What the college board is asking for: Students are introduced to the treatment of psychological disorders through an overview of the approaches used by therapists of different treatment orientations. Behavioral, humanistic, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, Gestalt, cognitive-behavioral, and pharmacological approaches to treatment are often discussed.
The mode in which therapy is administered can also vary. Therapy may be administered on a one-on-one basis, as is the case in clinical psychoanalysis, or within the context of a group, as in the case of support groups, encounter groups, and/or family therapy. Therapy may also be administered on an outpatient basis, as in the case of a counseling center, or within a hospital or other institutional setting. Students are also exposed to the research that has been done to assess the effectiveness of different therapeutic techniques.
Additionally, students are exposed to prevention and intervention techniques offered at the community level. Such services include educational programs, crisis intervention, telephone hot lines, and counseling.
Biomedical Therapies
The biomedical therapies include drugs, elecrto-convulsive therapy, and psychosurgery.
Drug Therapies: Since the 1950's, drug companies have developed many drugs to treat abnormal behavior. It's like giving insulin to a diabetic. Some brains are not producing enough of a certain neurotransmitter, much like many bodies aren't producing enough insulin. Antianxiety drugs create feelings of calmness in addition to inducing muscle relaxation. They have replaced sedatives in treating anxiety. Xanax and Valium lower the sympathetic activity of the brain. Antipsychotic drugs are used to treat schizophrenia. Some drugs like Haldol reduce delusions and hallucinations, but others such as Clozaril energize and animate patients. Antidepressants such as lithium help bipolar. Prozac and zoloft selectively only affect serotonin and are by far the most prescribed antidepressant. They are classified as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
Electroconvulsive Therapy: a current of moderate intensityis shot through the brain. It produces many changes in the central and peripheral nervous system. It increases the secretion of neurotransmitters and changes the blood-brain barrier. Tosay 12 or fewer treatments is all patients receive. When all else fails for depression, step in with the juice.
Psychosurgery: The most extreme and least used. In 1949 Egaz Moniz won a Nobel Prize for his lobotomy technique. A lobotomy is the cutting of the pathways between the frontal lobes and the thalamus and hypothalamus. Thanks to antipsychotic drugs, psychosurgery ended. Cingulotomy is a technique where only a small area of the brain is destroyed. (I'd like to have that memory of waking up in my underwear in the lobby of my dorm at Texas Tech cingulotomied!)
I bet this guy wished they had discovered drugs sooner. Rabin, 1985
Psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis: Freud's model is what comes to mind, of a person on a couch talking about their childhood. However, most modern psychoanalysis does employ this traditional technique. The word implies exactly what it is, "the analyzing of the mind." Freud believed that through free association (the temporary release of the conscious mind) to find the hidden unconscious that is the cause of one's pathology. He also used dream analysis, since he believed that dreams were the road to the unconscious. The core of psychoanalytic therapy is interpretation. During therapy the therapist listens and observes patterns and hidden meaning.
Cognitive Therapies: assumes that faulty thought processes and beliefs create problem behaviors and emotions. Cognitive therapists analyze thought processes and trying to alter those destructive thoughts. Cognitive therapists have looked extensively at self-talk and how we manage to produce unrealistic messages in our heads. Cognitive restructuring is the name for this process of changing one's thought process.
The most famous cognitive psychologist and a person who WILL be on the AP Exam is Albert Ellis. He developed a therapy called rational-emotive therapy. He states that there are three steps involved in creating disturbed responses. A-B-C approach is that there is first an Activating event which is some stimulus that blocks you from a goal. Then a irrational belief which is the person's interpretation of the activating response. Finally, the emotional consequence the person experiences. Problems arise when people go from the activating event to emotional consequence without taking a look at the beliefs you are attaching to the event. This creates a cycle of negative thinking that is difficult to get out of. It's interesting that Ellis begins therapy by teasing them about their absurd thinking, awfulizing everything and then helping them rethink and change their approach the way they think.
Behavioral Therapies
The focus is on modification plans that change the learned patterns of behavior and the environmental controls. It tries to break chains of behavior. The focus is on chnging behavior than on underlying causes. Systematic desensitization is a conditioning technique where there is a gradual process of evoking pleasant consequences to unhealthy stimuli. Aversive conditioning it uses classical conditioning to create anxiety or something unpleasant to a maladaptive behavior. A token economy is an operant technique in which tokens (secondary reinforcers) are exchanged for rewards. Very popular with behavioral disorders in children, such as ADHD.
