NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Psychology - (Part - 2) - Therapeutic Approaches

Q5: Which therapy encourages the client to seek personal growth and actualise their potential? Write about the therapies which are based on this principle.
Ans: Humanistic-existential therapy encourages the client to seek personal growth and actualise their potential. It states that psychological distress arises from feelings of loneliness, alienation, and an inability to find meaning and genuine fulfilment in life.
The therapies which are based on this principle are:
(i) Existential therapy: There is a spiritual unconscious, which is the storehouse of love, aesthetic awareness, and values of life. Neurotic anxieties arise when the problems of life are attached to the physical, psychological or spiritual aspects of one’s existence. Frankl emphasised the role of spiritual anxieties in leading to meaninglessness and hence it may be called an existential anxiety, i.e. neurotic anxiety of spiritual origin.
(ii) Client-centred therapy: Client-centred therapy was given by Carl Rogers. He combined scientific rigour with the individualised practice of client-centred psychotherapy. Rogers brought into psychotherapy the concept of self, with freedom and choice as the core of one’s being. The therapy provides a warm relationship in which the client can reconnect with her/his disintegrated feelings. The therapist shows empathy, i.e. understanding the client’s experience as if it were her/his own, is warm and has unconditional positive regard, i.e. total acceptance of the client as s/he is. Empathy sets up an emotional resonance between the therapist and the client.
(iii) Gestalt therapy: The German word gestalt means ‘whole’. This therapy was given by Freiderick (Fritz) Perls together with his wife Laura Perls. The goal of gestalt therapy is to increase an individual’s self-awareness and self- acceptance. The client is taught to recognise the bodily processes and the emotions that are being blocked out from awareness. The therapist does this by encouraging the client to act out fantasies about feelings and conflicts. This therapy can also be used in group settings.

Q6: What are the factors that contribute to healing in psychotherapy? Enumerate some of the alternative therapies.
Ans: Factors Contributing to Healing in Psychotherapy are:
(i) A major factor in the healing is the techniques adopted by the therapist and the implementation of the same with the patient/client. If the behavioural system and the CBT school are adopted to heal an anxious client, the relaxation procedures and the cognitive  restructuring  largely contribute to the healing.
(ii) The therapeutic alliance, which is formed between the therapist and the patient/client, has healing properties, because of the regular availability of the therapist, and the warmth and empathy provided by the therapist.
(iii) At the outset of therapy while the patient/client is being interviewed in the initial sessions to understand the nature of the problem, s/he unburdens the emotional problems being faced. This process of emotional unburdening is known as catharsis, and it has healing properties.
(iv) There are several non-specific factors associated with psychotherapy. Some of these factors are attributed to the patient/client and some to the therapist. These factors are called non-specific because they occur across different systems of psychotherapy and across different clients/patients and different therapists. Non-specific factors attributable to the client/patient are motivation for change, expectation of improvement due to the treatment, etc. These are called patient variables. Non-specific factors attributable to the therapist are positive nature, absence of unresolved emotional conflicts, presence of good mental health, etc. These are called therapist variables.
Some of the alternative therapies are Yoga, meditations, acupuncture, herbal remedies etc.

Q7: What are the techniques used in the rehabilitation of the mentally ill?
Ans: The treatment of psychological disorders has two components, i.e. reduction of symptoms, and improving the level of functioning or quality of life. In the case of milder disorders such as generalised anxiety, reactive depression or phobia, reduction of symptoms is associated with an improvement in the quality of life. However, in the case of severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia, reduction of symptoms may not be associated with an improvement in the quality of life. Many patients suffer from negative symptoms such as disinterest and lack of motivation to do work or to interact with people.
The aim of rehabilitation is to empower the patient to become a productive member of society to the extent possible. 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 necessary to undertake productive employment.

Q8: How would a social learning theorist account for a phobic fear of lizards/cockroaches? How would a psychoanalyst account for the same phobia?
Ans: Systematic desensitisation is a technique introduced by Wolpe for treating phobias or irrational fears. The client is interviewed to elicit fear-provoking situations and together with the client, 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 about 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 desensitised to the fear.

Q9: What kind of problems is cognitive behaviour therapy best suited for?
Ans: Cognitive behaviour treatment best suited for a wide range of psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and borderline personality, etc.
adopts a bio-CBT psychosocial approach to the delineation of psychopathology. It combines cognitive therapy with behavioural techniques.