EPSY 6325 THEORIES OF COUNSELING
STUDY GUIDE: EXISTENTIAL; BEHAVIORAL COG. BEHAVIORAL; GESTALT
BEHAVIORAL
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Pavlov
Wolpe
Skinner
Classical conditioning
Systematic desensitization (define-example)
Learning and behavior change S--->R = B; Operant conditioning
Reinforcement, Extinction, Punishment
Behavior therapy
Goal and characteristics: overt behavior, short, specific goals, active
therapist)
Techniques
Systematic desensitization, flooding, aversive counter-conditioning
contingency contracting (3 steps).
Contributions and limitations.
COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL
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S ---> C ---> R = B
Ellis REBT: role of cognition and emotions in behavioral therapy; A B C D E F of personality
change; role of therapist
Beck: automatic thoughts; cognitive structures (self-schemes) and how they relate to specific
disorders (depression, anxiety); confirmatory bias; distortions in processing information
(arbitrary inference, selective abstraction; overgeneralization; magnification; personalization;
polarized thinking); objective and process of therapy.
Bandura: Social Learning Theory; Reciprocal determinism (interaction between Stimulus (E)
- Cognition - Response (B).
Techniques: Systematic desensitization, flooding, aversive counterconditioning, contingency
contracting; self management programs (3 steps).
EXISTENTIAL
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Concept of man - phenomenological approach
Psychodynamic versus existential approach - source of the conflict
Human conflict - the givens of existence (Death; Freedom-Responsibility; Isolation (Intrapersonal, Inter-personal, and Existential); Boundary situation
Mental Health; existential anxiety versus neurotic anxiety; existential guilt versus neurotic
guilt.
Purpose, process and content of therapy.
Techniques: confrontation, here and now focus and use of the relationship; paradoxical
intention; situational reconstruction; compensatory self-improvement.
Contributions and limitations.
Emphasis of therapy on Gestalt (process vs. content, awareness, contact); therapist’s role
Importance concepts Gestalt: The Now, Unfinished business and Contact/resistance to contact
Gestalt experiments: empty chair, internal dialogue, making the rounds (group) exaggerating
exercise, reversal exercise, staying with the feeling