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Emotion Management for Daily Living
Emperor Asoka, at the end of the battle of Kalinga realized the importance of love and peace for a healthy society. He then decided to leave hatred, anger, and revenge. Had this wisdom been there beforehand there would have been a great possibility of not waging war and thereby the lives of thousands of innocents could have been saved. In our day to day life also whether it is at family, school or workplace we all encounter anger, anxiety, and depression even though the amount differs from person to person depending on several factors. Anger generally arises out of interpersonal interaction, and is associated with physical health problems. Anger also destroys interpersonal relation, peace, love and happiness of the self as well as others. Again, my own research has clearly shown that higher level of anxiety is also associated with 1) physical health problems like feeling dizzy, muscles trembling, skin itch, change in urine color, changing eye color, picking sensations in parts of the body, etc. and 2) low self-esteem like "I have low opinion of myself". An optimum level of anxiety is desirable, as it is not possible to completely remove it out of our lives. Similarly, the higher frequency and duration of depression makes our life halt. This is where we have to come to think in terms of emotion management.
How do you answer the following questions? Always, sometimes, and never? " I worry about my past mistakes". "I feel like giving up struggling in life". "Quite small set backs irritate me too much". Many Western and Eastern researchers including myself have found that people who answer to questions like these as "always" tend to be associated with physical health problems like inability to get sleep or stay asleep; headache and pains in head; indigestion or stomach upset; feeling very tired; decrease in appetite; fever; nausea; back pain; and heart rate faster than usual. The bottom line is that appropriate expression in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration (rather than suppression) can help us to become healthy.
Again, how do you answer the following questions? Almost always, sometimes, often, almost always? "I keep anger inside myself". "I argue with others". "I boil inside, but I do not show it". Research has shown that those individuals who respond to these questions as "almost always" tend to be associated with heart disease, cancer, and hypertension in the long run. A review of research literature shows that suppressed anger may be a symptom of good manner, but seems to increase one's blood pressure just as much as expressed anger. Such emotions tend to raise susceptibility to and progression of Cancer as well as Coronary Heart Disease(CHD). So, anger turns out as a double-edged sword. Like anger, hostility is also associated with health problems like heart disease. One of the simple reasons for the relation between negative emotions like anger and anxiety, and physical health problems is that when we are in higher levels of negative emotions our thinking pattern is disturbed to a great extent, thereby the capacity to take care of the physical health is reduced. The good news is that we can learn to express anger as well as other negative emotions at the right amount. Generally, our anger is caused by our faulty belief systems, that Albert Ellis, a New York based psychotherapist termed as irrational beliefs. With the help of a trained psychologist it is possible to learn to minimize our irrational beliefs and turn them into rational beliefs, that is, beliefs that are more practical in our day to day life, and based on evaluations of real life settings. In the similar fashion we can at any time learn effective management of other aspects of emotion.
In our daily life whether it is at home, school or workplace anger can be generated from the following sample statements:
- Just from your appearance Ajay, I can tell what a loser you are.
- Ajay, your parents must be extremely disappointed in how you turned out.
- Your low intelligence seems to come through in every thing you do, Ajay.
- Ajay, you seem really dirty looking to me. You could use a course in basic hygiene.
- Ajay, it doesn't look like you have the ability to play any kind of sport.
- To be honest with you, Ajay, I thought you were a loser the moment I saw you.
We all will agree that these provocative statements may trigger anger to many of us (even though not all the time). I admit that these are undesirable and it is not a picnic when such provocative statements are bombarded to us, but it is important to reduce the intensity, duration, and frequency of anger, thereby protecting our physical health. The point I am trying to make here is that we should arm ourselves from not letting anger be chronic, intense and enduring by changing perhaps our irrational beliefs. The good news is that changing our belief system based on the real life settings can minimize all these problems, thereby making life more meaningful to live. We can make ourselves more human. In conclusion, effective emotion management can help us to become healthy and wise in our everyday life.
