Important Questions & Answers: Therapeutic Approaches- 1 | Psychology Class 12 - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Very Short Answer Questions

Q.1. Explain ‘token economy technique’ for changing behaviour.

In token economy persons with behavioural problems can be given a token as a reward every time a wanted behaviour occurs. The tokens are collected and exchanged for a reward such as outing for the patient as a treat.

Q.2. Explain the concept of ‘unconditional positive regard’.

The therapist conveys by her/his words and behaviours that s/he is not judging the client and will continue to show the same positive feelings towards the client even if the client is rude or confides all ‘wrong’ things that s/he may have done or thought about.
This is the unconditional positive regard which the therapist has for the client. The therapist has empathy for the client.

Q.3. What is meant by therapeutic contract?
OR
Discuss relationship between the client and the therapist.
OR
Discuss the importance of therapeutic relationship in psychotherapy.

The therapeutic relationship is contractual in nature in which two willing individuals,the client and the therapist, enter into partnership which aims at helping the client overcome his/her problems.
It is a helping relationship that involves someone seeking help and someone trained to give help, in a setting that permits help to be given and received.

Q.4. What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)?

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a short and efficacious treatment for a wide range of psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks and borderline personality. It combines cognitive therapy with behavioural techniques.

Q.5. State two psychological disorders in which cognitive behaviour therapy is used for treatment.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a short and efficacious treatment for a wide range of psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks and borderline personality.

Q.6. How is behaviour therapy used to treat phobia?
OR
Enumerate the steps in systematic desensitization.

Systematic desensitization is a technique used in behaviour therapy introduced by Wolpe for treating phobias or irrational fears. The therapist prepares a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking stimuli with the least anxiety-provoking stimuli at the bottom of the hierarchy. The therapist relaxes the client and asks the client to think of the least anxiety-provoking situation. The client is asked to stop thinking of the fearful situation if the slightest tension is felt. Over sessions the client is able to imagine more severe fear provoking situations while maintaining the relaxation. The client gets systematically desensitized to the fear. The process of systematic desensitization is based on the principle of reciprocal inhibition which states that two mutually opposing forces inhibits the weaker force.

Q.7. Explain mental disorders from a Cognitive perspective . A client experiences irrational thoughts that are self-defeating in nature. Suggest and explain a suitable therapy that will help him to reduce his distress.

Albert Ellis formulated the Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) in which he states that the distorted perception of the antecedent event due to the irrational belief leads to a consequence, i.e., negative emotions and behaviours. Irrational beliefs are assessed through questionnaires and interviews and are proved wrong by the therapist through non-directive questioning. The nature of questioning is gentle without probing or being directive. The questions make the client to think deeper into his/her assumptions about life and problems. Gradually the client is able to change the irrational beliefs by making a change in his/her philosophy about life. The rational belief system replaces the irrational belief system and there is reduction in psychological distress.

Q.8. Describe the strategies to be adopted to prevent mental disorders.

Prevention of mental disorders involves promotion of positive mental health by increasing psychological well-being, competence and resilience, and by creating supporting living conditions and environments so that an individual can face the challenges of every-day life. The following steps should be taken to promote positive mental health and hence prevent mental disorders:
(i) Increasing awareness and reducing stigma.
(ii) Schools and educational institutions to provide counselling to problems of children so that mental problems can be checked at the initial stage.
(iii) Appointment of industrial counsellors at work places so that a healthy environment and better relationships can be created between employees and employers.
(iv) Adult members of the community to intervene in cases where there is a possibility of suicide and to reduce alcoholic or drug addiction or help children who experience stress from poverty and abuse or are neglected.

Q.9. Explain ‘negative reinforcement’ and ‘aversive conditioning’ techniques of behaviour modification.

Negative reinforcement refers to following an undesired response with an outcome that is painful or not liked. For example, the teacher disapproves a child who shouts in class.
Aversive conditioning refers to repeated association of undesired response with an aversive consequence. For example, an alcoholic is given a mild electric shock and asked to smell the alcohol which leads to his leaving alcohol.

