Psychology Chapter 16

Psychotherapy

• Psychotherapy is a treatment that involves a trained professional, a therapist, who uses psychological techniques to help someone overcome psychological difficulties and disorders, resolve problems in living, or bring about personal growth.

Operant Conditioning Techniques

• Token system: rewards desired behavior with a poker chip or play money.
• Aversive conditioning: reduces the frequency of undesired behavior by pairing an unpleasant stimulus with undesired behavior.

Types of Therapy

• Behavioral approach: uses classical and operant conditioning principles to change people's behavior.
• Rational-emotive behavior therapy: attempts to restructure a person's belief system into a more realistic, rational, and logical set of views by challenging dysfunctional beliefs that maintain irrational behavior.
• Psychodynamic therapy: seeks to bring unresolved past conflicts and unacceptable impulses from the unconscious into the conscious, where patients may deal with the problems more effectively.
• Humanistic therapy: focuses on the present, emphasizes personal growth, and helps individuals realize their full potential.
• Cognitive therapy: focuses on eliminating illogical and self-defeating thoughts.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy: attempts to produce change by helping clients to eliminate self-defeating thoughts.

Therapy Techniques

• Systematic desensitization: a technique used to treat anxiety, where the client is exposed to a feared stimulus in a gradual and controlled manner.
• Exposure: a behavioral treatment for anxiety, where the client is confronted with a feared stimulus.
• Observational learning: a technique used in behavior therapy, where the client observes and imitates the behavior of someone else.
• Flooding: a technique used to treat fears, where the client is exposed to a feared stimulus in a sudden and intense manner.

Biomedical Therapies

• Antidepressant drugs: used to treat depression, such as Prozac.
• Antipsychotic drugs: used to treat psychosis, such as schizophrenia.
• Mood-stabilizing drugs: used to treat bipolar disorder, such as lithium.
• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): used to treat severe depression.

Therapists

• Clinical psychologists: professionals with a Ph.D. or Psy.D. who specialize in assessment and treatment of psychological difficulties.
• Counseling psychologists: professionals with a Ph.D. or Ed.D. who typically treat day-to-day adjustment problems.
• Psychodynamic therapists: focus on the unconscious mind and childhood experiences.

Therapy Effectiveness

• Research shows that behavioral therapy is roughly 80% more effective than no treatment at all.
• Different forms of therapy work best in different situations.
• The quality of the client's participation is the most important determinant of whether or not therapy is successful.

Other

• Transference: the transmission of feelings to a psychoanalyst of love or anger that had been originally directed to a patient's parents or other authority figures.
• Meta-analysis: a research technique that combines data from a large number of studies to draw conclusions.

Flashcards covering operant conditioning techniques and psychological therapy. Test your knowledge of psychology concepts and techniques.