Therapy - AP Psychology

Aaron Beck is a psychatrist who is credited with creating cognitive therapy for disorders such as depression and anxiety. His theories are still very influential on modern therapy. He also created the Beck Depression Inventory, one of the most widely used assessments for depression.

Psychoanalysis was founded by Freud in the late 1800s. He believed that people could be cured of their mental illnesses by revealing their unconscious thoughts and motivations. This process leads to client insight and allows them to address their repressed emotions and experiences.

Unconditional positive regard is a concept created by humanistic psychologist, Carl Rogers. This term involves the therapist accepting and supporting the client regardless of what he or she says or does. This is a core tenet of client-centered therapy.

Electroconvulsive therapy is the use of electric shock to produce convulsions and treat drug-resistant or particularly severe psychiatric disorders. It is frequently seen as a last resort.

Phototherapy is treatment with bright white fluorescent lights, generally used to treat seasonal disorders. Behavorial therapy is used to change maladaptive behaviors such as smoking or alcohol abuse. Cognitive therapy is used to remove negative thoughts that harm a person's emotional health. Psychotherapy is any means of treating psychiatric disorders by mental rather than pharmacological means.

Any therapeutic treatment that does not address the underlying cause of a disorder can and will most often lead to symptom substitution. For instance, if one is feeling depressed due to strong feelings of abandonment rooted from their personal history, and they do not address this as being the cause, the depression will more often than not manifest in some other disorder. If the therapeutic diagnosis is something like "improve you lifestyle by eating right and exercising", this may improve a person's overall mood and help tremendously, but will not address the unresolved problems in this person's past. As a result, they may become absolutely fixated on living a healthy lifestyle to the point that it turns into a paranoid obsession. And thus arises another problem, and the symptoms of depression become symptoms of obsession.

This is one of the great merits of talk therapy, as it is designed for the patient to exmaine themselves and investigate the causes of their problems, which can hopefully lead to long-term mental health.

Electrconvulsive therapy is used to send electric current through the brain. It is most commonly used for depression when no other forms of treatment have worked. Unfortunately it comes with unpleasant side effects, such as memory loss, a brief seizure, a brief loss of consciousness, and nausea or vomiting. Electroconvulsive therapy is generally considered a last resort treatment.

The correct answer is: Aversion Therapy.

Aversion therapy pairs an undesired behavior with another stimulus that causes discomfort.

Preventative Medicine is concerned with preventing diseases before they occur.

The other answer choices are incorrect.

Dream analysis, free association, and projective tests are all used by psychodynamic therapists to reveal the unconscious conflicts that cause clients' behaviors. Systematic desensitization is a behavioral technique used by therapists to help clients cope with anxiety or phobias through counterconditioning.

Psychiatrists are physicians, whose medical degrees allow them to specialize in diagnosing and treating mental disorders with a combination of biomedical treatment (medication) and psychotherapy. Psychotherapists do not have medical degrees, and instead have doctoral or master's degrees and licenses to practice therapy. They focus on therapeutic, rather than biomedical, interventions. Psychiatrists and psychotherapists often work together to provide the best possible treatment for a patient.

Humanism, or Client-Centered Therapy, works to help a patient live up to his/her full potential while becoming more aware of their feelings.

Using a blend of therapies is considered an approach in itself. While studying the various schools of psychology it is important to keep in mind that most practicing therapists are not actually ideologically focused in their approach, but rather choose to use a mix of therapies tailored to the needs of their specific clients.

Humanistic therapy focuses on boosting patient's self-fulfillment via growth in self-awareness and self-acceptance. Active listening is a technique that may be used in humanistic therapies, such as client-centered therapy, but is a tool used within that kind of therapy, not a discrete kind of therapy unto itself. The other options would be considered behavioral therapy.

Antipsychotic drugs are popular and often effective at treating symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions or hallucinations but not the behaviors associated with the disorder. Long-term behavioral therapy is often necessary to treat behaviors that come with the mental disorder.

The psychoanalytic concept of transference occurs when a therapist begins to play a significant role in the patient's life, and patient transfers (carries over) some of the feelings from a past relationship, often a parent-child one, into the relationship with their therapist. Transference can be positive (love), negative (hatred, jealousy), or ambivalent, and its occurence is seen as a sign of success by Freudian psychotherapists.

According to Freud, resistance is when a client rejects the therapist's interpretations of the emotions and behavior and often tries to hide aspects of themselves from their therapist. Psychodynamic therapists believe that it is an unconscious process that indicates the therapist's success and means they are close to figuring the client out (but not that therapy is ready to end).

Carl Roger's humanistic therapy involves active listening (asking questions and reflecting on what the client says), empathy, unconditional positive regard (the therapist is always kind and respectful of the patient no matter what happens), and non-directiveness (the therapist tries to help the client reach a solution rather than telling them what to do). Mindfulness meditation is a technique more often associated with cognitive therapy.

Group therapy has many advantages, including social support, high levels of effectiveness, opportunities to practice social skills, and the realization that many people suffer from similar issues. In addition, group therapy is generally less expensive than individual therapy, which is another benefit.

There are many types of group therapy, including family therapy, couples counseling, mindfulness group therapy (focusing on techniques such as meditation), AA, and cognitive therapy addiction groups (focusing on how unhelpful thought patterns lead to addiction). Self-help groups like AA are distinct from the other types of groups because they do not involve a certified therapist, instead relying on a leader, group dynamics, and religion.

Research shows that therapy is quite effective and the average therapy-treated client is better off than the average non-treated client. The placebo effect -someone getting better because they think they are being treated- is a concern with medication but hasn't been linked to the effectiveness of therapy.