Foundations of Clinical Psychology Discussion 6 Title: Theories of Psychotherapy & Counseling: Concepts and Cases Author: Richard Sharf Publisher: Cengage Learning Edition: 6th ISBN Code: 9781305087323 ISBN Code 2: 9781305087323In family therapy, understanding and changing the patterns of interaction within the family system are considered key to resolving individual and family issues. Discuss why a deep understanding of the roles and relationships among family members is crucial to the therapeutic process and how family therapy can help uncover and resolve underlying family conflicts?
Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History
of Psychology
Eighth Edition
Chapter 14
Gestalt Psychology
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
After reading and discussing Chapter 14, students
should:
• Be familiar with the antecedents of Gestalt
psychology.
• Be acquainted with the founding of Gestalt psychology
and the individuals involved.
• Understand the basic principles of Gestalt psychology.
• Be familiar with the Gestalt explanation of learning.
• Be acquainted with applications of Gestalt views on
productive thinking and education.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
•
•
Understand the basics of Lewin’s field theory and its
application, conflicts, and group dynamics.
Describe the impact of Gestalt psychology.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Antecedents of Gestalt Psychology (1 of 3)
•
German psychologists took issue with Wundt’s elementism
–
Several German psychologists argued that consciousness
could not be reduced to elements without distorting the true
meaning of conscious experience.
–
People experience things in meaningful, intact configurations
which are termed Gestalt and this type of psychology was to
be called Gestalt psychology.
–
They advocated a molar approach, which concentrates on
phenomenological experience—mental experience as it
occurred to the naïve observer, without further analysis
(experience as it appears in consciousness).
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Antecedents of Gestalt Psychology (2 of 3)
•
Philosophers/antecedent views
– Immanuel Kant and the Gestaltists both believed that
consciousness cannot be reduced to sensory stimulation,
and conscious experience is different from the elements
that compose it.
– Ernst Mach postulated that two perceptions, space form
and time form, appeared to be independent of the
particular elements that composed them.
– Christian von Ehrenfels influenced Wertheimer (one of the
founders of Gestalt psychology) as an instructor of several
courses.
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Antecedents of Gestalt Psychology (3 of 3)
– Ehrenfels (and Mach) proposed that form is something
that emerges from the elements of sensation.
– William James postulated a stream of consciousness in
contrast to the mind being composed of isolated mental
elements.
?
–
The stream should be the focus of psychological inquiry;
any attempt to break it up for more detailed analysis must
be avoided.
Köhler was well versed in physics and Gestalt psychology
represented an effort to model psychology after field theory
instead of Newtonian physics.
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The Founding of Gestalt Psychology
(1 of 2)
•
Max Wertheimer
–
–
–
–
–
Used the phi phenomenon, a perception of apparent movement
when the elements of the experience are, in fact, stationary.
Proposed that our perceptions are different than the sensations
that comprise them.
His paper describing this phenomenon is customarily taken as
the formal beginning of Gestalt psychology.
In addition to presenting the initial ideas for Gestalt psychology,
his two research assistants at the time of this research were
Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler.
These three individuals are considered the cofounders of
Gestalt psychology.
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The Founding of Gestalt Psychology
(2 of 2)
•
Kurt Koffka
– Wrote several books and articles regarding Gestalt
psychology.
– His article entitled, “Perception: An introduction to
Gestalt-theorie,” was believed to provide a
misrepresentation that Gestaltists were only
interested in perception.
•
Wolfgang Köhler
– He did research regarding aspects of learning which
greatly influenced Gestalt ideas, including the nature
of learning in chimpanzees.
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Isomorphism and the law of Prägnanz
(1 of 5)
•
Field theory
– Gestaltists propose that the brain contains structural
fields of electrochemical forces.
?
Upon entering a field, sensory data both modify the
structure of the field and are modified by the field. Our
experience results from the interaction of the sensory
data and the force fields in the brain.
