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1.
Positive Psychology and
Positive therapy
Positive Psychology
Jefferson thomsan began the
Declaration of Independence with the statement that human beings aren't only
created equal but "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, [and] that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness." Happiness was the word he chose, not pursuit of power or
economic gain. He didn't think that a happy human life was a reward for obeying
a Supreme Being or a set of rules laid down in a holy book. He was a lover of
the Greek classics, a believer in progress, a deist, and a man of the
Enlightenment. His faith lay in the notion that philosophic inquiry, reason,
and study of the natural world could lead one to what Aristotle called
"the good life." That was the bedrock of Jefferson's secular faith--a
view that many positive psychologists share today.
Positive psychologists urge people to maximize
strengths rather than correct weaknesses, and to turn their work into a moral
calling. positive psychologist also argue that having big social circles
maximize life satisfaction. complex identities, according to positive
psychologists say, are a crucial ingredient in that elusive, nebulous,
eternally-sought-after state we call happiness.
The
Positive Psychology movement is a sunny place for people whose lives have been
lived at least partly in shadow. And it's impossible to fully understand it
without understanding the less-than-rosy early life of its leading popularize,
Martin Seligman.
Seligman
committed himself to the study of helplessness, while making double-sure that
he wasn't helpless himself. A high achiever, he graduated from Princeton and
went on to graduate studies in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. In
1964, when he was 21, he watched a group of lab dogs in their electrified wire
cages there, acting as despairing as his own dad. They were slumped with their
heads on their paws, whimpering, and doing nothing to avoid the shocks being
administered to them. In a previous experiment, they'd been unable to escape
being shocked. Now, even though the experimental parameters had changed and
they could leap to safety on the other side of the cage, they didn't. They
simply endured. Seligman concluded that the dogs were no longer learning sets
of discrete behaviors through reward and punishment, as the Skinnerian
behaviorism of the time maintained they would. They'd come to an overarching
conclusion: that "nothing they did mattered," which perpetuated its
own reality even when circumstances changed. Seligman's observation was
heretical--animals weren't supposed to adopt abstract, generalized attitudes
like helplessness.
Seligman
figured that if depressed people had somehow learned to be helpless, they could
also unlearn it, but as he moved from animal research into clinical psychology,
he didn't just want to undo negative thinking, he wanted to foster good
feelings. He had a hunch that people who consistently celebrated and exercised
their strengths would be buffered against inevitable bad times when they
struck. This had worked for Seligman himself: he'd learned to focus on his strengths,
becoming a prolific researcher and a popular writer. He also successfully used
cognitive therapy techniques on himself, learning to dispute "negative
self-talk" and to marshal reality-based data that supported looking on the
bright side. People, he contended, could argue themselves out of their black
moods if they took action. They just had to stick to it, dispute their
knee-jerk negative globalizations and catastrophizing, engage in "positive
self-talk," and do their homework in journals and exercise books.
The
twists and turns of Seligman's exploration have been distilled into a simple
and elegant theory of the three features that constitute happiness: the
pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life.He defines the
"pleasant life" as characterized by fleeting positive moods and
immediate experiences of comfort and pleasure. It can also be defined as the simple satisfaction of a mind and
body at peace. It can be amplified by learning to savor good moments and to
lighten up habitual patterns of thought. But in Seligman's scheme, the
"pleasant life" is the least important aspect of happiness, because
it depends heavily on an inherited positive temperament and on good fortune:
luck and genes. Simply enjoying the pleasant life doesn't build character or
resilience.
The
second aspect of Seligman was ‘the good life according to him it can be defined
as part of happiness is anchored in building a full life that goes well. It
comes from exercising our talents and virtues. what Seligman calls our "signature
strengths"--and it depends heavily on the ability to lose oneself in the
earned pleasures of sustained effort, absorbing work, conversation,
accomplishment, contemplation, or what calls "flow." To many people's
surprise, studies in which people record their mood states in daily diaries
have revealed that most people feel happy far more often at work than at home.
The
third aspect of Seligman's happiness is the "meaningful life,"
defined as the dedication of one's life to something larger than yourself--something
beyond family and personal or intellectual achievement. Although Seligman
rarely uses these words, the meaningful life includes altruism and love.
Positive
Psychology's massive public relations successes may have encouraged millions to
take a fresh look at their attitudes and to think, at least fleetingly, about
what really brings them satisfaction.
Positive
psychologist believe in diminishing the irrational believes which we have, to
express gratitude to people you love whenever it is possible and to thank the
supreme power the little gifts of life like good health, parents affection
friends etc. they urge on looking on the positive side of life ignoring the
negative. Sadaf Amjad
Positive therapy
The aim of Positive Psychology is to catalyze a change in psychology
from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also
building the best qualities in life. To redress the previous imbalance, we must
bring the building of strength to the forefront in the treatment and prevention
of mental illness.
The field of Positive Psychology at the subjective level is about positive
subjective experience: well being and satisfaction (past), and flow, joy, the
sensual pleasures, and happiness (present), and constructive cognitions about
the future-optimism, hope, and faith. At the individual level it is about
positive individual traits -- the capacity for love and vocation, courage,
interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness,
originality, future-mindedness, high talent, and wisdom. At the group level it
is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward
better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation,
tolerance, and work ethic (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Gillham and Seligman,
1999).
Psychology's empirical focus then shifted to assessing and curing individual
suffering. There has been an explosion in research on psychological disorders
and the negative effects of environmental stressors such as parental divorce,
death, and physical and sexual abuse. Practitioners went about treating mental
illness within the disease-patient framework of repairing damage: damaged
habits, damaged drives, damaged childhood, and damaged brains.
The message of the Positive Psychology movement is to remind our field that it
has been deformed. Psychology is not just the study of disease, weakness, and
damage; it also is the study of strength and virtue. Treatment is not just
fixing what is wrong; it also is building what is right. Psychology is not just
about illness or health; it is about work, education, insight, love, growth,
and play. And in this quest for what is best, Positive Psychology does not rely
on wishful thinking, self-deception or hand-waving; instead it tries to adapt
what is best in the scientific method to the unique problems that human
behavior presents in all its complexity.
However, does an approach that focuses instead on
teaching patients how to be happy offer an alternative and more direct route to
happiness? Certainly this approach has a strong appeal, as demonstrated by the
popularity of a course by Tal D. Ben-Shahar, a lecturer in psychology at
Harvard, whose Positive Psychology course, according to an article last year in
the Boston Globe, enrolled
over 800 students—more than any other course on campus.
Is positive psychology an
innovative way to find happiness faster? Or with its claims, does it do a
disservice to people with serious mental health problems?
According to one of its most
prominent proponents, positive psychology works. "I'm an evidence-based
researcher," said Martin E. P. Seligman, PhD, in a phone interview.
"In randomized controlled trials, we've seen good evidence that the
interventions utilized in positive psychology alleviate suffering and increase happiness."
Seligman, Fox Leadership
Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia,
helped develop positive psychology. He is the director of the Positive
Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a former president of
the American Psychological Association.
He defines positive psychology,
or positive psychotherapy, as an approach that focuses on three areas: a
pleasant life, an engaging life, and a meaningful life. "Positive
psychology is the study of what causes these to occur and how to build
them," he said.