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EMOTIONAL LITERACY FOR A PEACEFUL WORLD
Terrorist attacks on the twin towers of World Trade Center, and the Pentagon have killed more than 6000 and simultaneously injured thousands of people from across the world. Many near and dear ones of the diseased and injured are still mourning. Many people are unable to find their loved ones, leading to only one option---acceptance of them being dead somewhere under the rubble. It has resulted in xenophobia--fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners. Consequently, many innocents have suffered from either physical or verbal harassment. Racism has gone up, making it difficult to interact peacefully with people from different races. Xenophobia clearly threatens our opportunity to learn from each other in a diversely populated area, especially in cosmopolitan places. Death anxiety (fear of own and other's death) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have increased in many people in different parts of the world. Bombay bomb blast in March, 1993 destroyed lots of properties as well as lives. Communal harmony was disturbed to its peak, leading to hatred and hostility among different communities, harming interpersonal trust. March, 2001 massacre in J& K (India) took the lives of several innocent people, converting pilgrimage into hell. These are some of the few faces of terrorism.
The world leaders have been talking about crushing such inhuman activities. The question remains quite clear. Are we going to be successful in dealing only with the reaction rather than the causes? I am completely doubtful. This does not mean that we should keep quiet. Go ahead and try to solve it. Everybody is waiting for a solution. But, I believe that what is more important is a long lasting solution. A short-cut solution might be overpowering the other party with all the evil weapons the world has developed in the name of protecting peace. Many world leaders have been increasing production of war weapons in the name of national security. Some people are dictating strict rules and regulations to the weaker sections of the society in the name of bringing about a better society, thereby the weaker people follow the dreaded principles because of unbearable threat to their lives. The feelings of the larger section of the society are not considered at all. I wonder whether we are going ahead or back to the Stone Age!
As a psychologist I feel quite uncomfortable to keep quiet in such an uncertain situation that is fast growing in the present world. This is why I decided to pen down some of my heart-felt feelings. To start with solving the present crisis on global terrorism is quite complex as influential leaders are arguably instigating each other. It is very difficult to change such people's personality if they are not willing to change it. In fact, psychotherapy or counseling works only when the clients or the patients are willing to change. Those who are instigating each other are supposed to accept the fact that their feeling, thinking, and behavior are not accepted by majority of the people in the society. It is necessary for them to understand the importance of a change in their total or partial personality. For such world leaders I prefer leaving the decision to the so called political gurus.
However, we can at least protect our children from future acts of such unbearable kind from the world if the civilized people come together and promote global emotional literacy at the school level. We can teach our children the importance of respecting individual differences in terms of mental ability, appearances, personality pattern as a whole, and differences in race, caste, creed, religion, and sex. It is also to be noted here that social psychologists have repeatedly claimed that many White children who have never seen even a single Negro describe Negroes as of low intelligence and untidiness. This is because those White parents keep talking ill of the Negroes in front of their children. As a result they feel like treating the Negroes differently. Similar cases are, I suspect, happening in India between the people of different religions, upper and lower classes, village and urban, economically backward and forward states. Once such attitudes involving thinking, feelings, and behavioral tendencies are well conditioned during childhood it is quite difficult to change during adulthood, thereby increasing conflict. Elders have a moral responsibility toward the society by protecting children from the evils of prejudice and discrimination.
Besides, we can teach our children the importance of the following factors. First, it is identifying emotions in others and in oneself in terms of positive emotions like love, happiness, and negative emotions like anger, anxiety, depression, hatred, disgusting and jealousy. The causes of such emotions and why we change from one state of emotion to another are to be understood. Second, it is managing emotions in terms of nurturing positive emotions and reducing negative emotions to the lowest possible. It is quite desirable for our children to learn that the feelings of being labeled negatively, mocked, ignored, or rejected contribute to only conflict. Let us encourage our children to learn the importance of using less force, pressure, violence, blaming, superiority and more of understanding, acceptance, and cooperation. Let us encourage to first understand the causes before deciding a punishment. Punishment alone can never be a long-term solution. I wish this article encourages the whole society to promote emotional literacy at home, school and workplace for a better society where there is a complete freedom to interact with, move around with, and respect each other irrespective of caste, creed, religion and sex. It would be beneficial if the concerned authorities take up immediate steps to make emotional literacy compulsory in school curriculum.
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PARENTING AND CHILD MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health of children depends on the way parents interact with them. Though every parent wishes to provide the best at home, they may not be giving the best to their children as no fool proof method of bringing up children has been invented. This is because no two children are alike. There are more differences between children than we ordinarily believe. More over, culture, society, gender of the child and a host of other factors interact with the upbringing of children.
Psychologists point out that there are different styles of parenting. They believe that parenting styles can be put into four categories depending on two factors. They are parental warmth and parental control.
