CBSE Class 12 Psychology Therapeutic Approaches Assignment Set B

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question. What is existential anxiety?
Answer: Frankl calls the process of finding meaning even in life-threatening circumstances as the process of meaning making. The basis of meaning making is a person’s quest for finding the spiritual truth of one’s existence. He emphasized 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.

Question. Explain ‘vicarious learning’.
Answer: Vicarious learning is learning by observing others. It is the process of rewarding small changes in the behaviour, in which the client gradually learns to acquire the behaviour of the model.

Question. What is meant by ‘self-actualisation’?
Answer: Maslow gave a detailed account of psychologically healthy people in reference to attainment of self-actualisation. Self-actualisation is a state in which people have reached their fullest potential and develop a complex, balanced and integrated personality.

Question. Explain the term ‘empathy’.
Answer: Empathy is to understand the plight of another person, and feel like the other person.It means understanding things from the other person’s perspective, i.e. putting oneself in the other person’s shoes.

Question. Explain ‘aversive conditioning’.
Answer: 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 alcohol. With repeated pairings the smell of alcohol is aversive as the pain of shock is associated with it and the person will give up alcohol.

Question. What is Gestalt therapy.
Answer: The goal of Gestalt therapy is to increase an individual’s self-awareness and selfacceptance.
The client is taught to recognize his emotions that are being blocked out from awareness.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question. Describe Rational Emotive Therapy.
Answer: Psychological distress is caused by irrational thoughts and beliefs. The distorted perception of the antecedent event due to irrational beliefs leads to a consequence,i.e., negative emotions and behaviours. In the process of RET, the irrational beliefs are proved wrong by the therapist through the process of non-directive questioning. The nature of questioning is gentle, without probing or being directive.

Question. Mention the therapy that encourages the client to seek personal growth and actualise their potential. Give its salient features.
Answer: The humanistic-existential therapies encourage personal growth and actualise the potential by expanding the client’s awareness. The therapist is merely facilitator and guide. It is the client who is responsible for the success of the therapy by the process of self-growth through which healing takes place.
The therapy creates a permissive, non-judgmental and accepting atmosphere in which the client’s emotions can be freely expressed and the complexity, balance and integration could be achieved. The fundamental assumption is that the client has the freedom and responsibility to control his/her own behaviour.

Question. Should Electro-convulsive Therapy (ECT) be used in the treatment of mental disorders?
Answer: 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. The shock is given by the psychiatrist only when it is necessary for the improvement of the patient. ECT is not a routine treatment and is given only when drugs are not effective in controlling the symptoms of the patient.

Question. Discuss cognitive therapy given by Aaron Beck.
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How is Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) used in treating psychological disorders?
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Explain with examples that how cognitive distortions take place. 
Answer: 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.

Question. Discuss the factors that contribute to healing in psychotherapy.
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Describe four factors which contribute to the treatment of psychological distress.
Answer: Psychotherapy is a treatment of psychological distress. There are several processes which contribute to the healing process:
(i) Relaxation procedures and cognitive restructuring contribute to the healing.
(ii) The therapeutic alliance has healing properties because of the warmth and empathy provided by the therapist.
(iii) Healing is provided by unburdening the client of emotional problems by the process of catharsis.
(iv) There are several non-specific factors associated with psychotherapy. Non-specific factors attributable to the client/patient are motivation for change, expectation or improvement due to treatment. Non-specific factors attributable to the therapist are positive nature, absence of unresolved emotional conflicts, presence of good mental health.

Question. What are the goals of psychotherapy?
Answer: All psychotherapies aim at the following goals:
(i) Reinforcing client’s resolve for betterment
(ii) Lessening emotional pressure
(iii) Unfolding the potential for positive growth
(iv) Modifying habits
(v) Changing thinking patterns
(vi) Increasing self-awareness
(vii) Improving interpersonal relations and communication
(viii) Facilitating decision making
(ix) Becoming aware of one’s choices in life
(x) Relating to one’s social environment in a more creative and self-aware manner.