In an article in American
Psychologist, he and coauthors wrote that this approach as a
treatment of depression "contrasts with standard interventions for
depression by increasing positive emotion, engagement, and meaning rather than
directly targeting depressive symptoms."
In a preliminary study, they
reported, positive psychotherapy delivered to groups of patients significantly
decreased mild to moderate depression over a 1-year period; positive results
were also obtained in therapy with individual outpatients who suffered from
major depressive disorder. In informal settings, they added, participants
"not uncommonly reported [positive psychotherapy] to be
'life-changing.'"
Positive therapy is a major effective ingredient in therapy as it
is now done, and if recognized and honed, will become an even ore effective
approach to psychotherapy.
it is a common strategy among almost all competent psychotherapists to first
identify and then help their patients build a large variety of strengths,
rather than just to deliver specific damage healing techniques. Among the
strengths built in psychotherapy are:
Courage, Interpersonal ,Rationality, Insight, Optimism, Honesty,Perseverance,
Realism,Capacity for pleasure, Putting troubles into perspective, Future mindedness,
Finding purpose.
For decades, many therapists have treated mental disorders such as
depression with medication and talk therapies that often concentrate on family
relationships and how they affect current problems. But some psychology experts
worried that this approach addressed only half of the equation -- focusing on
negative feelings, while ignoring the positives that help people feel happy.
Now a small but increasing number of therapists are employing an emerging
discipline known as "positive psychology." The treatment focuses
primarily on the affirmative aspects of a patient's life with the goal of
helping them feel more optimistic and fulfilled.
The new techniques often involve assessing a patient's strengths, such as
creativity or humor, and implementing them in everyday life. The result can be
small actions like taking a class or larger decisions like changing jobs. The
positive approach is being used with everyone from depressed patients and
anorexics to disaster victims and veterans returning from war with
post-traumatic stress disorder. Increasingly, people who have no mental illness
or disorder -- who function well but simply want to function better -- are
giving the upbeat method a try.
"It's great if you can increase people's positive emotions, but this
doesn't get rid of their negative ones," says Julie Norem, professor of
psychology at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass. "The important thing
is that people learn to manage them."
The technique isn't for everyone, positive psychologists say. Patients
with severe mental illness such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia will need
help working through their problems before they can learn to be positive.
"The main thing is to teach people to put more positive experiences
in their day, to appreciate and notice these experiences," says Carol
Kauffman, a positive therapist and assistant clinical professor at Harvard
Medical School. Dr. Kauffman says one of the many places she uses positive
therapy is her group for women with eating disorders. After patients identify
themselves and their disorder, Dr. Kauffman goes around the circle again and
has them name something positive about their lives. "Now the bulimic says
she is a senior at Radcliffe and won a prize and really loves beauty,"
says Dr. Kauffman. It makes them feel "empowered."
Positive therapy "is not about candy and chocolates and
vacations," says Dr. Rashid, who has a practice in Toronto. "It's
about working on your strengths, and there are no short cuts."
Viewing a person as greater than his or her problems
is the touchstone for effective therapy. There are many models or types of
therapy to choose from. Good Therapy does a great job describing a very
positive approach to therapy. These elements are described below:
Non-pathologizing:
Viewing a person as greater than his or her problems is the hallmark of
non-pathologizing therapy. It does not mean problems do not exist, it means NOT
viewing the problems as the whole person or the whole person as the problems.
Working non-pathologically does not negate pathology, it depathologizes it. So
for example, rather than labeling a person who's angry as an angry person,
non-pathologizing therapy views one's anger as just an aspect of the person,
but not all of who the person is. We do justice to a person's true nature when
we remember that behind the layers of protection, no matter how
self-destructive or hurtful to others one has been, there is a lovable and
vulnerable person at the very core.
Empowering:
Empowering therapists maintain the belief that people can grow, heal, and
transform. This hope is held no matter how intense one's defenses and wounds
are. People can heal if they want to and if they can contribute to their own
growth whatever is sufficient and necessary to that end. When a therapist views
a person as fundamentally flawed or incapable of change, the person is more
likely to feel and become flawed. Yet, one is more likely to discover one’s
true nature when therapy sees beyond wounds and defenses.
Collaborative:
The spirit of collaborative therapy is summarized in the words of Albert
Schweitzer who wrote, "Each patient carries his own doctor inside him....
We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a
chance to go to work." Collaborative therapy can be established when a
therapist encourages a client to become the co-therapist. Therapists who work
collaboratively trust people to know themselves (or have the potential to know
themselves) better than anyone else, to access their own wisdom, and to attend
to their wounds. This orientation puts the client in the driver's seat of
therapy. Collaboration is not "directionless" nor does it put the
client at risk of further trauma.
Self:
Self is a state of being that a therapist can embody when with his or her
clients. It's defined by Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., as a state of calm,
curiosity, compassion, creativity, confidence, courage, connectedness, and
clarity. Self is considered a requisite of good therapy because it is this
state that allows a therapist to work collaboratively without pushing, without
pathologizing, and without re-traumatizing.
Relationship:
Beyond technique and theory is the realm of the relationship: the ongoing
human-to-human connection which provides the foundation for change. The
relationship is the safe container which allows one to more fully and
completely feel the presence of Self while in the presence of another. A
therapist who embodies Self and feels unconditional positive regard in the face
of whatever the client may be experiencing, nurtures the therapeutic
relationship. Without a therapeutic relationship there is no therapy.
Depth:
Therapy often times needs to go deep. There seems to be a split in the mental
health field between types of therapy which emphasize cognitive solutions and
those which emphasize emotional/ or body-oriented healing. Both are important.
Good therapy helps one to process and complete
whatever hidden and unhidden wounds one has harbored. Treatment without going
deep can be like stitching up a wound without taking the bullet out; it’s more
likely to remain sore, to infect, and require ongoing attention.
“Enlightenment consists not merely in the seeing of
luminous shapes and visions, but in making the darkness visible. The latter
procedure is more difficult and therefore, unpopular.” ~ Carl Jung
Criticism:
According to one expert, however, positive psychology is at best a
repackaging of standard approaches used by many psychologists and
psychiatrists, who focus on strengths and virtues as only one aspect of
treatment.
"Freud was interested in depth psychology, the psychology of the
deeper recesses of the mind," said Charles Goodstein, MD, professor of
psychiatry at New York University, in a phone interview. "Positive psychology
seems to be the psychology of the superficial. It seems to be a form of
education, of exhortation. For some people, it might be beneficial to be the
objects of an exhortation to be happy; after all, ministers and preachers have
employed this method for years."
But then again, there are some people who benefit, at least transiently,
from many kinds of psychological and psychiatric approaches. The question is
the treatment's long-term value: does it help promote true, sustaining change
in the individual?
"This is an approach that suggests people are relatively simple, and
I don't think that's accurate," he continued. "It lacks an
appreciation for the complexities of human personality. What very often happens
in psychology and psychiatry is the repackaging of old wine in new bottles, but
without an acknowledgment that it's old wine, and just emphasizing the
package."
Positive psychology, he said, carries "the implicit suggestion . . .
that everyone other than positive psychologists is operating in the sphere of
negative psychology. In the arena of popular opinion, when the issue is framed
this way, I imagine the positive psychologists emerge smelling of roses."
