C16-C17 Critical Thinking Skills Worksheet

Transcription

1 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS C16-C17 Critical Thinking Skills Worksheet Scholars in psychiatry and psychology collaborated in an unprecedented manner to produce the fourth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel (DSM-IV), which offers a comprehensive description if every significant variation in behavior that falls outside normal expectations. Although the diagnostic compendium is somewhat controversial, the DSM-IV offers an impressive range of disorders that remind us of how fragile normal experience can be. It may be impossible to cruise through life without experiencing some of the disorders captured in the DSM-IV. The following exercises address the problems psychologists encounter when they attempt to make diagnostic judgments about normal versus disordered behavior. AND THE WINNER IS PATTERN RECOGNITION It is commonly said during Oscar season that the best way for an actor to win an Academy Award is to play a deeply disturbed person. A recent example of this strategy was Jack Nicholson, who played a remarkably endearing writer with obsessive compulsive disorder in the film, As Good As It Gets. See if you can develop a list of performances in movies by gifted actors and try to identify the disorders that they are skillfully portraying. If you have time during this part of the semester, you might benefit from renting a film and studying the treatment of the disorder. But, watcher beware! Sometimes artistic portrayals of psychological disorders may not truly capture the complications caused by the problem or the heroic measures their sufferers take in coping with the disease. You will develop a list of 5 movie performances as related to reviewed disorders. Be sure to list the movie, character, and performance piece. Discuss why actors might prefer to take roles of those with psychological disturbances over those with normal behavior. Recognize how syndromes can b portrayed in a variety of contexts. Speculate about the nature of research an actor might need to complete to be effective in a role portraying a psychological disorder. Identify specific performances that capture psychological disorders

2 THERAPY The stereotyped image of therapy usually involves a patient lying on a couch unraveling personal stories about life s injustices to a concerned but well-trained listener. In contemporary therapies, reality is likely to be far different. Freud s talking cure has evolved into a remarkable array of therapy modes, most involving therapists in active collaboration with the client. Therapy is more than listening. Helping others professionally provides an opportunity for the exercise of refined critical thinking skills, from selecting the right therapeutic strategy through designing outcome studies that demonstrate therapeutic effectiveness. The exercises in this chapter offer a stimulation of the processes researchers and practitioners employ in therapy. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL? PATTERN RECOGNITION You may have been surprised to find that therapists practice clinical arts in so many different ways. Estimates of the distinguishable schools of therapeutic treatment vary, but there may be as many as 200 different psychotherapeutic approaches to solving human problems in therapy. The exercise below will give you an opportunity to match the school of therapy to the statement most representative of a practitioner from that school. See if you can determine how specific phrases reveal the practitioner s preferred approach. You may need to look back at C17 or previously read chapters. 1. Tell me about your earliest memories from childhood. a. Token economy 2. What were the consequences that happened after you punched your boss? b. Cognitive therapy c. Gestalt therapy 3. Rank order the things that frighten you from least to most. d. Freudian therapy e. Feminist therapy 4. Let s explore how your role as a daughter, mother, and wife might influence the problem. f. Behavior therapy g. Adlerian therapy 5. Have you been having recurring dreams? h. Humanistic therapy 6. In what ways do you think you have fallen short of i. Jungian therapy your ideals? j. Systematic 7. Pretend that your grandmother is sitting in the chair desensitization over there and tell her how you feel. 8. You have developed a very powerful mental set that you are a loser. 9. If you can refrain from losing your temper, you ll get two red stars. 10. Let s try to figure out how your feelings of inferiority might be linked to your family. Identify key characteristics of schools of therapy. Use appropriate terminology in connection with a school of therapy. Describe the main schools of therapy that are currently popular. Explain why there might be more than one way to address a psychological disorder. 2

3 EVEN DOMESTIC ENGINEERS GET THE BLUES PRACTICAL PROBLEM SOLVING Ellen looked awful. She said she had spent three relatively sleepless nights and had eaten little, and it showed. She couldn t sleep because she felt tormented by feelings of shame, guilt, and loss. She thought that it had nothing to do with her family. She had been happily married for nine years. The family members were all healthy. The family was financially stable and seemed to have a strong network of support in the community. Nothing was really wrong with them. Oh, sure, the kids and her husband weren t home much. He worked overtime very often. The kids were always running to soccer or other commitments. But that was the way it was supposed to be. Ellen thought her blues had more to do with her brother. She hadn t been able to escape strong feelings of self-recrimination since her brother died. They had a serious fight the night before his car accident, and she had never had a chance to apologize. The last few months had been a nightmare because of the impact her unrelenting sadness was having on Ellen and her family. The purpose of this exercise is to experiment with matching a client with an appropriate therapy. You will do this by considering the characteristics Ellen is bringing into her first clinical session and by determining the advantages and disadvantages that each of the seven schools of therapy might offer her. After considering the seven frameworks, select the one that might be most helpful for the symptoms Ellen is presenting. Psychoanalysis Person-Centered Therapy 3

4 Aversive Conditioning Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Drug Therapy 4

5 Family Therapy Electroconvulsive Therapy Which framework would you select for Ellen? Justify your answers. Identify general differences in the activities that would take place in different therapeutic approaches. For each of the seven possible therapeutic frameworks, specify one advantage. Eliminate some choices of therapy for the client, based on their disadvantages. Understand how therapists may select elements of various frameworks as they develop treatment strategies. Clarify the characteristics of therapy schools that you might find personally helpful if you needed to seek treatment in the future. 5