Q.10. Describe the Biomedical therapy.

Medicines are prescribed by psychiatrists to treat psychological disorders. They are doctors specialized in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.Severe mental disorders such as Schizophrenia or Bipolar disorders require antipsychotic drugs. Mental disorders such as Generalised Anxiety and Depression require milder drugs. The medicines prescribed to treat mental disorders can cause side-effects which need to be understood and monitored. Hence it is essential that medication is given under proper medical supervision.
Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) is another form of biomedical therapy. Mild electric shock is given via electrodes to the brain of the patient to induce convulsions. ECT is given when drugs are not effective in controlling the symptoms of the patient.

Q.11. State the techniques used in the rehabilitation of the mentally ill.

The aim during the treatment of psychological disorders is to reduce the symptoms and improve the functioning or quality of life. Rehabilitation is required to help patients to become self-sufficient. In rehabilitation, the patients are given occupational therapy, social skills training and vocational therapy. In occupational therapy, the patients are taught skills such as candle making, paper bag making and weaving to help them to form a work discipline. Social skills training helps the patients to develop interpersonal skills through role-play, imitation and instruction. The objective is to teach the patient to function in a social group. Cognitive retraining is given to improve the basic cognitive functions of attention, memory and executive functions. After the patient improves sufficiently, vocational training is given wherein the patient is helped to gain skills to undertake productive employment.

Q.12. Explain mental disorders from a cognitive perspective.

(i) Cognitive therapies locate the cause of psychological distress in irrational thoughts and beliefs. Repeated occurrence of these thoughts leads to the development of feelings of anxiety and depression.
(ii) The cognitive therapy challenges the faulty thinking patterns of the client to help her/him overcome psychological distress.
(iii) The cognitive therapy assumes that the therapist is able to recognise the faulty thought patterns of the client. It further assumes that the therapist is capable of finding out the correct thought patterns, which would be adaptive for the client.
(iv) The cognitive therapy considers changing faulty thought patterns to adaptive ones as the chief benefit of the treatment. Introducing adaptive or healthy thought patterns ensure reduction of distress and removal of symptoms. Cognitive therapy is short and is completed in a few months.

Q.13. Discuss the various techniques used in behaviour therapy.

The principles of behaviour techniques are to reduce the arousal level of the client, alter behaviour through classical conditioning with different positive and negative relationships with reinforcer as well as to use vicarious learning procedures.
Negative reinforcement refers to following an undesired response with an outcome that is painful or not liked. For example, the teacher disapproves child who shouts in class.
Aversive conditioning refers to repeated association of undesired response with an aversive consequence. For example, an alcoholic is given a mild electric shock and asked to smell the alcohol which leads to his leaving alcohol.
If an adaptive behaviour occurs rarely, Positive reinforcement increases the deficit. If a child does not do homework regularly, positive reinforcement may be used by the child’s mother by preparing the child’s favourite dish which increases the behaviour of doing homework at appointed time.
Differential reinforcement is an effective method wherein positive reinforcement is given for wanted behaviour while negative reinforcement is given for unwanted behaviour. If a child cries for not being taken to cinema, the parent ignores the child when s/he cries and taken to cinema when s/he shows wanted behaviour.Systematic desensitization is a technique used in behavior therapy introduced by Wolpe for treating phobias or irrational fears. The therapist prepares a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking stimuli with the least anxiety-provoking stimuli at the bottom of the hierarchy. The therapist relaxes the client and asks the client to think of the least anxiety-provoking situation. The client is asked to stop thinking of the fearful situation if the slightest tension is felt. Over sessions the client is able to imagine more severe fear provoking situations while maintaining the relaxation. The client gets systematically desensitized to the fear. The process of systematic desensitization is based on the principle of reciprocal inhibition which states that two mutually opposing forces inhibits the weaker force.
Persons with behavioural problems can be given a token as are reward every time a wanted behaviour occurs. This is known as Token Economy.
Modelling is the procedure which uses the procedure of vicarious learning wherein the client learns to behave in a certain way by observing the behaviour of the therapist who acts as the role model. Vicarious learning is learning by observing others. It is the process of rewarding small changes in the behaviour, the client gradually learns to acquire the behaviour of the model.

