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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
This unique resource discusses the core concepts of self-evaluation and the WDEP system of reality therapy, and answers the commonly asked question: "How do I intervene with clients who appear to be unmotivated to make changes in their behavior?" Choice theory/reality therapy expert Robert Wubbolding provides mental health professionals with skill-building strategies for helping clients better self-evaluate, embrace the change process, and make more effective life choices. Detailed interventions and sample counselor–client dialogues throughout the book illustrate work with clients dealing with posttraumatic stress, anger issues, grieving and loss, self-injury, antisocial behavior, career concerns, relationship problems, and more. Dr. Wubbolding's techniques are readily applicable to mental health and educational settings, with cross-cultural application to clients of various ages.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1: Human Motivation: “In General Why Do People Do What They Do?”
Reality Therapy Develops
Chapter 2: Human Motivation: “Specifically Why Do People Do What They Do?”
Quality World: Mental Picture Album, Wants and Desires
Comparing Place: Scales
Total Human Behavior: Four Components
Purposes of Human Behavior
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Chapter 3: The Counseling Environment: “How Do I Set the Stage for Self-Evaluation?”
Societal Limitations
Empathy and Trust
Therapeutic Alliance: What Is It?
Establishing the Environment: Helpful Behaviors—Tonics
Establishing the Environment: Unhelpful Behaviors—Toxins
Chapter 4: What Is the WDEP System?
Choice Theory and Reality Therapy: What Is the Difference?
Use of Reality Therapy: The WDEP System Overview
Preliminary Comments About the Dialogues
Case Example: Self-Evaluation of Behavior as Language
Expanding and Extending Reality Therapy Procedures
More Than Questioning
Chapter 5: Career Concerns
Case Example: Self-Evaluation of Quality World Wants—Employer/Employee
Case Example: Counselor as Consultant
Case Example: Employee Evaluating Wants and Actions
Case Example: Helping a Client Explore Wants
Exploring Wants or Goals
Exploring the Client's Level of Commitment
Chapter 6: Cross-Cultural Applications
Case Example: Evaluation of Behavioral Choices and Direction
Case Example: Evaluating Self-Talk More Explicitly
Case Example: Exploring Need Satisfaction by Discussing “What Do You Really Want?” or “What Are You Longing For?”
Exploring the Client's Perception of What Other People Want From Him
Case Example: Evaluation of Perceived Locus of Control
Two Ericksonian Principles
Case Example: Incorporating Two Ericksonian Principles
Chapter 7: Dealing With Loss, Posttraumatic Stress, Self-Injury, Conflict, and Anger
Evaluating Perceptions: Couples Counseling
Case Example: Cross-Cultural Application
Case Example: Posttraumatic Stress
Case Example: Integrated Use of Self-Evaluation
Case Example: Self-Evaluation of Stated Values Versus Behavior
Case Example: Evaluation of Plans
Case Example: Lynn Returns
Chapter 8: Reality Therapy FAQs
What Is the Connection Between Reality Therapy and Spirituality?
Can You Summarize the Value of Learning WDEP?
How Does Reality Therapy Deal With Feelings?
How Is Reality Therapy Connected With Ethical Principles?
What Is the Evidence for the Effective Use of Reality Therapy?
Self-Evaluation Applied to the Professional
A Question for Your Consideration
What Are the Criticisms of Reality Therapy, and How Do You Answer Them?
What Is an “As If” Plan?
Chapter 9: Conclusion
Resources for Further Study
References
Index
Technical Support
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Chapter 1
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Reality Therapy and Self-Evaluation:
The Key to Client Change
Robert E. Wubbolding
AMERICAN COUNSELINGASSOCIATION6101 Stevenson Avenue, Suite 600Alexandria, VA 22304www.counseling.org
Copyright © 2017 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.
American Counseling Association
6101 Stevenson Avenue, Suite 600 • Alexandria, VA 22304
Associate Publisher • Carolyn C. Baker
Digital and Print Development Editor • Nancy Driver
Senior Production Manager • Bonny E. Gaston
Production Coordinator • Karen Thompson
Copy Editor • Kay Mikel
Cover and text design by Bonny E. Gaston.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wubbolding, Robert E., author.
Title: Reality therapy and self-evaluation : the key to client change / Robert E. Wubbolding.
Description: Alexandria, VA : American Counseling Association, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016048750 | ISBN 9781556203701 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Reality therapy. | Psychotherapy. | Counseling psychology.
