Comparison of Major Psychological Theories

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In this paper, use Person Centered Theory (developed by Rogers) and compare it against each

of the following three theories:

  1. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT)
  2. Solution-focused
  3. Psychoanalysis

Compare Person Centered Theory against the three theories listed above.

Write a 1,500-2,000-word paper discussing your theory comparisons. Include the following in your paper:

Part 1: Person Centered Theory

  1. Founding theorist(s) for Person Centered Theory
  2. Standard interventions Person Centered Theory
  3. At least three main concepts of Person Centered Theory

Part 2: Cognitive Behavior Theory (CBT)

  1. Founding theorist(s) for CBT
  2. Standard interventions for CBT
  3. Similarities and differences between Person Centered Theory and CBT

Part 3: Solution-Focused Theory

  1. Founding theorist(s) for solution-focused theory
  2. Standard interventions for solution-focused theory
  3. Similarities and differences between Person Centered Theory and solution-focused theory

Part 4: Psychoanalysis

  1. Founding theorist(s) for psychoanalysis
  2. Standard interventions for psychoanalysis
  3. Similarities and differences between Person Centered Theory and psychoanalysis

Include at least three scholarly references in your paper in addition to the course textbook.

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

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included in documents is the example paper

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Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper Name Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper Grand Canyon University-PCN 500 Date 1 Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 2 Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper Despite the spectrum of psychological theorems of varying and sometimes conflicting constructs, philosophies, goals, techniques, assessments, therapeutic conditions and efficacies, the ingredients which lead to successful treatment are the same – An environment that’s safe and conducive to healing, accompanied by a therapist who is trustworthy, respectful, competent, knowledgeable and kind. The ultimate goal of psychotherapy (regardless of its theory) is to help the client get better, live a more fulfilled life and reduce the current symptoms he or she may be experiencing. In this paper, I will be comparing cognitive behavior therapy , solution focused therapy, and psychoanalysis to my theory of choice – Reality Theory. What are the similarities and differences between each theory? What are their standard interventions and techniques? Are they a viable candidate for theoretical and therapeutic companionship of Reality Therapy? Counseling Theories: Founding Members, Interventions & Comparisons According to the APA, the definition of counseling is, “Helping a client overcome obstacles to their personal growth, wherever these may be encountered, and toward achieving optimum development of their personal resources,” (APA, 1956). I chose Reality Theory as my principle theory because it resonates most with my personal and professional philosophy. Reality Theory is a philosophy, a way of thinking, a gateway to helping clients manifest contentment in their lives, and cultivate healthier interpersonal relationships, which is aligned with my motivation for becoming a therapist. Reality Theory Founding Members Reality Theory also known as Choice Theory was conceptualized out of the Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 3 dissatisfaction William Glasser had with psychoanalytic theory. It is important to acknowledge Robert Wuhbolding, who was another pioneer of RT. According to Murdock (2013), Reality Theory is a “school of thought,” which believes the primary goal of humans is to be happy by way of cultivating healthy, intimate interpersonal relationships (pg. 352). Interventions and Goals Lujan (2015) points out that Glasser believed humans possess free will and are in control of their behavior and actions. Glasser conceptualized that all of our behavior is purposeful – leading to the fulfillment of our five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun (Lujan, 2015). We create a “quality world,” a picture of our ideal, perfect world and our behavior is an attempt to reach our mental image of our utopia. Glasser stated that this is the cause of our irrational and dangerous behavior. Our behaviors are attempts to get what we want and make our imagined quality world, a reality. Reality Therapy (choice therapy) uses directive and active interventions to help clients retrain their thinking and acting, which changes their emotional and physiological state. This is accomplished through the process of WDEP (discovering what the client wants, evaluating his behavior, making a plan and executing it). According to a practitioners involved in longitudinal study of Reality Therapy led by, Watson, Dealy, Todorova & Tekwani (2014), “RT is one of those therapies you can practice so effectively that it does not appear as therapy in its application.” The ultimate goal of Reality Therapy is to help clients change and adapt their thought patterns and actions to produce a balanced emotional and physiological state, as well as help Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 4 them create intimate, interpersonal relationships with their environments (Murdock, 2013, pg. 352). RT therapist utilizes directive questioning to evaluate the client’s quality world, total behaviors and quality of his or her current relationships: 1. Is what you are doing now, helping you? 2. Is what you are doing now, helping or hurting others? 3. Will your current actions fulfill your wants and needs? 