Choosing your Psychotherapist

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Choosing your Psychotherapist

• Alyssa Conley Trevor Wolff
• Robert Quigley Aaron Perez

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What is Psychotherapy?

• Therapy for psychological problems
• Previous research demonstrating the effectiveness
  of particular methods has been generally weak and
  unscientific.

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Imagine you are experiencing a difficult
emotional time in your life and seeking
psychotherapy. Or, imagine that you are treating
a patient with emotional pathologies and wanted
to treat the patient the most efficient way
possible. Which method of psychotherapy is the
best? Most of the related studies are spread
throughout multiple journals, which makes it
difficult to make accurate comparisons between
the different methods of psychotherapy.
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Psychotherapy Methods

• The behavioral modification method and the
  systematic desensitization method both treat
  specific problems using classical and operant
  conditioning techniques to elimination
• Humanistic, psychodynamic, and cognitive methods
  focus on basic life improvement and overall
  anxiety relief

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The Smith and Glass Study (1977)

• Smith and Glass compared over 500 studies
  testing the variable effectiveness of the
  meta-analysis method
• - a method of statistical analysis which
  integrates individual studies into a more
  meaningful whole
• Their goal was to compare the effectiveness of
  several treatment methods using psychotherapy,
  and to see if psychotherapy works at all
• Effectiveness was based on patient self-report
  studies before and after the therapy
• The variables tested were anxiety reduction,
  self-esteem, overall adjustment, and school/work
  achievement

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Results from Smith/Glass Study
PPsychoanalysis TTransactional
analysis RRational-emotive therapy CClient-cente
red therapy SSystematic desensitization BBehavio
r modification IImposion therapy

• All methods were relatively equal in
  effectiveness
• Results shocked psychologists because, prior to
  the study, they believed their methods were
  superior
• Systematic-desensitization, developed by Wolpe,
  stood out from the others in its effectiveness in
  treatment of phobias

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Effects and Applications of the Study
It caused psychologists to move toward a more
eclectic approach to psychotherapy since
psychologists no longer believed their method was
the only one that worked They applied the method
of meta-analysis to test the effectiveness of
various methods of alcohol abuse treatment, and
the effectiveness of health strategies used to
encourage high-risk patients to get flu
vaccinations The new testing techniques in the
effectiveness of psychological methods discovered
that talk techniques were causing more harm
then good with adolescent teens.
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Discussion Questions
After hearing about the study, would you go to a
psychotherapist using one method of therapy, or
multiple methods? Did you think that all methods
are equally effective before you heard about the
study? Why do you think there are no differences
in effectiveness between the methods? What else
do you think this study, or the meta analysis
method could be applied to? Do you think the
study could have been flawed based on the time
between studies or the reliability of self-report
data?