Theories of Psychotherapy and Counseling Exam 2

Transdiagnostic

treatment aimed at process shared across disorders not one diagnosis

Reciprocal inhibition

Wolpe’s principle that incompatible states, like relaxation and fear, can’t fully coexist

Systematic desensitization

Wolpe’s early treatment: relax while imagining a graded list of feared scenes, from easiest to hardest

Counterconditioning

replacing a conditioned response by pairing the cue with an incompatible response

Classical Conditioning

Learning by association: a neutral cue paired with a meaningful event comes to trigger a similar response on its own

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

naturally triggers a reaction

Unconditioned response (UCR)

an automatic/unlearned reaction

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

a once neutral cue that after pairing triggers a learned reaction

Conditioned response (CR)

a learned reaction

acquisition

the phase in which a conditioned association first forms, through one intense or many mild pairings

Extinction

weakening of a learned response when the CS occurs without the UCS, or when a reinforcer is withheld

Operant conditioning

learning from consequences: behaviors followed by rewards increase; those followed by punishment decrease

Positive reinforcement

adding something pleasant after a behavior so the behavior increases

Negative reinforcement

removing something unpleasant after a behavior so the behavior increases

Positive punishment

adding something unpleasant after a behavior so the behavior decreases

Negative punishment

removing something pleasant after a behavior so the behavior decreases

Discriminative stimulus

a cue signaling whether a behavior will pay off in a given situation

Intermittent reinforcement

reinforcing a behavior only sometimes; makes it very hard to extinguish

Modeling/observational learning

learning by watching others and the consequences they recieve

Vicarious reinforcement

becoming more likely to act after seeing someone else rewarded for it

Stimulus generalization

a learned response spreads to stimuli similar to the original

Functional analysis (S-O-R-C)

Identifying what triggers and mains a behavior: Stimulus, Organism, Response, Consequence

SUDS

subjective units of distress: a 0-100 rating of fear or distress

Self-monitoring

clients record their behavior, thoughts, and feelings as they happen

Goal setting

collaboratively choosing ________ that are safe, specific, measurable, and attainable

Psychoeducation

a two-way conversation teaching the behavioral model of the problem and the rationale for each technique

Exposure

repeatedly facing feared situations without escaping, to learn the feared outcome doesn’t happen

In vivo exposure

facing the real feared object or situation; usually the method of choice

Imaginal exposure

vividly imagining a feared situation, memory, or outcome

Interoceptive exposure

deliberately bringing on feared body sensations

Virtual reality exposure

exposure using computer generated scenes in a headset

exposure hierarchy

a ranked list of feared situations, each rated on SUDS

Safety behavior

a subtle action used to feel safer that blocks full learning

Exposure and response prevention (ERP)

exposure to triggers plus prevention of rituals; the best-supported treatment for OCD

Coercive cycle

a child’s problem behavior and a parent’s giving in reinforce each other

Planned ignoring

withholding attention from minor, attention-seeking misbehavior

Extinction burst

a behavior temporarily gets worse when its reinforcer is removed

Shaping

reinforcing small steps (successive approximations) toward a behavior a person can’t yet do

Response cost

losing an earned reward after a problem behavior

Behavioral activation (BA)

depression treatment that increases rewarding activity and reduces avoidance

Activity scheduling

planning activities for a set day, time, and place and doing them regardless of mood

Pleasure activity

an activity that is enjoyable in itself

Mastery activity

an activity that brings a sense of accomplishment

Graded task assignment

breaking an activity into small steps, starting with the easiest

Social and communication skills training

teaching communication skills through psychoeducation, modeling, role play, and feedback

Assertiveness

expressing needs and opinions directly and respectfully, neither passive or aggressive

Participant modeling

the therapist demonstrates, then guides the client through the behavior step by step

Problem-solving training

building a positive problem orientation plus the steps: define, generate, choose, implement and evaluate

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR)

tensing and releasing muscle groups to build awareness and deepen relaxation

Emotion regulation

noticing, understanding, and responding adaptively to emotions

Inhibitory learning

a process where new safety info is learned and stored alongside an old threat memory, rather than erasing the og fear

Expectancy violation

the gap between a predicted disaster and what actually happens; bigger gaps mean more learning

Efficacy

tests treatment in controlled trials

Effectiveness

tests treatment in everyday clinics

Empirically supported treatment

a treatment shown to work in well-designed research