Transcript Psychological Disorders

Psychological
Therapies
Therapy
There are over 250 identifiable types of
psychotherapy, though the most influential
are:





Psychoanalysis Therapies
Humanistic Therapies
Behavior Therapies
Cognitive Therapies
Group and Family Therapies
Any therapist who uses a combination of
therapies is said to be using an “eclectic”
approach to therapy
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis assumes that
many psychological problems
are fueled by the childhood
repression of impulses and
conflicts. These unresolved
issues impact our future
behaviors and social
relationships.
It is the job of a
psychoanalyst to
bring the repressed
feelings into
conscious awareness
and gain insight as to
the real source of a
patient’s problem in
order to resolve the
conflict and bring to
closure its
accompanying
behaviors.
Free Association

A method of exploring the
unconscious, in which a
person relaxes and says
whatever comes to mind, no
matter how trivial or
embarrassing
Free Association

During free association, though,
patients almost instinctively
begin to edit themselves, feeling
that some information is too
trivial, irrelevant, or shameful.
These blocks in the flow of free
association are called
resistance.
Resistance

Resistance hints at anxiety and the
repression of sensitive material.
Interpretation then involves the
recognition by both the therapist and
the patient that there are repressed
issues to deal with….and then the
process of actually dealing with those
issues begins
Transference

Sometimes while revealing their
secrets, patients may begin to
experience strong feelings towards
their therapists. Transferring emotions
from one experience to the therapist
is called transference. It’s then easier
to deal with emotions if they aren’t as
personalized anymore.
Humanistic Therapies
Disorders arise when
people feel like they’ve
underachieved, when
they perceive
themselves as less than
ideal, or when they
haven’t reached their
fullest potential. (SelfActualization)
IE. My depression is caused by the
fact that I didn’t get a promotion,
therefore I must be a very bad
employee. (Safety, Esteem)
 IE. The secondary personality of
Charlie arises when Steve feels
bullied. Steve is too weak to deal with
it, but Charlie can. (Safety)
 IE. Timmy broke up with me because
I’m fat. I’ll stop eating so I can be
thin. (Love and Belongingness)

A therapist needs to recognize
where the barriers to reaching
self-actualization are (is it a safety
issue? an esteem issue?), and
help the client improve in this
area in order to reach their
potential. The symptoms of the
disorder should fade as a person
improves.
Free Will
Patients need to be reminded
that they are capable of
controlling their own destiny
I don’t have to be a bad employee. I
can get a new job that maximizes my
skills, or learn new skills to help me
achieve my current career goals.
I don’t have to lose weight. I can
date who I want to, be friends with
who I want to, with someone who
appreciates me.
Client-Centered Therapy
There are four parts to this
approach, with the ultimate
goal of allowing a client to
become more self-assured
and on a path towards selfactualization.
Genuineness

Authenticity. Aware
of one’s own true
inner thoughts and
feelings. Be able to
share, honestly. No
fakeness,
defensiveness, or
role playing. This is
true for the client
and the therapist.
Maybe I didn’t get the
promotion because I was
late too often, or didn’t take
the job seriously.
You know, I have put on a
few pounds since I stopped
working out.
Unconditional Positive
Regard

A genuine caring for people
based on their innate value as
individuals. Clients are
cherished and respected
without judgment. Avoiding
evaluative statements of good
and bad.
If the therapist finds value in you,
you will as well.
Empathetic Understanding
Sensitive
understanding and
sharing of another
person’s inner
experiences. Openended questions to
explore feelings and
express emotions.
Active Listening
Active-listening involves
a therapists technique of
listening intently,
echoing, restarting and
seeking clarification, and
acknowledgement of a
clients expressed verbal
and non-verbal emotions
“I understand that…..”
“So, what you’re saying is…”
“Ok, let’s talk about this a bit more…”
“How did that make you feel…”
OK, maybe I did do everything I could
to get the promotion and I’m just
underappreciated.
Maybe I did everything I could in that
relationship, and it wasn’t my fault that
it ended.
Cognitive Therapies
Cognitive therapy assumes that
faulty thought processes and
beliefs create problem
behaviors and emotions. When
people hold beliefs that are
irrational, that are overly
demanding, or that fail to match
reality, their emotions and
behaviors may become
disturbed.
Cognitive therapy involves learning
skills that allow you to see the
connection between thoughts and
upsetting feelings, to appraise the
accuracy of these thoughts that are
creating upsetting feelings, and if
they are inaccurate, to make them
more accurate. A therapist wants
to change the thought processes of
patients from negative to positive to
alleviate disorder symptoms.
Rational-Emotive
Behavior Therapy
Identify the activating
event, which is the
stimulus for the feelings
and behaviors.
Understand the belief
system, which is the
patient’s interpretation
of the activating
experience
Observe the emotional
and behavioral
consequences that the
patient experiences as a
result of their belief
system
Dispute, or challenge,
the erroneous belief
with logic, with rational
thought
Activating Event:
Low Exam Grade
Irrational Beliefs:
I’m so unintelligent. I’ll never
graduate college
Emotional/Behavioral Consequences:
I’m depressed.
(this reinforces your feelings of being
unintelligent as well, which makes you
further depressed)
Dispute:
It’s only one grade amongst
many. I can do better on
the next test and still pass.
Having made a mistake at work, a
person may believe, "I'm useless
and can't do anything right at
work." Strongly believing this, in
turn, tends to worsen his mood.
The problem may be worsened
further if the individual reacts by
avoiding activities and then
behaviorally confirming his
negative belief to himself.
As a result, an adaptive
response and further
constructive
consequence becomes
unlikely, which reinforces
the original belief of
being "useless."
In therapy, the latter example could
be identified as a self-fulfilling
prophecy or "problem cycle," and the
efforts of the therapist and client
would be directed at working together
to change it. This is done by
addressing the way the client thinks
and behaves in response to similar
situations and by developing more
flexible ways to think and respond,
including reducing the avoidance of
activities.
If, as a result, the client escapes
the negative thought patterns and
dysfunctional behaviors, the
feelings of depression may, over
time, be relieved. The client may
then become more active,
succeed and respond more
adaptively more often, and further
reduce or cope with his negative
feelings.
Socratic Questioning
Get them to think more about what
exactly they are asking or thinking
about. Prove the concepts behind
their argument.
Probing of assumptions makes them
think about the presuppositions and
unquestioned beliefs on which they
are founding their argument.
When they give a rationale for their
arguments, dig into that reasoning
rather than assuming it is a given.
Most arguments are given from a
particular position. So attack the
position. Show that there are other,
equally valid, viewpoints.
Behavior Therapies

