...the Treatment of Self-Defeating Behaviour “Self-defeating behaviour is the idea that sometimes people knowingly do things that will cause them to fail or bring them trouble. It is defined as “any deliberate or intentional behaviour that has clear, definitely or probably negative effects on the self or on the self’s projects.” The concept of and theories behind why a person behaves in ways that are self-defeating is one that has been examined by many psychological approaches over time. In this essay I will define and explain self-defeating behaviours, their origins, causes and reasons for maintaining them, together with examples of such behaviours. Subsequently I will focus on two approaches to addressing self-defeating behaviours, incorporating similarities and differences. The two approaches I have chosen to look at are Cognitive Behavioural therapy and Person Centred I will then give my personal thoughts as a student counsellor. The origins of self-defeating behaviour can often be traced back to childhood. One trigger may be constant criticism whereby the child is told that he/she can never do anything right, is useless and so on. This can lead to the child engaging in self-defeating behaviour that reinforces their resultant poor self-image. If the parent(s) are seen as the most important people in the child’s life, fear of disappointing them, or of not being able to meet their standards or expectations can result in developing self-defeating behaviour. The child may not...
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...TREATMENT OF SELF-DEFEATING BEHAVIOUR. THE APPROACHES SHOULD BE SELECTED FROM THOSE INTRODUCED IN MODULE 5. In this essay I will try and demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of the title, by describing and evaluating two approaches of the treatment of self-defeating behaviour. INTRODUCTION Self-defeating behaviour is a behaviour used to cope with a traumatic situation. It is then repeatedly used but often has a damaging effect on the person. This can be identified as being deliberate or intentional behaviour that has a clear, definite or probably negative effect. People are more likely to have a self-defeating or destructive manner when either there are threats made to their egos or when they have low self-esteem. When people have low self-esteem they are more likely to be susceptible to having depression, anxiety and emotional distress, which are problems that are usually directly related to low self-appraisal. There are many examples of self-defeating behaviours like, being needy, guilty, envious, angry, obsessive, rebellious, addictions, eating disorders, procrastination, controlling, gossiping, self-doubt and depression. Basically self-defeating behaviour is a coping mechanism we use when we are dealing with a threatening or stressful situation. We grab at any solution that we can find. The solution might have helped in the short term, and that is why we keep repeating it. Nonetheless, it can also have a negative impact on our life. WHAT IS THE DEFINTION OF SELF-DEFEATING...
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...approaches to the treatment of self-defeating behaviour. 2671 For those who study behaviour it is seen as the process or adapting responses to environmental stimuli, this process becomes conditioned through reinforcement until it becomes ‘learned’. This is stored within the subconscious and revisited or attached to a situation as a means of trying to deal – or not deal – with it. This is the case with self-defeating behaviours where the pattern of behaviour is one that is preventing them from reaching their potential or sense of well-being. A therapist trying to help someone deal with this type of behaviour would be able to explain how it is also learned and through therapy try and investigate where set behaviour stemmed, its causes, and ways of dealing with recurrence as some way to gaining understanding and closure for the client. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy or CBT is one approach to the treatment of self-defeating where a regressive or limiting pattern of behaviour is identified and change of that pattern or cycle is sought through therapy by changing the person’s thinking, which in turn changes actions, and ultimately the regressive or self-defeating patterns of behaviour. For a CBT practitioner or behaviourist the problem is in the behaviour and not in the person arguing that the reinforcing and conditioning effects of a person’s environment hugely influence their behaviour. Behaviour being linked to thoughts means that all behaviour is learned right through an...
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...different time periods they shared many similar teenage difficulties. Both novels portray a male protagonist growing up while struggling to find his identity, while loathing their lives. Thus both novels are of the coming of age genre. Both boys are socially awkward and are not able to integrate into society. In this case, Charlie is insulted by senior students of his high school, “God, that kid is such a fucking freak,” (Chbosky 145). Throughout the novel Holden and Charlie strive to become a part of society. While Charlie tries to integrate with society, it seems that Holden rejects it and wants to create a new society that suits him more. With the downs of life they find a way to cope with the failure of being accepted which leads to a self-destructive behavior. Such behavior tends to lead to the use of drugs, alcohol and violence. However similar they may seem, they also share many differences which are responsible for the differing results of their outstanding social statuses. While Holden avoids his problems, Charlie chooses to confront them and this is partially why Charlie becomes socially accepted. Despite their resembling problems, they also differ greatly in lifestyles. While Holden comes from a rich family and goes to a prestigious private school, Charlie is poor and goes to a local public school. Another contrast of these coming-of-age characters is that they have extremely different personalities. One could say that if both Holden and Charlie were part of one story...
