Theories and Approaches - AP Psychology

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a structured, short-term therapeutic technique that aims to change a client's maladaptive cognitions and behaviors into more realistic and/or adaptive ones. CBT is commonly used for those with various mood and anxiety disorders.

Free association is a common tenet of psychoanalysis that allows clients to speak for themselves. Free association allows the therapist to figure out the client's unconscious motives and desires.

A Rorschach inkblot test presents a patient with an ambiguous image and asks the patient to interpret what they see. This process would be of most use to a psychoanalyst, who aims to help the patient reveal their unconscious thoughts and desires.

The biological approach to treating a mental illness addresses chemical imbalances, lesions in the brain, or some physical illness that may be underlying the psychological symptoms. Most of the time this involves prescribing drugs to stabiliize the patient and restore balance in the brain and body.

The cognitive approach to treating mental illness is designed to find maladaptive and harmful thought patterns and to replace them with healthier ones. This is the most effective in treating less extreme disorders, where ruminating or negative thought patterns may be causing a lot of the suffering. For instance, a person with low self-worth may constantly think people are attacking them personally, but a cognitive therapist may have the patient reframe their thinking so that they don't take everything personally. This encourages the patient to become more holistic in their thinking and stop propagating bad thoughts about themselves.

The point of view taken towards mentally ill people in the Middle Ages was deeply religous. As such, they were seen as people possessed by demonic spirits who could be treated through exorcism or a process called trephining. In trephining, one made holes in the skull, which were supposed to allow the evil spirits to escape. Other mentally ill people were persecuted and sent to jail. Some observers of the time, mainly philosophers, began to hint at biological explanations for mental illness but this did not become a prominent point of view until much later on.

Tertiary prevention is preventing an illness from getting worse. This kind of prevention is used when the illness is permanent and/or chronic. An example would be an alcoholic who, already having quit alcoholic, keeps attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since this stabilizes them in periods during which they may be tempted to drink alcohol again.

The main focus of existential therapy is helping a patient carve out their own meaning in life. This therapy was popularized by Victor Frankl who survived the Nazi concentration camps and wrote Man's Search For Meaning. His main reasoning was that life was full of suffering, and he experienced life's worst sufferings during the concentration camp, but meaning must be found from it. For instance, although there were many cruel guards in the camp, he came to profoundly appreciate the kindness of some who treated him well. He found meaning in his situation, which was that human kindness can be found even in the most hostile of places.

The ultimate aim of existential therapy is to help patients do the same in their circumstances: find meaning from their suffering as well as a general purpose in their life to fulfill.

Flooding, also known as Immersion Therapy or Prolonged Exposure Therapy, refers to the process of exposing patients to the stimulus or situation that they fear (sometimes, even just by asking the patient to imagine that experience) while explaining or demonstrating that they are in no danger, and that their fear is irrational.

Joseph Wolpe, possibly influenced by the work of Mary Cover Jones, created a technique called systematic desensitization to treat South African soldiers suffering from what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Combining gradual stepping-up or -down of an anxiety-producing stimulus with a modified form of Edmund Jacobson's muscle relaxation techniques, Wolpe's treatment became the gold standard in treating acute anxiety disorders for more than 50 years.

Gestalt therapy focuses on the idea that each person is best understood against the background of their relationships with other people, ideas, and even their own past and expected future selves. Hallmarks of the gestalt technique include the following: the empty chair technique, the paradox of change, and the recognition that all clients wish to be psychologically healthy.

In transactional analysis, the person is often described as reliant upon ritualistic games. These games are defined as a series of rule-bound transactions between two or more people that are directed towards an end. The goal of therapy is often seen as getting people to change the games that they play by coming to a higher awareness of their own end goals in life. Ultimately, the person is expected to be able to objectively view their role in the world they live in.

Operant conditioning as a therapeutic technique covers a wide range of possible therapeutic objectives. Operant condition uses a common strategy consisting of reward/punishment mechanisms that reinforce desired behavior and eliminate or reduce undesired behavior.

The diathesis-stress model posits that although a person may be genetically predisposed to suffer from a mental disorder; its onset may be triggered by stress. For instance, a person who is genetically disposed to schizophrenia may only ever start to experience symptoms after a significantly stressful event. Otherwise, they may never suffer from the disorder their entire lives.

During the Dark Ages, people assumed that mental illnesses were caused by demons and evil spirits, which led them to treat psychological patients very cruelly and try to cure them through beatings and other tortuous methods. The Enlightenment led to better conditions for people in mental institutions, and Dorothea Dix and Pinel advocated for better conditions in the 19th century. Some Ancient Greeks, such as Galen, were some of the first to believe that psychological disorders were caused biologically.

Repeated exposure to the anxiety (e.g. germs) paired with response prevention (e.g. not allowing Barry to wash his hands) allows the individual to recognize that thoughts are separate from actions. It also allows the individual to find new, more adaptive ways of relieving anxiety. The goal is to gradually extinguish the compulsive anxiety response over time.

The Cognitive Behavioral model creates a platform for therapy. It encompasses the idea that thoughts lead to emotions and by changing cognition, one can change emotions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on replacing negative behaviors and thought-patterns with action, as opposed to focusing on the underlying causes of those behaviors and thought-patterns.

Carl Jung had a generally compassionate attitude towards the mentally ill, who had traditionally been punished and mistreated by the societies they inhabited, especially with the development of industrial society. He believed that the mentally were labelled by society as disturbed due to the fact that they may have stories, beliefs, or attitudes that society as a whole rejects. This could be a number of things-people who are not Christian, who believe in the paranormal, or who have customs and practices that aren't acceptable. He thought the key to healing the mentally ill was through dream analysis and giving an attentive ear to their personal stories that have been suppressed.

"Trephining" is the name for an old treatment of mental illnesses in which doctors made holes in the afflicted person's skull. This treatment was popular in the Middle Ages, and although by modern standards it is considered cruel and ineffective, at the time there was little alternatives. Also mental illness was seen as the intervention of demonic forces, which did little to promote scientific thinking to come up with an effective cure.