PSY 3710 Exam 3

Psychodynamic psychotherapy

Umbrella term for approaches to psychotherapy

Psychodynamic therapy goals

To make the unconscious conscious to increase control

Insight

looking inside oneself and noticing something previously unseen

Assumptions of psychotherapy

unconscious impacts our everyday life and underlie psychopathology, insight improves quality of life

Psychoanalytic techniques

Free association, freudian slips, dream analysis, resistance, defense mechanisms, transference, psychosexual stages

Free association

clients say what comes to mind without censoring, no prompt from therapist

Word association

Jungian, therapist provides word to associate to

Freudian slips

No such thing as random mistake, reveals unconscious wishes, verbal or behavioral

Analyzing dreams

communicate unconscious material, symbols express wishes, inferential not factual interpretations

Manifest content

Actual material of a dream

Latent content

hidden psychological meaning of the dream

Dreams of being naked

desire to return to freedom of childhood

Analyzing resistance

anxiety of unconscious thoughts thoughts being laid bare too extensively or quickly, creation of distraction or obstacles that impede

Analyzing defense mechanisms

identifying unconscious mechanisms and bringing them into awareness

Forces of Freud’s structural model of the mind

Id, ego, superego

Ego

mediator between id and superego

id

demands instant gratification

superego

demanding constant restraint

Repression

id has an impulse and superego rejects, ego can repress conscious awareness

Projection

id has impulse that superego rejects, ego projects id impulse onto others

Reaction formation

id has impulse that superego rejects, ego forms a reaction to do opposite of impulse

Displacement

id has impulse that superego rejects, ego moves impulse towards a safer target

Sublimation

id has impulse that ego rejects, ego redirects impulse to benefit others

Transference

transfer of feelings or cognitions from early relationships to therapist, clients prejudge therapist, process blank screen role of therapist

Oral stage

first year and a half, mouth focus of all pleasurable sensations, dependence is primary issue, oral issues root of interpersonal and individual problems

Anal stage

1.5- 3 years, control, neat or slob tendencies

Phallic stage

3-6 years, oedipus and electra complexes, self-worth key consequence

Contemporary psychotherapy

deemphasize biological and sexual elements, ego psychology, object relations, self-psychology

Brief psychodynamic psychotherapy

Fewer than 24 sessions, successful when problems mild and narrowly defined, therapist is active, focus on present, therapist alliance formed rapidly, client able to tolerate seperation

Long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy

gradually formed therapist alliance, focus on broad range of problems, low therapist activity, severe psychopathology, focus on past and present, variable ability to tolerate separation, poor to good object relationships

Interpersonal therapy

Developed by Stack Sullivan in 80’s to treat depression, 14-20 sessions, focused and limited goals, specific therapy guidelines, efficacious, assumes psychopathology happens in context of relationships

IPSRT

Interpersonal therapy specifically for bipolar disorder, stabilize daily rhythms, sleep, and social interactions

Stages of IPSRT

Categorizing problems, improving problems with psychodynamic methods and education, review accomplishments

Time-limited dynamic psychotherapy

modern application of corrective emotional experience, cyclical maladaptive pattern

Psychotherapy effectiveness

difficult to determine, allegiance effects

Allegiance effects

Influence of researcher’s own biases and preferences on the outcome of their empirical studies

Humanistic psychotherapy

client-centered, psychological problems viewed as resulting from stifled growth process, fostering self-actualization

Carl Rogers

Created humanistic psychotherapy

self-actualization

fulfilling one’s potential, proceeds without interference if fostered by environment, humans have inborn tendency to achieve

Needs for self-actualization

positive regard and prizing

Positive regard

warmth, love, acceptance from those around us

Prizing

receiving positive regard from those around us

Real self

who you currently are, what you do

Ideal self

the person you would like to be, ambitions

Humanistic incongruence

psychopathology, discrepancy between real and ideal selves

Humanistic congruence

well/healthy, match between real and ideal selves

Fostering self-actualization

empathy, congruence, unconditional positive regard

Humanistic therapist attitudes

emphasize how therapists should be rather than what they do with clients

Empathy

deep, nonjudgemental understanding, can have positive impact on client

Unconditional positive regard

full acceptance of another person no matter what, facilitates higher congruence and self-actualization

Therapist congruence

genuineness, helps establish real feeling relationships, transparency