That dichotomy is fallacious, he said. "Psychiatrists and
psychologists have been cognizant of the importance of the 'positive' aspects
of human personality. The notion that psychologists and psychiatrists emphasize
the negative is erroneous. When we work with symptoms, our goal is to free the
patient of the unconscious impediments that have prevented them from
using their positive attributes."
Positive
Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that
enable individuals and communities to thrive. The Positive Psychology Center
promotes research, training, education, and the dissemination of Positive
Psychology. This field is founded on the belief that people want to lead
meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves,
and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.
Positive
Psychology has three central concerns: positive emotions, positive individual
traits, and positive institutions. Understanding positive emotions entails the
study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the
future. Understanding positive individual traits consists of the study of the
strengths and virtues, such as the capacity for love and work, courage,
compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge,
moderation, self-control, and wisdom. Understanding positive institutions
entails the study of the strengths that foster better communities, such as
justice, responsibility, civility, parenting, nurturance, work ethic,
leadership, teamwork, purpose, and tolerance.
Some of the
goals of Positive Psychology are to build a science that supports:
·
Families and schools that allow
children to flourish
·
Workplaces that foster
satisfaction and high productivity
·
Communities that encourage
civic engagement
·
Therapists who identify and
nurture their patients' strengths
·
The teaching of Positive
Psychology
·
Dissemination of Positive
Psychology interventions in organizations & communities
Positive psychology is a recent branch
of psychology whose
purpose was summed up in 2000 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We
believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise that
achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build
thriving in individuals, families, and communities." Positive
psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent", and
"to make normal life more fulfilling", not simply to treat mental illness. This approach has
created a lot of interest around the subject, and in 2006 a course at Harvard University entitled
"Positive Psychology" became the most popular course that semester.
Several humanistic psychologists—such
as Abraham Maslow, Carl
Rogers, and Erich
Fromm—developed theories and practices that
involved human happiness. Recently the theories of human flourishing developed
by these humanistic psychologists have found empirical support from studies by
positive psychologists. Positive psychology has also moved ahead in a number of
new directions.
Positive psychology began as a new area of
psychology in 1998 when Martin Seligman, considered the father of
the modern positive psychology movement, chose it as the theme for his term as
president of the American Psychological
Association, though the term originates
with Maslow, in his 1954 book Motivation
and Personality. Seligman pointed out that for the half century
clinical psychology "has been consumed by a single topic only - mental
illness", echoing Maslow’s comments. He urged psychologists to
continue the earlier missions of psychology of nurturing talent and improving
normal life.
The first positive psychology summit took
place in 1999. The First International Conference on Positive Psychology took
place in 2002. In June 2009, the First World Congress on Positive Psychology
took place.
Historical roots
Positive psychology finds its roots in
the humanistic psychology of the
20th century, which focused heavily on happiness and fulfillment. Earlier
influences on positive psychology came primarily from philosophical and
religious sources, as scientific psychology did not take its modern form until
the late 19th century. (See History of psychology)
Judaism promotes
a Divine command theory of
happiness: happiness and rewards follow from following the commands of the
divine.
The ancient Greeks had many schools of
thought. Socrates advocated self-knowledge as
the path to happiness. Plato's allegory of the cave influenced
western thinkers who believe that happiness is found by finding deeper meaning.
Aristotle believed that happiness, or eudemonia is
constituted by rational activity in accordance with virtue over
a complete life. The Epicureans believed in reaching
happiness through the enjoyment of simple pleasures. The Stoics believed
they could remain happy by being objective and reasonable.
Christianity continued
to follow the Divine command theory of happiness. In the Middle
Ages, Christianity taught that true happiness
would not be found until the afterlife.
The seven deadly sins are about earthly
self-indulgence and narcissism. On the other hand, the Four Cardinal Virtues and Three Theological Virtues were
supposed to keep one from sin.
During the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment, individualism came
to be valued. Simultaneously, creative individuals
gained prestige, as they were now considered to be artists, not just
craftsmen. Utilitarian philosophers
such as John believed that moral actions are those
actions that maximize happiness for the most number of people. Thus,
an empirical science of
happiness should be used to determine which actions are moral. Thomas Jefferson and other proponents
of democracy believed
that "Life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" are inalienable rights,
and that it justifies the overthrow of the government.
The Romantics valued
individual emotional expression and sought their emotional "true
selves," which were unhindered by social norms. At the same time, love and
intimacy became the main motivations for people to get married.
General overview
Some researchers in this field posit
that positive psychology can be delineated into three overlapping areas of
research:
1. Research
into the Pleasant Life, or the "life of enjoyment,"
examines how people optimally experience, forecast, and savor the positive
feelings and emotions that are part of normal and healthy living (e.g.
relationships, hobbies, interests, entertainment, etc.).
2. The
study of the Good Life, or the "life of engagement,"
investigates the beneficial affects of immersion, absorption, and flow that individuals feel when
optimally engaged with their primary activities. These states are experienced
when there is a positive match between a person's strength and the task they
are doing, i.e. when they feel confident that they can accomplish the tasks
they face. (See related concept entry, Self)
3. Inquiry
into the Meaningful Life, or "life of affiliation,"
questions how individuals derive a positive sense of well-being, belonging,
meaning, and purpose from being part of and contributing back to something
larger and more permanent than themselves (e.g. nature,
social groups, organizations, movements, traditions, belief systems).
These categories appear to be neither widely
disputed nor adopted by researchers across the 12 years that this academic area
has been in existence.
The undoing effect
In an article titled "The undoing effect
of positive emotions," Barbara Fredrickson et al.
hypothesize that positive emotions undo the cardiovascular effects of negative
emotions. When people experience stress, they show increased heart
rate, higher blood
sugar, immune suppression, and other adaptations
optimized for immediate action. If individuals do not regulate these changes
once the stress is past, they can lead to illness, coronary heart disease, and
heightened mortality. Both lab research and survey research indicate that
positive emotions help people who were previously under stress relax back to their
physiological baseline.[16]
Elevation
After several years of researching disgust, University of Virginia professor Jonathan and
others studied its opposite, and the term "elevation" was
coined. Elevation is a moral emotion and is pleasant. It involves a desire to
act morally and do "good"; as an emotion it has a basis in biology,
and can sometimes be characterized by a feeling of expansion in the chest or a
tingling feeling on the skin.
Broaden-and-build
The broaden-and-build theory of positive
emotions suggests that positive emotions (e.g. happiness, interest, anticipation) broaden one's
awareness and encourage novel, varied, and exploratory thoughts and actions.
Over time, this broadened behavioral repertoire builds skills and resources.
For example, curiosity about a landscape becomes valuable navigational
knowledge; pleasant interactions with a stranger become a supportive
friendship; aimless physical play becomes exercise and physical excellence.
This is in contrast to negative emotions,
which prompt narrow survival-oriented behaviors. For example, the negative
emotion of anxiety leads
to the specific fight for immediate survival.
Strengths and virtues
The development of the Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV)
handbook represents the first attempt on the part of the research community to
identify and classify the positive psychological traits of human beings. Much
like the Diagnostic (DSM) of general
psychology, the CSV provides a theoretical framework to assist in understanding
strengths and virtues and for developing practical applications for positive
psychology. This manual identifies six classes of virtue (i.e.,
"core virtues"), made up of twenty-four measurable character
strengths.