PARENTING STYLES
Type – A (High on control low on warmth)
Some parents believe that being strict with children is the best way to make them good adults. In that process parents tend to become over strict. They forget that every child has a natural tendency to grow into freedom and autonomy. Children should become free, independent and autonomous. A fully developed personality manifests freedom from unnecessary inhibitions. It also ensures high level of independence and autonomy. Over strictness kills the spirit of freedom. Children get the wrong idea that being free and independent is undesirable. In the present competitive world a child should be self-confident. This is achieved only through parental support. In a situation where parents employ only strictness and control and no love, children lose their individuality and fail to take appropriate decisions in their life as the parents have always taken the decisions Psychologists feel that it could amount to ‘authoritarian’ parenting. Children of authoritarian parents do not become independent and develop severe anxiety under situations that demand decision-making. They tend to play secondary roles in all their activities. Such children fail to become leaders. There is always the possibility that they feel inferior to others in all respects. In effect such children can never achieve the expected goals of life.
Type – B (Low on control high on warmth)
This is another type of parenting in which parents show lots of love without exercising adequate control. In fact punishment of all types are avoided under the misconception that Psychologists are against punishment. Children need proportionate punishment depending on their actions. Reward and punishment are the only two ways to make the child discriminate between what is right and what is wrong. Values of the culture are imbibed through the punishment and reward given by the parents. Children need to be punished if situation demands it. The common fault is that on the one side many parents indulge in inconsistent punishment. A child is reprimanded for his wrong doings on one occasion and praised or ignored for the same action when it occurs again. This confuses the child and is objected to by Psychologists. On the other side parents do not punish or disagree with the child even if punishment is required. It is opined that parents can always punish or disagree with the action(s) or behavior(s) of the child but should not disapprove the child as he is. The motto is accept and love the child but reject and punish the specific action of the child. This conveys to the child the feeling that parents do love him/her but disapproves the action or behavior only.
In the ‘Type – B’ situation, children are likely to become spoiled and would manifest antisocial and criminal behavior patterns. We do not want this at any cost!
Type – C (Low on control low on warmth)
Children cannot grow in an emotional vacuum. If the parents do not show any love, life becomes barren to the child. Children are naturally emotional than rational. True development of personality is a harmonious blending of the rational and the emotional. The art of this amalgamation takes place only if parents are able to show love and control in the right proportion. Children are creatures of instincts and circumstances. Thus they are basically impulsive. When parents control the behavior of children they come to understand that exercising control is absolutely necessary to have a smooth social life.
So also children need to be loved. The hug of the mother when a child is under fear reassures the child. Body contact between the mother and the child is the first sure indicator of love to the child. As the child grows, words of reassurance would become sufficient. Needless to say that expression of love in some form is an absolute must for the healthy development of the child. It is obvious that love and control in the right proportion is the surest way to healthy development. In the absence of these, the personality of children gets distorted. Emotionally deprived children cannot become good partners in their marital life as life between two individuals is successfully mediated through the emotion of love. Emotions are uncontrolled expressions of a primitive nature. Thus emotions need to be regulated in an acceptable way. Control by parents gives children the essential guideline for emotional expression. It also gives the necessary structure within which emotions can be expressed. Parenting without control and love is not desirable. This is why Psychologists call that type of parenting as ‘Negligent parenting’.
Type – D (High on control high on warmth)
From the above it is very clear that the best parenting is the one with good control and adequate love. Parents with high level of expressed love give clear indication to children that children are loved unconditionally. They differentiate between the child as a person on the one hand and the child’s behaviors on the other hand. Parents in the type – D category clearly differentiate the ‘child’ from his ‘actions’. They also reward children for desirable behaviors and punish or withdraw rewards for undesirable actions. These parents are consistent in their behavior with children. They do not confuse children by punishing them for one kind of behavior and rewarding them for the same behavior on a later date. Children, like all of us, understand consistency much easily than erratic behavior.
The most important point here is that a child when punished for his behavior understands that parents still love him as a person. The opposite of this is an action from the parents that amounts to total rejection of the child. When a child feels that the parents reject him totally the child experiences intense loneliness and misery. This can lower the self-esteem of the child and drive him to self-mutilation, aggression and even suicide.
Let us look at the following expressions from parents.
Samples of communication in undesirable parenting.
Mother – "You are a naughty child. You always cause misery to all in the family. You are bad".