Question. Explain psychological distress according to humanistic existential therapy.
Answer: (i) Psychological distress arises from the feelings of loneliness, alienation and inability to find meaning and genuine fulfillment in life.
(ii) Human beings are motivated by the desire for personal growth and self-actualisation, and an innate need to grow emotionally. When these needs are curbed by society
and family, human beings experience psychological distress. Frustration of self actualisation also causes distress.
(iii) The humanistic-existential therapies encourage personal growth and actualise the potential. Self actualisation requires free emotional expression. The family and society curb emotional expression which leads to destructive behaviour and negative emotions by thwarting the process of emotional expression. The therapist is merely facilitator and guide. It is the client who is responsible for the success of the therapy by the process of self-growth through which healing takes place.
(iv) The therapy creates a permissive, non-judgmental and accepting atmosphere in which the client’s emotions can be freely expressed and the complexity, balance and integration could be achieved. The fundamental assumption is that the client has the freedom and responsibility to control his/her own behaviour and the chief aim of the therapy is to expand the client’s awareness.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question. Describe the nature and scope of psychotherapy. Highlight the importance of therapeutic relationship in psychotherapy.
Answer: Psychotherapy is a voluntary relationship between the one seeking treatment or the client and the one who treats or the therapist. The purpose of the relationship is to help the client to solve the psychological problems being faced by her or him. The relationship is conducive for building the trust of the client so that problems may be freely discussed. Psychotherapies aim at changing the maladaptive behaviours,decreasing the sense of personal distress, and helping the client to adapt better to her/his environment. Inadequate marital, occupational and social adjustment also requires that major changes be made in an individual’s personal environment.
All psychotherapeutic approaches have the following characteristics:
(i) there is systematic application of principles underlying the different theories of therapy,
(ii) persons who have received practical training under expert supervision can practice psychotherapy, and not everybody. An untrained person may unintentionally cause more harm than any good,
(iii) the therapeutic situation involves a therapist and a client who seeks and receives help for her/his emotional problems (this person is the focus of attention in the therapeutic process), and
(iv) the interaction of these two persons — the therapist and the client — results in the consolidation/formation of the therapeutic relationship. This is a confidential, interpersonal, and dynamic relationship. This human relationship is central to any sort of psychological therapy and is the vehicle for change.
All psychotherapies aim at a few or all of the following goals:
(i) Reinforcing client’s resolve for betterment.
(ii) Lessening emotional pressure.
(iii) Unfolding the potential for positive growth.
(iv) Modifying habits.
(v) Changing thinking patterns.
(vi) Increasing self-awareness.
(vii) Improving interpersonal relations and communication.
(viii) Facilitating decision-making.
(ix) Becoming aware of one’s choices in life.
(x) Relating to one’s social environment in a more creative and self-aware manner.
Therapeutic Relationship
The special relationship between the client and the therapist is known as the therapeutic relationship or alliance. It is neither a passing acquaintance, nor a permanent and lasting relationship. There are two major components of a therapeutic alliance. The first component is the contractual nature of the relationship in which two willing individuals, the client and the therapist, enter into a partnership which aims at helping the client overcome her/his problems. The second component of therapeutic alliance is the limited duration of the therapy. This alliance lasts until the client becomes able to deal with her/his problems and take control of her/his life. This relationship has several unique properties. It is a trusting and confiding relationship. The high level of trust enables the client to unburden herself/himself to the therapist and confide her/his psychological and personal problems to the latter. The therapist encourages this by being accepting, empathic, genuine and warm to the client. 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 the ‘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. Empathy is different from sympathy and intellectual understanding of another person’s situation. In sympathy, one has compassion and pity towards the suffering of another but is not able to feel like the other person. Intellectual understanding is cold in the sense that the person is unable to feel like the other person and does not feel sympathy either. On the other hand, empathy is present when one is able to understand the plight of another person, and feel like the other person. It means understanding things from the other person’s perspective, i.e. putting oneself in the other person’s shoes. Empathy enriches the therapeutic relationship and transforms it into a healing relationship. The therapeutic alliance also requires that the therapist must keep strict confidentiality of the experiences, events, feelings or thoughts disclosed by the client. The therapist must not exploit the trust and the confidence of the client in anyway.Finally, it is a professional relationship, and must remain so.