The introduction of CSV suggests
that these six virtues are considered good by the vast majority of cultures and
throughout history and that these traits lead to increased happiness when
practiced. Notwithstanding numerous cautions and caveats, this suggestion of
universality hints that in addition to trying to broaden the scope of
psychological research to include mental wellness, the leaders of the positive
psychology movement are challenging moral and suggesting that
we are "evolutionarily predisposed" toward certain virtues, that
virtue has a biological basis.
The organization of these virtues and
strengths is as follows:
1. Wisdom
and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity,
open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective, innovation
2. Courage: bravery,
persistence, integrity, vitality, zest
3. Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
4. Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
5. Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self
control
6. Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude,
hope, humor, spirituality
Positive experiences
Mindfulness
Mindfulness, defined as actively
searching for novelty, is also characterized as non-judging, non-striving,
accepting, patient, trusting, open, letting go, gentle, generous, empathetic,
grateful, and kind. Its benefits include reduction of stress, anxiety,
depression, and chronic pain.[20]
Flow
Flow, or a state of absorption in
one's work, is characterized by intense concentration, loss of self-awareness,
a feeling of control, and a sense that "time is flying." Flow is an
intrinsically rewarding experience, and it can also help one achieve a goal
(e.g. winning a game) or improve skills (e.g. becoming a better chess player).
Spirituality
Spirituality is
associated with mental health, managing substance abuse, marital functioning,
parenting, and coping. It has been suggested that spirituality also leads to
finding purpose and meaning in life.
Positive futures
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is
one's belief in one's ability to accomplish a task by one's own efforts. Low
self-efficacy is associated with depression; high self-efficacy can
help one overcome abuse, overcome eating disorders, and maintain a healthy
lifestyle. High self-efficacy also improves the immune
system, aids in stress management, and
decreases pain. A related but somewhat differing concept is Personal effectiveness which
is primarily concerned with the methodologies of planning and implementation of
accomplishment.
Subjective well-being (see also subjective life satisfaction)
is an analogous term for emotional well-being or happiness elaborated
by the positive psychologist Ed
Diener et al. The article by
Diener and colleagues "The Psychology of Subjective Well-being"
(2004) seeks to further legitimize the study of happiness or well-being as
within the reaches of science where previously it had been viewed by many as
rather a subject confined to philosophy or religion because these subjects are
considered somewhat abstract. Additionally, Snyder & Lopez define subjective
well-being in their text Positive Psychology (2007) a tenet of
theories of happiness in which "individual's appraisals of their own lives
capture the essence of well-being." According to Snyder and Lopez
consideration of different types of well-being (subjective, objective,
psychological, social, etc.) provides a more comprehensive understanding
of mental
health.
Learned optimism:
The idea of learned optimism was developed by
Martin Seligman and published in his 1990 book, Learned Optimism. The
benefits of an optimistic outlook on are many—optimists are higher achievers
and have better overall health. Pessimism, on the other hand, is much more
common. Pessimists view bad events as permanent and they believe that adversity
they face is their own fault. Pessimists are more likely to give up in the face
of adversity or to be depressed. In Learned Optimism, Seligman invites
pessimists to learn to be optimists through learning to think about reaction to
adversity in a new way. The resulting optimism—that that grows from
pessimism—is called learned optimism.
Seligman came to the concept of learned
optimism through scientifically studying learned helplessness, which is the
idea that no matter what people do, certain often negative events are still
going to befall them. People who experience that phenomenon continually learn
to be helpless. As he was performing tests to study helplessness further, he
began to wonder why some people who were conditioned to be helpless in his lab
never actually became helpless. Some subjects blamed themselves for their
helplessness during the experiments, whereas others blamed the experiment for
setting them up to fail. Seligman shifted his focus to attempting to discover
what it is that keeps some people from ever becoming helpless. The answer was
optimism. Using his knowledge about conditioning people to be helpless in the
lab, he shifted his focus to conditioning people to be optimists. The result of
these experiments led to defining the process of learned optimism.
Other differences exist between pessimists
and optimists in the areas of permanence, pervasiveness, hope, and
personalization.
•Permanence: Optimistic people believe bad
events to be more temporary than permanent and bounce back quickly from
failure, whereas others may take longer periods to recover or may never
recover. They also believe good things happen for reasons that are permanent,
rather than seeing the transient nature of positive events.
•Pervasiveness: Optimistic people
compartmentalize helplessness, whereas pessimistic people assume that failure
in one area of life means failure in life as a whole. Optimistic people also
allow good events to brighten every area of their lives rather than just the
particular area in which the event occurred.
•Hope: Optimists point to specific temporary
causes for negative events; pessimists point to permanent causes
•Personalization: Optimists blame bad events
on causes outside of themselves, whereas pessimists blame themselves for events
that occur. Optimists are therefore generally more confident. Optimists also
quickly internalize positive events while pessimists externalize them.
In a study completed by Martin Seligman,
Ph.D. and Gregory Buchanan, Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and
published by the American Psychological Association, learned optimism
techniques were found to significantly reduce depression in a class of college
freshmen. As incoming students to the university, a survey determined the most
pessimistic students and they were invited to participate in the study. They
were randomly assigned, half to attend a 16-hour workshop on the techniques of
learning optimism, and half were the control group. In an 18 month follow up,
32% of the control group suffered moderate to severe depression and 15%
suffered moderate to severe anxiety disorder, whereas only 22% of the workshop
participants were depressed and 7% had anxiety issues. Those who participated
in the learned optimism workshop also reported fewer health problems over the
18 month period of the study than those students in the control group.
A study done by Peter Schulman at the Wharton
School, published in the Journal of Selling and Sales Management, looked to
determine the affects of applying learned optimism in business. After measuring
the optimism levels of an insurance sales force, it was determined that the
optimistic sales people sold 35 percent more, and identified pessimists were
two times more likely to quit in the first year than optimists. As a result of
his studies, he recommends testing sales job candidates for optimism levels to
fit them to appropriate positions, training employees in learned optimism
techniques, and designing an organization overall to have attainable goals set
and good support from management.
Finally, a study conducted by Mark Ylvisaker
of the College of Saint Rose and Timothy Feeney of the Wildwood Institute
looked at children with executive function impairment, meaning they have a
brain functioning impairment perhaps affecting motor skills, memory, or focus
ability, and relating techniques of learned optimism not to the children
themselves, but to their caretakers, who oftentimes are more likely to feel
helpless than optimistic in regards to caring for the child. It was found that
learned optimism in caretakers of children with brain damage actually led the
children to develop more functioning than children without optimistic
caretakers. Optimistic rehabilitation professionals can help to augment these
results.
Learned optimism techniques can be very
practical to apply to anyone’s life, and are used frequently today in the areas
of parenting, business, and psychology.
Teaching children learned optimism by guiding
them through the ABCDE techniques can help children to better deal with
adversity they encounter in their lives. In addition to the same value adults
can get from learning optimism, if children are taught early then the thought
process of disputation becomes ingrained in them. They do not have to focus on
being optimistic, but rather optimism becomes automatic and leads to a more
positive life for the child.
Learned optimism is prevalent in business
because more optimistic workers are more successful workers. Seligman’s focus
in business is on “the personal wall” that is each individual workers constant
point of discouragement. This could be preparing reports or making cold calls
to potential clients. Putting the ABCDE model into practice allows workers to
respond to this “wall” with a readiness to conquer rather than to feel
dejected. Additionally, the ASQ—Attribution Style Questionnaire—is often used
to measure optimism of job candidates during the interview process by asking
the participant to write down causes for situational failures. Participants
then rank the causes based on given criteria, and this helps businesses to know
from the beginning whether the job candidate will be a high or low performer in
his/her projected role based on his level of optimism.
