Jake Chapman

2/6/10 Hour 6

Chapter 17: Therapy Vocabulary

1. Psychotherapy- An emotionally charged, confiding interaction between a trained therapist and

someone who suffers from psychological difficulties.
2. Biomedical Therapy- Therapy treatment through means of medication for anxiety, depression,
and bipolarity.
3. Eclectic Approach- Therapists who view disorders as an interplay of bio-psycho-social
influences may welcome a combination of treatments (50%).
4. Psychoanalysis- Sigmund Freud’s therapeutic technique; patient’s free associations, resistances,
dreams, and transferences—and the therapist’s interpretations of them—released previously
repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.
5. Resistance- Blocking anxiety-laden material from consciousness.
6. Interpretation- Suggestions of underlying wishes, feelings, and conflicts—aim to provide
insight.
7. Transference- The patient’s transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships
(such as love or hatred for a parent).
8. 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.
9. Active Listening- Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies;
counselor provides a psychological mirror that helps clients see themselves more clearly.
10. Behavior Therapy-
11. Counterconditioning- A behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli
that trigger unwanted behaviors.
12. 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.
13. Systematic Desensitization- A type of counterconditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed
state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.
14. Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy- Alternative to real anxiety-provoking stimuli. May
combine with modeling/observational learning.
15. Aversive Conditioning- A type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such
as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol).
16. Token Economy- An operant conditioning procedure that rewards desired behavior. A patient
exchanges a token of some sort, earned for exhibiting the desired behavior, for various
privileges or treats.
17. Cognitive Therapy- Can boost the drug-aided relief from depression and reduce the post-
treatment risk of relapse.
18. Cognitive Behavior Therapy- Combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking)
with behavior therapy (changing behavior).
19. 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.
20. Meta-analysis- A procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research
studies - the evidence overwhelmingly supports the efficacy of psychotherapy. Benefits not
necessarily long-lasting.
21. Psychopharmacology- Study of drug effects on mind and behavior. Introduction of anti-
 psychotic drugs in the late 50s led to rapid deinstitutionalization, sometimes without adequate
community support.
22. Tardive Dyskinesia- Involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs; a
possible nuerotoxic side effect of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs that target D2dopamine
receptors.
23. ElectroconvulsiveTherapy- A biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a
brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient.
24. Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation- Is performed on wide-awake patients for 20
to 30 minutes for 2 to 4 weeks; may also be effective and does not produce seizures or memory
loss.
25. Psychosurgery- Surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue; most drastic and the least-used
biomedical intervention for changing behavior.
26. 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.