Question. What are the different types of psychotherapy? On what basis are they classified?
Answer: Though all psychotherapies aim at removing human distress and fostering effective behaviour, they differ greatly in concepts, methods, and techniques. Psychotherapies may be classified into three broad groups, viz. the psychodynamic, behaviour, and existential psychotherapies. In terms of the chronological order, psychodynamic therapy emerged first followed by behaviour therapy while the existential therapies which are also called the third force, emerged last. The classification of psychotherapies is based on the following parameters:
(i) What is the cause, which has led to the problem?
Psychodynamic therapy is of the view that intrapsychic conflicts, i.e. the conflicts that are present within the psyche of the person, are the source of psychological problems. According to behaviour therapies, psychological problems arise due to faulty learning of behaviours and cognitions. The existential therapies postulate that the questions about the meaning of one’s life and existence are the cause of psychological problems.
(ii) How did the cause come into existence?
In the psychodynamic therapy, unfulfilled desires of childhood and unresolved childhood fears lead to intrapsychic conflicts. The behaviour therapy postulates that faulty conditioning patterns, faulty learning, and faulty thinking and beliefs lead to maladaptive behaviours that, in turn, lead to psychological problems. The existential therapy places importance on the present. It is the current feelings of loneliness,alienation, sense of futility of one’s existence, etc., which cause psychological problems.
(iii) What is the chief method of treatment?
Psychodynamic therapy uses the methods of free association and reporting of dreams to elicit the thoughts and feelings of the client. This material is interpreted to the client to help her/him to confront and resolve the conflicts and thus overcome problems.Behaviour therapy identifies the faulty conditioning patterns and sets up alternate behavioural contingencies to improve behaviour. The cognitive methods employed in this type of therapy challenge the faulty thinking patterns of the client to help her/ him overcome psychological distress. The existential therapy provides a therapeutic environment which is positive, accepting, and nonjudgmental. The client is able to talk about the problems and the therapist acts as a facilitator. The client arrives at the solutions through a process of personal growth.
(iv) What is the nature of the therapeutic relationship between the client and the therapist?
Psychodynamic therapy assumes that the therapist understands the client’s intrapsychic conflicts better than the client and hence it is the therapist who interprets the thoughts and feelings of the client to her/him so that s/he gains an understanding of the same. The behaviour therapy assumes that the therapist is able to discern the faulty behaviour and thought patterns of the client. It further assumes that the therapist is capable of finding out the correct behaviour and thought patterns,which would be adaptive for the client. Both the psychodynamic and the behaviour therapies assume that the therapist is capable of arriving at solutions to the client’s problems. In contrast to these therapies, the existential therapies emphasise that the therapist merely provides a warm, empathic relationship in which the client feels secure to explore the nature and causes of her/his problems by herself/himself.
(v) What is the chief benefit to the client?
Psychodynamic therapy values emotional insight as the important benefit that the client derives from the treatment. Emotional insight is present when the client understands her/his conflicts intellectually; is able to accept the same emotionally; and is able to change her/his emotions towards the conflicts. The client’s symptoms and distresses reduce as a consequence of this emotional insight. The behaviour therapy considers changing faulty behaviour and thought patterns to adaptive ones as the chief benefit of the treatment. Instituting adaptive or healthy behaviour and thought patterns ensures reduction of distress and removal of symptoms. The humanistic therapy values personal growth as the chief benefit. Personal growth is the process of gaining increasing understanding of oneself, and one’s aspirations, emotions and motives.
(vi) What is the duration of treatment?
The duration of classical psychoanalysis may continue for several years. However,several recent versions of psychodynamic therapies are completed in 10–15 sessions.Behaviour and cognitive behaviour therapies as well as existential therapies are shorter and are completed in a few months. Thus, different types of psychotherapies differ on multiple parameters. However, they all share the common method of providing treatment for psychological distress through psychological means. The therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and the process of therapy become the agents of change in the client leading to the alleviation of psychological distress. The process of psychotherapy begins by formulating the client’s problem.