Abnormal Psychology in a

Changing World
SEVENTH EDITION
Jeffrey S. Nevid / Spencer A. Rathus / Beverly Greene

Chapter 4
(Pp 112-123)

Methods of
Treatment
 Cognitive Therapy

A form of therapy that helps clients identify and correct faulty

cognitions (thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes) believed to underlie
their emotional problems and maladaptive behavior.
 Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Albert Ellis believed that negative emotions such as anxiety and

depression are caused by the irrational ways in which we interpret
or judge negative events, not by negative events themselves.

Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) - A therapeutic

approach that focuses on helping clients replace irrational,
maladaptive beliefs with alternative, more adaptive beliefs.

Rational emotive behavior therapists help clients substitute more

effective interpersonal behavior for self-defeating or maladaptive
behavior.
 Your Erroneous Zones
by Dr. Wayne Dyer

Provides step-by-step advice for escaping

the trap of negative thinking based on
REBT
 Beck’s Cognitive Therapy

Psychiatrist Aaron Beck and his colleagues developed cognitive

therapy, which, like REBT, focuses on people’s faulty thoughts and
beliefs.

Cognitive therapists encourage clients to recognize and change

errors in their thinking, called cognitive distortions, such as
tendencies to magnify negative events and minimize personal
accomplishments, that affect their moods and impair their
behavior.

Cognitive therapists have clients record the thoughts that are

prompted by upsetting events and note the connections between
their thoughts and their emotional responses.
 Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) - A learning-based

approach to therapy incorporating cognitive and behavioral
techniques.

CBT attempts to integrate therapeutic techniques that help

individuals make changes not only in their overt behavior but also
in their underlying thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes.

CBT draws on the assumption that thinking patterns and beliefs

affect behavior and that changes in these cognitions can produce
desirable behavioral and emotional changes
 Therapies DVD

(Humanistic, Cognitive-Behavioral and

Psychodynamic)
 Eclectic Therapy

An approach to psychotherapy that incorporates principles or

techniques from various systems or theories.

An eclectic therapist might use behavior therapy techniques to help

a client change specific maladaptive behaviors, for example, along
with psychodynamic techniques to help the client gain insight into
the childhood roots of the problem.

Some therapists are technical eclectics using techniques from

different therapeutic approaches the believe are most likely to work
for their client

Other eclectic therapists are integrative eclectics attempting to

integrate and synthesize diverse theoretical approaches
 Therapeutic orientations of
clinical and counseling psychologists

An eclectic/integrative orientation is the most widely endorsed therapeutic

orientation among clinical and counseling psychologists today.
 Group, Family, and Couple Therapy

Group therapy - A form of therapy in which a group of clients

meets together with a therapist.

Family therapy - A form of therapy in which the family, not the

individual, is the unit of treatment.

Couple therapy - A form of therapy that focuses on resolving

conflicts in distressed couples.
 Group Therapy

What are some of the advantages of group therapy over individual

therapy? What are some of its disadvantages?
 Family Therapy

In family therapy, the family, not the individual, is the unit of treatment.
Family therapists help family members communicate more effectively
with one another, for example, to air their disagreements in ways that are
not hurtful to individual members. Family therapists also try to prevent
one member of the family from becoming the scapegoat for the family’s
problems.
 Evaluating Methods of Psychotherapy

Reviews of the scientific literature often utilize a statistical

technique called meta-analysis, which averages the results of a
large number of studies to determine an overall level of
effectiveness.

In the most frequently cited meta-analysis of psychotherapy

research, M. L. Smith and Glass (1977) analyzed the results of some
375 controlled studies comparing various types of therapies
(psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, etc.) against
controlgroups.

The results of their analyses showed that the average psychotherapy

client in these studies was better off than 75% of the clients who
remained untreated.
Evaluating Methods of Psychotherapy
 Evaluating Methods of Psychotherapy

Managed care systems -

Health care delivery systems that
impose limits on the number of
treatment sessions they will
approve for payment and the fees
they will allow for
reimbursement.
The End