Basic Philosophies Flashcards
Human beings are basically determined by psychic energy and by early experiences. Unconscious motives and conflicts are Central and present behavior. Early development is of critical importance because later personality problems have their roots in repressed childhood conflicts.
Psychoanalytic Therapy
Humans are motivated by social interest, by striving toward goals, by inferiority and superiority, and by dealing with the tasks of life. Emphasis is on the individuals positive capacities to live in society cooperatively. People have the capacity to interpret, influence, and create events. Each person I don’t early age creates a unique style of life, which tends to remain relatively constant throughout life.
Adlerian Therapy
The central focus is on the nature of the human condition, which includes a capacity for self awareness, freedom of choice to decide one’s fate, responsibility, anxiety, the search for meaning, being alone and being in relation with others, striving for authenticity, and facing living and dying.
Existential Therapy
Positive view of people; we have an inclination toward becoming fully functioning. In the context of the therapeutic relationship, the client experiences and feelings that were previously denied to awareness. The client move me toward increased awareness, spontaneity, trust and self, and inter-directedness.
Person-Centered Therapy
The person strives for wholeness and integration of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Some key concepts include contact with self and others, contact boundaries, and awareness. The view is nondeterministic and that the person is viewed as having the capacity to recognize how earlier influences are related to present difficulties. As an experiential approach, it is grounded in the here and now and emphasizes awareness, personal choice, and responsibility.
Gestalt Therapy
Behavior is the product of learning. We are both the product and the producer of the environment. Traditional behavior therapy is based on classical and operant principles. Contemporary behavior therapy has branched out in many directions, including mindfulness and acceptance approaches.
Behavior Therapy
Individuals tend to incorporate faulty thinking, which leads to emotional and behavioral disturbances. Cognitions are the major determinant of how we feel and act. Therapy is primarily oriented toward cognition and behavior, and it stresses the role of thinking, deciding, questioning, doing, and re-deciding. This is a psychoeducational model, which emphasizes therapy as a learning process, including acquiring and practising new skills, learning new ways of thinking, and acquiring more effective ways of coping with problems.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
This approach assumes that we need quality relationships to be happy. Psychological problems are the result of our resisting controlled by others or of our attempt to control others. This theory is an explanation of human nature and how to best achieve a satisfying interpersonal relationships.
Choice Theory/Reality Therapy
The constructs of this theory include being gender fair, flexible, interactionist, and lifespan oriented. Gender and power at the heart of this theory. This is a systems approach that recognizes the cultural, social, and political factors that contribute to an individual’s problem.
Feminist Therapy
These reject the idea that reality is external and can be grasp. People create meaning in their lives through conversations with others. These approaches avoid pathologizing clients, take a dim view of diagnosis, avoid searching for underlying causes of problems, and place a high value on discovering clients strengths and resources. Rather than talking about problems, the focus of therapy is on creating solutions in the present and the future.
Postmodern Approaches
Clients are connected to a living system; a change in one part of the system will result in a change in the other parts. The family provides the context for understanding how individuals function in relationship to others and how they behave. Treatment deals with the family unit. And individuals dysfunctional behavior grows out of the interactional unit of the family and out of larger systems as well.
Family Systems Therapy