Classification: LCC RC489.R37 W8264 2017 | DDC 616.89/14–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016048750
Dedication
To the toughest editor I know, my dear wife Sandie, who reviews and edits everything I write. We have been intimate partners in writing this book, and we are the closest of friends. Together we have made countless friends around the world as we travel to far off lands. We are fortunate and grateful to have met and married 34 years ago. Long live our marriage, our love, and our intimate friendship.
Preface
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.Knowing is not enough; we must apply.Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
—Leonardo da Vinci
“Every person is the best judge of what relates to his own interests or concerns . . . errors once discovered are more than half amended.”
—George Washington
In classes, training workshops, conferences, and during supervision, both experienced and neophyte counselors and therapists ask a personal question, “How do I help clients make meaningful changes in their actions, their thinking, and their feelings?” They also ask, “How and when do clients change?” “What motivates clients to alter their behavior?” “How can effective counselors elicit or instill in clients a desire or a motive for changing their behavior?” “How can clients better cope in the face of so many onslaughts from the world around them?”
The purpose of this brief and practical book is to provide answers to these questions as well as to help counselors formulate interventions that are useful in an age of short-term, brief counseling. The techniques presented are action centered, cognitive centered, and affective centered. “Self-evaluation” focuses on clients' explicit and controllable choices, self-talk derived from choice theory, and the emotional component of clients' total behavior. The neophyte counselor trainee and the seasoned professional can immediately implement the interventions described in this book. Moreover, if this book stimulates discussion and serves as a catalyst for conversation among professional people, it will, in my view, be successful. This hope does not minimize the value of the explanations. On the contrary, I believe the explanations add to the respect of choice theory/reality therapy (CT/RT) and place it where it belongs—in the mainstream of the profession of counseling and also in psychological theory and practice.
I am not a disinterested researcher who investigates phenomena as a detached neutral observer. Rather, I am an activist and an advocate for teaching CT/RT as a proven and practical system. In my opinion, a wealth of research provides ample support for the practice of reality therapy. Consequently, I am meticulous in my efforts to achieve both accuracy and precision in presenting both theory and practice.
Although these interventions are easily understood, experience has shown that their effective use requires thoughtful reflection and ongoing self-evaluation of their diverse applications by the user. Discerning counselors' habitual use of these skills over time reveals their subtlety and depth. In addition, I believe that these skills are compatible with cognitive counseling, motivational interviewing, narrative therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, Adlerian counseling, and others. This integration does not diminish the fact that reality therapy is a stand-alone counseling system.
Utilizing the skills derived from this book, counselors are able to practice the art of counseling in a more spontaneous and elegant manner. By introducing advanced techniques based on reality therapy as action, cognition, and emotion centered, you can seamlessly integrate them into your own personal style and repertoire of skills. The counselor–client interactions described in this book will trigger additional questions and exploratory statements that fit individual personalities and enhance a wide range of styles. For instance, when implemented properly, the skill of helping clients self-evaluate becomes more than a formula or a cookbook recipe. Developing appropriate self-evaluation skills and interventions requires practice as well as a willingness to undertake a trial-and-error process.
The skills and techniques described in this book include both questions and explorations that appropriately and readily apply cross culturally. I have conducted training sessions in North America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa and trained instructors in countries around the world, encouraging them to make their own culturally appropriate adaptations. These ideas have been received with enthusiasm, and counselors have been willing to adapt them to their own traditions, customs, and language even though this may involve considerable modification. For example, when teaching in Germany, it became evident that the words power and control presented difficulties that needed detailed explanations as well as adaptations. Similarly, in cultures characterized by indirect communication (a communication style less assertive than that of many Western people), a softer mode of questioning and exploration is required. My friend and colleague Masaki Kakitani, professor emeritus and counselor at Rissyo University Tokyo, Japan, tells me that directly asking “What do you want?” can sound intrusive. His cultural adaptation—“What are you looking for?” or “What are you seeking?”—is more appropriate for Japanese clients. Rose Inza Kim, professor emeritus of Sogang University in Seoul, Korea, and known as the “Glasser of Korea,” has expressed to me that the same holds true of the Korean adaptation of reality therapy. Many of my books have been translated into Japanese, Korean, Croatian, Hebrew, and Arabic, which further illustrates that indigenous peoples find the concepts useful and appealing to counselors as well as being beneficial for their clients.
Of increasing relevance to the use of reality therapy around the world is the need for the practitioner to be aware of various styles of communication and thus to understand how to adapt reality therapy to individual clients. Michio Kaku (2011) presents a far-reaching observation:
In the West, there is an expression “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” But in the East there is another expression: “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” These two expressions are diametrically opposed to each other, but they capture some of the essential features of Western and Eastern thought. (p. 374)
You are invited to interpret this statement and apply it to the theory and practice of reality therapy as you implement the ideas presented in this book.
