8.7 Introduction to Treatment of Psychological Disorders

2 min read•november 11, 2020

Dalia Savy

Emily Pedrazzi

AP Psychology 🧠

334 resources

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The treatment of psychological disorders has vastly changed as perceptions on mental illnesses and their causes have shifted throughout history 📜 Modern treatment varies based on the condition and approach, but often focuses on several key ideas.

🧠 Correcting thought patterns that are psychologically damaging
📚 Conditioning proper emotional responses to various situations
😌 Teaching proportionate and healthy responses
🙍 Coping with various conditions and symptoms

Image Courtesy of Allure.

These advancements in psychology would not be possible without the following key figures and their contributions.

🤓 Psychologists to Know

Aaron Beck

Aaron Beck is known for youth inventory, anxiety inventory, Beck Scales-depression inventory, the hopelessness scale, and cognitive therapy. He sought to change a patient's beliefs about themselves and their lives 😊

Albert Ellis

Albert Ellis is known for Rational-Emotive Therapy and he believed that problems come from irrational thinking.

Sigmund Freud

Freud is known for his subfield of psychoanalysis and research in consciousness, defense mechanisms, repression, and negotiation through id/ego/superego. He tries to bring unconscious thoughts into awareness during therapy, point out resistance in the mind, and transfer your feelings.

Mary Cover Jones

Mary Cover Jones came up with an exposure therapy called systematic desensitization. She is a behavioral psychologist and aimed to treat phobias by exposing the stimuli in a present context. She introduced the idea of systematic desensitization.

Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers is a humanistic psychologists and he believed in client-centered therapy 👩‍⚕️ The therapist would use an unconditional positive regard and provide an accepting, genuine, and an empathic environment for the patient to express their feelings and overcome disorders.

B.F. Skinner

B.F. Skinner is known for operant conditioning, reinforcement schedules, and the Skinner box. He believed in behavior modification therapy which uses learning principles to eliminate unwanted thoughts and fears.

Joseph Wolpe

Joseph Wolpe is a behavior psychologist like Mary Cover Jones and he refined systematic desensitization.

📝 Key Vocabulary

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy	Exposure Therapies	Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy	Client-centered talk therapy
Active Listening	Insight	Resistance	Interpretation
Transference	Biomedical therapy	Eclectic approach	Talk Therapy
Systematic Desensitization	Counter Conditioning	Hierarchies	Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
Aversive Conditioning	Behavior Modification	Token Economy	Psychopharmacology
Antidepressants	Antipsychotic	Mood-Stabilizers	Antianxiety drugs
SSRI	SNRI	Tardive Dyskinesia	ECT
rTMS	Psychosurgery	Deep Brain Stimulation	Therapeutic Alliance