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...A Poverty Solution That Starts With a Hug By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF PERHAPS the most widespread peril children face isn’t guns, swimming pools or speeding cars. Rather, scientists are suggesting that it may be “toxic stress” early in life, or even before birth. This month, the American Academy of Pediatrics is issuing a landmark warning that this toxic stress can harm children for life. I’m as skeptical as anyone of headlines from new medical studies (Coffee is good for you! Coffee is bad for you!), but that’s not what this is. Rather, this is a “policy statement” from the premier association of pediatricians, based on two decades of scientific research. This has revolutionary implications for medicine and for how we can more effectively chip away at poverty and crime. Toxic stress might arise from parental abuse of alcohol or drugs. It could occur in a home where children are threatened and beaten. It might derive from chronic neglect — a child cries without being cuddled. Affection seems to defuse toxic stress — keep those hugs and lullabies coming! — suggesting that the stress emerges when a child senses persistent threats but no protector. Cues of a hostile or indifferent environment flood an infant, or even a fetus, with stress hormones like cortisol in ways that can disrupt the body’s metabolism or the architecture of the brain. The upshot is that children are sometimes permanently undermined. Even many years later, as adults, they are more likely to suffer heart disease...
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...comforted versus lashing out aggressively; Fear comes attachment to mom or dad, hide, back away versus anger, or aggression; Pride the need to show off and share accomplishments versus shy or not wanting to stand out. Middle Childhood In the middle childhood a child’s emotions maybe Happy as they talk and laugh with friends versus isolation, or maybe overly quiet; Sadness could bring withdraw, the need to be alone versus feelings of glad, or excitement ; Fear avoids what causes this emotion versus aggression towards it; Pride comes sense of self worth versus feelings of worthlessness. Adolescence Happy is expressed in many ways from outgoing, social versus isolation, and withdraw from peers; Sadness can bring depression, need to be alone versus anger, self destructive behavior, or an extreme high of no care; Fear depression, anxiety, versus bravery, or bravery; Pride brings joy, self-esteem versus insecurity, or self...
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...TrTreating Lindsay Lohan 1 Treating Lindsay Lohan [Your Name] Treating Lindsay Lohan Executive Summary 2 Celebrities are often unprepared for the prestige and wealth that they acquire. Many adopt self destructive behaviors, including substance abuse and disrespect for the law. Such behaviors pose a risk to the celebrity as both an individual and professional. A growing trend has been for celebrities’ management companies to require celebrities to accept a certain level of intervention or face cancellation of their contracts. This study examines the case of Lindsay Lohan. Lohan has exhibited exactly the behaviors listed above, and, as a result has not only damaged her career, but also acquired a criminal record (Heger 2014). This study combines an abstract discussion of celebritycentric treatment approaches with a discussion specific to what might be done to mitigate Lohan’s career self immolation. Celebrity Parameters Celebrities often lead very busy lives. In addition to their work, which may consist of activities such as musical performance tours or shooting motion pictures, they may also lead rather frenetic social lives. Celebrities are also very much under the “social microscope”their fans want to know every detail of their life. The journalists who cover celebrities know that even a minor infraction, such as a parking ticket can be made into a very interesting story whereas acts of kindness and professionalism, such as taking the time to speak to a disabled...
