Treatment of Psychological Disorders

Question 1

Psychotherapy

Answer 1

The generic name that is given to formal psychological treatment. Involves interactions between practitioner and client that

Question 2

Biological Therapies

Answer 2

Treatment based on medical approaches to illness and disease. Based on the notion that mental disorders result form abnormalities in neural and bodily processes.

Question 3

Psychopharmacology

Answer 3

The use of medications that affect brain or body functions

Question 4

Insight

Answer 4

The goal of psychoanalysis; a patient’s awareness of his or her own unconscious psychological processes and how these processes affect daily functioning

Question 5

Psychodynamic therapy

Answer 5

Reformulation of Freud’s ideas. Approach in which therapist aims to help patient examine their needs, defenses, and motives as a way of understanding why the patient is distressed.

Question 6

Client-Centered Therapy

Answer 6

An empathetic approach to therapy; it encourages people to fulfill their individual potentials for personal growth through greater self-understanding.

Question 7

Reflective Listening

Answer 7

Approach to client-centered therapy in which the therapist repeats the client’s concerns to help the person clarify his feelings.

Question 8

Behavior Therapy

Answer 8

Treatment based on the premise that behavior is learned and therefore can be unlearned through the use of classical and operant conditioning

Question 9

Cognitive Therapy

Answer 9

Treatment based on the idea that distorted thoughts produce maladaptive behaviors and emotions; treatment strategies attempt to modify these thought patterns.

Question 10

Cognitive Restructuring

Answer 10

A therapy that strives to help patients recognize maladaptive thought patterns and replace them with ways of viewing the world that are more in tune with reality.

Question 11

Rational-Emotive Therapy

Answer 11

Approach to cognitive restructuring through which therapist acts as a teacher, explaining the client’s errors in thinking and demonstrating more-adaptive ways to think and behave

Question 12

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

Answer 12

Helps prevent relapse of psychological disorder following treatment. Has two goals: to help clients become more aware of their negative thoughts and feelings at times when they are vulnerable and tho help them learn to disengage from ruminative thinking through meditation.

Question 13

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Answer 13

A therapy that incorporates techniques from cognitive therapy and behavior therapy to correct faulty thinking and change maladaptive behaviors

Question 14

Exposure

Answer 14

A cognitive-behavioral therapy technique that involves repeated exposure to an anxiety-producing stimulus or situation

Question 15

Exposure and Response Prevention

Answer 15

A person with a phobia is conditioned to avoid what they fear. Exposure forces them to confront stimulus until avoidance response is extinguished.

Question 16

Systematic Desensitization

Answer 16

Therapist exposes the client to increasingly anxiety-provoking situations by having the client imagine them and teaching them to relax at the same time

Question 17

Systems Approach

Answer 17

Approach to therapy that considers individual as part of a larger context. Leads to approaches like family therapy

Question 18

Expressed Emotion

Answer 18

A pattern of negative actions by a client’s family members; the pattern includes critical comments, hostility directed toward the client by family members, and emotional overinvolvement

Question 19

Psychotropic Medications

Answer 19

Drugs that affect mental processes. Generally fall into three categories: anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants, and antipsychotics

Question 20

Anti-anxiety drugs

Answer 20

Used for short-term treatment of anxiety. Increase activity of GABA, the most pervasive inhibitory neurotransmitter.

Question 21

Antidepressants

Answer 21

Fall into three categories. Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors stop the process of an enzyme that breaks down seratonin in the synapse. Tricyclic Antidepressants inhibit the reuptake of certain neurotransmitters, resulting in more neurotransmitter being available in the synapse. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors inhibit the reuptake of serotonin, but do not act much on other neurotransmitters

Question 22

Antipsychotics

Answer 22

Reduce symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. Traditional antipsychotics act by binding to dopamine receptors to reduce its effects

Question 23

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

Answer 23

A procedure that involves administering a strong electrical current to the patient’s brain to produce a seizure; it is effective for some cases of severe depression.