Learned optimism is also a big tool used to
combat depression during cognitive behavioral therapy. Many people are
depressed simply because they have a pessimistic outlook, and using the ABCDE
to change one’s beliefs about adversity. Rather than perceiving adversity as a
constant thing that cannot be overcome, and taking personal blame for that
adversity, patients come out of cognitive behavioral therapy with the belief
that they can control how they respond to adversity. A shift toward optimism is
a shift away from depression, and that is what makes Seligman’s techniques so
useful in cognitive behavioral therapy.
Hope
Hope is
a learned style of goal-directed thinking in which the person utilizes
both pathways thinking (the perceived capacity to find routes
to desired goals) and agency thinking (the requisite
motivations to use those routes)
Other findings
· "A
systematic study of 22 people who won major lotteries found that they reverted
to their baseline level of happiness over time, winding up no happier than 22
matched controls"
· "Within
a few years, paraplegics wind
up only slightly less happy on average than individuals who are not
paralyzed"
· "[83
percent] of Americans report positive life satisfaction"
· "In
wealthier nations ... increases in wealth have negligible effects on personal
happiness"
· "Unlike
money, which has at most a small effect, marriage is robustly related to
happiness.... In my opinion, the jury is still out on what causes the
proven fact that married people are happier than unmarried people." On the
other hand, at least one large study in Germany found no difference in
happiness between married and unmarried people.
· Practical
applications of positive psychology include helping individuals and
organizations identify their strengths and use them to increase and sustain
their respective levels of well-being. Therapists, counselors, coaches, and
various psychological professionals, as well as HR departments, business
strategists, and others are using these new methods and techniques to broaden
and build upon the strengths of individuals who are not necessarily suffering
from mental illness or disorder.
A summary of the
application of positive psychology to executive coaching was presented by Dr.
Anne Lueneburger, Managing Partner of North Of Neutral, in CHOICE
Magazine .
How the positive psychology
virtues and strengths are portrayed in movies, and how individuals can use
movie viewings for self-improvement or to help others, are illustrated in a
more recent book by Ryan Niemiec from the VIA Institute on
Character and Danny Wedding from the Missouri Institute of Mental
Health entitled Positive Psychology at the
Movies: Using Films to Build Virtues and Character Strengths.
Positive psychology
research and practice is also currently being conducted and developed in
various countries throughout the world. In Canada, for example, Charles Hackney
of Briercrest College applies positive psychology to the topic of person growth
through martial arts training, and Paul Wong, president of the International
Network on Personal Meaning [31],
is developing an existential approach to positive psychology.
Criticism:
Positive psychology has
been criticized by journalist Barbara Ehrenreich for its allegedly
non-scientific approach: "Evidence is thin. Statistical significance
levels are narrow. What few robust findings there are often prove to be either
nonreplicable or contradicted by later research. And correlations (between,
say, happiness and health) are not causations."
|
The Benefits of Positive Psychology.
|
The writer tells us about the topic of therapist’
dilemmas emerged when he turned with a particular dilemma he was experiencing
with a client at that time. Thus all his research was in vain since it led to
question the limits of the scientific practitioner model currently in vogue in
the field of clinical practice. He says his aim was to re-create that kind of
informal atmosphere where contributors would feel relaxed enough to discuss
their dilemmas in public. To achieve this he decided an interview format since
that medium was most closely approximates the interactive setting in which
therapist discuss their dilemmas. The interviews focus on the frame of
reference of the contributor than to shift it to that of the interviewer.
A final draft was made considering on what dilemmas
do therapists have:
Who
Am I To Teach Morals?
Who am I to teach morals are a conversation between
windy Dryden and peter lomas. Peter lomas is a was trained in medicine at
Manchester and became a senior house surgeon to sir Geoffrey Jefferson at the
Manchester royal infirmary, and was a general practitioner for six years then
he trained at the institute of psychoanalysis in London he has worked in mental
hospital a child guidance clinic a school for maladjusted adolescent boys. At
present he is involved in teaching set up in which students are encourage to
use their own initiative in finding the optimal means by which they can learn
psychotherapy. Peters aim is to understand the factors which stand in the way
of an open and equal relationship between the therapist and client.
In this conversation about who am I to teach morals
windy Dryden ask questions about the dilemma peter lomas is facing as
therapist. Here peter lomas is confused
that from where the morality comes from in the field of psychotherapy, and
how far does ones own set of values influence his client peter says that people
him are usually those whose lives have gone badly away from the right track and
they came for the solution to find their way in their life, here the dilemma
begins that should he teach his clients moral values and make them a kind of
person he admire or the kind of person who is good according to the standard
that he or perhaps many other person would admire or is acceptable in a society
or a person who might regard as virtuous according to philosophers and religious
scholars on the other hand he thinks he is not a preacher or does he has a right to impose his moral
system on his clients as said he would he would not like if someone else comes
to him and teach him own set of morals furthermore a persons who try to turn
him out the way he want him to be. As an example he discusses a case of a
client who come to him having an issues with the authorities of the hospital
his client questioned the doctor about his treatment he had but now is worried
about making nuisance of himself he is confused whether he had a right to
challenge the authority or he should go along with what was being done. Now
here in this situation the dilemma faced by the therapist is that according to
him he favor challenge and rebellion but does not want his valves to influence
the decision of his client furthermore
he thinks that he should be open with his client in his client what is
happening between him and his client. Windy Dryden then gave him a suggestion
and open a new way of solving problem he said that as therapist he should
discuss both point of his views with his client for example his own values and
other possible choices. In the situation discussed earlier peter lomas should
have tell his client that if he would be at his placed he would have challenge
the authorities of the hospital however there are other ways too and you have
to select which option suites you the most.
Peter lomas discusses another example of a woman who
was confused that should she get her baby aborted or not now her dilemma faces
by the therapist is that according to his moral abortion is not a right way but
looking at all the situation a girl was facing abortion was a best choice.
At the end of the conversation peter it is concluded
that peters dilemma is neither he wants to impose his values on clients nor does he wants to remain neutral.
He actually wants his clients to know where they are stand on things and for
doing that he thinks that he would have to be tactful and must use his common
sense in therapy just as much as in ordinary life. Huma Waheed
In the book on therapist dilemma, Who I am to teach morals?, Peter Lomas, following, medical education,
trained as a psychoanalyst with the British Psycho-Analytical Society, but has since
become deeply critical of what he sees as a largely impersonal and withholding
set of techniques, at least as practiced in traditional psychoanalytic therapy.
Peter Lomas was particularly interested in the nature of the psychotherapeutic
relationship and has a long list of publications to his credit, such as True
and False Experience, Beyond Interpretation and more recently Cultivating
Intuition, most of which concentrate upon analyzing the therapeutic
relationship. He challenges some of the laid down notions of what is assumed to
be good practice.
Peter’s aim was to understand the factors which stand in the way of an
open and equal relationship between therapist and client and most of his
writings focus on this question. He believed that professionals take for granted
an unjustifiable superiority in conceiving what takes place between the two
participants and explores some of these issues in an interview with Windy
Dryden.