Chapters 1 and 2 address human motivation: why people do what they do. Human beings possess five genetic, universal needs that are the source of behavior. More specifically, we develop pictures, or specific wants, related to the needs that are unique to each person. Human behavior consists of actions, thinking, feelings, and physiology that spring from our inner world of wants and is an attempt to influence the world for the purpose of achieving need-satisfying perceptions. This statement is clarified in Chapters 1 and 2.
Chapter 3 summarizes specific interventions made by practitioners of reality therapy for the purpose of establishing a safe, warm, and empathic relationship. Chapter 4 constitutes the heart and soul of reality therapy, the WDEP system. This acronym summarizes many direct as well as subtle interventions that are explained and illustrated throughout the book.
Chapters 5, 6, and 7 present specific hypothetical dialogues. Chapter 5 includes the application of reality therapy to two adults: an employee who is unmotivated and drinks excessively, and a culture-specific lonely client seeking a promotion at work.
Chapter 6 introduces four cross-cultural cases, beginning with a troubled adolescent student, followed by a cultural exploration of wants or goals underlying those initially expressed by the client. The third case describes an adult female with a record of arrests for drug dealing who is living in a halfway house and feels lonely, powerless, and unattractive. The final case is of a young male probationer whose ethnicity is not described, which demonstrates the applicability of reality therapy to all clients regardless of ethnicity.
Chapter 7 contains seven case studies. The first case illustrates the use of reality therapy with an adult couple experiencing tension in their relationship. Subsequent to this case is one of a self-referred woman suffering the loss of her husband. The third case focuses on the posttraumatic stress of a 12-year army veteran. The final four cases illustrate applications to an adult female with multiple diagnoses living in poverty with a history of self-injury and child neglect; an adult male who demonstrates a discrepancy between his stated values and his behavior; an adult female who fears that her career might be in jeopardy because of anxiety that is rooted in a serious loss; and, finally, we revisit a teenage client who is dealing with feelings of fear and anger.
Chapter 8 provides answers to questions about spirituality, the value of expressing reality therapy as the WDEP system, the place of feelings and emotions in reality therapy, and the connection between reality therapy and ethics principles. It also provides the answer to the question, “What is the evidence for the effective use of reality therapy?” The chapter ends with a self-evaluation applied to the professional, with questions for your consideration and criticisms of reality therapy.
Chapter 9 summarizes the central place of self-evaluation in reality therapy as described by its founder, psychiatrist William Glasser (1925–2013).
Specific dialogues illustrate many kinds of direct self-evaluations. For example, the interchange between the counselor and Simon in Chapter 5 includes asking Simon whether he believes that his current work habits are helpful or hurtful in keeping his job. Also, Dr. Phil's famous question, “How's that working for you?”, exemplifies a direct inquiry focusing on clients' self-evaluations. Furthermore, the advanced use of self-evaluation skills includes subtle and indirect techniques. Implicit or indirect self-evaluation such as the use of metaphors and stories offers additional pathways for utilizing these keys to client change.
I offer four suggestions for your consideration. First, due to the fact that many graduates of counseling programs and licensed counselors work in agencies that identify them as therapists, in this book I use the terms counseling and therapy interchangeably. However, please note that counseling is not merely an activity; it is an independent profession. Although there are differences between the activities of counseling and psychotherapy, I do not differentiate between the two processes because reality therapy has found a home among a wide variety of mental health workers: counselors, corrections workers, nurses, psychologists, addictions specialists, school counselors, classroom teachers, managers, supervisors, and administrators, to name a few. According to Patterson (1973), “there are no essential differences between counseling and psychotherapy in the nature of the relationship, in the process, in the methods or techniques, in goals or outcomes, or even in the kinds of clients involved” (p. xiv). Nystul (2011) states that “the counseling literature has not made a clear distinction between these concepts, perhaps because the two processes are more similar than different” (p. 6). Nevertheless, if you wish to differentiate between the two, I will not argue the point. Whether you identify yourself as a counselor or a therapist, I believe you will find that you can use the ideas described in this book. In describing the interaction between the professional person and the client, I will, for the most part, refer to the professional person as a “counselor.”
