Psychotherapy
Treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.
Deinstitutionalization
A movement that began in the 1950s that aimed to provide better, less expensive care for chronically mentally ill patients in their own communities rather than at large, centralized hospitals.
Rosenhan Study
Pseudo-patients could not be distinguished from regular patients. Behaviors were viewed as abnormal because of contextual bias
Dorothea Dix
A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill, beginning in the 1820's, she was responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the U.S. and Canada. She succeeded in persuading many stat
Biomedical Therapy
the use of prescribed medications or medical procedures that act on a patient's nervous system to treat psychological disorders, (p. 497)
Eclectic Approach
an approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client's problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy. (p. 637)
Psychoanalysis
Freud's theory of personality that attributes our thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.
Resistance
in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 687)
Interpertation
the analysts noting supposed dream meanings, resistance, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight.
Transference
in psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent). (Myers Psychology 8e p. 687)
Client Centered Therapy
a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth. (Also called person-centered therapy.) (Myers Psychology 8e p.
Carl Rogers
1902-1987; Field: humanistic; Contributions: founded person-centered therapy, theory that emphasizes the unique quality of humans especially their freedom and potential for personal growth, unconditional positive regard, fully functioning person
Active Listening
empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client-centered therapy. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 689)
Behavior Therapy
therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 690)
Counterconditioning
a behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors; based on classical conditioning. Includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 691)
Exposure Therapies
behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear and avoid. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 691)
Mary Cover Jones
behaviorism/learning; pioneer in systematic desensitization, maintained that fear could be unlearned, the researcher that paired a pleasant stimulus (a favorite food) with the feared object (rabbit) to use classical conditioning to rid "little peter" of h
Systematic Desensitization
a type of counterconditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 692)
Joseph Wolpe
Used classical conditioning theory in psychotherapy and introduced Systematic Desensitatization and concepts of reciprocal inhibition which he applied to reduce anxiety. In treatment he paired relaxation with an anxiety -provoking stimulus until the stimu
Flooding
A behavioral technique used to treat phobias in which client is presented with feared stimulus all at once until the associated anxiety disappears.
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking
Aversive Conditioning
a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol)
Behavior Modification
psychotherapy that seeks to extinguish or inhibit abnormal or maladaptive behavior by reinforcing desired behavior and extinguishing undesired behavior
Token Economy
an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 693)
Cognitive Therapy
Therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.
Aaron Beck
1921-present; Field: cognitive; Contributions: father of Cognitive Therapy, created Beck Scales-depression inventory, hopelessness scale, suicidal ideation, anxiety inventory, and youth inventories
Rational Emotive Therapy
A type of cognitive therapy developed by Albert Ellis in which the therapist directly confronts and challenges the person's unrealistic thoughts and beliefs to show that they are irrational.
Albert Ellis
1913-2007; Field: cognitive-behavioral; Contributions: Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET), focuses on altering client's patterns of irrational thinking to reduce maladaptive behavior and emotions
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
a popular integrated therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)
Family Therapy
therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by or directed at other family members; attempts to guide family members toward positive relationships and improved communication. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 6
Regression Toward the Mean
the tendency for extremes of unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 702)
Meta Analysis
a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 703)
Eye Movement Desensitization
a form of psychotherapy that was developed to resolve symptoms resulting from disturbing and unresolved life experiences
Light Exposure Therapy
Designed for people with SAD. Consists of giving patients a timed daily dose of intense light. This can be done using "light boxes
Psychopharmacology
the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 711)
Antipsychotic Drugs
biological treatment option used to treat the severe psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia; effective for treating hallucinations; blocks dopamine receptors; Examples: thorazine, therazine, clozapine,
Neuroleptics
A category of medications used to reduce the frequency and intensity of psychotic symptoms; also called major tranquilizers.
Tardive Dyskinesia
involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs; a possible neurotoxic side effect of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs that target D2 dopamine receptors. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 712)
Antianxiety Drugs
drugs which relieve tension, apprehension, and nervousness, e.g., Valium and Xanax and other drugs in the benzodiazepine family, also known as tranquilizers
Antidepressant Drugs
drugs which gradually elevate mood and help bring people out of a depression; include trycyclics, MAO inhibitors, and SSRIs
SSRI's
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. (Selective because only Against reuptake of Serotonin). *First line of anti-depressants with fewer side-effects. Used for GAD, PMDD, SAD. Allowing more serotonin to remain Longer in the cleft.
Mood Stabilizing Drugs
such as lithium, are used to treat mood instability and bipolar disorders
Electroconvulsive Therapy
An alternative to drug therapies in the treatment of some disorders is ECT (electrocunvulsive therapy).
ECT consists of a series of treatments in which a brain seizure is induced by passing electrical current through the patient's brain. Resets neural pat
rTMS
the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity
Psychosurgery
surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 717)
Lobotomy
a now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves that connect the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 717)