Father – "You bet your brother. You are born "bad". You are really bad".
Samples of communication in desirable parenting.
Mother – " You broke the flower vase. This is not good behavior.
Here after do not break household articles".
Father – "You bet your brother. This is not a good behavior". He is very young.
You must learn to restrain this behavior with your brother".
Type – D parenting is what Psychologists call as ‘authoritative’ (not authoritarian) parenting. This type of parenting never rejects a child totally, but only depreciates one of his several actions. In this kind of parenting the child gets the clear idea that parents disapprove one or two actions of him and do not out rightly reject him. This is very important as out right rejection by parents brings in the greatest insecurity.
A continuously insecure child is a ‘time bomb’ and he might explode with severe aggression at any moment. Children can also become severely depressed, as depression is aggression turned to oneself.
Having understood these why don’t we go ahead with the most desirable parenting style, the type – D? It is possible. After all every one of us wants our children to be assets to the family and good citizens to the nation.
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CURRENT TRENDS IN THE PRACTICE OF COUNSELING
Theory and Practice of Counseling
Counseling in its widest connotation existed in one form or the other from time immemorial. In all cultures the elders not only set the norms of behavior within that culture but also counseled the youngsters to follow the norms. In India, elders especially parents and teachers thought that imparting counseling in the form of advice and guidance was one of their fundamental, and seared duty. The oft repeated adage; "Mata, Pita, Guru, Deivam" (Mother, Father, Teacher, God)reminded the youngsters not only of the agents of counseling but also of the priority as to who should impart counseling at various stages of life. Ancient epics of India are replete with depictions of counseling. Elders were only too ready to take up the role of counselors and youngsters sought counseling with prompt compliance. Many such incidents could be explained away as mere acts of 'giving advice'. But in most of those ancient transactions it is not difficult to see the scientific practice and ethics of modern counseling techniques. The most widely acknowledges counseling situation in the epics is that of the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Whether this dialogue had all the characteristics of modern counseling may have to be answered by committed researchers in this area. Many, often ask questions regarding the relevance and suitability of modern counselling techniques in all cultures. Experts in this field are of the opinion that the culture of India with the above heritage is potentially oriented to the modern techniques of counseling.
Counseling as Others See It
Counseling is a much-misunderstood concept. To the laymen it is an occasion where an expert solves the problems of others. Laymen believe that the expert has ready-made solutions for all the problems of human beings. Most counselors know that this is far from truth.
Guidance and Counseling
The term guidance denotes explicit directions given by an informed person regarding any subject. An expert in career guidance can impart information regarding different career possibilities. He may also be able to tell us where the careers are open and even the possible openings at the time of consultation. In imparting such information the guidance expert can give pieces of information irrespective of the suitability of the client for the job. However, he has also the option to test the suitability of the client using suitable psychological test.
Counselling, on the other hand is more dynamic. It aims at the solution of clients’ problems. Counselling is a much-misunderstood concept. To the laymen it is an occasion where an expert solves the problems of others. Laymen believe that the expert has ready-made solutions for all the problems of human beings. Most counselors say that this is far from the truth. Counselling is a process between the counsellor and the client in which solutions emerge as a joint venture of the two.
Characteristics of counselling
- is expected to be a process.
- Counselling is usually for normal people with problems.
- It is essentially a dynamic interaction between the client and the counsellor.
- Client is expected to be frank and forthright in his approach.
- It is the duty of the counsellor to keep confidentiality regarding the client.
- Counsellor is to show warmth and sympathy while listening to the client’s problems.
- Counsellor is expected to be non judgmental and non critical.
- The relationship between the client and the counsellor is expected to be genuine.
- Counselling usually works at the level of rapport and not at the level of transference.
- Client’s conscious motives are explored rather than the unconscious motives.