Second, as you read the book, look for surprises and the unexpected, such as the client washing dishes with his mother. Some of the interventions will undoubtedly seem familiar, but others might seem unusual or even startling. There might even be one that dazzles you! When you employ these tactics, you will notice that clients begin to think about their lives in a different way. Frequently, they demonstrate their change of thinking nonverbally. They tend to look up and adopt a hesitating and thoughtful facial expression. If the technique is familiar to you, remember the admonition of the famous British writer Samuel Johnson who observed that we need to be reminded more than we need to be taught. In a like manner, Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “We need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure” (as cited in Sowell, 2015, p. 46). In an overstatement, President Harry Truman observed that the only thing new is the history you do not know. If the technique is new, enjoy it, use it as soon as possible, and don't fret about whether it is old or new.
Third, this is not a book merely about concepts. Included are many examples of dialogues and interactions between counselor and client illustrating a variety of self-evaluations and specific usable interventions. I encourage you to utilize the questions and other interventions in your professional relationships. They may feel awkward at first, but with continued use they will become spontaneous and natural. An important extension of reality therapy counseling is my suggestion that at the end of each session you ask the client, “What was the most useful idea discussed today?” Implementing this simple idea, a question and an answer, requires no more than a few seconds, but it provides the opportunity for clients to evaluate the process and to provide helpful feedback to the counselor. To emphasize the importance of this intervention, I include a question such as, “What was most useful to you in our session today?”
Fourth, be aware that the use of easily understood language is intentional. I have written about self-evaluation with a purposeful focus on the language of everyday living. Very few technical words and phrases are required to explain and learn the powerful interventions defined as “self-evaluation.” Similarly, I hope you will teach these principles to colleagues, clients, families, parent groups, and the public. They are indeed life-changing ideas that, because of down-to-earth language, can be learned not only by licensed professionals but also by people from virtually every background.
Finally, I invite you to contact me with questions, difficulties encountered, and, especially, success stories at [email protected].
Acknowledgments
I am forever indebted to the founder of reality therapy, William Glasser. My mentor died August 23, 2013. I miss his wisdom, his wit, and his unbounded enthusiasm for teaching. Naomi, his first wife, died in December 1992. She was a friend and an enthusiastic supporter of Bill and of the members of the William Glasser Institute. Within a few years, Bill married Carleen Floyd, my wife's best friend, and Carleen Glasser remains committed to keeping Bill's voice alive. During his life, Jon Carlson showed a unique commitment to counseling theory and practice. He assisted many young professionals and pointed the way toward excellence in the world of publishing and counseling. My good friends Jerry and Marianne Corey have always provided encouragement and enthusiasm.
My adaptation of reality therapy to many cultures around the world has been made easy by partnering with John Brickell from the United Kingdom, Leon Lojk from Slovenia, Rose In-Za Kim from South Korea, Masaki Kakitani and Aoki Satoshi from Japan, Kwee Ong, Sister Liz Than, and Evelyn Koh from Singapore, Farida Dias from India, Ali Sahebi from Iran and Australia, Ivan Honey from Australia, as well as students from many continents.
I wish to extend a special acknowledgment to the faculty and students of Xavier University for their support and encouragement. Al Anderson, a professor at Xavier, was a special mentor and friend during my years there; may he rest in peace.
Finally, I cannot pay enough compliments or express my gratitude sufficiently to Carolyn Baker and Nancy Driver whose patience and gentleness are written in the book of life. Working with the entire staff at the American Counseling Association has been a most enjoyable experience.
To those who have died, I say rest in peace. To my many living friends, “Live long and prosper.”
About the Author
Robert E. Wubbolding, EdD, LPCC, NCC, BCC, IABMCP, internationally known teacher, author, and practitioner of reality therapy, has taught choice theory and reality therapy in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa (Morocco). His contributions to the theory and practice include the ideas of Positive Symptoms, The Cycle of Counseling, Five Levels of Commitment, and others. He has also significantly expanded the Procedure of Evaluation. He has written more than 150 articles and essays, 35 chapters in textbooks, 15 books, and published many DVDs on reality therapy. His books include Using Reality Therapy, Understanding Reality Therapy, Reality Therapy for the 21st Century,A Set of Directions for Putting and Keeping Yourself Together, and Reality Therapy: Theories of Psychotherapy Series (published by the American Psychological Association), and he is coeditor for Contemporary Issues in Couples Counseling and coauthor of Counselling With Reality Therapy (2nd ed., Speechmark, London, UK).
He is professor emeritus at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. His busy professional life includes being director of the Center for Reality Therapy and senior faculty for William Glasser International. He was personally appointed by William Glasser to be the first Director of Training for the institute. In this position he coordinated and monitored the Certification, Supervisor, and Instructor Training programs (1988–2011). Currently, he is also faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University and is a board-certified coach.
