theories midterm

Ch 1 | Acetylcholine

A neurotransmitter listed among small-molecule neurotransmitters.

Ch 1 | Adlerian/individual psychology orientation

Theory family emphasizing goals, social interest, belonging, and learned interpretations of experience; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Advocacy

Actions that address barriers or inequities affecting clients, alongside individually focused counseling.

Ch 1 | Amygdala

Brain structure involved in emotion and threat-related processing.

Ch 1 | Anna O.

Pseudonym of an early patient associated with Breuer and Freud's early development of talking-based treatment.

Ch 1 | Autonomy

Respecting clients' rights to make informed decisions about their lives and treatment.

Ch 1 | Axon

The long projection of a neuron that transmits electrical signals away from the cell body toward other neurons or cells.

Ch 1 | B. F. Skinner

Behaviorist whose work is referenced when the chapter contrasts scientific study and behavior-based approaches with other historical traditions.

Ch 1 | Behavioral orientation

Theory family focused on learned behavior, environmental contingencies, and observable change; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Beneficence

The ethical obligation to promote client welfare and act for the client's benefit; a central principle in decisions about interventions.

Ch 1 | Biomedical perspective

A historical perspective explaining psychological, behavioral, and emotional concerns primarily through biological or physiological processes, leading to medical and pharmacological interventions.

Ch 1 | Biopsychosocial understanding

An integrative understanding of psychological problems that attends to biological, psychological, and social influences rather than one exclusive cause.

Ch 1 | Boundary crossing

A departure from usual professional roles or boundaries that is not inherently harmful but requires ethical reflection and care.

Ch 1 | Boundary violation

An inappropriate crossing of professional limits that risks exploitation or harm to a client.

Ch 1 | Brain stem

Brain structure important for basic survival functions and signaling between higher brain regions and the spinal cord.

Ch 1 | Bruce Wampold

Psychotherapy researcher associated with debates about differential treatment efficacy and the influence of common factors and the therapeutic relationship.

Ch 1 | Cerebellum

Brain structure associated with movement and motor coordination, among other roles.

Ch 1 | Cerebral cortex

The outer layer of the cerebrum involved in higher-order perception, cognition, and action.

Ch 1 | Client factors

Client strengths, motivation, distress level, life circumstances, and engagement that influence therapeutic outcomes.

Ch 1 | Client feedback

Information from clients about their symptoms, alliance, and treatment experience that therapists can use to modify care.

Ch 1 | Clinical deterioration

A measurable worsening in a client's symptoms or functioning during or after treatment.

Ch 1 | Cognitive-behavioral orientation

Theory family emphasizing the interaction of cognition and behavior and the role of learning and thought patterns in maintaining problems; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Common therapeutic factors

Elements shared across different effective therapies, such as the therapeutic relationship, client expectations, feedback, and therapist credibility, that help explain positive outcomes.

Ch 1 | Competence

The professional duty to obtain and maintain the knowledge, skills, and training necessary to provide appropriate counseling or psychotherapy services.

Ch 1 | Confidentiality

The obligation to protect information disclosed in therapy from unauthorized sharing, subject to legal and ethical exceptions.

Ch 1 | Constructivist orientation

Theory family examining how people construct meanings and stories about experience; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Contemporary theories

Modern counseling and psychotherapy orientations that organize clinical explanations and interventions; they should not be confused with popular psychology alone.

Ch 1 | Context

The particular circumstances or situation surrounding an event or behavior; theory and therapeutic practice must be understood within historical, social, and cultural contexts.

Ch 1 | Corpus callosum

A bundle of nerve fibers connecting the brain's left and right cerebral hemispheres so they can communicate.

Ch 1 | Counseling vs. psychotherapy

The chapter describes substantial overlap in approaches and goals; distinctions have been drawn in intensity or depth but are not consistently separable in practice.

Ch 1 | Cultural humility

Openness to ongoing self-reflection, awareness of limitations and bias, and willingness to learn from clients' cultural experiences.

Ch 1 | Culturally specific techniques

Counseling practices adapted to fit clients' cultural values, contexts, and needs rather than assuming one approach fits everyone.

Ch 1 | Culture and diversity

The cultural identities, values, social conditions, and power relationships that influence client experiences and therapy.

Ch 1 | Dendrite

A neuron's branching extension that receives signals from other neurons.