4. Are your wants realistic for your present life? 5. If your current wants are fulfilled, will they contribute to or detract from your need fulfillment? (Murdock, 2013, pg. 354) RT therapists reject the use of external control during treatment instead, allowing the client to experience natural consequences for his or her actions. According to Lujan (2015), the RT therapist is most effective when he or she uses the ACT method: Accept the client as he or she is, adopting his or her quality world in an empathic attempt to understand his or her perspective. Care for the client in a straightforward, supportive, empathetic way. Transact – once the therapist has accepted and cared for the client, he or she can begin the WDEP process and commence treatment. Cognitive Behavior Theory (CBT) Founding Members Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is based on several scientific models of human behavior, emotion and cognition. CBT began in the late fifties as an alternative to psychotherapy. John Watson was a pioneer of the CBT movement with the intention of erasing “mentalism” from psychology’s practice. Others influential under the umbrella of Cognitive Behavioral Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 5 Therapy are Pavlov, Thorndike, B.F. Skinner, Bandura, and Eysenck (Murdock, 2013, pg. 237). A decade later, CBT was adapted by, Aaron Beck creating, Cognitive Therapy (CT) in the 1960’s, followed by Albert Ellis who created REBT. Interventions and Goals Aaron Beck is the founder of CT (an extension of CBT). Beck maintained that emotional disturbances are understood through thought patterns, and behaviors are only modified through a shift in our thought processes. CT uses open-ended questioning, cognitive techniques, bibliotherapy and self help strategies to treat the client (Leichsenring, Hiller, Weisseberg, Leibing, 2006). The philosophy behind the umbrella theory of CBT is that behavior is strengthened or weakened by our behavior. When we are rewarded, our behavior increases, and when we are punished it decreases. CBT is driven by empirical data and supported by the theory -- human nature is determined by one’s surrounding environments. CBT/CT are objectivist theories (one reality exists separate from the individual). Beck used specific tools to evaluate thoughts and funnel them into a conscious structured format. The cognitive model states, “the way we think affects the way we feel.” (Murdock, 2013, pg. 319). CT focuses on dysfunction over healthy functioning. CT’s focuses more on the ability to process information and construct problem solving strategies than it does on creating a plan of action. The questioning intervention of CT is similar to that of RT in that it probes the client to consider what would happen in the absence of the thought process. The interventions of CBT rely on the use of relaxation training, exposure therapy, systematic desensitization, aversive techniques (when necessary), extinction, assertiveness training and stimulus control (Murdock, 2013, pg, 260-262). Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 6 CBT is beneficial for treating a wide range of client issues—anxiety, depression, phobias, eating disorders, chronic pain, insomnia and have helped reduce delusions and hallucinations. Similarities and Differences Both CBT and RT concur that “the symptom is the problem,” and that psychological dysfunction stems from maladaptive behavior (Murdock, 2013, pg. 248). They maintain it is unnecessary to know the origin of the problem to solve it. The main responsibility of a CBT therapist is to identify the sources of reinforcement that feed the current behavioral patterns, which is similar to that of RT. Another similarity is the therapeutic atmosphere, which is warm and empathic. A close, collaborative relationship between the therapist and client is cultivated. In CBT, the goal is to reduce or eliminate maladaptive behaviors and teach adaptive responses, whereas the goal of RT is optimistically based in assisting the client cultivate behaviors, which fulfill his or her needs instead of focusing on what is not working, and eradicating behavior. Both therapies are focused on the present, however RT projects to the future during goal orientation. RT is a social constructivist theory, whereas CBT takes an objectivist approach to human nature. Both CBT and RT were birthed from an opposition to psychoanalytic theory. Both theories agree that we act and behave the ways we do in order to fulfill our needs. CT (an extension of CBT) evaluates our basic needs as: preservation, reproduction, dominance and sociability, while RT theorists state the five basic needs as: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. Both theories treat the “here and now,” and offer short term, directive approaches. The greatest difference between classical CBT and RT is that CBT theorists do not emphasis a client’s thought process or emotional range --- CBT is solely concerned with the client’s behavior. In RT therapy, therapists put as much emphasis on thinking as they do acting -- we Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 7 cannot separate our minds from our bodies, they are interconnected—the way we act or think drives and steers our emotionality and physiological responses. RT states that all behavior is internally motivated, whereas CBT stresses that our behavior is motivated by external forces and our internal motivations are products of those external influences. RT theory is founded on the belief that no one can control how we behave and we can’t control how anyone else behaves. CBT maintains we are products of our environments, directly influenced by them, however we have the ability to change our interaction, experiences and meanings of our experiences through correcting our maladaptive behaviors, in turn shifting our mental perceptions