Formerly, he consulted with the drug and alcohol abuse programs of the U.S. Army and Air Force. He was a group counselor at a halfway house for women, an elementary and secondary school counselor, a high school teacher, and a teacher of adult basic education. For 2 years he taught for the University of Southern California in their overseas programs in Japan, South Korea, and Germany.
Professional memberships include Professional Clinical Counselor, Psychologist, member of the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Mental Health Counseling Association, and many other national and state psychological and counseling associations.
His personal mission is to “Keep the flag flying.” His goal is to maintain and expand the system of reality therapy founded by William Glasser, who wrote an introduction to his book and stated, “He is one of my closest and most trusted associates. I couldn't recommend anyone more highly.”
Whenever he writes, he depends on his wife of more than three decades, Sandie, whom he describes as his best friend, “finicky” editor, and who he says challenges him every day to be the best person he can be.
Awards include the Marvin Rammelsberg Award, presented to a person in a helping profession best exemplifying qualities of friendship, brotherhood, and humanitarianism, displaying exemplary leadership qualities, and making outstanding contributions to professional organizations; the Herman J. Peters Award for exemplary leadership to promote the profession of counseling; the Greater Cincinnati Counseling Association unique Recognition of Merit Award; the Mary Corre Foster Award for exemplifying qualities of leadership within the counseling profession and promoting the standards of excellence within the profession; Distinguished Alumnus Award, College of Education, University of Cincinnati, 2002; Distinguished Counseling Graduate of the 1970s decade, Counseling Department, College of Education, University of Cincinnati, 2005. In 2009 he was given the Gratitude Award for Initiating Reality Therapy in the United Kingdom from the Institute for Reality Therapy United Kingdom. Also in 2009 he was awarded the Certificate of Reality Therapy Psychotherapist by the European Association for Psychotherapy. In 2014 he was honored as a “Living Legend in Counseling” at the American Counseling Association Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2015, the Malta Reality Therapy Association made him an honorary member because of his work in introducing reality therapy to their country. In 2015, he was invited to deliver the keynote address at the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Japan Reality Therapy Association, Tokyo, Japan. In 2016, he received the title “Friend of William Glasser Institute Singapore,” in Singapore. In 2016, he was invited to deliver the keynote address to the first international William Glasser Institute Conference held in Asia, in Seoul, South Korea.
Currently he spends his time teaching reality therapy around the world with his wife, Sandie, and introducing reality therapy to new audiences, cultures, and professions.
Chapter 1Human Motivation: “In General Why Do People Do What They Do?”
The origins of reality therapy are rooted in the experience of psychiatrist William Glasser. He was formed by the conventional psychiatric training of the 1950s and 1960s, but Glasser came to believe that helping clients gain insight and study their early childhood conflicts did not necessarily cause behavioral change. He also noted that the successful therapy given to mental patients included holding them responsible for their behavior without blaming the world around them, their childhood, their parents, or their culture. He discussed this apparent anomaly with his supervisor, whom he referred to throughout his life as “my teacher, Dr. Harrington.” In a well-known and oft quoted gesture, Dr. Harrington reached across his desk and said, “Welcome to the club.” Thus reality therapy was given birth (Roy, 2014).
Reality Therapy Develops
As Glasser became a public figure lecturing throughout North America and Canada, his audiences consisted of counselors and therapists as well as educators at every level. After publishing Reality Therapy (1965), he crystalized his ideas as they applied to schools in his book Schools Without Failure (1968).
The Anchor and Mainstay of Reality Therapy
Why did counselors, therapists, and teachers find reality therapy appealing and effective? This is the key question answered throughout this book. In general, the counseling intervention known as self-evaluation—the core and cornerstone of reality therapy—is usable with virtually any client and adaptable to every known culture. The latter part of this statement might seem grandiose and simplistic; however, I have personally seen indigenous instructors adapt this principle to non-Western cultures. For example, when teaching in Singapore, I learned that helping clients self-evaluate means encouraging them to disclose how their parents and even grandparents would see their behavior and asking, “Is it helpful or unhelpful?” Glasser (1972) described self-evaluation as the basis for change. It can be very helpful to counselors regardless of their theoretical orientation. Glasser even extended its application to organizational development where it serves as an essential component of the Glasser Quality School. Qualifying as a Glasser Quality School results from thoroughly and comprehensively implementing the principles of choice theory/reality therapy (CT/RT) for several years and attaining goals of increased student achievement and behavioral improvement. Then, with administrative, staff, and parental involvement, through self-evaluation based on criteria established by the William Glasser Institute (now known as William Glasser International), the school declares itself a Glasser Quality School (Glasser, 1990; Wubbolding, 2007).