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...Promiscuity- A Self-Destructive Behavior in Correlation with a Lack of Paternal Authority: A Single Case Study Rebecca M Bauman 2015 MAR LIB-495-GS001 Abstract Paternal authority, according to the existing literature, is of upmost importance to the healthy psychosexual development of a child. Women who were raised with a lack of paternal authority can often face significant setbacks when dealing with everyday life issues. Promiscuity as a self-destructive behavior has substantial consequences often resulting in mental and physical suffering. This qualitative single case study was designed to explore the correlation of promiscuity- as a self-destructive behavior with women who were raised in single-mother households where there was a lack of paternal authority. A single intrinsic case study was used to explore one woman’s battle with promiscuity. The data obtained formed a narrative generated by the triangulation of psychoanalytical therapy sessions, a client intake form and the woman’s journal. A case analysis was performed and later reviewed by an attending mental health clinician. The results indicated the woman manifests the self-destructive behavior of promiscuity at the expense of poor self-esteem which directly correlates with a lack of paternal authority. The disruption of the woman’s psychosexual development in childhood negatively altered her self-image. The woman uses transference in her intimate relationships as a desperate attempt to gain control of her...
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...How To Raise Your Self-Esteem By Stanley J. Gross, Ed.D ~ 2 min read Have you wondered about what self-esteem is and how to get more of it? Do you think your self-esteem is low? Do you know how to tell? Do you know what to do about it? Self-esteem answers the question, “How do I feel about who I am?” We learn self-esteem in our family of origin; we do not inherit it. Global self-esteem (about “who we are”) is normally constant. Situational self-esteem (about what we do) fluctuates, depending on circumstances, roles, and events. Situational self-esteem can be high at one moment (e.g., at work) and low the next (e.g., at home). Low self-esteem is a negative evaluation of oneself. This type of evaluation usually occurs when some circumstance we encounter in our life touches on our sensitivities. We personalize the incident and experience physical, emotional, and cognitive arousal. This is so alarming and confusing that we respond by acting in a self-defeating or self-destructive manner. When that happens, our actions tend to be automatic and impulse-driven; we feel upset or emotionally blocked; our thinking narrows; our self-care deteriorates; we lose our sense of self; we focus on being in control and become self-absorbed. Global self-esteem is not set in stone. Raising it is possible, but not easy. Global self-esteem grows as we face our fears and learn from our experiences. Some of this work may require the aid of a psychotherapist. In the meantime, here is what you can...
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...In his paper, Moral Motivation and Human Nature: Psychological Egoism, Feinberg argues against psychological egoism hedonism by showing that it is paradoxical. Furthermore he shows that this means that arguments for this position are also false. This paper looks to reconstruct this argument, and show the implications of it. Feinberg is arguing against psychological egoism hedonism, which states that humans only act to obtain one’s own pleasure, and hence happiness. Psychological egoism hedonism can be argued for since teaching morality requires incentivising good behaviour with pleasures, and disincentives bad behaviour with pain. Hence, this shows that people act morally as a means to gain pleasure, and thus presupposes Hedonism. Feinberg...
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...bands. With the inherit behaviour of dynamic systems highly sensitive to initial conditions, behaviour of price trends remain a deterministic non-periodic flow, with the perceived construction of trends a by-product of the intra and inter day assorted occurrences exhibiting force upon one another. As the occurrence of these deterministic non-periodic flows exhibit both the reflexivity and factual states of the market; reflexive in its self perpetuating/self defeating distribution, fractural in its display of similar dimensional structure, any qualitative trajectory remains highly dependant on the initial conditions. Given the complex dynamical structure of markets, where the initial conditions remain unstable, bifurcating in accordance with the proceeding reaction or effect, the production of long term (fortnightly, monthly quarterly etc) probability distributions remains highly inaccurate. However, as the use of the mathematical models measuring the structural stability, underlying dynamics and non-linear movement of the basin of attraction, the calculation of the probable short term destiny function (a periodic minute to hourly projected distribution series) is obtainable. The calculation of this short term density function is primarily possible due to measurements in a series which track the movement from a stable system to one that bifurcates into periodic cycles as it approaches an autonomous conditional value, triggering chaotic behaviour (non periodical...