The ‘dilemma’ he talks about with Dryden is concerning the question of
where morality comes into psychotherapy. Particularly of the issue of how far
one’s own set of values actually influence what one is doing as a therapist. He
says that as a therapist he has some idea in his mind of the kind of people he
wants his clients to turn out to be. Lomas think that consciously or
unconsciously he aims for his client to become the kind of person he admires,
likes, the kind of person he himself might want to be with. That means the
client could (if the therapist influences him) end up having values that are
similar to the therapist. Lomas says that he would like his client to end up as
a ‘good person’ in a moral sense and good according to standards that he or
perhaps other people may find acceptable.
Lomas says that it could said that he is in the business of “character
building” he considers himself as a ‘priest’ (not religiously) in the broadest
sense. However he says that he does not want to impose his values or moral
systems of belief on somebody else. He himself he says might not like it and
would not want to put himself in a ‘vulnerable position’ where he might be
influenced to adopt a set of beliefs. This is where he finds the dilemma to be.
He says that he will try to influence his client in some way or the other; he
cannot just simply not say anything and leave his clients as they are. For
example he says that in a straightforward situation like a person who steals,
he would not feel particularly uneasy about trying to influence him, by
self-understanding or by helping him feel more secure so he doesn’t feel the
need to steal. In this situation he says he wouldn’t have a dilemma and would
know what to tell the person because most people would say it is a good change
and it would be beneficial for his client. He says
issues concerning conformity and rebellion are the kinds that are tricky.
In situations like if a person should question or challenge existing
authorities are the ones that put a therapist in dilemma. He feels that he has
values that favor challenge and rebellion do influence the way he discusses a
topic with his client, even if ‘subtly’ Lomas says that if not by speaking
openly about his views the client could discern them by his responses, perhaps
his non-verbal responses, tone of his voice, bits of approval and so on. He
says that his values will become evident. If he thought a clients behavior was
inappropriate according to his own values he might question his client
differently, if he thought the behavior was appropriate he might not question
or make any interpretation.
One thing Lomas thinks very passionately about psychotherapy is that
whatever the therapist does he must try not to confuse the client. There should
be no double bind communication or cues. The therapist should not pretend that
he has no views and is completely neutral to the situation, when he really is
not. The client will pick up cues which indicate that the therapist is
incongruent and will become more confused. Peter Lomas says that he needs to
find a way in which he is not shouting his views at patients or ‘trying to
indoctrinate them’ but in a way which he is not hiding his own views to such an
extent that he becomes confusing to his clients. “One has to find a middle way
in which one doesn’t try to brainwash people into accepting ones views, but
also one would not try, as parents tend do to conceal things”
According to Lomas the therapist and the client need to have an open
dialogue, in which there is equality as far as possible. If the therapist is
open he can discuss the situation with the client and they can discuss the
conclusion they reach. The client might believe something, why the therapist on
the other hand might disagree with it, but they should discuss it openly. Lomas
says that he does not believe that one can be neutral and if one takes a
neutral stand it could at times be immoral to sit back and let someone do
something very destructive. For example if the therapist thinks that the client
might commit suicide, the therapist would want to do something about it and
even take drastic measures.
Lomas says that as a therapist he does not want to impose values on his
clients nor does he want to remain neutral. He wants his patients to know where
he stands. But in certain instances for example if something was going to be
particularly painful or traumatically painful to another person he says that he
would hold back his own view. If someone had committed a heinous crime he would
play it down so that he doesn’t increase the guilt that that person is already
feeling. However he says that he feels uneasy doing that and does it to the
very minimum.
Peter Lomas says that he “must use common sense in therapy just as much
as in ordinary living”
In my opinion psychotherapy endeavors to make lost, and unhappy people
able to lead more meaningful more satisfying and more useful lives. This in
itself is a highly ethical undertaking. A therapist should be competent and
skillful. The therapist should stay as neutral as possible, even though it is
hard to do so. The therapist should not impose his values and belief system on
his client but should be able to ‘advise’ a better alternative to the situation
the client has bought with him. The therapist should not question the client’s
beliefs or morals, as everyone has their own set of beliefs or morals which the
therapist should respect.
But I feel in instances where intervention becomes necessary, for example
if there is a threat that the client might commit suicide or commit murder or
something that potentially harms the client or others around him, the therapist
should take instant action, even if drastic. In that case the therapist can let
his morals and beliefs seep in. Though the therapist is no one to decide
between good and wrong but if something of this sort comes up the therapist
should intervene. If the therapist feels strongly about something, or some act
that the client has committed, talking about it could be painful for the client
or could increase feelings of guilt and shame. This should be avoided at the
time but not ignored.
Hence I agree with Peter Lomas when he says that the therapist must use
his common sense in therapy. Zaineb Alam
Splitting
And Integration In Marital Therapy
Splitting and integration in marital therapy is a
conversation between Windy Dryden and Paul Brown.
Paul brown is a clinical and as occupational
psychologist. He was the founding chairman of the association of sexual and
marital therapist proposed the information of the counseling section of the
British psychological society and has just completed a period as chairman of
the association of clinical psychologists in private practice. He is coeditor
of the new journal entitled sexual and marital therapy and is the review editor
for the British journal of guidance and counseling. His own publication
includes co authorizing treat yourself to sex. Clinically he works especially
in sex and marital therapy. In Splitting and integration in marital therapy
Paul Brown as a therapist facing a dilemma that whether he should tell his
clients that their marriage cannot go further and it seems so obvious to him
that it is going to end. When the client in the first session directly ask for
the solution about their marriage as to whether or not their marriage is at the
end. Here the therapist is confused, because according to him it seems so
obvious that there is no future of the marriage but on the other hand it is
difficult for him and at times it is unkind or anti therapeutic by him to not
reveal his view about the situation if that view is well founded. Here Paul
Brown shares an example of a cancer patient who ask his doctor about the his
illness but his doctor dodges him by doing this act the doctor is depriving the individual with an opportunity
to cope constructively with the illness Paul Brown compares this situation with
the dilemma his facing he find it wrong to dodge his client by not clearly
telling him/her a proper solution.
Furthermore he discusses the case of a 46 years old
women who was worried about her married life she was having problems with her
husband who was not giving her enough time she thinks that he is having an
extra marital affair. She ask the therapist directly that “Do you think our
marriage is at an end?”therapist Paul Brown before giving her any suggestions
invited her husband for a session after discussing issues related to their
marriage he concluded that their marriage seems to be blocked the only point
her wife is facing is husband not giving her time she felt isolated and cut off
and most of her friends suggested her that its time for her to get out of this
marriage. As a solution Paul brown
suggested her that their marriage is very viable and they should try to carry
on with their marriage he thinks that if he would suggest someone that their
seem no future of their marriage it would not only effect two people but the
whole family setup would be destroyed.
Death
by starvation: whose decision
An interview with Fay Fransella
Fay Fransella is the director of centre for personal
construct psychology and emeritus reader in clinical psychology at the
University of London. Since the late 1960s she has played an active role a
teacher, researcher, author and psychotherapist in making the work of George
Kelly known internationally. Her major research work has been concerned with
the development of a personal construct theoretical model to account for
stuttering. Her other major area of research has been in the field of weight
disorder, both obesity and anorexia nervosa.
