AP Psychology: Treatment of Psychological Disorders (Drill 30)

Question 1. A therapist working with a client who has a severe dog phobia gradually exposes the client to a hierarchy of dog-related stimuli, first pictures of dogs, then videos, then a leashed dog across a room, and finally petting a calm dog, while teaching relaxation techniques to pair with each step. Which treatment approach is the therapist using?

• A) Systematic desensitization ✓
• B) Free association
• C) Client-centered therapy for the individual described
• D) Token economy

Explanation: Systematic desensitization, which comes from the behavioral tradition, pairs progressively more intense exposure to a feared stimulus with an incompatible relaxation response, following a graded hierarchy, exactly the procedure described. (B) is the true-but-irrelevant distractor: free association is a real and well-established psychodynamic technique, but it involves verbalizing thoughts without censorship to uncover unconscious material, which has nothing to do with a graduated exposure hierarchy. (C) centers on unconditional positive regard and empathic reflection, not structured exposure. (D) uses token reinforcement to shape behavior and is typically applied in institutional or classroom settings, not phobia treatment. [Practice 1]

Question 2. A psychiatrist prescribes an SSRI for a patient with major depressive disorder and refers the patient to a cognitive-behavioral therapist. This combined approach is best understood as an application of which framework?

• A) The biopsychosocial model ✓
• B) The medical model exclusively
• C) The psychodynamic model
• D) The diathesis-stress model

Explanation: The biopsychosocial model explains psychological disorders using biological, psychological, and social factors, and it supports treatment plans that combine interventions across those levels. Pairing an SSRI (biological) with cognitive-behavioral therapy (psychological) fits that integrative approach. (B) is wrong because pairing therapy with medication goes beyond a purely biological, disease-based view. (D) is the true-but-irrelevant distractor: the diathesis-stress model is a legitimate and important framework, but it describes how vulnerability interacts with stress to produce disorders; it is an explanation of causes, not a treatment framework. (C) would emphasize unconscious conflict and insight, not SSRIs paired with CBT. [Practice 1]

Question 3. A clinical trial compares three groups of patients with moderate major depressive disorder: Group 1 receives CBT only, Group 2 receives an SSRI only, and Group 3 receives CBT plus an SSRI. After 16 weeks, remission rates are 42% in Group 1, 44% in Group 2, and 61% in Group 3. Which conclusion is best supported by these data?

• A) SSRIs are essentially ineffective without accompanying therapy
• B) CBT alone outperforms SSRIs alone for moderate depression
• C) The combination of CBT and SSRIs produced a higher remission rate than either treatment alone in this study ✓
• D) Moderate depression always requires combined treatment to remit

Explanation: The data directly show that the combined group's remission rate (61%) exceeds both monotherapy groups (42% and 44%), which is the conclusion the numbers actually support without overreach. (A) misreads the data; SSRIs alone produced 44% remission, clearly non-zero effectiveness. (B) is the true-but-irrelevant distractor: comparing CBT alone to SSRI alone is a legitimate question, and the 2-point difference might look meaningful at first glance, but 42% versus 44% is a trivial gap with no significance test provided, and the question asks for the best-supported conclusion. (D) overgeneralizes, "always" is far too strong given that 42–44% of patients reached remission on monotherapy alone. [Practice 3]

Question 4. A study reports a correlation of r = 0.35 between number of therapy sessions attended and reduction in depression symptom scores over 12 weeks. Which of the following is the most appropriate interpretation?

• A) Therapy sessions directly cause depression symptoms to decrease
• B) There is a moderate positive association, but the correlational design does not establish that therapy sessions caused the symptom reduction ✓
• C) The correlation is too weak to suggest any meaningful relationship
• D) Patients who attended more sessions must have had milder depression to begin with

Explanation: A correlation of 0.35 reflects a moderate positive association, and because the study is correlational rather than experimental, it cannot establish causation, a third variable (such as motivation, severity, or social support) could plausibly drive both attendance and improvement. (A) commits the classic correlation-implies-causation error. (D) is the true-but-irrelevant distractor: initial severity is a legitimate third-variable concern that researchers genuinely worry about in therapy studies, but stating that patients "must have had milder depression" treats speculation as fact and answers a different question than the one asked. (C) understates r = 0.35, which is conventionally considered a moderate effect in psychology. This question draws on Unit 0 research methods content applied to a Unit 5 treatment scenario. [Practice 2]

Question 5. A therapist meets weekly with a client who has been diagnosed with a specific phobia of flying. The therapist uses empathic listening, reflects the client's feelings back without judgment, and provides unconditional positive regard, trusting that the client will move toward self-actualization. After six months of this treatment, the client's avoidance of flying has not meaningfully changed. Which of the following best explains this outcome from an evidence-based treatment perspective?

• A) Humanistic therapy does not work for any clinical population
• B) The client was simply not suitable for therapy of any kind
• C) Six months is too short a timeframe for any phobia treatment to show effects
• D) Specific phobias generally respond better to exposure-based behavioral treatments than to purely humanistic therapy ✓

Explanation: The evidence base for specific phobias strongly favors exposure-based interventions, systematic desensitization, in vivo exposure, and virtual reality exposure, which directly reduce the conditioned fear response. Humanistic therapy, while effective for many relational and self-concept concerns, does not target the specific learning mechanisms underlying phobic avoidance, so a lack of improvement here fits what research says about treatment matching. (C) is the true-but-irrelevant distractor: treatment duration does matter in psychotherapy research, but exposure treatments for specific phobias often show meaningful improvement within weeks, not months, so timeframe is not a credible explanation here. (A) is an overgeneralization; humanistic therapy has documented benefits for several presentations. (B) is an unsupported leap not backed by anything in the stem. This question connects treatment matching (Unit 5) to classical conditioning principles from Unit 3. [Practice 1]