AP Psych Treatments

Deinstitutionalization

The policy and process of reducing long‑term psychiatric hospital care by discharging patients into community‑based treatment and support services.

Evidence‑Based Interventions

Therapeutic techniques and programs that have been scientifically tested and shown to produce reliable, replicable benefits.

Cultural Humility

A lifelong commitment to self‑evaluation and self‑critique regarding one’s own cultural assumptions, combined with openness to learning from clients about their cultural identities.

Therapeutic Alliance

The collaborative, trusting relationship between therapist and client, characterized by agreement on goals, tasks, and a personal bond.

Nonmaleficence

The ethical principle requiring clinicians to avoid causing harm to clients, whether physical, psychological, or emotional.

Fidelity

The ethical duty of a therapist to remain faithful and loyal to clients by keeping promises, maintaining confidentiality, and honoring professional commitments.

Integrity

Adherence to moral and professional standards, including honesty, accuracy, and consistency in both research and clinical practice.

Respect for People’s Rights & Dignity

The ethical obligation to protect clients’ autonomy, privacy, and freedom from coercion, and to treat them with consideration and sensitivity.

Psychodynamic Therapies

A class of therapies derived from psychoanalytic theory that focus on unconscious processes, early life experiences, and the influence of past relationships on current behavior.

Free Association

A psychoanalytic technique in which clients are encouraged to say whatever comes to mind, without censorship, to reveal unconscious thoughts and feelings.

Dream Interpretation

The analysis of the manifest content of dreams to uncover latent, symbolic meanings that reflect unconscious conflicts or desires.

Person‑Centered Therapy

A humanistic approach developed by Carl Rogers that emphasizes unconditional positive regard, empathy, and congruence to facilitate clients’ self‑exploration and personal growth.

Active Listening

A communication skill in which the listener fully concentrates, reflects, and clarifies the speaker’s message to demonstrate understanding and foster rapport.

Unconditional Positive Regard

The therapist’s nonjudgmental acceptance and support of a client, regardless of what the client says or does.

Group Therapy

A treatment modality in which one or more therapists lead a small group of clients who interact and support each other in achieving therapeutic goals.

Individual Therapy

A one‑on‑one treatment setting where a therapist works privately with a single client to address personal issues and promote change.

Cognitive Therapies

A family of therapies that focus on identifying and modifying distorted or maladaptive thought patterns to improve emotional regulation and behavior.

Maladaptive Thinking

Rigid, inaccurate, or negatively biased thought patterns that contribute to emotional distress and dysfunctional behavior.

Cognitive Restructuring

A therapeutic process that helps clients recognize, challenge, and replace irrational or unhelpful thoughts with more adaptive alternatives.

Cognitive Triad

Aaron Beck’s model describing three key negative thought patterns in depression: negative views of the self, the world, and the future.

Applied Behavior Analysis

A systematic approach using principles of learning (especially operant conditioning) to assess and modify socially significant behaviors.

Exposure Therapy

A behavioral treatment in which clients confront feared objects or situations in a controlled manner until anxiety diminishes.

Systematic Desensitization

A behavioral technique combining relaxation training with gradual exposure to a hierarchy of anxiety‑provoking stimuli.

Aversion Therapy

A form of behavior therapy that pairs an unwanted behavior with an unpleasant stimulus to reduce the behavior’s occurrence.

Token Economies

A behavior modification system in which individuals earn tokens for desired behaviors that can later be exchanged for privileges or rewards.

Biofeedback

A technique that uses real‑time monitoring of physiological processes (e.g., heart rate, muscle tension) to teach clients self‑regulation skills.

Cognitive‑Behavioral Therapies

Integrated approaches that combine cognitive restructuring with behavioral techniques to change both thought patterns and actions.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

A cognitive‑behavioral treatment developed for borderline personality disorder that emphasizes balancing acceptance and change through skills training.

Rational‑Emotive Behavior Therapy

Albert Ellis’s cognitive therapy focusing on identifying and disputing irrational beliefs to reduce emotional distress and self‑defeating behaviors.

Hypnosis

A procedure in which a therapist guides a client into a trance‑like state of focused attention and heightened suggestibility to facilitate therapeutic change.

Psychotropic Medication Therapy

The use of medications that affect brain chemistry to alleviate symptoms of mental disorders, often used in conjunction with psychotherapy.

Psychoactive Medication

Any drug that alters mood, perception, cognition, or behavior by acting on the central nervous system.

Antidepressants

Medications (e.g., SSRIs, SNRIs) designed to alleviate symptoms of depression by increasing levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin or norepinephrine.

Anti‑Anxiety Medication

Drugs (e.g., benzodiazepines) prescribed to reduce excessive anxiety and promote relaxation by enhancing the action of inhibitory neurotransmitters like GABA.

Lithium

A mood stabilizer commonly used to treat bipolar disorder by modulating neurotransmitter activity and reducing manic and depressive episodes.

Antipsychotic Medications

Drugs that primarily block dopamine receptors to reduce symptoms of psychosis, such as hallucinations and delusions, in disorders like schizophrenia.

Tardive Dyskinesia

A potentially irreversible movement disorder characterized by involuntary, repetitive movements, often resulting from long‑term use of first‑generation antipsychotics.

Psychosurgery

Surgical procedures that intentionally alter brain tissue to treat severe mental disorders, typically considered only when other treatments have failed.

Lesioning

A form of psychosurgery involving the deliberate destruction of specific brain regions to alleviate psychiatric symptoms, now largely obsolete.

TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation)

A noninvasive neuromodulation technique that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate targeted brain areas, often used to treat depression.

Electroconvulsive Therapy

A medical treatment in which controlled electrical currents induce brief seizures under anesthesia to rapidly relieve severe depression and other disorders.

Lobotomy

A historical psychosurgical procedure that severed connections in the frontal lobes to alter behavior, abandoned due to severe side effects and ethical concerns.