Chapter 9: Choice Theory & The New Reality Therapy Flashcards
William Glasser
Revered figure in the desemination and application of reality therapy
Glasser’s Birthplace
Cleveland, Ohio
Glasser’s Childhood
Uneventful and happy; does not consider exploration of the past to be a valuable part of therapy
Glasser’s Profession
Chemical Engineer; changed his focus and began a PhD program in clinical psychology; Master’s degree in psychology at Western Reserve University
Glasser’s Mentor
G.L. Harrington, M.D.
Reality Therapy
Involves teaching clients how to think, plan, and behave more effectively; considered a cognitive-behavioral therapy but one that focuses that focuses very much on realism and how to treat difficult clients
Relationship between Therapist and Client
Characterized primarily by kindness, connection, and a genuine desire to help the client and by a teaching or eductional process
Choice Theory
Holds that humans are internally motivated; Environmental factors only provide humans with information; after obtaining and processing external information, we then choose exactly how we want to behave; decisions are made not on the basis of external contingencies, but on the basis of internal factors; all of us are motivated to satisfy one or more of five basic, genetically encoded, human needs
Internal Factors which guide human decision making
Survival, Love and Belonging, Power (or achievement), freedom (independence), and fun (or enjoyment)
Survival Needs
Linked with needs for love or power
Survival
Expressed through total behavior including our thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and physiology
Love & Belonging
Primary human need because we need other people in our lives to meet most of the rest of our needs most of the time; Runs strong and deep; includes sexual love, friendship love, and romantic love; love relationships are often derailed by the human need for power
Power
Having power is intrinsically gratifying; Either extreme, excessie striving for power or experiencing oneself as powerless may result in unhappiness and a need for counseling; Glasser discusses early childhood as a time when our human needs for power, and the gratification associated with meeting those needs, become recognized; neither good nor bad, it is how it is defined, acquired, and used that makes a difference
Why People Get Preoccupied with Power, Freedom, or Fun
Their preoccupation is caused by their inability to be involved in a satisfying relationship
Some people have incorrectly turned to external control theory as a means for getting their love and belonging needs met
Freedom
Independence; Concerns s mainly when we perceive that it is threatened; need for freedom is evolution’s attempt to provide the correct balance between your need to try to force me to live my life the way you want and my need to be free of that force;
Inability to Express Oneself
May cause a person to channel his or her creative impulses into a destructive behavior pattern or an illness
Fun
The need for fun became built into our genes; links need for fun to play and links playing with learning; easiest need to satisfy and is best defined by laughter
Quality of World
Consists of a small group of memories or mental pictures that you assoicate with obtaining one or more of your basic needs
Quality World Consists of
People
Things or Experiences
Ideas or systems of belief
Total Behavior
Includes acting, Thinking, Feeling, and Physiology which occur simulateously;
Glasser’s Position on Psychopathology
He believes deeply in human problems and human suffering, but he does not believe that mental illeness exists except for extreme forms in which brarin pathology is clearly present such as Alzheimer’s disease, brain trauma, or brain injury
Most Compassionate Approach
Set clients free and empower them by helping them see their mental, emotional, and physical pain in terms of personal choice; insensitivity, in practice, lies in the practitioner and not the theory
To Relieve Clients of Problems and Suffering Using Reality Therapy
how well you can establish a positive therapy relationship (and thereby enter into your client’s quality world) and how effectively you can teach your client to use choice theory in hir or her life
Glasser’s Logical Explanations for Pathological Behavior
Restraining Anger
Getting Help
Avoiding things we don’t want to face
Restraining Anger
Anger is a normal survival-related response built into our genes; first total behavior most of us think when someone in our quality worlds does something that is out of sync with what we want the person to do; Done by depressing
Getting Help
Depressing and other forms of misery are often ways for us to get the love, power, or freedom we crave; effective method for gaining sympathy, support, and medications from mental health professionals;
Avoiding Things
Depressing, Panicking, Obsessing, and many other behaviors commonly considered to be mental illness are excellent ways to avoid dealing with a life situation - a reality- that simply needs to be addressed.
Axioms of Choice Theory
The only person whose behavior we can control is our own
All we can give another person is information
All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship problems
The problem relationship is always part of our present life
What happened in the past has everything to do with what we are today, but we can only satisfy our basic needs right now and plan to continue satisfying them in the future.
