Psych 155b Theory

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Psych 155bTheory Method

• Dr. Kimberley Clow
• SSC 6421
• kclow2_at_uwo.ca
• http//instruct.uwo.ca/psychology/155b/

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Outline

• What are Theory Method?
• Different Theories
• Biological, Psychodynamic, Behavioural,
  Cognitive, Humanistic, Gestalt, Family Systems
• Methods Treatments
• Criticisms
• Conclusions

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What are Theory and Method?

• Theories are sets of logical propositions that
• Define events
• Describe relationships
• Explain phenomena
• Allow us to make predictions regarding future
  events
• Guide research
• Methods are how we measure and/or assess
  phenomena
• self-report scales, interviews, exams

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Overview of Theories

• Biological
• Psychodynamic
• Freud
• Behavioural
• Watson, Bandura
• Cognitive
• Ellis
• Humanistic
• Rogers
• Gestalt
• Perls
• Family Systems

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Biological Approach
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Biochemical Theories
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Assessment Treatment

• Old Techniques
• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
• Psychosurgery
• Lobotomy
• Psychopharmacology
• Drug Therapy
• Ritalin for ADHD
• Lithium for Bipolar Disorder
• Prozac for Depression
• Equinil for Anxiety and Panic Disorder
• Reinstate normal biological functioning

Brain Imaging
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Criticisms

• Downplays environmental, social, and cultural
  influences
• Biology and environment affect each other
• Schizophrenia may cause excess of dopamine as
  easily as excess of dopamine causing
  schizophrenia
• Ignores disorders that seem to have a strong
  social cause
• Phobias, Eating Disorders
• Removes patients involvement and responsibility
  in treatment

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Psychodynamic Approach

• Behavior is determined by
• Unconscious motivations
• Biological and instinctual drives
• Conflict within the mind
• ID
• EGO
• SUPER-EGO

Sigmund Freud
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Anxiety Defence Mechanisms

• Anxiety
• Realistic anxiety
• Moralistic anxiety
• Neurotic anxiety
• Defense Mechanisms
• We distort reality to protect the ego against the
  painful and threatening impulses arising from the
  id

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Assessment Treatment

• Assessment Techniques
• Free Association
• Dream Analysis
• Interpretation
• Analysis of Resistance
• Analysis of Transference
• Treatment
• Therapist needs to interpret symptoms
• Patient needs to resolve childhood conflict

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Criticisms

• Pessimistic view
• Patient cannot understand own symptoms
• Empirical shortcomings
• Never studied children or conducted studies
• Obsessed with assumed differences between men and
  women
• Cannot be used with most mentally ill patients
• Does not seem to help above and beyond placebo
  controls

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Behavioural Approach

• Classical Conditioning
• Learning by associating two stimuli together
• Learning occurs when you recognize that one event
  predicts another
• When stimuli are consistently paired together, we
  learn to respond to both stimuli the same way
• Dog learns that the leash means he is going
  outside
• Child learns to fear nurses because they usually
  give her needles

John B. Watson
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Learning Fears

• UCS (loud noise) ? UCR (fear)
• CS (rat) ? CR (fear

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Treatments
Systematic Desensitization
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Aversive Conditioning
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• Antabuse
• Drug makes you sick whenever you drink alcohol
• Aversive Conditioning treatment for Alcoholism

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Another Behavioural Theory

• Operant Conditioning
• Learning by associating our own behavior with its
  consequences
• Our behaviour is shaped by our reinforcement
  history
• Law of Effect
• We repeat the actions were rewarded for
  (reinforced)
• We stop the actions were punished for
• If our behaviour gets us what we want, that
  behaviour will continue

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Treatments

• Behaviour Modification Therapy
• Using positive reinforcement to change behaviour
• Ignore the behaviours you dont want and
  positively reinforce the behaviours you do want
• Token Economies
• Desired behaviours are positively reinforced with
  tokens
• Tokens are later exchanged for a tangible reward

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Yet Another Behavioural Theory

• Social Learning Theory
• Modelling
• Learning by watching and imitating others
• Observational learning
• Acquire new behaviours
• May elicit particular behaviours by cuing them
• Inappropriate behaviours are reproduced after
  seeing them
• If model is punished for inappropriate behaviour,
  the behaviour is not imitated

Albert Bandura
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Treatment

• People learn through modelling, so model the good
  behaviours you want them to learn
• Role-play
• Behaviour rehearsal
• Assertion training

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Criticisms

• Overemphasises external influences on behaviour
• What about biological influences?
• Premises arise from animal research
• Mechanistic perspective
• People like machines
• Automatic beings
• Underplays our capacity to think or control
  things ourselves

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Cognitive Approach

• Emotions stem from our interpretations of events,
  not from the events themselves
• We create our problems
• Need to modify our interpretations
• If we dont interpret things in a way that makes
  us feel bad, we wont feel bad

Albert Ellis
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Rational Emotive Therapy

• Irrational beliefs
• Everyone I meet should like me
• I should be perfect at everything I do
• Because something once affected my life, it will
  always affect it
• It is unbearable and horrible when things are not
  the way I want them to be
• I must perform important tasks competently and
  perfectly
• If I dont get what I want, its terrible
• I must have love or approval from all the
  significant people in my life

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A-B-C Theory of Personality
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Goals of Therapy

• Challenges irrational beliefs
• Detect
• shoulds
• I musts
• awfulizing
• self-downing
• Debate
• to logically empirically question beliefs-to
  argue self out of them
• Discriminate
• the irrational-self-defeating from
  rational-self-helping beliefs

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Treatment

• Common Techniques
• Disputing irrational beliefs
• Doing cognitive homework
• Changing ones language
• Using humor
• Role-playing
• Shame-attacking exercises
• Desensitization
• Skills training
• Assertiveness training

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Criticisms

• Mechanistic perspective
• Human behaviour is more than thoughts and beliefs
• Do irrational cognitions cause disturbances or do
  disturbances cause irrational cognitions
• Therapist is seen as teacher and authority figure
• Attacks irrational beliefs
• Perhaps demoralizing
• Not designed for severely mental ill populations

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Humanistic Approach

• Person-Centered Therapy
• Focus on the person, not the condition
• Striving for self-actualization
• People must realize their own inner potential
• Characteristics of therapist
• Congruence
• Unconditional Positive Regard
• Accurate Empathic Understanding
• Client discovers and learns on their own due to
  the safe, warm environment created by the
  therapist

Carl Rogers
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Assessment and Treatment

• Communicating one-on-one
• Introspection
• Self-disclosure
• Reflected feelings
• Techniques
• Listening
• Accepting
• Respecting
• Understanding
• Responding

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Criticisms

• Fuzzy, ambiguous, undefined, unstructured
  approach
• Intuition and empathy rather than objective
• Understanding rather than control
• Individual cannot generalize to others
• Can only be used on a restricted population
• Intelligent, well-educated, normal people
  suffering adjustment difficulties

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Gestalt Approach

• Promotes direct experience
• Dont talk, live it
• Look at how person is behaving right now
• Assist clients to find self-awareness
• Insight
• Self-acceptance
• Responsibility for choices
• Clients must learn for themselves

Fritz Perls
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Live in the Now

• Nothing exists except the now
• Many focus on past mistakes or plan for the
  future ? problems
• Unfinished business
• Unexpressed feelings from the past linger in the
  background and interfere with effective contact
• Cause preoccupation, compulsive behavior,
  wariness, oppressive energy and self-defeating
  behavior

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Layers of Neurosis

• Phony Layer
• Stereotypical and inauthentic
• Phobic Layer
• Fears keep us from seeing ourselves
• Impasse Layer
• We give up our power
• Implosive Layer
• We fully experience our deadness
• Explosive Layer
• We let go of phony roles

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Resistance to Contact

• Defences that prevent us from experiencing the
  present
• Introjection
• Deflection
• Projection
• Confluence
• Control of environment
• Physical blocks to energy

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Assessment and Treatment

• Gestalt Techniques
• I-Language
• Empty Chair
• Projection of Feelings
• Reversal
• Attending to Nonverbal Cues
• Use of Metaphor
• Dream Work
• Staying with the Feeling

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Criticisms

• Negative tone
• Fuzzy, ambiguous, undefined, unstructured
  approach
• Not objective
• Individual cannot generalize to others
• Therapist is seen as teacher and authority figure
• Attacks our defences
• Perhaps demoralizing

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Family Systems

• All family members are intertwined and affect one
  another
• Abnormal behaviour in an individual is
  symptomatic of unhealthy family dynamics and poor
  communication

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Assessment and Treatment

• Treat family as the suffering unit
• Sessions with entire family
• Session with each member individually
• Reframing the problem
• Altering interaction patterns
• Enhance communication and negotiation within the
  family unit

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Criticisms

• The definition of family may be culture bound
• Basic tenets and applications are difficult to
  study and quantify
• Too easy to accuse parents for childrens
  problems
• May truly have a biological cause
• Adds more stress to the family

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Conclusions

• Different types of therapy
• Use different approaches, goals, and tools
• Have different strengths and weaknesses
• May be better suited for different people or
  different problems
• The theoretical approach of the therapist may
  affect what is revealed during therapy