Ch 1 | Dodo bird effect

The claim that different bona fide psychotherapies tend to have roughly equivalent outcomes, often summarized as 'everybody has won, and all must have prizes.'

Ch 1 | Dopamine

A neurotransmitter linked with functions including motivation and reward; its effects depend on pathways and receptors.

Ch 1 | Effect size

A statistical index of the magnitude of a treatment effect, allowing comparison beyond whether a result is statistically significant.

Ch 1 | Effectiveness research

Research on how well treatments work in real-world clinical settings, generally emphasizing external validity and typical clinical conditions.

Ch 1 | Efficacy research

Research on whether a treatment produces positive outcomes under controlled experimental conditions, often with random assignment and manualized treatment.

Ch 1 | Empathy

Effort to understand and communicate understanding of a client's experience; a common element of effective therapeutic relationships.

Ch 1 | Empirically supported treatment (EST)

A specific therapeutic procedure with research evidence, commonly from controlled studies, supporting its use for a particular clinical problem or population.

Ch 1 | Empirically validated treatment

An earlier term referring to an intervention demonstrated to be effective through empirical research; replaced in contemporary terminology by empirically supported treatment.

Ch 1 | Ethical decision-making

An intentional process that draws on professional codes, the client's interests, consultation, and contextual information when choices present risks or conflicts.

Ch 1 | Evidence base (research)

Research findings used to evaluate a theory's claims and the effectiveness or risks of its interventions.

Ch 1 | Evidence-based principles

Broad research-grounded principles that can guide treatment decisions across approaches, alongside empirically supported techniques and client factors.

Ch 1 | Excitatory neurotransmitter

A chemical signal that increases the likelihood of a postsynaptic neuron firing.

Ch 1 | Existential orientation

Theory family emphasizing choice, responsibility, freedom, death, meaning, and the human condition; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Expectancy

A client's anticipation or belief that counseling will help; positive expectations can contribute to therapeutic improvement.

Ch 1 | External validity

The extent to which study results can generalize to clients, settings, and circumstances beyond the study itself.

Ch 1 | Extratherapeutic factors

Client and life-context influences outside therapy—such as personal resources, events, and social support—that affect outcome.

Ch 1 | Family systems orientation

Theory family understanding individuals in the context of relationship patterns and interacting family systems; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Feminist therapy orientation

Theory family examining power, gender, relationships, oppression, and sociocultural influences; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Feminist/multicultural perspective

A historical perspective that emphasizes social and cultural systems, gender, power, oppression, cultural identity, and social justice in understanding and treating distress.

Ch 1 | Frontal lobe

The brain region at the front of the cerebral cortex associated with planning, decision-making, executive functions, and aspects of behavior and personality.

Ch 1 | GABA

Gamma-aminobutyric acid, a major inhibitory neurotransmitter.

Ch 1 | Gestalt orientation

Theory family emphasizing present-moment awareness, contact, and experiencing; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Glutamate

A major excitatory neurotransmitter.

Ch 1 | Goal agreement

The counselor and client agreeing on what therapy aims to achieve; a component of the working alliance.

Ch 1 | Great psychotherapy debate

The ongoing dispute over whether different therapy orientations differ meaningfully in effectiveness or instead tend to achieve comparable results.

Ch 1 | Hans Eysenck

Psychologist whose 1952 article questioned psychotherapy's benefits and helped spur psychotherapy outcome research and debates.

Ch 1 | Hemisphere

One of the brain's two main cerebral halves, left and right, connected by the corpus callosum.

Ch 1 | Hippocampus

Brain structure important for forming and organizing memories.

Ch 1 | Historical context

The conditions of a particular era that help explain why certain counseling theories, social attitudes, and treatments developed.

Ch 1 | Human suffering and hope

A central theme of counseling: understanding distress and helping people make adaptive changes while recognizing their capacity for improvement.

Ch 1 | Hypothalamus

Brain structure involved in bodily regulation, motivation, and links between the brain and endocrine systems.

Ch 1 | Informed consent

The process of giving clients understandable information about treatment, risks, benefits, alternatives, confidentiality, and rights so they can voluntarily decide whether to participate.

Ch 1 | Inhibitory neurotransmitter

A chemical signal that decreases the likelihood of a postsynaptic neuron firing.

Ch 1 | Internal validity

The extent to which a study's design supports confidence that the intervention, rather than confounding factors, caused the observed effect.