– Cognitive experience results from the fields of brain
activity transforming sensory data and giving that data
characteristics it otherwise would not possess.
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Isomorphism and the law of Prägnanz
(2 of 5)
– According to this analysis, the whole (electrochemical
force fields in the brain) exists prior to the parts
(individual sensations) and it is the whole that gives the
parts their identity and meaning.
•
Psychophysical isomorphism
– The force fields in the brain transform incoming sensory
data and that is the transformed data that we experience
consciously.
– Isomorphism comes from the Greek meaning “similar
shape.”
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Isomorphism and the law of Prägnanz
(3 of 5)
– The patterns of brain activity and the patterns of
conscious experience are structurally equivalent.
•
Brain is a dynamic configuration of forces that
transforms sensory information
– Instead of viewing the brain as a passive receiver and
recorder of sensory information
– The notion of isomorphism necessitated an opposition
to the constancy hypothesis, which states there is a
one-to-one correspondence between environmental
stimuli and sensations.
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Isomorphism and the law of Prägnanz
(4 of 5)
•
Top down analysis
– For Gestalt psychology, organized brain activity
dominates our perception, not the stimuli that enter
into that activity.
?
Therefore, the whole is more important than the parts,
thus reversing one of psychology’s oldest traditions.
– Analysis proceeded from the top to the bottom
instead of from the bottom to the top, in other words
analysis proceeded from the whole to the parts.
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Isomorphism and the law of Prägnanz
(5 of 5)
•
Law of Prägnanz
– The psychological organization will always be as good
as conditions allow because fields of brain activity will
always distribute themselves in the simplest way
possible under the prevailing conditions.
– The law asserts that all cognitive experiences will tend to
be as organized, symmetrical, simple, and regular as
they can be, given the pattern of brain activity at any
given moment.
?
This is what “as good as conditions allow” means.
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Perception (1 of 4)
•
Perceptual constancy
– The way we respond to objects as if they are the
same, even though the actual stimulation our senses
receive may vary greatly.
– This phenomenon is not a function of sensation plus
learning but is a function of the ongoing brain activity
and the fields’ activity.
•
Perceptual Gestalten (figure-ground and principles
of organization)
– Figure-ground
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Perception (2 of 4)
?
The perceptual field can be divided into two parts, the
figure and the ground. The figure is clear and unified and
is the object of attention, the ground is diffuse and
consists of everything that is not being attended to. The
division creates a figure-ground relationship and what is
the figure and what is the ground can be changed by
shifting one’s attention.
– Continuity
?
Stimuli that have continuity with one another (intrinsic
togetherness, seem to go together) will be experienced
as a perceptual unit to make a whole.
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Perception (3 of 4)
– Proximity
?
Stimuli, which are close together, tend to be grouped
together as a perceptual unit.
– Inclusiveness
?
When there is more than one figure, we are most likely to
see the figure that contains the greatest number of stimuli.
– Similarity
?
Objects that are similar in some way tend to form
perceptual units.
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Perception (4 of 4)
– Closure
?
•
Incomplete figures in the physical world are perceived as
complete ones. For example, if we have figures with gaps
in them we fill in the gaps to make a whole.
Subjective and Objective Reality
– Koffka distinguished between the geographical
environment (physical environment) and the behavioral
environment (our subjective interpretation of the
geographical environment).
– Our own subjective reality governs our actions more
than the physical environment.
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Gestalt Explanations of Learning (1 of 3)
•
Cognitive trial and error
– Instead of behavioral trial and error, the Gestaltists
believed that cognitive trial and error occurs
?
Organisms come to see solutions to problems.
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The Gestalt Explanations of Learning
(2 of 3)
•
Insight learning
– If a problem is presented to an organism along with
whatever is necessary to solve the problem, insight
learning will typically occur.
