Models of Human Nature and Therapeutic Change

Biological (Medical) Model

The mind’s activity depends on the brain whose composition is genetically determined
Still acknowledge influences of environment and learning
Genetic influences on anxiety and depression
Brain structure different in individuals with schizophrenia- process information differently
Therapy: Pharmacological treatments (medication)

Behavioural Model

Focuses on what people do rather than on brain structures and/or chemistry
Behaviour is analyzed in terms of stimulus, response, and reinforcement.

o Their fear, their response to the fear, experience of relief leads to reinforcing the response to that certain fear.

Aim is to discover what reinforcements sustain and undesirable behaviour and then to alter those reinforcements.
Therapy: Exposure

- Behaviour results from complex attitudes, expectations, and motives rather than simple reinforcements.
- Individuals are taught to substitute their unrealistic thoughts with realistic ones and to test their assumptions.
- Therapy:
- - Emphasizes thoughts as well as unconscious emotions, ideas, and impulses
  - Emphasizes the role of the past in shaping the present.
  - Therapies: Interpersonal, humanistic, existential, experiential
  Psychodynamic Model
- Typically emphasizes exposure as well as changing problematic patterns of thinking
- Typically involve- 10 individual or group sessions with a therapist plus homework
- Has been shown to produce significant improvements
- Has been combined with drug therapy

Cognitive Model

“Seeks to make conscious that which is unconscious.”

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Cite this article as: William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team), "Models of Human Nature and Therapeutic Change," in SchoolWorkHelper, 2019, https://schoolworkhelper.net/models-of-human-nature-and-therapeutic-change/.