Psychotherapy: Growth, Confusion, Commonality, and Change

Flashcards covering key concepts, definitions, and principles from the lecture notes on psychotherapy's growth, commonalities, and processes of change.

What is a significant problem observed in the field of psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy is fragmented by less than 500 systems, each claiming superior effectiveness, necessitating comparative analysis.

According to a scientific perspective, how is 'theory' defined in the context of human behavior and psychopathology?

Theory is a perspective on human behavior, psychopathology, and change mechanisms that describes clinical phenomena, delimits organized information, and integrates knowledge to direct therapy.

What qualities characterize good clinicians and good theories, respectively?

Good clinicians are flexible, and good theories are widely applicable.

What did Norcross (1985) state regarding a therapist's adherence to a specific theory?

A voluntary decision to label oneself an adherent of a theory does not constitute a lifetime commitment of strict adherence or dogmatic reverence.

What is identified as the primary problem concerning therapists and their patients?

The primary problem is not with narrow-gauge therapists, but with therapists who impose a fixed narrowness on their patients.

What are 'therapeutic commonalities', and why are they considered important despite being largely neglected by theories?

Therapeutic commonalities are common nonspecific factors shared by all therapies, and research suggests their significance despite theoretical neglect.

Which concept, proposed by Roslyn Vieg, suggests that 'Everyone has one and all must have prizes' in the context of psychotherapy outcomes?

The Dodo Bird verdict.

What are the four principles of therapeutic commonalities?

Fostering hope and expectations, facilitating the therapy relationship, increasing awareness and insight, and encouraging corrective experiences or new behaviors.

Why are positive expectations considered an active common ingredient crucial for psychotherapy success?

They edify the patient's faith in the therapist and treatment, serving as a critical, though not sufficient, precondition for success.

What proportion of psychotherapy outcomes is attributed to the therapeutic relationship?

More than fifteen percent.

According to Rogers, what are the three facilitative conditions a therapist should embody?

The therapist is congruent or genuine, relates using unconditional positive regard, and expresses accurate empathy.

What is the Hawthorne effect, and how does it relate to psychotherapy and placebo groups?

The Hawthorne effect states that people improve when special attention is paid to them. Psychotherapists provide special undivided attention, and placebo groups are used to control for this effect.

Beyond common factors, what other types of factors do psychotherapies possess?

Factors relatively specific to them, known as special factors.

How will psychotherapy advance as a discipline?

By integrating the power of common factors with the pragmatics of special factors.

What are 'processes of change' in psychotherapy?

How people change within and between psychotherapy sessions, representing a middle level of abstraction between global theories and specific techniques.

Name the types of psychotherapy considered 'awareness or insight therapies'.

Psychoanalytic, existential, experiential, and person-centered therapies.

What is the primary focus of awareness or insight therapies?

Subjective internal aspects of the individual, emphasizing interjected changes that counteract external environmental pressures.

Name both an experiential and an environmental level process of change employed in awareness or insight therapies.

Experiential: consciousness raising, catharsis. Environmental: education, dramatic relief.

Which types of psychotherapy are categorized as 'action or behavioral therapies'?

Exposure, behavioral, cognitive, and systematic traditions.

What do action or behavioral therapies primarily focus on?

External and environmental forces that limit an individual's potential for inner-directed change.

Name some processes of change associated with action or behavioral therapies.

Conditional stimuli, counter conditioning, stimulus control, contingency control, reevaluation, contingency management.

What is the limitation of focusing solely on awareness processes in psychotherapy?

It ignores the genuine limits the environment places on individual change, acting as if inner directedness is the whole picture.

What is the limitation of focusing solely on action processes in psychotherapy?

It seriously ignores our potential for inner subjective change.

What does an integrative model for psychotherapy posit regarding awareness and action processes?

A synthesis of both awareness and action processes provides more balanced and effective psychotherapy.

Where does the 'content' to be changed in psychotherapy largely originate from?

A systems theory of personality and pathology.

What is the fundamental distinction between 'process' and 'content' in psychotherapy theories?

Theories of psychopathology tell us what has changed (content), while theories of process tell us how change occurs.

According to the integrative model, from what levels of personality functioning can a patient's dysfunctions emanate?

Intrapersonal conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, and conflicts with society.

What do some patients seek psychotherapy for, even after resolving their principal conflicts?

How to create a more fulfilling experience, moving beyond conflict to fulfillment and meaning in life.