– Insight learning has basically four characteristics:
1. The transition from no solution to solution is sudden
and complete
2. Performance based on the insightful solution is usually
smooth and free of errors
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The Gestalt Explanations of Learning
(3 of 3)
3. A solution gained by insight is retained for a considerable
length of time
4. A principle gained by insight is easily applied to other
problems.
•
Transposition
– An organism learns principles or relationships, not
specific responses to specific situations.
– Once it learns a principle, the organism applies it to
similar situations.
– Similar to transfer of training.
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Productive Thinking (1 of 4)
•
Productive thinking
– The ideas presented in the book Productive Thinking
by Wertheimer were based on personal experience,
experimentation, and interviews with people
considered excellent problem solvers, such as
Einstein.
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Productive Thinking (2 of 4)
– Learning based on Gestalt principles would be based on
understanding the structure of the problem, followed by
the solution and the solution is reinforcing
?
Learning and problem solving are intrinsically reinforcing.
– This is top-down learning in contrast to rote
memorization or learning based on logic and typical of
most education systems.
– Learning and problem solving governed by intrinsic
motivation rather than extrinsic motivation
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Productive Thinking (3 of 4)
•
Memory
– A memory process is the brain activity caused by a
specific environmental event.
– When the event ends, so does the brain activity it
caused
?
However, a remnant, a memory trace, remains in the
brain.
– We also remember things in general terms rather
than by specific characteristics.
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Productive Thinking (4 of 4)
– Individual traces gives way to a trace system, which is
the consolidation of a number of interrelated
experiences.
– The interaction of traces and trace systems with
memory processes results in our perceptions and
memories being smoother and better organized than
they otherwise would be.
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Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory (1 of 6)
•
Theory
– Aristotle vs. Galileo
?
?
?
?
Aristotle emphasized inner essences and categories
Galileo emphasized outer causation and the dynamics of
forces.
Lewin saw Galileo as revolutionizing science when he
changed its focus from inner causation to a more
comprehensive notion of causation, in which the behavior
of an object or organism is determined by the total forces
acting on the object or organism at the moment.
For Lewin, complex dynamic forces acting on an individual
at a given moment explains human behavior.
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Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory (2 of 6)
– Life Space
?
?
?
Consists of all influences acting on him or her at a given
time.
These influences, called psychological facts, consist of an
awareness of internal events, external events and
recollections of prior experiences.
To be a psychological fact, it must exist in a person’s
awareness at the moment.
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Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory (3 of 6)
?
Only those facts that are currently present in the life
space can influence a person’s thinking and behavior.
o
?
This is called the principle of contemporaneity.
The life space also contains imagined events.
– Motivation
?
Biological and psychological needs cause tension in
the life space, and the satisfaction of the need reduces
the tension.
o
Psychological needs are called quasi needs.
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Lewin’s Field Theory (4 of 6)
?
Zeigarnik effect
o
The tendency to remember uncompleted tasks better than
completed tasks.
?
The explanation was that for an uncompleted task the
associated tension is never reduced therefore, the task remains
as an intention, and as such remains as part of the person’s life
space. Thus, we remember the uncompleted task better than
the completed task.
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Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory (5 of 6)
•
Application
– Conflict
?
Lewin investigated three types of conflict:
o
o
o
Approach–approach conflict
Avoidance–avoidance conflict
Approach–avoidance conflict.
– Group dynamics
?
For Lewin, a group can be viewed as a physical system
and the behavior of the individual elements is determined
by the configuration of the existing field of energy.
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Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory (6 of 6)
?
?
?
The nature of configuration of a group will strongly influence
the behavior of its members.
Members of each group has what Lewin called a dynamic
interdependence.
Studies of group dynamics led to encounter groups,
sensitivity training, and leadership institutes.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
The Impact of Gestalt Psychology
•
•
Gestalt psychology have been assimilated into
modern psychology, and therefore Gestalt
psychology has lost its distinctiveness as a school.