Reality Therapy Finds a Validating Theory
Choice theory, along with its application through reality therapy, provides the bedrock principles for self-evaluation. For the sake of brevity and because this book focuses on self-evaluation within the context of counseling, I refer to this complete system (theory and application) with the term reality therapy. This is the standard practice represented in many textbooks such as Capuzzi and Stauffer (2016), Corey (2017), Tinsley, Lease, and Wiersma (2016), and many others.
Glasser (1981, 1984) at first accepted the terms control theory or control system theory for validating the delivery system of reality therapy. The theoretical principles date to the 1940s. Even before that, John von Neumann, an associate of Albert Einstein, foreshadowed the use of analog and digital computers as an explanation for the human nervous system (Powers, 1973). More proximately, the influential writer Norbert Wiener (1948, 1952) described the brain as a negative input control system whose behavior is purposeful. When it is not achieving its purpose, it receives negative input that it is not on target; then it corrects its trajectory to align itself with its targeted goal, much like a torpedo or a rocket.
Similarly, according to control theory, the human brain functions analogously to a thermostat that reads the temperature in the room and signals its heating or air conditioning system to correct what might be called its behavior. It cools or heats the room for the purpose of achieving its goal, which is maintaining the room's preset or desired temperature.
With the emphasis on human choice and its corollary personal responsibility, Glasser (1998) significantly altered control theory. Consequently, he renamed this new version “choice theory.” A detailed rationale for this change is described in Glasser's book Choice Theory (1998), my book Reality Therapy for the 21st Century (Wubbolding, 2000b), and William Glasser's biography, William Glasser: Champion of Choice (Roy, 2014).
Principles of Human Motivation
Describing both the connection and the distinction between choice theory and its delivery system, Glasser and Glasser (2008) state, “Choice theory is the track and reality therapy is the train” (p. 1). CT/RT interface with each other and yet are separable. They are like two hands folded together: interdependent and yet independent.
Choice theory, the foundation for reality therapy procedures, especially self-evaluation, is summarized in the following principles.
The first principle is that human motivation originates within the human person. This means that human behavior cannot be completely coerced. The world outside the human mind does not force people to behave in a predetermined manner. The external world has a major influence on how people live, and it is quite evident that other people can be very persuasive. Al Capone once remarked that he could get what he wanted with a kind word and a gun more efficiently than with only a kind word. Nevertheless, people always retain at least some control over their actions. History is filled with examples of people refusing to alter their beliefs even to the point of suffering; such martyrs realized that they had choices.
From the point of view of choice theory, people generate behaviors for the purpose of satisfying five universal needs or genetic instructions. I prefer to describe these five motivators as somewhat hierarchical. The need for survival or self-preservation is more basic than the four psychological needs: belonging, inner control, freedom, and fun. Starving individuals often ignore the other needs in order to preserve their lives. Also, the need for belonging, although not as basic as survival, nevertheless occupies a central place in choice theory and therefore in the practice of reality therapy. Human service workers who work with the poorest of the poor are often faced with client problems that appear to have no solution. Their problems are many and their intensity is both extreme and fierce. The workers are at a loss, and they themselves feel helpless. Yet they can provide at least a modicum of assistance by helping their clients improve at least one human relationship. The five universal human needs are discussed in the following sections.
Belonging or Involvement With People
A counselor would find it impossible to identify a problem that does not at least contain a relationship issue. Consequently, counselors utilizing reality therapy often explore the interpersonal relationships of their clients. In his lectures, Glasser emphasized his belief that most long-term psychological problems are, in fact, relationship problems. I prefer to temper this principle by teaching that regardless of the presenting issue, improving human relationships helps to alleviate pain and suffering. The need for belonging can be made more concrete by recognizing three kinds of belonging: family belonging, work belonging, and social belonging. This need expresses itself primarily in the family. Children need to feel safe, nurtured, and appreciated, and as they grow, they need to feel valued. Children are born with a need to connect with the people around them. When I teach choice theory and reality therapy, I ask participants what they like about their jobs. A high percentage invariably answer, “The people I work with.” When workers feel appreciated and connected with their peers, their productivity increases, and, even more important, they satisfy their need for belonging on the job. Homeless individuals lack employment but often satisfy their need for belonging by associating with other homeless people. Social belonging means friendship. This is especially evident at times of transition, such as transferring from one school to another, changing jobs, or changing residences. In working with military families, a counselor needs to assist the children to adapt to frequently changing schools and making new friends to building support systems (“Understanding Military Culture,” 2016). Helping clients satisfy the multifaceted need for belonging constitutes a major focus for the practitioner of reality therapy. The need for belonging is often unfulfilled and even assaulted by the use of toxic behaviors such as arguing, blaming, and criticizing.