The perspective of Counseling may change from counselor to counselor. There are differences in training, clients and settings, and even goals. But the basic perspective of counseling remains the same, through with different emphasis. The best examples are the three different definitions of counseling given by Good (1945), Pepinsky and Pepinsky (1954) and Wrenn (1951). Good defined counseling as the "...individualized and personalized assistance with personal, educational, vocational problems, in which all pertinent facts are studied and analyzed, and a solution is sought, often with the assistance of Specialists, school and community resources, and personal interviews in which the counselee is taught to make his own decisions". According to Pepinsky and Pepinsky, "Counseling is a process involving an interaction between a counselor and a client in a private setting, worth the purpose of helping the client change his/her behavior so that a satisfactory resolution of needs may be obtained". To Wrenn, "Counseling is a dynamic and purposeful relationship between two people in which procedures vary with the nature of students’ needs, but in which there is always mutual participation by the counselor and the student with the focus upon self-clarification and self-determination by the student". All these definitions have common base but are different in their emphasis. The difference among the three definitions stems from the fact that they have three different orientations. Hann (1953) identifies one group as the social welfare advocates with ideographic interest. The second group is more medically oriented and the thirds group consists of people with student personnel administration and has great interest in measurement. Along with the differences it is worth noting the commonalties. Common to all these perspectives are the notions that,
- counseling is aimed at helping people make choices and act on them,
- counseling is a learning process, and
- counseling enables personality development
A recent and much accepted definition is:
"Counseling denotes a professional relationship between a trained counselor and client. This relationship is usually person-to-person, although it may sometimes involve more than two people. It is designed to help clients to understand and their self determined goals through meaningful resolution of problems of an emotional or interpersonal nature" (Burks and Stefflre, 1979).
The merit of the definition by Burks and Steffler is that it is sufficiently theoretical and at the same time reasonably operational.
Theory and Practice of Counseling
Theory and practice should go hand in hand. Many trained counselors initially adhere to the theory while starting their career as counsellor. However, even those who are fanatically tied down to one theory appear to change over time. This is because the client is a human being and he is the link between the theory and practice of the counsellor. Rigid theories, like the Procrustean bed, repel the human psyche. When the man does not fit into the theory the counselor is compelled to change his theory. This is one of the most demanding challenges of counselling.
Counselors should keep their minds more receptive and flexible. The psychological concept of individual difference must be understood thoroughly. Individual clients differing in their personalities come with dissimilar problems, goals and aspirations. To believe that all those clients would benefit from one kind of theory is unrealistic. It is useful to know that all the well-known theories have emerged from the practice of individual counselor’s personal experience with counselees. This is why we have different theories and practices. Trying to know these theories as old and new broadens our perspective. But what would be ultimately useful is the one that is carved out from the counselor’s experience with the counselees. This is why all textbook writers speak of a ‘Personal Theory’.
Current Trends in the Practice of Counseling
Towards a Personal Theory of Counseling
Prospective counselors should be aware of major approaches to counseling so as to enable them to acquire a sound basis for developing their own personal brand of counselling. The current trends in this area can be broadly classified into three approaches. They are:
- cognitive approaches
- affective approaches, and
- behavioral approaches.
It may be observed that the approaches closely parallel the three aspects of personality viz., cognition, affection and conation (i.e. knowing, feeling and doing as given by the ancient Philosophers).
As Feorge and Cristiani (1981) have pointed out, in the cognitive approaches, the process of counseling is the curing of unreason by reason; i.e., to help clients eliminate most emotional disturbances by learning to think rationally, to help them get rid of illogical, irrational ideas and attitudes and substitute logical, rational ideas and attitudes. It is believed that this process helps the client to attain rational behavior, happiness, and self-actualization. For example Transactional Analysis (TA) aims at the internal dialogues of individuals, which occurs between the various ego states and the struggles between the real parts of their behavior (whether the same is productive or counter productive) and the behavior of others by identifying which ego state is in power at any given time. TA thus gives the clients information about the various types of transactions that occur among individuals and to help them identify the kinds of behavior in which they are involved. The goal of TA is to help clients review their past decisions and make new decisions about their present behavior. It is assumed that this would change their life direction into developing an autonomous life style characterized by awareness, spontaneity. This, it is believed that would, eliminate a life style characterized by manipulative game – playing a self-defeating neurotic tendencies.
Directive teaching is the core in all the cognitive approaches. For example in Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) the counselor takes up an active teaching role to educate clients. The RET counselor makes the client understand that the latter’s internationalized sentences are quite illogical and especially the current illogical thinking are self-defeating verbalizations of the client. The success if the counselor lies in bringing illogical thinking forcefully to the client’s attention. He must also show to the counselee how these thoughts are maintaining his unhappiness and how a rethinking and maintenance of logically and rationality make him happy and contented. In reality therapy, the meaning of reality and the necessity to act responsibly are taught by the counselor.
As the term suggests the affective approaches in counseling focus their attention to what is going on inside the individual, and particularly what the individual is experiencing at a given time.