Gestalt psychology influenced
– Cognitive psychology
– Social psychology
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Hergenhahn’s An Introduction to the History
of Psychology
Eighth Edition
Chapter 15
Early Considerations of
Mental Illness
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
After reading and discussing Chapter 15, students should:
• Be familiar with the views and definitions of mental
illness.
• Be acquainted with early explanations of mental illness.
• Be acquainted with early approaches to treatment of
mental illness.
• Know of the events and people involved in the
improvement of treatment for people with mental
illness.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
•
•
Be able to contrast psychological and medical
models of mental illness.
Be familiar with the early development and use of
hypnosis as treatment of psychological disorders.
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What Is Mental Illness? (1 of 3)
• Several terms used as names
– Several terms have been used throughout history for
what we may consider mental illness.
– Historically, terms used were mad, lunatic, maniac, and
insane; currently, terms such as psychopathology and
abnormal behavior are used in addition to mental illness.
•
Characteristics
– Several recurring themes are part of the description
– Cultural beliefs and traditions affect what a society may
call abnormal or not.
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What Is Mental Illness? (2 of 3)
– Harmful behavior
?
Behavior which is self-mutilating or suicidal is generally
considered abnormal.
– Unrealistic thoughts and perceptions
?
A person’s beliefs or perceptions which differ markedly
from those considered normal at a certain time and
place in history are considered abnormal and signs of
mental illness.
o
Delusions are abnormal beliefs, hallucinations are
abnormal perceptions.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
What is mental illness? (3 of 3)
– Inappropriate emotions
?
Emotional displays are inappropriate based on the
community in which one lives
o
The person is often said to be mental ill.
– Unpredictable behavior
?
Beliefs and emotions experience sudden shifts
o
This may be a sign of mental illness.
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Early Explanations of Mental
Illness (1 of 3)
•
Biological
– Typically referred to as the medical model of mental
illness
?
Assumes that all disease is caused by a malfunction of
some aspect of the body, mainly the brain.
– These malfunctions may be inherited either directly or
indirectly, such as a predisposition toward mental illness.
– Other events which may affect biological functioning, may
also result in problems, such as injuries, tumors, toxins,
pollution, disease, excessive stress, physiological
imbalances, among other things.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Early Explanations of Mental
Illness (2 of 3)
•
Psychological
– Psychological events are the causes of abnormal
behavior
?
Events such as grief, anxiety, fear, disappointment,
frustration, guilt, or conflict are emphasized.
– Biological and psychological explanations of mental
illness most often exist simultaneously.
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Early Explanations of Mental
Illness (3 of 3)
•
Supernatural
– Disorders, both mental and physical, are inflicted on
people by some mortal or immortal beings.
– This model was popular during the Middle Ages.
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Early Approaches to Treatment of Mental
Illness (1 of 9)
•
Psychotherapy
– Defined as any attempt to help a person with a mental
disturbance.
– The common elements in the psychotherapy situation has
always been a sufferer, a helper, and a systematic ritual
or practice through which help is proffered.
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Early Approaches to Treatment of Mental
Illness (2 of 9)
– The basic reasons for seeking help have been
1) Removing, modifying, or controlling distressing
psychological states
2) Changing undesirable behavior patterns
3) Promoting more positive personal growth and the
development of greater meaning in one’s life.
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Early Approaches to Treatment of Mental
Illness (3 of 9)
•
Psychological
– Therapist’s job to help the person change behavior
?
This may take and has taken many different forms.
– These forms range from observing (by watching a
drama) or personally reenacting a traumatic
experience in order to create a catharsis, listening to
relaxing music, offering support, reassurance, and
love, and analyzing dreams, to teaching better coping
skills.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Early Approaches to Treatment of Mental
Illness (4 of 9)
– Natural law
?
•
Belief that you get what you deserve in life.
Supernatural
– To dispel supernatural forces from the person, the
primitive doctor/priest/“therapist” would attempt to
coax the invading forces out by various means
?
