Counseling and Helping Relationships

Chapter 5 of the Purple Book

The ego

the executive administrator of the personality; the reality principle; attempts to balance the id and the superego

The id

the seat of libido; instincts; the pleasure principle; strives for pleasure

The superego

the conscience; the ego ideal; strives for perfection

Eros

self-preservation and intuition

Thanatos

describes a death wish or the death instinct

Pleasure principle

suggests humans desire instinct gratification such as for libido, sex, or the elimination of hunger or thirst

Free association

instructing the client to say whatever comes to mind even if it seems silly or embarrassing

Systematic desensitization

developed by Wolpe; a form of behavior therapy based on classical conditioning

Manifest content

surface meanings in a dream

Latent content

hidden meaning in a dream

Transference

a client projects unconscious feelings toward the therapist that he or she originally had toward someone else

Insight

making the client aware of something which was previously unknown and increases self-knowledge

a novel sudden understanding of a problem

Resistance

reluctance to bring unconscious ideas into the conscious mind

clients who are fighting the helping process in any manner

Little Albert

conducted by John Watson and Rosalie Raynor; conditioned a 9 month old boy to be afraid of furry objects through conditioning

Anna O

the first psychoanalytic patient of Josef Breuer suffering from symptoms without an organic basis; would remember painful events during hypnosis and found relief when speaking about them

Little Hans

reflects the data in Freud’s 1909 paper “An Analysis of a Phobia in a Five Year Old Boy,” in which this child’s fear of going into the streets and perhaps even having a horse bite him were explained using psychoanalytic constructs

Daniel Paul Schreber

most frequently quoted case in modern psychiatry; spent 9 years in a mental hospital and wrote Memoirs of a Nervous Patient, and had a major delusion that he would be transformed into a woman, become God’s mate, and produce a healthier race

Classical psychoanalysis

lengthy sessions (3-5 per week for several years)

Catharsis or abreaction

talking about difficulties in order to purge emotions and feelings

Freud’s structural theory

id, ego, superego

Freud’s topographical theory

unconscious, preconscious, conscious

Eric Berne’s structural model

child, adult, parent

The unconscious mind

the most important concept in Freud’s theory; evidence for this comes from hypnosis, slips of the tongue and humor, and dreams

Conscious mind

aware of the immediate environment

Preconscious mind

capable of bringing ideas, image, and thoughts into awareness with minimal difficulty; can access the conscious and unconscious mind

Unconscious mind

composed of material which is normally unknown or hidden from the client

Ego defense mechanisms

used to control tension and relieve anxiety; unconscious strategies which distort reality and are based on self-deception to protect our self-image

Repression

the most important defense mechanism; unconsciously, automatically, or involuntarily forgetting an incident to protect themselves and can later cause emotional problems

Reaction formation

occurs when a person can’t accept a given impulse and thus behaves in the opposite manner

Denial or suppression

the conscious act of forgetting or refusing to think about something

Sublimation

a person acts out an unconscious impulse in a socially acceptable way

Rationalization

an intellectual excuse to minimize hurt feelings; tend to interpret their thoughts and feelings in a positive or favorable manner

Displacement

an impulse is unleashed at a safe target

Introjection

a child accepts a parent’s, caretaker’s, or significant other’s values as their own; may cause a person to accept an aggresor’s values

Identification

a person identifies with a cause or a successful person with the unconscious hope that they will be perceived as successful or worthwhile or lowers fear or anxiety toward that person

Sour grapes rationalization

“I didn’t really want it anyway"“; underrating a situation

Sweet lemon rationalization

“I wanted it this way”; overrating a situation

Projection

a person attributes unacceptable qualities of their own to others

Compensation

an individual attempts to develop or overdevelop a positive trait to make up for a limitation (i.e., a perceived inferiority)

Interpretation

make the client aware of their unconscious processes; takes place when the counselor uncovers a deeper meaning regarding a client’s situation

highly valued in analytic and psychodynamic modalities

Logos

implies logic

Countertransference

the counselor’s strong feelings or attachment to the client are strong enough to hinder the treatment process

Mandalas

a magic protective circle that represents self-unification

Neo-Freudians

Adler, Horney, Erikson, Sullivan and Fromm stressed the importance of cultural (social) issues and interpersonal (social) relations

Introversion

turning in of the libido; the person is their own primary source of pleasure so they will generally shy away from social situations if possible

Extroversion

the tendency to find satisfaction and pleasure in other people; seeks external rewards

Rudolph Dreikurs

a student of Adler, was the first to discuss the use of group therapy in private practice, and introduced Adlerian principles to the treatment of children in the school setting

Social connectedness

people wish to belong

Collective unconscious

all humans have collected universal inherited, unconscious neural patterns

Paradoxical interventions

the client is instructed to intensify or purposely engage in the maladaptive behavior