In this chapter she discusses her dilemma with Windy
Dryden. She explained her dilemma “that as a therapist should she intervene
with the client who according to her is in danger and is not seeking any help.
Such as, young individuals who are suffering with anorexia nervosa as she knows
that at the end of the road they are confronted with death. However, she wanted
o help these individuals in improving their lifestyle. According to her these
individuals are the unhappy individuals she ever comes across with she thinks
their problem will worsen if no one would show them the right path. Moreover
these individuals these individuals are emotionally disturbed and are not in a
position to make right decision for themselves. She thinks that they don’t even
assume that they are having any problem and they need help.
According to her there are two reasons for giving
these individuals help. (1) Here is a social pressure. And secondly there is a
potential threat that they will starve themselves to death. There social circle
is effected badly. They are usually stick with there own circle of life and
cannot see the world outside their constricted world. She thinks by helping these
individuals would be an opportunity for them to see the world outside of there
interest. She then talked about personal construct theory and Kelly’s
Philosophy which states that the individuals themselves have created this issue
for them. There is no prescription for a good way to construct or a bad way to
construct their selves. If a something that a person choose for him selves
serves a purpose of their life. So, as therapist he has no rights to disregard
them or tell them that you should be different than other. Because they have
not committed a crime or harmed someone these individuals have not done any
thing against the societies norms. Windy Dryden then poses her a question what
if the client is over the age of consent does that help you in solving the
dilemma or when they are not over the age. She replied, the dilemma still would
be there no matter what the age of a client is. She further explained that the
problem is not like a school phobia, where parents can force their children to
go to school. Because, there is no law states that you have to eat, no law has
been made over this issue. But she still wanted to help these individuals and
want them to lead a normal life. She says that if she or other therapist would
not help them to get rid of the situation than there whole life would spend in
a hospital. She further states because she could not rule out her dilemma she
referred these individuals to other psychologist. When asked by windy Dryden
what if you have no other choice or there is no other psychologist present to
whom you can refer your client and you are requested to see an under legal aged
girl who is seriously anorexic what would you do? She answered for sure she
will see that client but she is not sure whether she would be hostile or unfriendly
with the client as she knows that it is very difficult to persuade these
individuals. At the end of the conversation she concluded, that her dilemma is
still there but now she is aware that how she has to solve it, she added at the
end that one can never fully live on a theory or a philosophical principle. One
has to find ways other than just believing on theories.
Where
are the boundaries?
Brian Thorne is the director of counseling at the
University of East Anglia. Brian Thorne has been much concerned to draw on
different areas of knowledge and experience in order to enrich his therapeutic
practice. He believes that groups, communities and institutions have within
then powerful resources for helping the development of individuals which often
go untapped and un-channeled. As a committed Christian he has been particularly
concerned to relate theological insights and institutional church life to the
practice of therapy. His book “Intimacy” is a powerful example of his attempt
to move across traditional boundaries in the search of a more holistic approach
both to therapy and to human living.
In his interview while talking about his book
“Intimacy” Brian Thorne discusses how a traditional therapeutic one hour of a
session is a dilemmatic concern. He argues that an hour a day can not help the
individual and he himself feels that by spending an hour he is not able to
offer much help to the client.
He talks about how if one traditional therapeutic
hour is not enough for the client then he is finds ways of helping which are
not normally perceived as therapy in any professional sense. The way of helping
the client in Thorne’s style results from his intervention and cooperation.
Thorne experiences which in many ways seem more closely related to an
identified with the client’s day-to-day existence. He feels that when clients
want to offer things to their therapists that this behavior may actually be
something which is enormously important to clients in terms on the development
of their own self concept. Clients can then start seeing themselves as persons
who can offer and give. Thorne’s experiences have shown that meeting the client
in this kind of context has enriched his relationship with the client; it may
have also enriched the confidence of the client.
Thorne also believes in a therapeutic community he
thinks that a client who has been exposed to destructive forces it is important
to offer appropriate therapeutic climate. Thorne realizes that this climate can
not be attained by a one hour session so it becomes necessary to introduce the
client to a therapeutic network
The situational problem that Thorne can not seem to
overcome in his interview is the relationship with the client. The kind of
practice Thorne idealizes has a very thin line between professionalism and
incompetence. This kind of therapy entails the client and the therapist to be
very closely knitted in a relationship so close that they may overcome the
relation of a client and a therapist and begin a journey of friendship that may
initiate ethical issues.
My opinion
I'm not an expert as I am still doing my bachelors
in Psychology. However, it was one of the first things I've learn, that a
counselor shouldn't befriend the client, especially not while they are still in
therapy.
However, just using common sense I can't imagine
such relationship being equal. As a counselor, you get to know so much about
your client, his darkest thoughts and fears. The stuff nobody would usually
tell their friends. I doubt it the client would ever learn the same about the
counselor and that itself puts him in a vulnerable position.
Also, the client knows nothing about the counselor,
so what are the reasons for wanting to befriend him? The fact he listens? The
fact he cares? What about the danger of transference? Also, as a friend, can a
counselor still be unbiased in giving advice? What if in real life the
counselor doesn't really fulfill the client’s expectations? What if he lets him
down like we sometimes let people down simply because we are humans? It could
easily cause the client to lose all the trust in the counselor and all the good
work would be undone.
It's all too risky I would say. Better not to mix
work and pleasure
Confrontation
or Collusion?
The
Dilemma of a Lonely, Burdened Behavioral Therapist
An Interview with Dougal Mackay
Dougal Mackay is a district top grade psychologist
to Bristol and Weston health authority and is based at Barrow Hospital,
Bristol. And despite his various administrative responsibilities, he continues
to be actively involved in psychotherapy along with cognitive behavioral lines.
He has published a number of scientific papers and review chapters on such
diverse topic as sexual dysfunction, depression, insomnia, assertion problems,
childhood behavior disorder, and anxiety states. He is heavily involved in the
training of students from the Plymouth MSc. course in clinical psychology and
indeed regards psychotherapy supervision of trainee from all the caring
professions as one of his main interest.
Dougal discusses his dilemma with Windy Dryden that
as a behavioral therapist it is a difficult decision for him to made whether or
not to work directly on the problem the client present with. He believed that
he should respect the need of the client
and do his best to help them achieve their goals, but sometimes it happen
that the area he would want to work is quiet different than what the client had
in their mind. He thinks that if follows client will then there would be less
chances of the success of his therapy results. Or whether to give his client
different perspective on what is really going on in their life. He explains his
dilemma by giving an example of a woman who came for help. Her problem was that
she could not get out of the house to go to shop. They reason she explain was
clear that is unable to assert herself with her husband and cant handle the
feeling of resentment towards him. So she herself withdraws into herself and
becomes less confident in all kind of social situations. Even passing a
stranger in the street becomes a problem for her she consult her doctor who
told her that she has agoraphobia and prescribed her tranquillizers. So when
medicines dose not work for her. Her doctor referred her to him. Now he is
confused should he take her out for walk as requested by the client and her GP.
