Summary Clinical psychopathology Chapter 4

4 Treating Psychopathology

LEARNING GOAL8
Contrast psychodynamic, humanistic, behavioural, cognitive, interpersonal, family, and group
therapies and summarize the common components of successful therapies


-What are the 5 theoretical approaches for treatment?
1. Psychodynamic
2. Humanistic
3. Behavioural
4. Cognitive
5. Family and systemic


4.1 THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF TREATMENTS FOR PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

What is the palliative effect?
-The characteristics of treatments for psychopatholoy

Palliative effect
many drug treatments for psychopathology will have a palliative effect (i.e. reduce the severity of
symptoms and so alleviate distress), but they may only rarely provide the client with insight into
their problems.

The treatment that is provided for a psychopathology will depend on at least two factors:
(1) the theoretical orientation and training of the therapist, and
(2) the nature of the psychopathology

continuing professional development (CPD)
 must demonstrate that they regularly update their knowledge of recent developments in
treatment techniques.

treatments may be chosen largely on the basis that they are effective at treating a certain type of
psychopathology. In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
recommends treatments for specific psychopathologies on the basis that their effectiveness is
evidence-based and empirically supported by scientifically rigorous research


4.1.1 Theoretical Approaches to Treatment

 Psychodynamic approaches

-name and explain the 4 techniques used by psychoanalysts
-when does it make sense to treat people using the psychodynamic approach?
-name the characteristics of sessions of psychotherapy
free associationA technique used in psychoanalysis where the client is encouraged to verbalize
all thoughts, feelings and images that come to mind.

TransferenceA technique used in psychoanalysis where the analyst is used as a target for
emotional responses: clients behave towards the analyst as they would have behaved towards an
important person in their lives.

dream analysisThe analysis of dream content as a means of accessing unconscious beliefs and

, conflicts.

InterpretationIn psychoanalysis, helping the client to identify important underlying conflicts

when does it make sense to treat people using the psychodynamic approach?
 It can be a helpful treatment for many people with moderate to severe anxiety or
depression-based problems – especially when other, more conventional, therapies have
failed

name the characteristics of sessions of psychotherapy
 long-term and frequent

describe Modern psychodynamic treatment




 Behavioral therapy

-what are the cornerstones of behavioral therapy?
-which 2 groups can behavioral therapy be divided into?




What are the 2 assumptions of behavioural therapy? What is faulty learning?
 therapies stress the need to treat symptoms of psychopathology as bona fide behavioural
problems rather than the mere symptoms of some other, hidden underlying cause.
 faulty learningA view that the symptoms of psychological disorders are acquired
through the learning of pathological responses

Behaviour modification
On which principle of conditioning is BM based?
behaviour modificationBehavioural treatment methods based on operant conditioning
principles, which assume that learnt psychopathology can be ‘unlearnt’ using normal learning
processes.
 BM=behavioral analysis: based on operant conditioning

Therapies based on classical conditioning principles
what are therapies based on CC called? what principle are they based on? explain

behavior modification. based on extinction:
 The classical conditioning principle which assumes emotional problems can be ‘unlearnt’
by disrupting the association between the anxiety-provoking cues or situations and the
threat or traumatic outcomes with which they have become associated.
 event or situation is experienced in the absence of accompanying trauma so that the
former no longer comes to evoke the latter

Behavioral modification