Learning Objectives

Chapter 17

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Define psychotherapy and discuss whether it is effective, how we might study its effectiveness, and how managed care has changed therapy.
2. Identify the different orientations to psychotherapy and discuss what some psychologists consider to be the common factors among these therapies.
3. Discuss the role that culture and gender might play in therapy.
4. Distinguish between psychoanalysis and psychodynamically based therapy, describe the various techniques used in psychoanalysis, and identify some of the criticisms and problems surrounding psychoanalysis.
5. Outline the goals, techniques, and assumptions of client-centered therapy and discuss some common criticisms of this approach.
6. Define behavior therapy and differentiate among psychodynamic, humanistic, and behavior therapies by describing the reasons why behaviorists are dissatisfied with psychodynamic and humanistic therapies.
7. List the three general techniques used in behavior therapy. For each technique, define what it is, how it is implemented and what types of problems it might be used to treat.
8. State the three basic assumptions of cognitive therapy and identify how cognitive therapy is different than other therapy approaches.
9. Define and differentiate between rational-emotive, Beck, and Meichenbaum’s approaches to cognitive therapy.
10. Compare and contrast individual and group approaches to treatment and discuss the structure of groups and the goals of group therapy.
11. Describe the assumptions and focus of family therapy and discuss some of the difficulties involved in the effort to change family systems.
12. Define community psychology and state how community psychologists are involved in empowerment and prevention efforts in the community.
13. Describe four classes of psychotropic drugs, give examples of each, and state types of disorders for which they might be prescribed.
14. Explain why psychologists might sometimes resort to biologically based therapies such as psychosurgery and electroconvulsive therapy.
15. Identify the benefits and costs associated with deinstitutionalization.