Or on the other hand he could help her t
see that she is allowing her husband to trample on her and that it would be
better to sought out few things before he start working on her phobia. He also
think that by discussing the problem with her husband would be like an opening
a can of worms. She suddenly might have realized that her marriage is a total
disaster and may be by discussing she would want to leave her husband, but she
cant take that step may be because of children, or financial issue. He said he
could have solved this problem by discussing all the problems with he husband
or he could made her realize all the difficult areas of her life. But he thinks
by doing so may be she could end up more depressing than she was before. After
hearing the dilemma Windy Dryden asked him that would he like to involve the
husband in the therapy. Dougal Mackay answered, that he often does but only
when it is really necessary. He said his approach is to understand the problem
fully and then try to find the shortest route for achieving the goal. He
further added that he does not want to create any unnecessary complications so
he prefer to deal with an individual client rather than two or more member from
the clients family. He said he prefer to involve husband in therapy where e thinks
that this is the only way to produce a change. He than again gave an example,
of an 40 years old lady who has been admitted because of depressive episodes,
she has been in and out of the psychiatric hospital during the last ten years,
she has five adolescent children who have been quiet disturbed because of the
condition of their mother. Her husband takes no responsibility for her
condition neither he takes any responsibility for any of the house chores or
even for finance. The family is heavily in debt. All her husband do is to watch
TV and eat food. Now in that case he said he wanted to consult her husband.
When he talked to her husband he said no is responsible of her illness she
herself has made her life miserable. Now by assessing the attitude of the husband
he thinks he has made a mistake, now her husband would take out his anger on
the client. So because of that he doesn’t feel comfortable involving other
member of the family I therapy. He explained, if he worked with just one
client, this gives him freedom to explore any number of options. As soon as he
involve spouse in the therapy two things might interfere with the therapy.
Firstly, he could only deal with issues which directly relate to the system. He
says, than he cannot pursue an individual cognitive processing error at great
length without excluding the others. Secondly, by involving significant others
as clients, he would have equal responsibility to all parties.
At the end of the discussion he concluded that
attitudes and beliefs, both personal and theoretical affect how a therapist
feeds backs information to the client.
Sex Therapy: Education or Healing?
An Interview with John Bancroft
Introduction
John Bancroft trained in
psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and was a clinical reader at Oxford
University from 1969- 1976. Later he became a clinical consultant at the
Medical Research Council Reproductive Biology Unit in Edinburgh. He has
extensive experience in all kinds of clinical sexual problems and done research
on various aspects of human sexuality.
John Bancroft’s Professional
Dilemma
In his therapy sessions he faces
the dilemma of adopting the role of an “educator” or a “healer”.
He defines the healer role as a
professionally widely accepted authoritative personality that presents fixed
solutions to the couple at a “round table discussion” after taking a thoroughly
comprehensive history of the couple in therapy. He believes that there is an
“ethical issue” involved in this that a lot of irrelevant but extremely private
information is disclosed in such an approach.
He defines the educator role as
“directive”. An educator through various behavioural approaches sets the couple
behavioural assignments so the relevant problems become identified and possible
solutions presented. He believes that the preeminence of the educator role lies
in the fact that it presents possible solutions to the couple instead of a
fixed authoritative decision and also equips them to deal with possible future
related problems.
The dilemma between the two roles
arises when he feels that at times some couples may need the healer role of
authority more than the educator role. However, at the
same time he believes in convincing couples that they are enabled human beings and do not need figures of authority to
dictate the ultimate and sole solution to their
predicament without their active and continued contribution.
He further claims that it is very
easy to bring about improvement in sexual problems. The problem is whether this
improvement is maintained. Hence, the supremacy of the educator over the healer
is that the educator enables couples to deals with future sex problems without
dependency on an outside authoritative figure.
His hypothesis is that the healer
is quicker to achieve change because in times of crisis, people need someone
with a “sense of power”. However, in understanding and learning to cope with
their sexual problems lies the durable solution which he provides to his
patients in the educator role.
His background in that of a
scientist and he believes the educator role is good science as it avoids making
assumptions and value judgments.
Conclusion
Most of the time he believes with
conviction that the role of the educator needs to be emphasized, but
occasionally he doubts it. He has no
evidence to prove when the healer’s authoritative proves more effective.
Eventually, he hopes to be able to predict how he should behave with particular
couples. Future experience and research will he believes bring improvement in
his work.
Whither
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Schizophrenia
Review
In the article whither cognitive behavioral therapy
for schizophrenia Robert Paul Liberman and Michael Foster Green have first
described rehabilitation program that aimed at improving cognitive. Social and
occupational functioning of schizophrenics. They have further discussed that
rehabilitation effort should be congruent with laboratory findings of specific
cognitive deficit. As well as chronic schizophrenics who can learn a variety of
cognitive skills and behavioral skills through IPT and other behavioral
treatments. They further discussed sever specific dysfunction in the processing
of information by a person suffering from schizophrenia. Selective attention,
vigilance visual processing and executive functioning. Some of them appear
during the period of remission. They have noticed that when socio-environmental
stressor demand and task requirement exceed the available information
processing capacity of a person with those vulnerable factor and due to that
performance in life roles may be seriously compromised as well as psychotic
symptoms may appear. Other investigators have established that schizophrenics
patients tend to respond disproportionately to immediate stimuli in learning
task and often fails in behavioral response by more remote stimuli but simple
task that require learning of a motor verbal response appear to be within the
capacity of schizophrenic patients.
It is quiet evident that both the psychotic symptoms
(thought disorder, hallucinations, increased distractibility and the deficit
symptoms(emotional blunting, anhedonia, apathy, poor initiative, alogia) and
the deficit symptoms of schizophrenia patients present substantial obstacle for
effective learning. Furthermore they have noticed in their study that
intellectual bright patients function better than those with lower
intelligence. However little I know about specific information processing deficit.
The work of Brenner & colleagues has brought new
enthusiasm to practitioners and researchers who know that pharmacotherapy alone
is inadequate to meet the comprehensive needs of schizophrenic patients. They
have reported that IPT subprogram training in cognitive functioning and social
skills do strengthen cognitive response with certain patients of schizophrenia
having cognitive capacities. Moreover, one group at a German psychiatric
hospital conducted a controlled study of the differential subprogram of IPT.
They have found that improved performance in concept attainment and
classification of verbal material by patients in both social skills and
cognitive differentiation. However IPT involved to cognitive differential sub
program, so patients achieved improvement in only social skills training
conditions, significant improvement was noticed in negative symptoms.
Studies of information processing in schizophrenia
have been frequently viewed from two separate, but overlapping, framework,
capacity models and sage models. Capacity model emphasis the overall processing
capacity of an individual. Whereas processing capacity is views as a limited
resource that can be drawn upon for performing cognitive task, but the amount
of the resource is not constant and can vary with levels of arousal. Within a
capacity model, cognitive deficit in schizophrenia are attributed to decrease
in the total amount of the processing resources( possibly due to abnormal
levels of arousal).these two models overlap considerably the emphasis of the
models are very different. Capacity model lead to a search for measure of
overall capacity and allocation strategies. Whereas stage model lead to a
search for a dysfunctional stage of processing. In addition to IPT there are
other strategies worth pursuing in the cognitive treatment and rehabilitation
of person with schizophrenia. A more clinically based effort which derives from
procedure found to be effective with person having affective and anxiety
disorder is cognitive therapy developed by A.T. Beck at the end of the article
they further discussed some strategies which could be effective for the
treatment of schizophrenia. These strategies include engagement of patient in
brief assimilable dialogue to engage them in personalized goal setting. Video
demonstration of the skills to be learned. And c Role play exercise in which
the patients practice those skills previously observed in the video could be
effective. Huma Waheed