Client-centered counseling of Rogers is perhaps the most well-defined technique in the affective approaches. It also highlights an issue in counseling; namely, how much responsibility can be placed on the client for his own problem solving?
Rogers believed that when the individual perceived himself as behaving in a manner consistent with his 'picture' of himself, he generally experiences feelings of adequacy, security, and worth. If on the other hand, he acts in a manner different from the way he defines himself, he experiences what is known as "threat" and feels insecure, inadequate, or worthless. Under pressure and with no other alternative, he may then defend himself against this threat using one or more of the commonly described "defense mechanisms". Unless counseling eliminates this defensive chain reaction and strengthens his self-concept, the defensive behavior would increase vulnerability to further threat, guilt, thereby creating more distortion and more self-defeating mechanisms. The role of the therapist is not just eliminating the defense mechanisms. Rogers highlights the importance of 'Congruence'. It means the close 'matching of awareness and experience'. In this context, the client centered counselors emphasizes the importance of accurate communication. If a client is aware of communicating a feeling which he is genuinely experiencing, his behavior is said to be congruent or integrated. In incongruent communication the awareness and experience of the client are two different if not opposing things. So also the recipient may experience an awareness of phony communication. The implication here for the counselor is that the counselor should help the client to face courageously the incongruence between awareness and experience so that communication of his real experiences is in full awareness and not distorted with defense mechanisms and neurotic constrictions.
The 'self-theory' of Rogers also assumes a perspective called 'phenomenology'. According to this perspective, people's 'reality' is that which they perceive. The way to understand individuals is to infer the 'phenomenological field' from their behavior. In other words, the 'internal frame of reference' of the client is used in counseling with the implication that counselors must attempt to perceive client's perceptual worlds as closely as they can. This is known as the empathic skill of the counselor.
Individual client's need to strive for wholeness is the focus in Gestalt therapy and counseling. This school of counseling gives importance to the internal world of the individual. Striving for the gestalt or the wholeness is actually a striving for an integration of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The key concept here is awareness. It is believed that the counselors help the clients work toward a total awareness of his experiences. Gestalt psychologists point out that such awareness permits sellf-regulation and self-control in the direction of increased integration and creativity.
Recently, one of the major forces that have come to occupy an important place in psychology is 'Existentialism'. Unlike Psychoanalysis, existentialism is a temperamental way of looking at life. It is basically a philosophy of experiences which need not necessarily be categorized into cognitive compartments. Man is essentially an emotional being rather than a rational animal! The existence of man is unique because he is the only being who reacts to the fact of his existence. The awareness of one's own existence and the possibility of non-existence alters the inner world or the phenomenology. These new premises create new experiences and needs that are yet to be known. The predicament of human beings is such that it includes the individual's capacity for increased self-awareness, the search for unique meaning in a meaningless world, being alone and being in relation with others, freedom to choose one's fate, responsibility, anxiety, finiteness and death, and a basic urge for self-actualization. As a theory existentialism is sound and appealing, but the practice of counseling on the basis of this theory is difficult. However, the existential counselor tries to understand the client as 'a being' and as 'a being in the world'. Counselors are supposed to expose his own inner reality and at the same time be human. This according to existentialists enables clients to become aware of similar conditions and qualities in themselves. It is pointed out that through this process clients come to recognize their potentialities and achieve self-growth by accepting it as their responsibility. In a nut shell, it can be said that making the client accept responsibility for himself is the aim of existential counseling.
While the dynamically oriented theorists try to understand conscious and unconscious through inference, the behavioral counselors concentrate on objective study of client behavior and the learning process. As the emphasis is primarily on overt behavior, the first emphasis is to discover how the behavior was acquired and how it can be changed. The second emphasis, which is a later addition, is on precondition for behavior change. This approach is characterized by (1) a focus on overt and specified behavior; (2) a precise and well spelt out target behaviors called goals; (3) a formulation of a specific and objective treatment procedure to the problem at hand; and (4) an objective assessment of the outcome of counseling in terms of the degree of approximation to the target behavior.
In the behavioral approaches well defined counseling goals are of central importance. The much talked about counselor-counselee relationship in other approaches is of secondary importance only. The main aim of this relationship to the behaviorist counselor is to facilitate greater understanding of the client's view of the problem. This helps to formulate a more successful behavioral plan for bringing about change in the client's maladaptive behavior to one of adaptive behavior (target behavior).
