Treatment of Psychological Disorders
- Compare the major psychotherapeutic approaches and their goals
- Explain how cognitive and behavioral therapies change thoughts and actions
- Describe biomedical treatments and match drug classes to disorders
Insight and humanistic therapies
Therapies grow out of the personality perspectives. Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy (from Freud) aims to bring unconscious conflicts into awareness using tools like free association and dream interpretation, working through resistance and transference. Humanistic therapy, such as Carl Rogers’ client-centered (person-centered) therapy, is nondirective: the therapist offers unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and active listening with empathy to help clients accept themselves and grow. Both are "insight" therapies — they seek self-understanding rather than direct symptom retraining.
Behavioral and cognitive therapies
Behavior therapies apply learning principles to change actions directly. Systematic desensitization (Wolpe) pairs relaxation with a gradual hierarchy of feared stimuli to treat phobias (a form of exposure therapy); aversion therapy and token economies (operant) also change behavior. Cognitive therapies target thoughts: Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy for depression challenges negative, distorted thinking, and Ellis’s REBT disputes irrational beliefs. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) combines both — changing self-defeating thoughts and behaviors — and is highly effective for anxiety and depression.
Biomedical treatments
Biomedical therapies treat the body directly. Antidepressants (often SSRIs like fluoxetine) increase serotonin activity to relieve depression and anxiety. Antianxiety drugs calm the nervous system. Antipsychotics dampen dopamine activity to reduce the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Mood stabilizers such as lithium even out bipolar disorder. For severe, treatment-resistant depression, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can help. The biopsychosocial view supports combining medication with psychotherapy, since each addresses different contributing causes.
A client with a severe fear of flying works with a therapist who first teaches deep relaxation, then has her imagine and gradually approach flying-related situations — from packing a bag, to entering an airport, to sitting on a plane — staying relaxed at each step. Name the technique, the therapeutic approach, and why it works.
- 1.Identify the structure: the therapist builds a graded hierarchy of feared situations and pairs each with relaxation.
- 2.Name the technique: pairing relaxation with a gradual hierarchy of feared stimuli is systematic desensitization, a form of exposure therapy.
- 3.Identify the approach: because it applies learning principles to change behavior directly, it is a behavior therapy.
- 4.Explain the mechanism: the client cannot be relaxed and anxious at once (counterconditioning), so repeatedly staying calm while facing the feared stimulus replaces the fear response with calm.
A therapist helps a depressed client notice and challenge automatic thoughts like "I fail at everything" and also assigns small activities to rebuild engagement. This dual focus on distorted thinking and behavior is characteristic of:
Sort therapies by their target: insight therapies (psychoanalytic, humanistic) pursue self-understanding; behavior therapies change actions through conditioning; cognitive therapies change thoughts; CBT does both thoughts and actions; biomedical changes body chemistry.
A psychiatrist prescribes a medication that reduces dopamine activity for a patient experiencing hallucinations and delusions. Which class of drug is being used, and for which condition?
Match drug class to neurotransmitter and disorder: antidepressants (SSRIs) → raise serotonin → depression/anxiety; antipsychotics → lower dopamine → schizophrenia; lithium (mood stabilizer) → bipolar. The neurotransmitter link is a frequent exam target.
Answer the 2 checkpoints as you read.
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