AP Psychology Unit 5 — Treatment Approaches for Psychological Disorders

Psychotherapy

Psychological treatment that uses conversation, learning principles, and the therapist-client relationship to reduce distress, change unhelpful patterns, and improve functioning.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

Evidence-based therapy that targets emotions and behaviors by changing distorted thinking and practicing new behaviors/skills (often structured and includes between-session practice).

Cognitive restructuring

CBT method of identifying, evaluating, and modifying inaccurate or inflexible thoughts to create more accurate, useful interpretations (not just “positive thinking”).

Cognitive distortions

Systematic errors in thinking that can maintain distress (e.g., catastrophizing, all-or-nothing thinking, mind reading).

Behavioral activation

CBT technique (often for depression) that increases engagement in rewarding/mastery activities to improve mood and functioning.

Exposure therapy

Behavioral CBT technique that reduces fear/avoidance through gradual, repeated, planned contact with feared stimuli or situations.

Psychoanalysis

Freud-associated therapy aiming to bring unconscious conflicts/motivations into conscious awareness so insight can reduce symptoms.

Psychodynamic therapy

Broader, typically less intensive, therapy tradition emphasizing unconscious processes, early experiences, and relationship patterns.

Free association

Psychoanalytic technique where the client says whatever comes to mind without censoring, to reveal unconscious themes.

Transference

Psychodynamic concept where a client redirects feelings about important people (often parents) onto the therapist; explored to understand relationship patterns.

Resistance (analysis of resistance)

In psychodynamic therapy, avoidance of topics or therapy processes (e.g., changing subject, forgetting sessions) interpreted as anxiety about unconscious material.

Insight

In psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy, increased conscious understanding of underlying conflicts and patterns linked to symptoms.

Humanistic therapy

Therapy approach emphasizing personal growth, meaning, and self-understanding; assumes people can move toward health under the right conditions.

Client-centered therapy

Carl Rogers’ humanistic therapy that is non-directive and focuses on providing a supportive relationship to promote self-exploration and growth.

Incongruence

Humanistic idea that distress results from a mismatch between a person’s self-concept and their lived experiences (often shaped by conditional acceptance).

Unconditional positive regard

Rogers’ condition for growth: consistent acceptance and caring that is not dependent on performance or meeting conditions.

Empathy

Accurate, nonjudgmental understanding of the client’s experience, communicated back to them (understanding is not the same as agreement).

Reflective listening

Client-centered skill of paraphrasing/clarifying the client’s feelings and meanings to deepen understanding and self-exploration.

Biomedical therapies

Treatments that directly change brain functioning (e.g., medication, brain stimulation, rarely surgery) to reduce psychological symptoms.

Psychopharmacology

The study and use of medications that affect mood, thought, and behavior; typically manages symptoms rather than teaching coping skills.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

Common antidepressants that increase serotonin availability at synapses by reducing reuptake; used for depression and some anxiety disorders.

Antipsychotic drugs

Medications used primarily for schizophrenia spectrum disorders/psychosis; many work by blocking dopamine receptors and can have significant side effects.

Mood stabilizers

Medications used in bipolar disorder to reduce mood swings and the intensity/frequency of manic and depressive episodes.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

Brain stimulation treatment that induces a brief controlled seizure under anesthesia; used especially for severe, treatment-resistant depression (and sometimes severe mania).

Randomized controlled trial (RCT)

Gold-standard study design where participants are randomly assigned to a treatment or control/comparison condition to test whether the treatment causes outcome differences.