Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

dialectical behavior therapy
A form 
of treatment in which the focus is on 
getting people to accept who they are 
regardless of whether it matches their 
ideal.
A “Fearless Peer” who models appropriate and eff ective behavior 
can help children overcome their fears.
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552 Chapter 
16 
Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Critics of behavior therapy believe that because it emphasizes changing external 
behavior, people do not necessarily gain insight into thoughts and expectations that 
may be fostering their maladaptive behavior. On the other hand, neuroscientifi c evi-
dence shows that behavioral treatments can produce actual changes in brain func-
tioning, which suggests that behavioral treatments can produce changes beyond 
external behavior. 
For example, one experiment looked at the neurological reactions of patients 
with borderline personality disorder who participated in a 12-week dialectical behav-
ioral therapy program. Compared with a control group composed of people who did 
not have the disorder, the patients showed signifi cant changes in their reactions to 
highly arousing emotion-evoking stimuli. Following therapy, the patients’ neuro-
logical functioning was more similar to those without the disorder than it was prior 
to therapy (see Figure 3 ). 
Cognitive Approaches 
to Therapy
If you assumed that illogical thoughts and beliefs lie at the heart of psychological 
disorders, wouldn’t the most direct treatment route be to teach people new, more 
adaptive modes of thinking? The answer is yes, according to psychologists who take 
a cognitive approach to treatment.