Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

D I V E R S I T Y
Racial and Ethnic Factors in Treatment: 
Should Therapists Be Color Blind?
Therapists’ interpretation of their clients’ 
behavior is infl uenced by racial, ethnic, 
cultural, and social class backgrounds of 
the clients.
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R E C A P / E V A L U A T E / R E T H I N K 
K E Y T E R M S
R E C A P 
What are humanistic approaches to treatment?
• Humanistic therapy is based on the premise that people 
have control of their behavior, that they can make 
choices about their lives, and that it is up to them to 
solve their own problems. Humanistic therapies, which 
take a nondirective approach, include person-centered 
therapy. (p. 556)
What is interpersonal therapy?
• Interpersonal therapy focuses on interpersonal relation-
ships and strives for immediate improvement during 
short-term therapy. (p. 558)
How does group therapy differ from individual types 
of therapy?
• In group therapy, several unrelated people meet with a 
therapist to discuss some aspect of their psychological 
functioning and often center on a common problem. 
(p. 558)
How effective is psychotherapy, and which kind of psycho-
therapy works best in a given situation?
• Most research suggests that, in general, therapy is more 
effective than no therapy, although how much more 
effective is not known. (p. 559)
• The more diffi cult question of which therapy works best 
is harder to answer, but it is clear particular kinds of 
therapy are more appropriate for some problems than 
for others. (p. 560)
• Because no single type of psychotherapy is invariably 
effective, eclectic approaches in which a therapist uses a 
variety of techniques and thus integrates several 
perspectives are sometimes used. (p. 561)