Abnormal Psychology

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Abnormal Psychology

• Methods of Treatment

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Psychotherapy

• Def. general term given all forms of therapy
  which
• Attempt to help a person improve his/her
  psychological well-being and
• Help one better adjust to lifes situations
• There are over 250 psychotherapies some good
  and some bad
• E.g. Primal scream therapy

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Mental Health Professionals

• Clinical Psychologists trained in assessing,
  diagnosing and treating psych. Disorders
• Psychiatrists Doctors who have earned medical
  degrees and completed a residency in psychiatry

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Multicultural Issues in Psychotherapy

• Are therapists properly trained to work with a
  clientele from different cultural and ethnic
  backgrounds than his/her own?
• Usually
• And much more so than in the past

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Therapies

• Therapists use one of two approaches
• Eclectic approach
• Specific theoretical approach

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Psychoanalysis

• Founder Sigmund Freud
• Key belief Psych. problems are result of
• Childhood experiences
• Repressed impulses
• Conflicts between structures in the unconscious
  mind (id, ego and superego)

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Psychoanalysis

• Therapists job
• Help the client gain self-insight
• Insight figuring out where the persons problem
  stems from
• Techniques that unearth the past
• Free association (resistance)
• Interpretation

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Techniques Used to Unearth the Past

• Techniques (cont.)
• Transference
• Dream analysis
• Dreams the royal road to the unconscious
• Manifest and latent content

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Criticisms of Psychoanalysis

• Long and costly
• Can go on for years, several sessions/wk
• Useless for treating severe disorders
• Psychodynamic therapies
• Similar to psychoanalysis but lasts for several
  weeks to months, 1 session/wk, done face to face

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Cognitive Therapies

• Therapies which teach people new, more adaptive
  ways of thinking/acting
• Based on the assumption that thoughts intervene
  between events and our emotional reactions

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Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT)

• Founded by Albert Ellis
• Vigorously challenges peoples illogical,
  self-defeating beliefs
• Figure 15.3
• We must rid ourselves of irrational beliefs
• Replace them with rational beliefs

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Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT)

• Ellis therapy tries to show how absurd these
  self-defeating thoughts are
• Challenges the client
• Wheres the proof for your beliefs?
• Shows the client that s/he is in control of what
  s/he is thinking
• Client is taught to monitor beliefs/emotions
• Substitute real, positive beliefs

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Cognitive Therapy

• Founded by Aaron Beck
• Particularly effective in treating depression
• Similar to REBT
• Clients irrational beliefs are confronted
• Homework assignments are often used

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Successes/Criticisms of Cognitive Therapies

• Both Becks and Ellis therapies work well in
  treating many disorders
• Both have been criticized for concentrating on
  the present while ignoring potential causes from
  the past and/or that which is in the unconscious
  mind

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Humanistic Therapy

• Aim raise self-fulfillment by helping people
  grow in self-awareness and self-acceptance
• Focus is on
• The present instead of the past
• Conscious thoughts
• Taking responsibility for ones actions
• Promoting growth instead of curing illness

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Client-centered Therapy

• Founded by Carl Rogers
• Most widely used humanistic therapy
• Brief summary uses techniques within a genuine,
  accepting, empathic environment in order to
  facilitate a clients growth
• A person will not be blocked from
  self-fulfillment if s/he is in a state of
  congruence

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Techniques Employed in Therapy

• Active listening
• Genuineness
• Unconditional positive regard
• Empathy

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Behavior Therapies

• Therapies that apply learning principles to
  eliminate unwanted behaviors
• Goal replace problem thoughts/behaviors with
  constructive ones
• Belief disorders are thoughts/behaviors learned
  through reinforcement and or modeling

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Behavioral Techniques

• Systematic desensitization Fig. 15-4
• Gradual exposure
• Modeling
• Effective in social skills and assertiveness
  training
• Aversion therapy
• Associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted
  behavior
• E.g Alcohol/nausea inducing pill, rapid puffing

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Behavioral Techniques

• Operant conditioning techniques
• Use of reinforcement to maintain desired
  behaviors
• Token economy in institutions
• Removal of a reinforcer to eliminate undesirable
  behaviors
• Taking away privileges in the hopes the person
  will stop the unwanted behavior

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Biomedical TherapiesDrug Therapy

• Psychopharmacology study of the effects of
  drugs on the mind and behavior
• Antianxiety drugs
• Depress CNS activity, thereby reducing tension
  and anxiety
• When used properly, can help a person learn to
  cope with fear-triggering stimuli

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Biomedical TherapiesDrug Therapy

• Antipsychotic drugs
• Dampen responsiveness to irrelevant stimuli
• Hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, etc.
• Is believed these drugs work by blocking dopamine
  and serotonin receptors
• Tardive dyskinesia (eye blinking, lip smacking,
  facial grimaces, involuntary muscle movements)

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Biomedical TherapiesDrug Therapy

• Mood stabilizers antidepressants
• Lithium provides an effective treatment for up to
  50 of people with bipolar disorder
• Antidepressants
• Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
  blocks reuptake of serotonin, increasing
  availability
• Monamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO inhibitors)
  prevents breakdown of norepinephrine and
  serotonin in the synapses, increasing availability

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Electroconvulsive Therapy(ECT)

• Video History of Shock Therapy
• Biomedical therapy for severely depressed
  patients
• A brief electric current is sent through the
  brain of an anesthetized patient
• Psychiatrist shocks brain for lt 1 second
• Within 30 min., the patient awakens, but is a
  little confused

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Electroconvulsive Therapy(ECT)

• Is used only as a last resort
• After 3-5 treatments/wk, for 2-4 weeks, about 80
  show a marked improvement
• Without noticeable brain damage
• Why does it work?

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Psychosurgery The Prefrontal Lobotomy

• Egaz Moniz founded the operation in 1936
• Received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949
• Was once used to calm uncontrollable emotional or
  violent patients
• Done by cutting the nerves that connect the
  frontal lobes to the thalamus and hypothalamus
  (emotion-controlling centers of the brain)

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Psychosurgery The Prefrontal Lobotomy

• Today, lobotomies are extremely rare and are
  usually used to stop uncontrollable seizures,
  depression, OCD, etc.
• Doctors today are able to deactivate specific
  nerve clusters, thereby causing less damage
• Like ECT, it is used mainly as a last resort