Q.14. How would a social learning theorist account for a phobic fear of lizards/cockroaches?How would a psychoanalyst account for the same phobia?

According to Social Learning theory

• Both faulty and adaptive behaviours are a result of faulty learning.
• The mechanism of reward and punishment will decide the behaviour will be learned or eliminated.
• This phobia can be treated with techniques like systematic desensitisation, modeling or using methodology of behaviour therapy.

Systematic desensitization is a technique used in behavior therapy introduced by Wolpe for treating phobias or irrational fears. During behaviour therapy treatment is to extinguish or eliminate the faulty behaviors which cause distress such as fear or phobia of lizards/cockroaches and substitute them with adaptive behaviour patterns.
The therapist prepares a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking stimuli with the least anxietyprovoking stimuli at the bottom of the hierarchy. The therapist relaxes the client and asks the client to think of the least anxiety-provoking situation. The client is asked to stop thinking of the fearful situation if the slightest tension is felt. Over sessions the client is able to imagine more severe fear provoking situations while maintaining the relaxation. The client gets systematically desensitized to the fear. The process of systematic desensitization is based on the principle of reciprocal inhibition which states that two mutually opposing forces inhibit the weaker force.

According to Psychoanalysts, intra-psychic conflicts are the source of psychological problems due to unresolved childhood fear of lizards/cockroaches. The unfulfilled desires of childhood and unresolved childhood fears lead to intra-psychic conflicts.

• A child who shows phobic reaction to lizards/cockroaches has had a traumatic experience of the phobic stimulus
• The fear was either repressed or displaced

Psychoanalytic therapy uses the methods of free association and reporting of dreams to elicit the thoughts and feelings of the client. A therapeutic relationship is established and the client feels comfortable, the therapist makes him/her lie down on the couch,close his/her eyes and asks him/her to speak whatever comes to mind without censoring it in anyway. The client is encouraged to freely associate one thought with another, and this method is called the method of free association. A relaxed and trusting atmosphere is created and as the therapist does not interrupt the free flow of ideas, desires and the conflicts of the unconscious, which had been suppressed by the ego, emerge into the conscious mind. Along with this technique, the client is asked to write down his/her dreams upon waking up. According to psychoanalysts, dreams are symbols of unfulfilled desires and are the royal road to the unconscious. This material is interpreted to the client to help him/her confront and resolve the conflicts and thus overcome problems.
The therapist understands and interprets the thoughts and feelings of the client.
The client’s symptoms and distresses reduce as a consequence of the development of emotional insight.

Q.15. Explain with the help of an example how cognitive distortions take place.

Aaron Beck states that childhood experiences provided by family and society develop core schemas or systems. For example, a client, who was neglected by the parents as a child,develops the core schema ‘I am not wanted’. During the course of life, a critical incident occurs in his/her life. S/he is publicly ridiculed by the teacher in school. The critical incident triggers the core schema of ‘I am not wanted’ leading to the development of negative automatic thoughts. These negative thoughts lead to cognitive distortions such as ‘I am ugly’, ‘I am stupid’, ‘Nobody loves me’ which are called dysfunctional cognitive structures. Repeated occurrence of these thoughts leads to development of feelings of anxiety and depression. The therapist uses gentle, non-threatening questioning by which the client thinks in the direction opposite to negative automatic thoughts and gains insight of his dysfunctional schemas and achieves cognitive restructuring which reduces anxiety and depression.

Q.16. What kind of problems is cognitive behaviour therapy best suited for?

CBT to be a short and efficacious treatment for a wide range of psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and borderline personality, etc.