Chapters 15 & 16 Therapies & Social Behaviors

1. Chapters 15 & 16Therapies & Social Behaviors

2. What Is Psychotherapy? • Any psychological technique used to facilitate positive changes in personality, behavior, or adjustment; some types of psychotherapy: Not a “cure all”. • Individual: Involves only one client and one therapist • Client: Patient; the one who participates in psychotherapy • Rogers used “client” to equalize therapist-client relationship and de-emphasize doctor-patient concept • Group: Several clients participate at the same time

3. Origins of Therapy • Trepanning: For primitive “therapists,” refers to boring, chipping, or bashing holes into a patient’s head; for modern usage, refers to any surgical procedure in which a hole is bored into the skull • In primitive times it was unlikely the patient would survive; this may have been a goal • Goal presumably to relieve pressure or rid the person of evil spirits • Demonology • Ergotism: Psychotic-like symptoms that come from ergot poisoning • Ergot is a natural source of LSD • Ergot occurs with rye • Phillippe Pinel: French physician who initiated humane treatment of mental patients in 1793 • Created the first mental hospital

4. Psychoanalysis: Freud • Hysteria: Physical symptoms (like paralysis or numbness) occur without physiological causes • Now known as somatoform disorders • Freud became convinced that hysterias were caused by deeply hidden unconscious conflicts • Main Goal of Psychoanalysis: To resolve internal conflicts that lead to emotional suffering

5. Behavior Therapy • Use of learning principles to make constructive changes in behavior • Behavior Modification: Using any classical or operant conditioning principles to directly change human behavior • Deep insight is often not necessary • Focus on the present; cannot change the past, and no reason to alter that which has yet to occur

6. Aversion Therapy • Conditioned Aversion: Learned dislike or negative emotional response to a stimulus • Aversion Therapy: Associate a strong aversion to an undesirable habit like smoking, overeating, drinking alcohol • Response-Contingent Consequences: Reinforcement, punishment, or other consequences that are applied only when a certain response is made • Rapid Smoking: Prolonged smoking at a rapid pace • Designed to cause aversion to smoking

7. Cognitive Therapy • Therapy that helps clients change thinking patterns that lead to problematic behaviors or emotions • Selective Perception: Perceiving only certain stimuli in a larger group of possibilities • Overgeneralization: Allowing upsetting events to affect unrelated situations • All-or-Nothing Thinking: Seeing objects and events as absolutely right or wrong, good or bad, and so on • Cognitive therapy is VERY effective in treating depression, shyness, and stress

8. Family Therapy • Family Therapy: All family members work as a group to resolve the problems of each family member • Tends to be brief and focuses on specific problems (e.g., specific fights)

9. Basic Counseling Skills • Active listening • Clarify the problem • Focus on feelings • Avoid giving advice • Accept the client’s frame of reference • Reflect thoughts and feelings • Silence: Know when to use • Questions • Open: Open-ended reply • Closed: Can be answered “Yes” or “No” • Maintain confidentiality Effectiveness?

10. Medical (Somatic) Therapies • Pharmacotherapy: Use of drugs to alleviate emotional disturbance; three classes: Psychiatrists • Anxiolytics: Like Valium; produce relaxation or reduce anxiety • Antidepressants: Elevate mood and combat depression • Antipsychotics: Tranquilize and also reduce hallucinations and delusions in larger dosages

11. Shock • Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT): 150 volt electric shock is passed through the brain for about one second, inducing a convulsion • Based on belief that seizure alleviates depression by altering brain chemistry • ECT Views • Produces only temporary improvement • Causes memory loss in many patients • Should only be used as a last resort • 33/33/33 results

12. Hospitalization • Mental Hospitalization: Involves placing a person in a protected, therapeutic environment staffed by mental health professionals • Partial Hospitalization: Patients spend only part of their time in the hospital

13. Community Mental Health Centers • Offer many health services like prevention, education, therapy, and crisis intervention • Crisis Intervention: Skilled management of a psychological emergency • Paraprofessional: Individual who works in a near-professional capacity under supervision of a more highly trained person Private Practices Typically serving specific clientele. Private pay and private insurance patients.

14. What Is Social Psychology? Chapter 16 • Social Psychology: Scientific studies of how individuals behave, think, and feel in social situations; how people act in the presence (actual or implied) of others • Great Lesson?

15. Groups • Group Structure: Network of roles, communication, pathways, and power in a group • Group Cohesiveness: Degree of attraction among group members or their commitment to remain in the group • In Group: A group with which a person identifies • Out Group: Group with which a person does not identify • Cohesive groups work better together • What kind of groups did you see on “Survivor,” “Road Rules,” and “Real World”?

16. Social Perception • Attribution: Making inferences about the causes of one’s own behavior and others’ behavior • External Cause of Behavior: Assumed to lie outside a person • Internal Cause of Behavior: Assumed to lie within the person • Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, etc.). We believe this even if they really have external causes!

17. Conformity • Bringing one’s behavior into agreement with norms or the behavior of others. • Solomon Asch’s Experiment: You must select (from a group of three) the line that most closely matches the standard line. All lines are shown to a group of seven people (including you). • Other six were accomplices, and at times all would select the wrong line. • In 33% of the trials, the real subject conformed to group pressure even when the group’s answers were obviously incorrect!

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19. Obedience (Milgram) • Conformity to the demands of an authority. • Would you shock a man with a known heart condition who is screaming and asking to be released? • Milgram studied this; the man with a heart condition was an accomplice and the “teacher” was a real volunteer. The goal was to teach the learner word pairs.

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21. Prejudice v. Discrimination • Negative emotional attitude held toward members of a specific social group • Discrimination: Unequal treatment of people who should have the same rights as others • Personal Prejudice: When members of another racial or ethnic group are perceived as a threat to one’s own interests • Group Prejudice: When a person conforms to group norms

22. Aggression • Any action carried out with the intention of harming another person. • Ethologists believe that aggression is innate in all animals, including humans. • Ethologist: Studies natural behavior patterns of animals. • There appears to be a relationship between aggression and hypoglycemia, allergy, and certain brain injuries and disorders. • Certain brain areas can trigger or end aggressive behavior. • Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis: Frustration tends to lead to aggression

23. Prosocial Behavior and Bystander Apathy • Prosocial Behavior: Behavior toward others that is helpful, constructive, or altruistic • Friendships • What makes us friends? • Bystander Apathy: Unwillingness of bystanders to offer help during emergencies • Related to number of people present • The more potential helpers present,the lower the chanceshelp will be given