Exam 2- Ch.3, Psychodynamic Therapies

Question 1

Alfred Adler Basics

Answer 1

• started as an ophthalmologist
• choices and free will is what influenced us while Freud was all about id & superego
• advocated for work with children & family, lots of focus on birth order and experiences as a child. Things become fixed and is hard to change later in life

Question 2

Alfred Adler Beliefs

Answer 2

• approach to life is formed during the 1st 6 years of life
• perception of past has lifelong influences
• humans are motivated by social relatedness (not sex)
• behavior is purposeful, conscious and goal directed (not unconscious)
• think –> feelings –> behave
• what we are born with is not as important as what we do with it

Question 3

Private Logic

Answer 3

Adler’s belief, first mistake we make, it is basic and faulty and is deceiving of self-perceptions

Question 4

Theory of Personality (Adlerian)

Answer 4

• formed in contexts of family, society and culture

- personality forms around your life goals and what you’re striving for

Question 5

Fictional Finalism

Answer 5

• end goal
• your expectation of how your future life is going to be completed
• represent the subjective cause of psychological events
• your life actions will be determined by what you’re trying to achieve

Question 6

Ideal Self

Answer 6

• represents the perfect person you strive to be
• striving for superiority is a core motivation, you have a sense of not being good enough and want to be better
• family relationships influence this

Question 7

Ordinal Position

Answer 7

• birth order and its impact on developing personality, adoption of life goals and fictional finalism and ideal self
• middle child is more likely to be ambitious, striving to surpass the older child
• older is likely to develop a conservative lifestyle because they enjoy looking back to when there was no competition with a sibling
• youngest are more likely to live like royalty

Question 8

Five Life Tasks (Adler’s “Stages”)

Answer 8

1. Relating to others- friendship
2. Making a contribution- work
3. Achieving intimacy- love & family
4. Getting along with ourselves- acceptance
5. Developing our spiritual dimension- values, meaning, life goals

Question 9

Creative Power

Answer 9

• unique ability of each individual to experience/interpret their lives and “create” something new and/or unique from those experiences
• prime mover of lifestyle
• not easily defined
• subjective power that gives humans the unique ability to transform objective facts into personally meaningful events. Gives the biological and social circumstances meaning.
• creates a personal goal for living that moves a person forward

Question 10

Theory of Psychopathology

Answer 10

• pathological personalities are those discouraged from attaining superiority in a socially constructive style (???)
• come from families of competition, mistrust, etc (all discourage social interest)
• people engage in behaviors that actively support and maintain their lifestyles (as manifested by goals and assumptions)
• Adler said: we do what serves us

Question 11

Four Selfish Goals

Answer 11

1. Attention seeking
2. Power seeking
3. Revenge taking
4. Declaring deficiency or defeat
   - they construct maladaptive goals by making basic mistakes and faulty assumptions (“my father abandoned me so I will always be abandoned by men”)

Question 12

Inferiority complex

Answer 12

• psychopathology idea
• children who are pampered too much will result in a lazy adult lifestyle, people will always try to steer them to be active and they will pout. Develop a total concept of inadequacy
• children who had everything done for them will have a sense of powerlessness. They will turn to a destructive goal. They want to obtain power so they don’t ever feel inadequate again

Question 13

Compulsive Lifestyle

Answer 13

• emerges from parental domination
• feels powerful less to solve life’s problems and become afraid of failure, they move on with hesitation.
• they want to have control over something and to slow time from moving fast so they create rituals

Question 14

Basic Mistakes of Pathological Personalities

Answer 14

• they generalize all of human nature to their own bad experience
• form conclusions about themselves based on a small groups actions towards them

Question 15

Therapeutic Relationship

Answer 15

• therapists attempt to view world from client’s subjective reality
• raise conscientiousness by revealing their style of life and participating in the analysis of their life
• therapist is responsible for interpreting their client’s life
• contingency control: reevaluate goals and move away from a self centered life. Clients are encouraged to laugh at their goals, not condemn.

Question 16

Bibliotherapy

Answer 16

• becoming more aware of your lifestyle is accelerated by reading books written by others
• self-help books

Question 17

Lifestyle Analysis

Answer 17

• strengths are included
• summary of family; life growing up, etc.
• looks at dreams because they indicate how they are resolving problems

Question 18

Therapeutic Procedure

Answer 18

1. Establish relationship
   - intrapersonal, challenge & make them uncomfortable, based on trust, focuse on the person; not the problem
2. Explore individual dynamics
   - identify goals & mistakes
   - personality priority: superiority is what they’re striving for, control is to avoid ridicule, pleasing everyone, comfort to avoid all bad.
3. Encourage self understanding
   - don’t try to change their priority but get them to see the effect it has on everyone & the price they pay for keeping this priority
4. Help with reorientation
   - put insight to practice with action oriented
   - techniques: push button, as if, catching oneself, avoiding traps

Question 19

Push Button

Answer 19

• technique to keep up with reorientation after psychopathology therapy
• shows that they can choose to control their emotions, they “push a button” on certain thoughts and emotions come to mind

Question 20

Acting As If

Answer 20

• transform fiction into reality

- if you want to be something, act as if you already are!

Question 21

Paradoxical Intention

Answer 21

• try to bring feelings on on purpose, for example: have a panic attack
• will realize they can’t do it on command
• created by Frankl

Question 22

Catching Oneself

Answer 22

• having positives pointed out to you

Question 23

Attachment Style and the Counselor as a Therapeutic Person

Answer 23

• shapes your approach as a counselor

- 2/3 are securely attached, then avoidantly attached

Question 24

Levels of Reflective Judgement

- quasi, reflective, empathy

Answer 24

• pre-reflective is before quasi
• quasi: understand there is no one right answer, all opinion, look for what confirms your beliefs
• reflective: some ways are preferred and better, gives options bc there is not one right answer but healthy options
• empathy: we are oriented to take care of our species, according to Darwin.

Question 25

Countertransference

Answer 25

See someone other than your client

• objective: don’t act on their faults
• subjective: act on their faults bc it reminds you of someone

Question 26

Counter resistance

Answer 26

• “Yes but….”

- resistance and locked in with forgetting role, don’t push your approach, push what will work