Archetype

a primal universal symbol, which means the same thing to all men and women; the material that makes up the collective unconscious, which is passed from generation to generation

The persona

the mask or role we present to others to hide our true self

Shadow

the mask behind the persona, which contains id-like material, denied, yet desired; encompasses everything the individual refused to acknowledge

Confrontation

to illuminate discrepancies between the client’s and the helper’s conceptualization of a given situation

Accurate empathy

when a counselor is able to experience the client’s point of view in terms of feelings and cognitions

Summarization

bringing together the ideas discussed during a period of dialogue

Symptom substitution

if you deal with one symptom, another symptom will manifest itself since the real problem is in the unconscious mind

a psychoanalytic concept

Eclectic counselor

uses theories and techniques from several models of intervention, rather than simply relying on one

Firstborns

often go to great lengths to please their parents and is prone to experience feelings of inferiority

Secondborns

will often try to compete with a firstborn child and often surpasses the first child’s performance

Middle child

will often feel that they are being treated unfairly and are sometimes seen as manipulative

Youngest child

can be pampered or spoiled and they often excel by modeling or imitating the older children’s behavior

Associationism

ideas are held together by associations; roots from Aristotle but associated with John Locke*, David Hume, James Mill, and David Hartley as its pioneers

Law of effect

from Edward Thorndike; responses accompanied by satisfaction (reinforcing things) will be repeated, while those which produce unpleasantness or discomfort will be stamped out

Acquisition period

the time it takes to learn or acquire a given behavior

Reinforcers

raise the probability that an antecedent behavior will occur

Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO)

the counselor positively reinforces an individual for engaging in a healthy alternative behavior

Punishment

lowers the probability that a behavior will occur

Positive punishment

something is added after a behavior and the behavior decreases

Negative punishment

something is removed following a behavior and the behavior decreases

Delay conditioning

when the conditioned stimulus is delayed until the unconditioned stimulus occurs

Trace conditioning

the conditioned stimulus terminates before the occurrence of the unconditioned stimulus

Backward conditioning

putting the unconditioned stimulus before the conditioned stimulus; ineffective and doesn’t work

Simultaneous conditioning

the conditioned and unconditioned stimulus are presented at the same time; conditioning will not occur

Stimulus generalization or irradiation

when a stimulus similar to the conditioned stimulus produces the same reaction, response to this is generally weaker than the response produced by the original conditioning

Stimulus generalization

only responding to a specific stimulus

Experimental neurosis

the differentiation process becomes too tough because the stimulus are almost identical and the individual shows signs of emotional disturbance

Extinction

when the conditioned stimulus is not reinforced via the unconditioned stimulus

Extinction burst

when using extinction the behavior will get worse before it is eliminated; the behavior is increased but only temporarily

Chain

a sequence of behaviors in which one response renders a cue that the next response is to occur; a series of operants joined together by reinforcers

Chaining

simple behaviors are learned and then chained so that a complex behavior can take place

Baseline

indicates the frequency of the behavior untreated and is sometimes signified in the literature on a chart using an upper case letter A

Biofeedback

hooking the client to an electronic device that provides biological feedback to help clients control autonomic responses

e.g., a scale or mirror

Paradigm

a treatment model

Nondirective

a counselor who allows the client to explore thoughts and feelings with a minimum of direction and feelings with a minimum of direction

popularized via Carl Rogers’ client-centered or person-centered approach

Directive or active-directive

the therapist leads the client to discuss certain topics and provides direct suggestions about how the client should think, act, or behave

Concreteness or specificity

an attempt to eliminate vague language from a client

A directive

a suggestion

Parroting

restating the client’s problem back verbatim

Genuineness or congruence

the counselor’s ability to be themself, not playing a role and is not putting up a facade

the most important factor for person centered counseling

Empathy

the ability to understand the client’s world and to communicate this to the client

the most important factor in the counseling relationship

Sympathy

the same as compassion

Operant

any behavior which is not elicited by an obvious stimulus

Respondent

the consequence of a known stimulus

e.g., a dog salivating to food

Higher order conditioning

when a new stimulus is associated or paired with the conditioned stimulus and the new stimulus takes on the power of the conditioned stimulus

e.g., a light is paired with the bell and then the light alone elicits salivation

Token reinforcer

a token or something that represents a reinforcer is given after a desirable behavior and the token can be exchanged for the primary (i.e., actual) reinforcer - also called back-up reinforcers

Premack principle

the most effective reinforcer is what the client likes to do

Grandma’s rule or Grandma’s law

any high probability behavior (HPB) can be used as a reinforcer for any low probability behavior (LPB)

e.g., if you eat your veggies, then I let you have dessert

EMG

measures muscle tension

EEG

measures brain wave rhythms