Ch 1 | Joseph Breuer

A physician associated with early talking-cure work and the case of Anna O., influential in the beginnings of psychotherapy.

Ch 1 | Lambert's common factors model

An influential account assigning approximate contributions to extratherapeutic factors (40%), relationship factors (30%), expectancy/placebo (15%), and techniques/model (15%).

Ch 1 | Left hemisphere

The left half of the cerebrum, associated with specific verbal and analytical processing without absolute functional segregation.

Ch 1 | Limbic system

Interconnected brain structures involved in emotion, memory, and motivation; includes the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and related structures.

Ch 1 | Mary Smith and Gene Glass

Researchers whose 1977 meta-analysis synthesized psychotherapy-outcome research and supported the conclusion that psychotherapy generally helps.

Ch 1 | Meta-analysis

A statistical approach that combines findings from multiple studies to estimate the overall strength of an effect.

Ch 1 | Michael Lambert

Researcher associated with common factors, client improvement, and routine outcome monitoring in psychotherapy.

Ch 1 | Mirror neuron

A neuron active both when a person performs an action and when they observe another person performing an action; relevant to social learning.

Ch 1 | Mirror neuron hypothesis

The proposal that action-observation brain networks may support social understanding; discussed as an evolving concept.

Ch 1 | Multicultural competencies

Counselor knowledge, self-awareness, practical skills, and advocacy needed for culturally responsive work with clients from diverse backgrounds.

Ch 1 | Multicultural knowledge

Knowledge of cultural and contextual experiences that can affect client well-being and treatment.

Ch 1 | Multicultural orientation

Theory family integrating culture, identity, social contexts, and responsiveness to diverse populations into counseling; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Multiple roles

Situations in which a counselor has more than one kind of relationship with a client, creating potential boundary and conflict-of-interest issues.

Ch 1 | Negative outcomes

Therapy-related worsening or adverse effects; highlights that interventions can cause harm and outcomes should be monitored.

Ch 1 | Neurogenesis

The formation of new neurons; research challenges the older belief that no new neurons form after early development.

Ch 1 | Neurons

Nerve cells that send and receive information through electrical impulses and chemical communication.

Ch 1 | Neuroplasticity

The capacity of the nervous system to change in structure or function through learning, experience, and other processes.

Ch 1 | Neuroscience limitations

Brain findings can inform counseling, but complex mental health concerns cannot be reduced solely to single brain sites or chemical levels.

Ch 1 | Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers released from neurons into synapses that transmit signals to other cells and may excite or inhibit activity.

Ch 1 | Nonmaleficence

The ethical responsibility to avoid causing harm, related to primum non nocere.

Ch 1 | Nonspecific factors

Therapeutic influences not unique to one treatment technique or theoretical orientation, such as hope and the therapeutic alliance.

Ch 1 | Norepinephrine

A neurotransmitter associated with arousal and alertness.

Ch 1 | Occipital lobe

Region at the back of the cerebral cortex especially associated with visual processing.

Ch 1 | Ortgeist

The 'spirit of the place,' representing local social and cultural influences shaping ideas and practices; contrasted with zeitgeist.

Ch 1 | Parietal lobe

Brain region involved in integrating sensory input and spatial/body awareness.

Ch 1 | Patient-focused research

An approach that tracks individual clients' progress and uses feedback to improve clinical decisions rather than relying only on group averages.

Ch 1 | Person-centered orientation

Theory family emphasizing an empathic, accepting, authentic therapeutic relationship and clients' capacity for growth; included in Table 1.2.

Ch 1 | Placebo/control condition

A comparison group or condition intended to help isolate the effect of an intervention or its specific components.

Ch 1 | Poltergeist

A purported spirit believed to cause physical disturbances, discussed as an anecdote illustrating the limits of certainty.

Ch 1 | Potentially harmful therapies (PHTs)

Interventions for which evidence or serious concerns suggest they may cause psychological harm or worsen client outcomes.

Ch 1 | Potentially harmful therapy: Attachment therapies / rebirthing

Coercive holding and simulated rebirthing techniques listed among treatments carrying high risk of psychological and physical harm.

Ch 1 | Potentially harmful therapy: Boot-camp interventions

Highly confrontational, military-style programs for youth conduct problems that may exacerbate problematic behaviors.