
What is projection in psychoanalysis?
When we attribute unacceptable feelings, urges and self-attitudes within ourselves to or onto someone else- i.e. you accuse your partner of cheating after you have cheated
What is displacement in psychoanalysis?
When an individual discharcges their tension occuring due to an internal or external large threat onto a less threatening target (i.e. shouting at your kids after your boss threatens to fire you).
What is denial in psychoanalysis?
Rejecting fact as it makes us too uncomfortable
What is minimisation in psychoanalysis?
When an objective fact is too hard to accept so we minimise unpleasant features/effects of it `
What are the aims in psychoanalysis?
Identify unconscious conflicts and make the patient consciously aware of these. The therapist and client will then work on strategies to resolve these conflicts.
What are two techniques of psychoanalytic therapy?
Free association and dream analysis.
what is free association?
When the therapist gives a word or idea as a prompt, and the patient will then immediately respond with the first word that comes to their mind. This is in aim of observing the mechanisms of the unconscious, which could help identify conflicts.
What is dream analysis?
Freud believed that dreams reflected our unconscious desires and conflicts. Patients would therefore share their dreams with the therapist in hope of identifying these
How is psychoanalysis more talking/introspection based and less behavioural-modification based?
It does not view symptoms of mental disorder as something to be “recoded” as more acceptable behaviour but as a tool to observe the unconscious conflicts and past experiences that cause these behaviours.
Is psychoanalysis a long term or short term therapy?
Long term- it can last years
What is the main concept of behavioural therapy?
It suggests that we learn mental disorder by erroneously associating specific stimuli with responses- which then influences our response to that stimulus/behaviour.
What is behavioural treatment/therapy based around?
Associative learning principles- re-associating the stimuli with different responses. therefore hoping that this association becomes extinct
What is contingency management?
It is a therapy based around operant conditioning where you give money to people for desired behaviour (positive reinforcement)
What is flooding?
Definition, conditioning type and uses
When we rapidly expose and individual to an anxiety-inducing stimulus, hoping that the plateau in anxiety that they experience after the inevitable initial terror will be re-associated with the stimulus. It is based on classical conditioning and is often used for anxiety disorders)
What is aversion therapy?
When we manipulate a positive or negative response to a stimulus in hopes of new association with this experience and the stimulus (i.e. rapid smoking)