Ranged from appeals and bribery to exorcism, magical
rituals, trepanation and incantations.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Early Approaches to Treatment of Mental
Illness (5 of 9)
–
Physical actions were also used to rid the person of
the “spirits” causing the problems
?
Examples:
o Bleeding a patient
o Removing a portion of the skull (called trepanation)
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Early Approaches to Treatment of Mental
Illness (6 of 9)
?
Sympathetic Magic: Two types
o Homeopathic magic
? Based on the principle of similarity; belief that what one did
to a model of a person would affect the person.
o Contagious magic
? Based on the principle of contiguity; belief that what was
once close to someone would continue to exert influence on
that person.
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Early Approaches to Treatment of Mental
Illness (7 of 9)
•
Biological
– Hippocrates and later Galen proposed that many
ailments were a function of bodily, natural causes
?
Thus natural remedies were prescribed.
– Things such as baths, fresh air, special diets, and rest
were prescribed.
– It was the condition of the brain then, that determined
whether a person was mentally normal or abnormal.
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Early Approaches to Treatment of Mental
Illness (8 of 9)
•
Return of the Supernatural Approach
– Took place during the Middle Ages and had a religious
bent.
– People with abnormal behavior were seen as possessed
by demons or witches or in some other way in alliance
with the devil.
– The ages of the witch hunts and the inquisition began in
this time but carried through into the Renaissance and
Reformation.
?
The Malleus Maleficarum was the official manual for the
Inquisition
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Early Approaches to Treatment of Mental
Illness (9 of 9)
– In the Renaissance, many people with mental illness
were locked up in “lunatic asylums.”
?
One such famous asylum was St. Mary of Bethlehem
Hospital. It came to be known as Bedlam, this institution
was typical of such places at the time, inmates were
chained, beaten, fed only enough to stay alive, subjected
to bloodletting, and put on public display for visitors.
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Improvement in the Treatment of Mental
Illness (1 of 6)
•
Middle Ages
– Despite the witch hunts and trials and persecutions,
several people argued against the notion of
possession by evil spirits and believed that natural
causes and natural remedies could be beneficial for
those behaving abnormally.
– Around the 1600s mental illness began to be viewed
as having natural rather than supernatural causes,
but it was still poorly understood.
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Improvement in the Treatment of Mental
Illness (2 of 6)
– Treatment included the popular procedure of bloodletting
– Other methods were devised in hope of “shocking the
patients back to their senses.”
?
For example, Spinning people at high speeds in chairs;
throwing cold water on them.
– These conditions continued well into the 18th century.
– Paracelsus differentiated between material and spiritual
(psychological) diseases
– The Deception of Demons was written as a rebuttal to
the Malleus Maleficarum.
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Improvement in the Treatment of Mental
Illness (3 of 6)
•
Phillipe Pinel
– In the late 18th century, he proceeded slowly to improve
the treatment of the mentally ill.
– First, he unchained them and segregated them based on
their behavior.
– He encouraged occupational therapy, favored baths and
mild purgatives as physical treatments, and argued
forcefully against the use of any type of punishment or
exorcism.
– Others, like William Tuke and Vincenzo Chiarugi,
followed his lead and treatment improved.
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Improvement in the Treatment of Mental
Illness (4 of 6)
•
Benjamin Rush
– Wrote a book in which he encouraged more humane
treatment
?
•
However, he still advocated bloodletting and use of
rotating and tranquilizing chairs.
Dorothea Dix
– Her work brought about institutional reforms in many
states and across Europe.
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Improvement in the Treatment of Mental
Illness (5 of 6)
•
Emil Kraepelin
–
–
–
His goal was to classify mental illnesses
In 1883, he published a list of mental disorders that was so
thorough it was adopted throughout the world and lasted for
decades.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM) is a direct descendent of Kraepelin’s earlier work.
?
–
Still used today by most all those who work with the mentally
ill.
He was also among the first to systematically study the
effects of drugs on various cognitive and behavioral
functions.
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Improvement in the Treatment of Mental
Illness (6 of 6)
•
Lightner Witmer
–
–
–
–
Founded the first psychological clinic
Founded the journal Psychological Clinic
Coined the term clinical psychology.
He made three lasting impressions on clinical psychology:
1) Experimental psychology can be useful in helping people
2) This help can best be provided through a special profession
(clinical psychology) that is independent of both medicine and
education
3) A commitment that clinical psychology should be highly
research oriented and be closely allied with basic psychology.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Tension Between Psychological and
Medical Models (1 of 3)
•
Psychological Model
– Proposes that the roots of mental illness are in
psychological causes such as conflict, frustration,
emotional disturbance, or cognitive factors.
•
Medical Model
– Supports the view that mental illness has organic
origins just as any other illness.
•
Debate Between Psychological and Medical Models
– Still contested today and has many supporters on
both sides of the issue.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Tension Between Psychological and
Medical Models (2 of 3)
•
Thomas Szasz
– Wrote an influential book, The Myth of Mental Illness
?
The book argues that unless an illness has a
neurophysiological basis, it is not an illness at all.
– In the case of what has been labeled mental illness:
?
It reflects problem in living or nonconformity, but not a
true illness.
o
Thus, the diagnosis of mental illness reflects a social,
political, or moral judgment, not a medical one.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Tension Between Psychological and
Medical Models (3 of 3)
– Labeling someone with mental illness or disease
implies that they are not responsible for solving the
“problems in living” which they have.
– Labeling a person with a mental illness or disease
can, and in many cases does, encourage the person
to act in ways dictated by the diagnosis.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
The Use of Hypnotism (1 of 6)
•
Franz Anton Mesmer
– Developed a “magnetic” cure in which magnetic forces
were employed to heal (later called animal magnetism).
– Became very well known for this cure’s abilities
?
As his fame grew, his critics became more relentless.
– Eventually, a commission of inquiry discounted
?
Mesmer’s claims and animal magnetism died out.
– Contagion effect
?
Patients would not respond to suggestion when alone
with a physician, but would do so readily after seeing
others respond.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
The Use of Hypnotism (2 of 6)
•
Marquis de Puységur
– Developed what he called artificial somnambulism,
which was a trance-like state under which the person
would respond to his commands.
– Observed many of the phenomena, which we know of
today with hypnosis, including posthypnotic amnesia
and posthypnotic suggestions.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
The Use of Hypnotism (3 of 6)
•
John Elliotson, James Esdaile, and James Braid
– Examined this process as a means to produce an
anesthetic response for use during surgery.
– Despite the banning of its use by the medical
establishment, this method was used successfully on
many occasions.
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The Use of Hypnotism (4 of 6)
•
The Nancy School
– The “school” grew out of the work of Ambroise Auguste
Liébeault with hypnosis with his patients, which was
located just outside of the city of Nancy, France.
– Hippolyte Bernheim became the major spokesperson for
this school.
?
Bernheim contended that all humans are suggestible, but
some are more so than others; the more suggestible a
person is, the easier it is to hypnotize him/her
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
The Use of Hypnotism (5 of 6)
•
Charcot’s Proposed Explanation of Hypnosis and
Hysteria
– Charcot developed the use of hypnosis for treatment of
hysteria, and concluded that hypnotizabillity indicated
the presence of hysteria.
– Through hypnosis the doctor could relieve the effects of
traumatic events, which would dispel the hysteria
symptoms.
– Charcot was also a very accomplished neurologist.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
The Use of Hypnotism (6 of 6)
– Freud studied with Charcot for a time and was greatly
influenced by him.
– Pierre Janet, a student of Charcot’s, used hypnosis to
discover dissociated memories, and when they were
brought to the attention of a patient, his/her hysterical
symptoms often abated.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.