Psychoanalytic Therapy. The goal of psychoanalysis is to “make conscious what is unconscious.”. Because one is dealing with unknown quantities of anxiety, the process must be accomplished over long periods. The techniques used by psychoanalytic therapists include free association, dream analysis, and transference.
Albert Ellis, the founder of Rational Emotive Therapy , holds that his cognitive theory is concerned with emotions and thoughts that impair our existence. The source of distress in an individual results from a series of irrationally held beliefs about themselves, others, and the world in which they live.
Self-help and support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and Adult Children of Alcoholics, are considered helpful in focusing on a variety of issues, including self-esteem, coping with loneliness and social stigma, and dealing with feelings.
Psychodynamic therapy is most appropriate to more verbal clients who are tolerant of insight-oriented approaches. When psychodynamic therapy is used, it is often preferred that the client participates in a combination of individual and group approaches, and that the therapy is supplemented with other models.
Diagnosis and Assessment. APD begins with a childhood diagnosis of conduct disorder, yet the diagnosis is reserved only for adults. Once persons with APD reach middle age, criminal behaviors associated with their APD tend to diminish while other aspects of their life, such as interpersonal problems, are still evident.
Learning, from the observational learning perspective, is much more complex than is assumed in either classical or operant conditioning. To illustrate this process, Albert Bandura posits a sequence of factors that affect the success of observational learning.