Eman Haj

April 28,2009
AP Psychology, Period 1
Modules 50-52

Module 50-The Psychological Therapies

I. Psychotherapy
 a. An emotionally charged, confiding interaction between a trained

therapist and someone who suffers from psychological difficulties.

b. Eclectic Approach - An approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the

client’s problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy.

II. Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud’s Therapeutic Technique

a. Freud believed that patient’s free associations, resistances,

Dreams, and transferences-and therapist’s interpretation of them-

Released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain

Self-insight.

Methods

a. Resistance- In psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety laden

material.

a. Interpretation- In psychoanalysis, the analyst’s noting supposed dream

meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors in order to promote insight.

a. Transference - In psychoanalysis, the patient’s transfer to the analyst of

emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a patient).
III. Humanistic Therapies

A. The One Widely Used Humanistic Technique

a. Client-Centered Therapy - A humanistic therapy, developed by Carl

Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting,
empathetic environment to facilitate client’s growth.

(Also called person-centered therapy)

b. Active Listening Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates,

and clarifies. A feature of Roger’s client-centered therapy.

IV. Behavior Therapies

a. Behavior Therapy - Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted
behaviors.

Classical Conditioning Techniques

a. Counter conditioning- A behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to

stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors; based on classical conditioning. Includes systematic
desensitization and aversive conditioning.

a. Exposure Therapies- Behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that

treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear and avoid.

b. Systematic Desensitization- A type of counter conditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed

state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli.

c. Commonly used to treat phobias.

d. Aversive Conditioning- A type of counter conditioning that associates an

unpleasant state (such as nausea) with unwanted behavior.

Operant Conditioning

a. Token Economy -An operant conditioning procedure that rewards desired

behavior. A patient exchanges a token of some sort, earned for
 exhibiting the desired behavior, for various privileges or treats.

V. Cognitive Therapies

A. New, Adaptive Ways of Thinking

a. Therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of

thinking and acting; based on the assumption that thoughts

intervene between events and our emotional reactions.

B. Kinds of Cognitive Therapies

a. Cognitive-Behavior Therapy -A popular integrated therapy that combines

cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior).

b. Family Therapy -Therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an

individual’s unwanted behaviors as influenced by or directed at other family members; attempts to
guide family members toward positive relationships and improved communication.

Module 51-Evaluating Psychotherapies

I. What Is Psychotherapy and Is It Effective

A. Psychotherapy

a. An emotionally charged, confiding interaction between a trained

therapist and someone who suffers from psychological difficulties.

B. Client’s Perceptions

1. People Often Enter Therapy in Crisis

a. When, with the normal ebb and flow of events, the crisis passes, people may
attribute their improvement to the therapy.

2. Clients May Need To Believe The Therapy Was Worth The Effort
 a. To admit investing time and money in something ineffective is

like admitting to having one’s car serviced repeatedly by a mechanic who never
fixes it.

b. Self-justification is a powerful human motive.

3. Clients Generally Like Their Therapies and Speak Kindly Of Them

a. Even if the client’s problems remain, say the critics “they work

hard to find something positive to say. The therapist had been very
understandable, the client had gained a new perspective, he learned to
communicate better, his mind was eased, anything at all so as not to have to say
treatment was a failure.”

C. Outcome Research

a. Meta-Analysis -A procedure for statistically combining the results of many

different research studies.

II. The Relative Effectiveness of Different Therapies

\ A. Empirically Supported Therapies

1. Cognitive Therapy-Interpersonal Therapy-Behavior Therapy-Used for treating

depression.

2. Cognitive Therapy-Exposure Therapy-Stress Inoculation Training- Used for

treating anxiety.

3. Cognitive Therapy- Behavior Therapy- Used for treating bulimia.

4. Behavior Modification- Used for treating bed wetting,

Module 52-The Biomedical Therapies

I. Drug Therapies

A. Psychopharmacology

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

B. Antipsychotic Drugs

a. Drugs that stop people from being crazies.

 C. Antianxiety Drugs

a. Drugs that help treat or prevent people’s anxiety issues.

D. Antidepressant Drugs

a. Drugs that help treat or prevent people’s depression issues.

a. Lithium A chemical that provides an effective drug therapy for the mood
swings of bipolar (manic-depression) disorders.

II. Electroconvulsive Therapy

A. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT

a. A biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a

brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized

patient.

III. Psychosurgery

A. Psychosurgery

a. Surgery that removes or destroys brain tissues in an effort to

change behavior.

B. Lobotomy

a. A now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to claim

uncontrollably emotional or violent patients.

b. The procedure cut the nerves that connect the frontal lobes to the

emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain.