PSYCH 100 Lecture Notes - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Aversion Therapy

• School: UMASS-Amherst
• Department: Psychology & Brain Sciences
• Course: PSYCH 100
• Professor: tamararahhal

Document Summary

Psychotherapy: uses psychological techniques to help someone overcome psychological difficulties and disorders, resolve problems in living, or bring about personal growth. Biomedical therapy: relies on drugs and medical procedures to improve psychological functioning. Goal: to help clients gain an understanding of the unconscious, unresolved conflicts, repressed childhood experiences through therapist interpretation and insight. Therapist is neutral, only talks to interpret. Goal: change the problem behavior; no thoughts, no reflection on past. Exposure: people are confronted gradually or suddenly to a feared stimulus but with no bad outcome (positive event). Goal: to extinguish a patient"s fears by exposing them to what they fear while preventing their escape response (compulsion) Systematic desensitization: create anxiety hierarchy, teach relaxation techniques, pair relaxation with anxious stimuli (example: arachnophobia) anxiety hierarchy: See a real snake in its cage. Aversion therapy: pair behavior with a negative event to extinct it. How: create a system where certain behaviors are rewarded with tokens or money.