As the behavioral approaches base their understanding of human behavior through the theories of learning, they use very specific techniques like behavior contracts, social modeling, systematic desensitization and assertive training. All these techniques are well known to counselors.
Personal Theory of Counselling
The three basic approaches (Cognitive, Affective, and Conative) with their differing foundations vary in their theory and practice of counselling. By about 1973, Patterson began to think in terms of commonalties among the approaches. Fortunately most of the controversies existed only as academic gymnastics at a theoretical level. The practicing counselors were undergoing transformation as the clients were not interested in theories and their subtleties but were interested only in immediate problem solving. This demand of the client to the counsellor had made many counselors to abandon their dogmatic approach. Orientation of the counselors started changing towards a pragmatic approach. The client and his needs became more important than the counselor’s theory and dogma. This was how ‘personal theory’ emerged.
Here it is absolutely necessary to point out that training in some known approach is better than no training. Corey (19977) recommends the eclectic approach as a framework to begin with. However, George and Cristiani (1981) point out that although beginning counselors need a firm understanding of all the major approaches, they should start first with a thorough grounding in one theoretical approach to counselling. It is further pointed out that judicious integration and assimilation of techniques from other approaches could be done with experience.
Caution has been sounded in developing a personal view of counseling. Counselors must know their own assumptions about the nature of people, they must explore in depth their own values, attitudes, and beliefs about what constitutes a good life, what people are like, and what they themselves are like. Counselors should also identify their own models of mature, well-functioning individual so that they can keep this as a goal. (A summary of the above is given as appendix).
The present author’s personal opinion is that here in the cultural setting of India, let us start with the behavioral approach. The advantage of this approach is that it is sufficiently objective. It is based on sound principles of learning. The process involved is clear and well defined. The tangible alone are taken into account. There is high accountability for the behavior of the client and counsellor. The goals are operationally defined and free from philosophical overtones.
In conclusion I wish to quote this important paragraph form Brammer and Shostrom (19977) as guidance to all of us who are interested in the area of counselling practice.
"Each counselor and psychotherapist must ultimately develop a point of view which is uniquely his or her own. Freud was not a Freudian, Jung not Jungian, and Rogers not a Rogerian. Each of them was himself most fully and completely, while building upon the wisdom of the past. Each practitioner must feel that his counseling practice reflects such individuality. This is the reason why no one text or school is fully adequate, and why we try to exemplify an approach which we have termed 'creative synthesizing'. This approach is not an arrogant attempt to put down predecessors. Ideas are rarely developed in solitary efforts. Usually, they are the results of many years of cumulative cross-fertilization of numerous minds. Isaac Newton is alleged to have said on this point, 'If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants'. ".
|
Established single theory |
Eclectic Approaches |
Creative Synthesis |
Main Characteristic |
Integrated set of assumptions related directly to strategy and method |
Strategies and methods from several approaches applied selectively to clients |
Application of broad and varied strategies and methods related to a synthesized theory evolved and "owned" by the practitioner |
Examples |
Freud's Psychoanalytic Rogers's Client Centered |
Thorne's Integrative Psychology Lazarus's Structural Eclectism |
Assagioli's Psychosynthesis Shostrom's Actualizing Therapy |
Advantages |
Ready-made system of assumptions and concepts Extensive experience and database Consistency of theory and method |
Collection of various methods Flexibility of choice on methods Wide agency application of methods |
Continuous synthesizing, Extendeding and amplifying personal system Discourages competition Fosters therapist's identity with own views |
Limitations |
Tendency towards restricted view of data Often a closed system Encourages hero worship Fosters competition and divisiveness |
Encourages uncritical picking and choosing De-emphasizes integrative theorizing Tends toward fadism Additive collection of what works for now Imitative, and tends towards limited creativity |
A continuous lifelong task Tends to be idealistic Futuristic -- ahead of its time Requires continuous creativity Requires trust in self Risky -- requires standing on one's own |
Illustrative comments by practitioners |
"Client-centered theory" "Speaks to me" "Ellis is my here" "I dig Freud" "I am analytic" "I stick with the tried and true" |
"I use what works" "I'm flexible" "I like TA methods but not the basic assumption" "Everyone says something important" |
"I'm constantly reevaluating my ideas" "I develop my own theory to fit me" "I try to keep open and take some risks" "I trust my own observations and judgements" |
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HAND WRITING ANALYSIS
Introduction
Graphology is the study and analysis of an individual’s handwriting to gather information about his/her varied personality traits. Majority of scientists classify Graphology as a pseudo-science. But handwriting analysis is being used for determining authenticity of signatures in Will, documents and manuscripts as a legal identifier. So the term Graphology also refers to scientific examination of handwriting to detect forgery and the Courts accept the testimony of graphology experts in this respect.