of our experiences. Solution Focused Theory Founding Members Solution Focused Brief Therapy was created from two different therapeutic approaches: communications/systems theory and the work of Milton Erickson. SFBT was conceptualized by, Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg. Bill O’ Hanlon expanded on SFBT, creating Possibility Therapy. Standard Interventions and Goals De Shazer deduced that most psychological dysfunction stems from interactional patterns between people (Murdock, 2013, pg. 460). SFBT is a social constructivist theory, which maintains that humans manifest their realities and have the ability to shift their realities in response to their experiences. SFBT is an optimistic theory, stating that people have the strength and resources to change their lives for the better. SFBT dictates that change is constant therefore the focus of treatment should be the Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 8 present and future status of the client. SFBT therapists are not concerned with the past, the pathology or even the problem; they are only interested in the solution. The SFBT therapist interviews the client by way of investigative questioning to determine the exceptions to the problem, in order to create a goal-oriented program with the client. SFBT is a short term, directive therapy that has noted success in one to five sessions (success being determined by a satisfactory improvement reported by the client) (Murdock, 2013, pg. 483). SFBT effectiveness is based on the principle that only small changes are necessary to change the system as a whole (Stalker, Levene, Coady, 1999). De Shazer said, “Every client carries the key to the solution. The therapist needs to know where to look,” (1985, pg. 90). By determining the positive and negative motivations of the client, the therapist is able to pinpoint the exceptions in his or her present life. In the exception lies the “resources that will support the solution,”(Crockett & Prosek, 2013). The simplicity of the SFBT process is found in its interventional foundation -- “Keeping it simple.” Through investigative questioning, the therapist can determine what works for the client and what does not. The therapist is able to guide the dialogue between himself and the client by restructuring the resistance of a client into possibilities and remedies to the problems. (Campbell, Elder, Gallagher, Simon, Taylor, 1999). The goal of SFBT therapy is to eradicate the client’s problems by uncovering the solutions through extracting the client’s strengths, positive behaviors and resources he or she already possesses. The therapist will ask clear and optimistic questions:  What does the client want to accomplish?  What does the client do that does not evoke the problem feelings and behaviors? Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper  What are his or her goals (observable)?  What will be the first sign of change? (Murdock, 2013, pg. 473) 9 The intervention process of therapy is immediate, occurring at the commencement of therapy:  What is it like when you aren’t experiencing the problem?  What is different about the times when the problem is not present?  How did you influence that happening? In the first session the therapist creates a “solvable complaint to solve the problem,” (Murdock, 2013, pg. 475). By the end of the first session, the therapist will propose the miracle question, “Suppose one night there was a miracle and when you woke up, the problem was solved. How would you know it? What would be different?” Another key tactic of intervention is asking the client to rate where he or she is on the scale from 0 (being the beginning of therapy) and 10 (being the miracle has happened) --Where does he or she feel he or she lies on the scale? This is an effective way to gauge progress. Similarities and Differences SFBT and RT therapies are both based on social constructivist theories. They both facilitate treatment using in depth directive questioning to elicit the goals and solutions of the client. SFBT is focused on solutions to the problems at hand, whereas RT therapy is interested in helping the client change his or her behavioral and thought patterns to fulfill his or her basic needs in turn establishing healthier interpersonal relationships. Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 10 In SFBT, the counselor is responsible for the sessions, which is similar to RT. He or she is hired to serve the client, as the therapist is the expert in solutions. He focuses on strengths, rather than weaknesses of the client. He is nonjudgmental and builds intimacy with his client by adopting his or her language (Murdock, 2013, pg. 471), which is similar to the interactions between an RT therapist and his or her client. The counselor is seen as the expert, knowing how to facilitate change, but the client is the expert about himself and the situation/problem, which is also the same as the RT roles of counselor and client. The counselor guides the client through a maze of questions to determine the problem (complaint), find the exceptions, and support the client in his or her goals toward a solution. The therapists of SFBT are seen as “serious optimists,” (Murdock, 2013, pg. 460), as are therapists of Reality Therapy. A main difference between RT and SFBT is: SFBT work in teams to accomplish their goals. Their strategies vary from that of RT therapists. SFBT therapists leave the room, consult and return with homework. RT therapists offer one on one therapy in which they remain engaged with their client throughout the sessions and do not utilize the support of other therapists to help manage their intervention strategies. RT requires the client to engage in homework outside of the therapeutic environment and does not expect “a miracle” within the first session of therapy. SFBT