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...Question 1: Explain with an example of counselling problem, how you would apply one theory of learning to solve a problem? Learning is defined as a permanent change in behavior, through experience, study or instructions. Learning theories generally explain how people learn. Ogbebor (2007), states that theory of learning tends to probe into the ways learning occur in animal and man. Learning theories are generally classified into three categories which are; The Behaviorist Theory, The Cognitive Field Theory and the Social Learning Theory. However, there is a fourth theory of learning, which is known as the Humanistic Learning Theory. The importance of learning theories cannot be over-emphasized as they give us an in-depth knowledge of how human beings and animals learn and this knowledge tend to help us develop and modify appropriate ways of teaching the learners. The purpose of this paper is to show how we can possibly use one of these learning theories to solve a counselling problem and it is the desire or this writer therefore, to focus on the behaviorist learning theory which believes that learning occurs as a result of stimulus – response association and the interest of this group is on the overt behavior or human beings. Prominent among these exponents, are; The Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov, Edward L. Thorndike, B. F. Skinner, Watson, Guthrie and C.L. Hull, among others. Beneath the behaviorist theory are the following behavioral therapies which are; the classical...
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...Managing Stress SP202: Chapter 5 Sources of Stress • Environmental Sources of Stress: • Traffic • Noise • Cellphones • Rapid pace of life and busy schedules • Work & study stresses • Financial • Violence and crime PSYCHOLOGICAL SOURCES OF STRESS how we label, interpret, think about, and react to events in our lives has a lot to do with determining whether those events are stressful • Frustration (attainment of goals blocked, both internal and external) • Conflict • Approach-approach conflicts (two things we want which compete e.g., two areas of study) • Avoidance-avoidance conflicts (two things we don’t want, e.g., being unemployed or taking a job we don’t want) • Approach-avoidance conflicts (changing my course to something I prefer but it means starting from the beginning again) • Change (even good change can be stressful) • Pressure (get things done, be perfect, be better, be more, get more) EFFECTS OF STRESS • Fight-or-flight response • Can lead to: psychosomatic illnesses – not your imagination! Ulcers, asthma, hypertention, migraines, cancer, emotional disorders e.g., depression RESILIENCE IN COPING WITH STRESS Capacity of individuals to bounce back from major stress events with minimal negative effects • Liking a challenge – some people enjoy being on their toes, pushed • Strong sense of commitment – these people have well-defined goals, commitment to the ultimate outcome • Internal locus of control –...
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...approach focuses on the behaviour of an individual in order to explain psychological problems. Behaviourists claim that abnormal behaviour is learned through experiences in the same way as most other behaviour through classical and operant conditioning. Behaviourists believe the concept of classical conditioning can be used to explain the development of many abnormal behaviours, including phobias and taste aversions. The theory of classical conditioning is used to explain how behaviour is learnt through ‘stimulus-response’ associations. An event in the environment (stimulus) results in a physiological reaction (response) in the individual. Then the events and reactions are forged into an association which can lead to the development of phobias. For example a person may climb the top of a high hill and when looking down (environmental stimulus) may experience nausea or dizziness (physiological response). This then will be made into a stimulus-response association and will lead to the development of a phobia e.g. the fear of heights, which means the person, will be scared of heights and will avoid them whenever possible. Watson and Rayner demonstrated how phobias are learnt through conditioning in their experiment involving “Little Albert”. They experimented with an 11-month-old boy, ‘little Albert’, producing fear of a white rat by associating it with loud and frightful noise. Skinner (1974) in his theory of operant conditioning explained how our behaviour is influenced by the consequences...
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...counselling and CBT. For example, they are both types of psychological or talking therapies that take place in a private and confidential setting. Counsellors and CBT therapists will treat their clients with respect and refrain from judging or criticising them. Ultimately, counselling and CBT aim to help people to change in some way. CBT is distinct from other counselling approaches insofar as it: Focuses on helping clients to appreciate the link between their thoughts and beliefs about events in their lives and the way they feel. Making this connection raises clients’ awareness of the reasons why they feel and act in self-defeating ways. Prioritises the clients’ present problems and focuses on finding ways in which they can be managed more effectively. Looking at the past can help understand how earlier life experiences have contributed to shaping current beliefs, behaviour and thinking but CBT uses this understanding to change things in client’s lives now rather than dwelling on them. Emphasises the importance of testing out the influence of negative assumptions and predictions against ‘objective evidence in the real world (e.g. helping a client who is anxious about public speaking to test the belief, “I will freeze and forget what I have to say”, by preparing for and doing more public speaking to test out the validity of this prediction. Through this process the client has the opportunity to learn that forgetting what to say is not the end of the world, and that this is something...
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