Graphologists normally require a full length ink specimen written in normal conditions. The specimen should not reveal the writer’s name, age, sex, nationality, religion, left-handedness or right-handedness.
No two handwritings are identical like fingerprints. Hand writing of a person is unique in nature. The pattern of writing will not match with other persons writing in any case. Graphologists generally consider so many elements to analyse the handwriting such as types of strokes, sizes, formations, loops, space between letters, capitals, signatures uniformity, crossings, slants, angles, pressure, margins, connections, rhythms, space between words, baselines, crossing bars, breadth and height of letters and so on which represents the interrelated aspect of the writers personality traits.
A Short History of Graphology
The first book on this subject appeared in Capri on 1622 written by an Italian Doctor. Many people have been interested in the relationship between handwriting and the writers such as philosophers, scientists, historians and artists. Subsequently several articles on this subject were published in Italy, France and Switzerland up to 1800.In 1823,Stephen Collett, an Englishman, published a book relating to Handwriting analysis.
The Modern Graphology is associated with Jean Michon, who gave its name Graphology. He studied several handwritings and characters systematically and published many articles in 1872. Michon and his companion Jamin developed a system for isolated signs to relate specific handwriting elements to specific personality traits.
In late 1800s the French Psychologist Alfred Binet conducted serious studies and experiments by testing many graphologists. He was convinced that graphology had potential and to use as a technique for personality testing.
In 1895,in Germany Whilhem Langerbruch published Graphological Periodicals. In 1897 Hans Busses published another magazine and formed a a Society for Graphological research. One of the contributor to the magazine was Dr.Ludwig Klages, a German philosopher, whose achievement in graphological research were renowned. He had devised a system of analysis based on standards of Handwriting. His hypothesis was that handwriting is an expressive movement, similar to gesture, gait and facial expression. He came up with a unifying principle called rhythm-a measure of normality in the personality. But his system was unable to distinguish between various degrees of rhythm and the evaluation only depended on subjective judgement. On getting influenced by Klages’s work the Swiss Graphologist Max Pulver continued to advance. He was contributed to the analysis of depth in writing. He also studied the stylish decorations in handwriting and interpreted it in terms of psychoanalytic theory. The American psychologist June Downey has also done experiments based on Klages’s rhythm theory.
Around 1940 some graphologists were trained in psychology. The alliance with graphologists and psychologists were useful in research purposes and the clinical application of graphology expanded.
In 1940,the Soviet psychologist Alexander R. Luria studied the use of handwriting to determine the location of brain injuries.
Handwriting consists of measurable elements like slant and size, letter form ,left-hand and right-hand tendencies. In 1942 American Psychologist Joseph Zubin and German Graphologist T.S.Lewinston tried to make a common objective yardstick measurable elements in handwriting. They used a scaling based on the degrees of rhythm in muscular movements of the writer. This method produced statistical evidence to differentiate between abnormal and normal personalities but did not show any relation with personality traits.
Experiments were also conducted on handwriting specimens to find out relationship on writer’s feeling, behaviour and attitude. Similar Clinical investigations on relationship between handwrting and mental disorders are also in progress. Electronic equipments are also used to detect the writer's tensions, adaptation and other factors.
Current Status
Graphology is being widely practised mostly in European countries, particularly in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Britain. Many business firms in these countries consult Graphologists for advice before hiring people. Many Psychologists consider the study of handwriting useful as a diagnostic tool even though it lacks experimental evidence.
In European countries graphologists are issued licenses and many Universities offer courses on Graphology. Scholars are calling for thorough scientific studies of graphology.
Graphology is not accurate all the time. Behaviour and personality change continuously. So taking handwriting samples for analysis over many months will give more information about the personality traits. Compared to other tests graphology is cheaper and faster and will quickly give some information about the writer's character, emotions, intellect, self-awareness, social adjustments, reliability, aptitudes, creativity and other traits.
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