Behaviorists believe that
problem behaviors are
learned behaviors. To
treat disorders is to
eliminate or unlearn the
problem behavior through
various methods of
counterconditioning
Classical Counter
Conditioning
Systematic Desensitization
Implosive Therapy
Aversive Conditioning
Systematic
Desensitization
Progressive Relaxation
Anxiety Hierarchy

Control Scene
Desensitization
Progressive Relaxation

A method of successfully
relaxing one muscle group
after another until a deep
state of relaxation is
achieved.
Anxiety Hierarchy
A patient creates a list of anxiety
provoking images associated with
the feared situation, arranged in a
hierarchy from least to most
anxiety producing.
Control Scene

A soothing mental image to initiate
muscle relaxation. If you begin to feel
stressed, think of….walking on a beach,
a sunny day, etc.
Lowest to Highest – Fear of Flying
•
•
•
•
Packing luggage
Realizing you have to make a flight
Making reservations
Driving to the airport
Checking in
Waiting for boarding
Boarding the plane
Waiting for departure
Taking off
Climbing to cruising altitude
In-flight service
Moving around the cabin
Turbulence
Descending
Landing
Systematic Desensitization

While deeply relaxed, the patient
imagines the least threatening scene in
the anxiety hierarchy. As long as they
stay relaxed, they progress upwards. If
they feel stressed, they find their control
scene and start over. Gradually, a
patient works from imagining the scenes
to experiencing the events in real life.
Systematic Desensitization
is also known as exposure
therapy. A therapist is
attempting to gradually
substitute a positive
response for a negative
response to a harmless
stimulus.
Implosive Therapy
Floods patients with their
worst fears first, in hopes
that by confronting their
worst fears, they’ll learn
how to not back down
Aversive Conditioning
In aversive conditioning,
a therapist tries to
replace a positive
response to a harmful
stimulus with a negative
response.

IE. Dave enjoys sucking his
thumb at night. This is a bad
habit. A therapist would
cover Dave’s thumb with hot
pepper before bed time.
Dave does not like the taste
of hot peppers, and therefore
he will stop sucking his
thumb.
Operant Counter
Conditioning
Use positive reinforcers to
shape behavior that they
want to continue
Withhold reinforcement, or
punish, to stop undesirable
behaviors
Token Economy
A token economy is one in
which a therapist rewards
patients for displaying
appropriate behaviors by giving
them a token, such as a ticket
or a plastic coin, that they can
later exchange for prizes or
gifts.
Music Therapy
Treating Depression With Magnetic Stimulation
Controversy, The Use of Medications
The Mind and Healing
Treating Brain Injuries
Treating Depression
Electroconvulsive Therapy
A&E Series Intervention
Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew
Light Exposure Therapy

Especially for seasonal
affective disorder, or
depression brought on
seasonal changes from
summer to winter (less light).
The therapy includes timed
doses of intense light in “light
boxes”.
Electroconvulsive Therapy
Patient’s brains are given
momentary shock treatments,
generally for about 30 minutes.
 Patients are given an anesthetic
so that they are not conscious,
and a muscle relaxant to
prevent any injuries that may
occur from convulsions.

Electroconvulsive Therapy
Electroconvulsive Therapy



Especially used in cases of deep
depression, but historically/barbarically
used for almost anything determined to
be abnormal behavior.
May work by helping the release of
norepinephrine in the brain, which is
responsible for elevating arousal and
mode.
May work by calming areas of the brain
that are overactive during depressed
periods.
Psychosurgery
Surgery that removes or
destroys brain tissue in an
effort to change behavior.
 Once popular, but no
more, a lobotomy cuts the
nerves that connect the
frontal lobe to the emotioncontrolling centers in the
inner-brain.

Psychopharmacology
The study of the
effects of drugs on
the mind and
behavior
Antipsychotic Drugs
Drugs used for the purpose of
calming psychotic patients
(such as schizophrenia)
characterized by defective or
lost contact with reality (ie.
hallucinations, paranoia, apathy,
withdrawal)
 IE. Thorazine, Clozaril, Haldol

Most antipsychotic drugs work
by attaching themselves to
receptor sites for dopamine,
thus blocking their
transmission from neuron to
neuron, and helping to
alleviate the hallucinations
related to schizophrenia.
Antianxiety Drugs
Are used for the purpose
of alleviating the
symptoms stemming from
frightening situations and
fear-inducing stimuli
 IE. Xanax, Valium

Antianxiety drugs work
by depressing the central
nervous system activity,
generally by increasing
the effectiveness of the
calming
neurotransmitter, GABA.
Antidepressant Drugs
The purpose is to lift
people up from a state
of depression
 IE. Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft

Antidepressant drugs
work by increasing the
availability of
norepinephrine and/or
serotonin, which elevate
arousal and mood
Lithium is an antidepressant used
mainly for manicdepressives (bipolar)