Mental Health and Psychology Psychotherapy Techniques 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?
- Explore unconscious conflicts from childhood
- Identify and modify dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors (Correct answer)
- Build the therapeutic relationship as the sole agent of change
- Achieve self-actualization
Correct answer: Identify and modify dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors
CBT targets the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, aiming to identify and restructure cognitive distortions and maladaptive behaviors.
Question 2: In psychoanalytic therapy, 'transference' refers to:
- The therapist's emotional reaction to the patient
- The patient projecting feelings from past relationships onto the therapist (Correct answer)
- Moving treatment between providers
- A change in diagnosis over time
Correct answer: The patient projecting feelings from past relationships onto the therapist
Transference occurs when a patient unconsciously redirects feelings and expectations from significant past relationships onto the therapist.
Question 3: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was originally developed to treat which condition?
- Schizophrenia
- Borderline Personality Disorder (Correct answer)
- Bipolar Disorder
- ADHD
Correct answer: Borderline Personality Disorder
DBT was developed by Marsha Linehan specifically for chronically suicidal individuals with borderline personality disorder, blending CBT with acceptance strategies.
Question 4: What are the four skill modules in DBT?
- Acceptance, commitment, defusion, values
- Mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness (Correct answer)
- Relaxation, exposure, restructuring, rehearsal
- Empathy, reflection, validation, confrontation
Correct answer: Mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness
DBT's four skill modules — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness — form the core of the skills training component.
Question 5: Motivational Interviewing (MI) is guided by which core principle?
- Confronting denial directly and firmly
- Eliciting the client's own motivation for change through collaboration (Correct answer)
- Teaching behavioral skills through structured exercises
- Prescribing specific behavioral targets
Correct answer: Eliciting the client's own motivation for change through collaboration
MI uses a collaborative, client-centered approach to explore and resolve ambivalence about change by eliciting the person's own reasons and motivation.
Question 6: The 'therapeutic alliance' is most accurately described as:
- The formal contract signed at the start of therapy
- The collaborative bond and agreement on goals between therapist and client (Correct answer)
- The therapist's theoretical orientation
- The frequency and duration of sessions
Correct answer: The collaborative bond and agreement on goals between therapist and client
The therapeutic alliance encompasses the emotional bond between therapist and client plus their agreement on therapy goals and tasks, and is the strongest predictor of outcome across modalities.
Mental Health and Psychology Psychotherapy Techniques 1
What is the primary goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?