therapists are hopeful that their clients will report a satisfactory change within 1 to 5 sessions. Although RT therapy is short term, it allows for growth between sessions before determining successful termination. Psychoanalysis Founding Members Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 11 Psychoanalysis is the creation of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), who developed “talk” therapy as a treatment for psychological dysfunction (Murdock, 2013, pg. 29). Freud believed that the forces we are unaware of (our unconscious) is the most “powerful” source of our external behavior. Interventions and Goals According to the ABECSW (2004), psychoanalysis is conducted with intense frequency and focus, to unearth the mental constructs that are disturbing an individual’s wellbeing, while helping them become aware of the unconscious force which influences their behavior. The therapist will guide the client into understanding their symptomatic originations, while teaching them how to establish healthy, strong coping mechanisms. The counselor’s role in psychoanalysis is to observe the client in an objective way. According to Rubin (2009), it is the therapist’s role to adhere to “evenly hovering/ evenly suspended attention” during the analysis. The therapist is required to remain “alert, receptive and attentive,” to what the client is saying, while being aware of his or her own reactions to the client (being aware of countertransference). The therapist engages the client in free association, analyzing the underlying psychic conflict the client may be unaware of. Through interpretation, the therapist is able to help the client resolve his or her unconscious issues. The therapist uses the presence of resistance and transference to help delve deeper into the client’s psychological disturbances. According to Taubner, Kessler, Buchheim, Kächele, & Staun (2011), long term treatments such as psychoanalysis has lasting effects on the client, even after the therapy ends. Similarities and Differences Psychoanalysis and RT are more different than they are alike, however there are a couple commonalities. Both therapies are offered as individual therapies. Both therapies are reliant on Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 12 the insight and observations of the therapist and the willingness of the client to be open and honest with the therapist regarding his or her experiences. The observations of both therapists are used to determine the route of and focus of therapy. They both rely on “talk therapy” to promote change. The main differences of Psychoanalysis and RT are the foundational beliefs and structures of their theories. Psychoanalysis holds the belief that there is an objective reality, while RT maintains that each person creates his or her own reality (a social constructivist view). Psychoanalysis has a pessimistic standpoint, while RT is optimistic and hopeful, focused on the present and future. Psychoanalysis views early experiences as foundational to a client’s present circumstance. RT utilizes questioning as intervention while psychoanalysis uses dream analysis, formal assessment and free association to treat clients. Psychoanalysis is a long-term treatment, while RT is directive and short. The greatest difference is in conflicting theories of human motivation. Psychoanalytic theory states that humans are motivated by their instinctual sex drives, whereas RT theorizes that humans are driven by their desire to fulfill five universal basic needs in their current life. References Campbell, J., Elder, J., Gallagher, D., Simon, J., & Taylor, A. (1999). Crafting the "tap on the shoulder:" A compliment template for solution-focused therapy. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 27(1), 35-47. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/230098426?accountid=7374 Crockett, S. A., & Prosek, E. A. (2013). Promoting cognitive, emotional, and spiritual client Major Counseling Theories Comparison Paper 13 change: The infusion of solution-focused counseling and ritual therapy. Counseling and Values, 58(2), 237-253. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1447233489?accountid=7374 Leichsenring, F., Hiller, W., Weissberg, M., & Leibing, E. (2006). Cognitivebehavioral therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy: Techniques, efficacy, and indications. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 60(3), 233-59. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213135027?accountid=7374 Lujan, S. K. (2015). QUALITY COUNSELING: AN EXAMINATION OF CHOICE THEORY AND REALITY THERAPY. International Journal of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy, 34(2), 17-23. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1678809777?accountid=7374 Misztal, M. L. (2010). Abject poverty to self-sufficiency: The integration of choice theory and reality therapy into a program developed to eradicate poverty. International Journal of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy, 29(2), 59-69. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1010821467?accountid=7374 Murdock, N. (2013). Theories of Counseling & Psychotherapy: A Case Approach (Third Edition). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson. Rubin, J. B. (2009). Deepening psychoanalytic listening: The marriage of buddha and freud. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 69(2), 93-105. Retrieved on May 25, 2015 from doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ajp.2009.1 Taubner, S., Kessler, H., Buchheim, A., Kächele, H., & Staun, L. (2011). The role of mentalization in the psychoanalytic treatment of chronic depression. Retrieved on May 25, 2015 from Psychiatry, 74(1), 49-57. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/psyc.2011.74.1.49
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