Discussion Questions
What additional aspects of the need for belonging can you describe?
In what ways can you apply the need for belonging in your counseling?
What role does belonging play in your life?
Power or Inner Control, Including Competence and Achievement
In addition to belonging, counselors often help clients satisfy their need for power. Like belonging, this source of human motivation expresses itself in a variety of ways. The satisfaction of power often means that one individual wins at the expense of another. Athletes, politicians, people seeking jobs or promotions, even rivalries in love relationships often involve the satisfaction or the frustration of the need for power. One person feels rewarded or fulfilled and the other person feels deprived or unfulfilled. In short, the drive for power often involves winning and losing.
The word power derives from the French word pouvoir, meaning to be able or capable without reference to the deprivation of another person. Upon receiving good news from a surgeon, a patient feels a sense of inner satisfaction, a feeling of inner control, without the thought that someone else is deprived of good health. This aspect of power underlies many human behaviors. When driving to a specific destination in an unfamiliar city, a sense of achievement or accomplishment often follows arrival at the journey's end. Some airline passengers feel a much higher degree of inner control when the plane's wheels touch the ground after a turbulent flight. These illustrations point to the undeniable fact that human behavior springing from power need not be competitive.
Though it is connected with belonging, the satisfaction of the power need also involves gaining recognition. This story is told about the New York Yankees baseball star Mickey Mantle. After his retirement, he was attending a party on an upper floor in a hotel during a heavy rainstorm, and he was standing with his ear close to the window. Someone asked him about this, and his comment was that the rain sounded like applause. Evidently he missed the accustomed recognition he received while on the baseball field. Incidentally, he also holds the record for the longest homerun ever hit in baseball: 734 feet, May 22, 1963, at Yankee Stadium against Kansas City off pitcher Bill Fischer. This achievement, discussed among baseball fans even today, represents the satisfaction of the power need. The question is, “Could Bill Fischer also feel a sense of recognition?”
Discussion Questions
In what other ways do people seek and gain recognition?
How do the following satisfy the need for power or recognition or inner self-satisfaction: salary or compensation for work, medals for achievement or bravery, awards, verbal compliments, “pats on the back”?
How does this description of power apply to you? Is your need for power centered on inner control or recognition fulfilled as much as you desire?
Freedom or Independence
Human beings are born with the need for freedom. This need becomes more obvious as the child grows and matures. Freedom relates to the urge to make choices. For a child this need is often expressed by the response, “No.” Growth and maturity bring its own developmental tasks and expressions of the need for freedom. Every parent and teacher has experienced children who seek freedom from the restraints, rules, and expectations of authorities. Independence is closely related to freedom and implies the need expressed popularly by the phrase, “Standing on my own two feet.” Many individuals seek a wide latitude for making choices, whereas others paradoxically feel free when they live in a more externally structured world. The need for freedom is expressed in many ways. Viktor Frankl's experience, described in his classic book Man's Search for Meaning (1963), illustrates that freedom can exist in the midst of unspeakable external restraints. A prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, he described how he retained a deep sense of freedom. He had the choice of how he would perceive the diabolical world around him. He chose to see his experience as having purpose and meaning and was able to satisfy at least to some extent his need for freedom. I will later refer to this heroic man several times.
Discussion Questions
How can people meet their need for freedom and independence at various stages of development, such as in late adulthood (people over 70 years of age)?
How would you assist a client who feels rejected and oppressed by society, such as an ex-prisoner, an ethnic minority person, or an individual with Tourette's syndrome?
How do you experience freedom or independence in your own life, and do you see any overlap between freedom and power? If so, in what ways?
Fun or Enjoyment
To state that fun is a basic human need at first might appear to be a superficial concept. However, even a superficial reading of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (APA, 2013) reveals that individuals with mental disorders lack skill in satisfying their need for fun. The following words are not listed in the index: fun, enjoyment, laughter, endorphins. More specifically, a random selection of the diagnostic criteria for specific disorders describes behaviors that are the opposite of fun. Among the criteria describing Intermittent Explosive Disorder are outbursts accompanied by distress, verbal aggression such as temper tantrums and tirades, and other behaviors devoid of fun (p. 466 ff). Similarly, the diagnostic criteria for Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia) include poor appetite, insomnia, low energy, low self-esteem, poor concentration, and feelings of hopelessness (p. 168 ff). These are hardly characteristics of fun or enjoyment.
