Psychology Notes

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Treatment

Therapy – General term for any treatment process; in psychology and psychiatry, therapy refers to a variety of psychological and biomedical techniques aimed at dealing with mental disorders or coping with problems of living

The components of therapy

In addition to the relationship between the therapist and the patient/client, the therapeutic process typically involves some or all of the following processes:

Identifying the problem
Identifying the cause of the problem or the conditions that maintain the problem
Deciding on and carrying out some form of treatment

Psychological therapies –Based on psychological principles (rather than biomedical approach)

The psychological therapies are often collectively called psychotherapy

Biomedical therapies – Treatments that focus on altering the brain, especially with drugs, psychosurgery, or electroconvulsive therapy

Insight therapies – Psychotherapies in which the therapist helps patients/clients understand (gain insight into) their problems

Psychodynamic therapies – Insight therapies based on the assumption that mental disorder is caused by powerful (dynamic) mental forces and conflicts

Psychoanalysis – The form of psychodynamic therapy developed by Sigmund Freud

Analysis of transference – Analyzing and interpreting the patient’s relationship with the therapist, based on the assumption that this relationship mirrors unresolved conflicts in the patient’s past

Neo-Freudian psychodynamic therapies – Therapies developed by psychodynamic theorists who embraced some of Freud’s ideas, but disagreed with others

Humanistic therapies – Techniques based on the assumption that people have a tendency for positive growth and self actualization, which may be blocked by an unhealthy environment

Client-centered therapy – Emphasizes healthy psychological growth through self-actualization

Carl Rogers

Reflection of feeling – Paraphrasing client’s words to capture the emotional tone expressed

Cognitive therapy – Emphasizes rational thinking as the key to treating mental disorder

Cognitive therapy for depression involves

Evaluating evidence
Situational factors
Alternative solutions

Group therapy – Psychotherapy with more than one client

Self-help support groups – Groups that provide social support and an opportunity for sharing ideas about dealing with common problems; typically organized/run by laypersons (not professional therapists)

Behavior therapy – Any form of psychotherapy based on the principles of behavioral learning, especially operant conditioning and classical conditioning

Systematic desensitization – Technique in which anxiety is extinguished by exposing the patient to an anxiety-provoking stimulus

Exposure therapy – Desensitization therapy in which patient directly confronts the anxiety-provoking stimulus (as opposed to imagining it)

Aversion therapy – Involves presenting individuals with an attractive stimulus paired with unpleasant stimulation in order to condition a repulsive reaction

Contingency management – Approach to changing behavior by altering the consequences, especially rewards and punishments, of behavior

Token economies – Applied to groups (e.g. classrooms, mental hospital wards) involving distribution of “tokens” contingent on desired behaviors; tokens can later be exchanged for privileges, food, or other reinforcers

Participant modeling – Therapist demonstrates and encourages a client to imitate a desired behavior

Cognitive-behavioral therapy

Combines cognitive emphasis on thoughts with behavioral strategies that alter reinforcement contingencies
Assumes irrational self-statements cause maladaptive behavior
Seeks to help the the client develop a sense of self-efficacy

Rational-emotive behavior therapy – Based on the idea that irrational thoughts and behaviors are the cause of mental disorders (REBT)

Albert Ellis

Drug Therapies

Antipsychotic drugs

Include chlorpromazine, haloperidol, and clozapine
Usually affect dopamine pathways
May have side effects

Tardive dyskinesia – Incurable disorder of motor control resulting from long-term use of antipsychotic drugs

Antidepressants and mood stabilizers

Include Prozac, monoamine oxidase (MOA) inhibitors, and lithium carbonate (effective against bipolar disorder)
Treat depression and bipolar disorder
Usually affect serotonin and/or norepinephrine
The use of antidepressants to deal with general feelings of unease is highly controversial

Antianxiety drugs

Include barbiturates and benzodiazepines
May include some antidepressant drugs which work on certain anxiety disorders
Should not be used to relieve ordinary anxieties of everyday life
Should not be taken for more than a few days at a time
Should not be combined with alcohol

Stimulants suppress activity level in persons with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

There is controversy from concern that the causes and boundaries of ADHD are vague and the potential exists for overdiagnosis

Psychosurgery –The general term for surgical intervention in the brain to treat psychological disorders

The infamous prefrontal lobotomy is no longer performed

Severing the corpus callosum, however, can reduce life-threatening seizures

Electroconvulsive therapy is used for the treatment of severe depression

Therapeutic community – Program of treating mental disorder by making the institutional environment supportive and humane for patients

Deinstitutionalization – Policy of removing patients, whenever possible, from mental hospitals

Community mental health movement – Effort to deinstitutionalize mental patients and to provide therapy from outpatient clinics

Social Psychology

Chapter 14

Social psychology – The branch of psychology that studies the effects of social variables and cognitions on individual behavior and social interactions

Social context – The combination of

The activities and interactions among people
The setting in which behavior occurs, and
The expectations and social norms governing behavior in that setting

Situationism – The view that environmental conditions influence people’s behavior as much or more than their personal dispositions do

Social role – One of several socially defined patterns of behavior that are expected of persons in a given setting or group

Script – Knowledge about the sequence of events and actions that is expected in a particular setting

Conformity - changing your behavior or opinions to match those of your group

Ashe identifies three factors that influence whether a person will yield to pressure:

The size of the majority
The presence of a partner who dissented from the majority
The size of the discrepancy between the correct answer and the majority position

In “groupthink,” members of the group attempt to conform their opinions to what each believes to be the consensus of the group

Conditions likely to promote groupthink include:

Isolation of the group
High group cohesiveness
Directive leadership
Lack of norms requiring methodical procedures
Homogeneity of members’ social background and ideology
High stress from external threats with low hope of a better solution than that of the group leader

Obedience to authority

In Milgram’s experiment

The victim was an actor
The victim receive no actual shocks
Nevertheless, this controversial experiment demonstrated how powerful effects of obedience to authority
Situational factors, and not personality variables, appeared to effect people’s levels of obedience

Diffusion of responsibility – Dilution or weakening of each group member’s obligation to act when responsibility is perceived to be shared with all group members

Interpersonal attraction

Reward theory of attraction – A social learning view that says we like best those who give us maximum rewards at minimum cost

Matching hypothesis – Prediction that most people will find friends and mates that are about their same level of attractiveness

Cognitive dissonance – A highly motivating state in which people have conflicting cognitions, especially when their voluntary actions conflict with their attitudes

Fundamental attribution error – Tendency to emphasize internal causes and ignore external pressures

Self-serving bias – Attributional pattern in which one takes credit for success but denies responsibility for failure

Prejudice – A negative attitude toward an individual based solely on his or her membership in a particular group

Discrimination – A negative action taken against an individual as a result of his or her group membership

In-group – The group with which an individual identifies

Out-group – Those outside the group with which an individual identifies

Social distance – The perceived difference or similarity between oneself and another person

Scapegoating

Combating prejudice

Research suggests that the possible tools for combating prejudice include:

New role models
Equal status contact
Legislation

In the Robber’s Cave experiment, conflict between groups arose from an intensely competitive situation

Cooperation, however, replaced conflict when the experimenters contrived situations that fostered mutual interdependence and common goals for the groups

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

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