We can only satisfy our needs by satisfying the pictures in our quality world
All we do is behave
All behavior is total behavior and is made up of four components: acting, thinking, feeling, and physiology.
All total behavior is chosen, but we only have direct control over the acting and thinking components. We can only control our feeling and physiology indirectly through how we choose to act and think.
All total behavior is designated by verbs and named by the part that is the most recognizable
Questions Reality Therapists Want to evaluate and address
What is the nature of the client’s unsatisfying relationship or relationship-related conflict?
Will the client be able to understand and use choice theory to improve his or her ability to meet the basic needs? If so, the therapist will need to use various strategies, such as in-session demonstration, rational persuasion, reframing, to help the client understand how choice theory works
Who and what is within the client’s quality world?
How is the client going about meeting his or her needs for survival, love and belonging, power and freedom, and fun?
Is the client overemphasizing any of the basic human needs?
What’s going wrong as the client tries to get his or her basic hman needs met?
Have there been past successes which can show the client that he or she can use choice theory to meet these needs now and in the future?
Primary Therapy Goals of Reality Therapists
Human Connection Using Choice Theory Understanding Total Behavior Developing Effective Plans Counseling
Human Connection
Is my client becoming less disconnected and more connected with people in his or her quality world?
Using Choice Theory
Is my client able to let go of his or her efforts to control others and use choice theory in his or her life?
Understanding Total Behavior
Does my client understand that his or her actions and thoughts are directly chosen and that his or her feelings and physiology fall in line with these chosen actions or thoughts?
Developing Effective Plans
Is my client developing and implementing practical and useful plans for getting the basic human needs met?
Counseling
Is my client getting from the counseling what he or she came for?
Early Assessment and Educational/Role Induction Role for Reality Therapists
Do your best to determine how clients use people to confirm their external control view of the world, and then do your best to behave in a way that does not validate their style
Overarching Themes of Glasser’s Assignments
Assignments help the client experience the fact that front-wheel behavior or thinking directly affects rear-wheel feelings and physiology
Reality therapy homework includes active and effective planning
Glasser’s Seven Caring Habits of Therapists
Supporting Encouraging Listening Accepting Trusting Respecting Negotiating Differences
Supporting
Helping clients focus on what they want in life and by helping them obtain it in a direct and constructive way
Encouraging
Emerges when focusing on a person, on the person’s past, on putting emphasis between therapist and client; well, say it anyway. this is the place to say hard-to-say things
Listening
More in the nold of a friend’s listening to another friend; listen to clients’ successes, plans, efforts to connect with others, minimizing listening to clients talk about symptoms or negative past experiences
WDEP Model
Reality Therapists listen for (W) Wants and Perceptions; Actions, Self-talk, and feelings, direction and doing (D); Self-evaluations (E); and plans (P)
Accepting
Accept the fact that all clients want to fulfill their five basic human needs;
Trusting
Communicate in many ways to build a trust relationship
Respecting
REspect what people want
Negotiating Differences
Although all individuals have the same five basic needs, all will have unique ways in which they want those needs fulfilled
Solving Circle
Helps clients constructively negotiate their differences
Seven Deadly Habits of Choice Theory
Criticizing Blaming Complaining Nagging Threatening Punishing Bribing or Rewarding to Control
SAMIC3
Used by therapists to develop plans for making positive life changes Simple Attainable Measurable Immediate Controlled Committed Continuous
Simple
Effective plans are simple; Must not be complex or the client may be confused, overwhelmed, and will not follow through
Attainable
Effective plans are attainable or realistic; client may be discouraged if not realistic
Measurable
Effective plans are measurable; clients need to know if the plan is working and if they’re making progress
Immediate
Effective plans can be enacted immediately or very soon; to sustain immediate motivation and/or memory of exactlyw hat to do
Controlled
Effective plans are controlled exclusively by the planner; Avoid having clients develop plans that are contingent on someone else’s behavior
Committed
Clients need to commit their plans; Client cannot be half-heartedly invested in the plan, otherwise, it will not succeed
Conitnuous
Effective plans are continuously implemented; when functioning well, reality therapy clients have continuous awareness of what they want andof their plan for getting what they want