Laughter and humor have many benefits, including medical healing qualities. Bernie Siegel (2011) states, “Studies show that cancer patients who laugh several times a day for no other reason live longer than those who do not laugh. So every few hours treat yourself to a laugh and those around you will thank you too because laughter is contagious and he who laughs, lasts.”
Glasser (2005b) asserts that satisfying the need for fun facilitates learning. Through play children learn mathematics, develop reading skills, and enhance their socialization abilities. John Cleese, the British comedian and writer, states that he who laughs most learns best. Maria Montessori's frequently quoted philosophy included, “What is learned through play is there to stay.”
Discussion Questions
Why do you think fun and enjoyment are not emphasized in the literature on mental health?
How can you help clients more effectively fulfill their need for fun and enjoyment as you counsel them?
Are you having fun yet? Please justify your answer.
Survival or Self-Preservation
The most basic human need or motivator is staying alive. The many functions of the human body work to preserve health and maintain life. For instance, the very fact that it is called the circulatory system implies that blood moves about the body and brings nutrients to its organs and helps to dispose of waste. When a human being feels a severe threat or excitement, the body secretes the hormone adrenaline, which constricts the blood vessels of the belly and skin, making more blood available for the heart, lungs, and voluntary muscles. It provides an emergency preparation for the stress reaction “fight or flight or freeze.”
In a sense, the human body sends signals to which we are well advised to listen. Pain and many other signals communicate that all is not well and that some action is required. Although counselors do not practice medicine, they can ask clients how their total behavior (action, thinking, and feelings) has affected their health and survival behaviors. Loss of sleep, poor diet, stressful lifestyle, and many other health-related behaviors influence the satisfaction of the psychological needs: belonging, power/inner control, freedom/independence, and fun/enjoyment. Even Freud recognized that the survival needs and their derivatives are basic to effective living; he once stated that a man with a toothache cannot be in love.
Discussion Questions
How have you dealt with a client whose presenting issue is clearly the need for survival?
How do you see yourself connecting the need for survival with the psychological needs?
What does your own self-evaluation look like regarding your need for survival, more specifically addressing diet, exercise, and recreation?
The five individual human needs constitute a system of human motivation that Glasser (2003) described as genetic instructions. In this view of human motivation, human beings possess innate drives from which their behavior springs, especially their choices. The individual needs overlap with each other. For example, frequently we choose to have fun with other people, satisfying both fun and belonging needs. Choosing an exciting activity such as skiing, bungee jumping, sky diving, or playing a successful game of golf on a sunny day results in the satisfaction of inner control, fun, freedom, and, especially, belonging.
The individual needs are not only genetic; they are also generic. They are general, not specific. They are analogous to empty salad bowls that are functional only when they contain specifics. These specifics are precise pictures of what is desirable. An individual has a need for belonging and satisfies it by inserting a specific image of a partner or a pet.
The needs can vary in levels of intensity. For some individuals, a high need for belonging is more prominent and intense than the need for power or independence. Comedians have a high need for fun and have converted it into a career, thus combining it with the need for power or achievement and survival.
Central to understanding the significance of the need system is the realization that it functions in the here and now, or in the present. Behavioral choices spring from current motivations. This controversial principle means that everything people do is done to satisfy current motivations. The controversial corollary is that past behavior, such as early childhood experiences, though influential, do not dictate current behavior choices. A person suffering from childhood trauma or from a near death experience during wartime or any other time need not be permanently imprisoned by these memories. Such a client can learn to satisfy current needs more effectively by learning the principles of choice theory and the components of reality therapy. The case of Vivian in Chapter 7 illustrates this principle.
In making choice theory operational through the use of reality therapy, counselors can use the five needs as a diagnostic schema to help clients identify deficits that will lead to effective treatment planning (Fulkerson, 2014).
Finally, choice theory is best viewed as an open system, flexible enough to incorporate additions. Some counselors add the need for faith or for a higher power. Frankl (1963) saved his own life with the belief that the most fundamental human need is a sense of meaning and purpose. This principle is congruent with, but additional to, the basic theory taught by William Glasser: choice theory.
Chapter 2Human Motivation: “Specifically Why Do People Do What They Do?”
The second principle of human motivation is an extension of the principle described in Chapter 1. The human needs are general, universal motivators. Additional specific motivators spring from the five human needs described in Chapter 1.
