Clinical Mental Health Counseling Paper Archive

In simple terms, classical conditioning is a process involving creating an association between naturally existing stimulus and a previously neutral one. While operant conditioning focuses on using either positive or negative reinforcement to increase or decrease a behavior and through this an association is formed between the behavior and its consequence (Friedman, & Schustack, 2016). Operant conditioning is used in learning environments. For example, a teacher will punish a student for talking out of turn by not letting the student go outside for recess. As a result, the student forms an association between the behavior and the consequence and will learn to not talk out of turn in class over time. Another example where this is used in schools beginning from elementary through graduate schools is the grading system. Although this might have different effects on each individual, the concept remains the same. Teachers will use grading and scoring to reinforce good practices or the...

Before discussing how to extinguish classically conditioned responses to fear, we ought to discuss conditioning. Classical conditioning is most often referenced with Pavlov’s experiments with animal’s learned responses to regular stimuli. Regularly introducing stimuli and associating it with positive or negative feedback creates conditioning in animals. For example, in the experiments, Pavlov rang a bell before giving his dogs a treat. Consistently doing this allowed him to ring the bell and realize that the dogs salivated in expectation of a treat. Their expectation is a conditional response (Friedman & Schustack, 2016).              To elaborate, consider when a neutral stimulus is presented to a person, it creates neither positive nor negative reactions. Subsequently, when a second stimulus known as the unconditioned stimulus is presented to the person, it creates a positive or negative response. In the previous example...

Friedman and Schustack (2016) discussed sensation seeking and addiction-proneness in personalities as a focus of the nervous system approach. While the approach is meant to apply to an individual, I believe this can be taken a few steps further to apply society as a whole. Dr. Yair Amichai-Hamburgers (2002) researched the effects of sensation seeking, social media outlets and addiction proneness. An excellent video was created based on his research called the “Innovation of Loneliness” that emphasizes how people have basic social needs that need to be satisfied. However, even though this introverts may wish to avoid overly stimulating situations but they feel connected and not lonely by utilizing social media to share their thoughts and keep in touch with people from a safe distance. Dr. Hamburgers (2002) posits that people get three gratifying fantasies from social networks: being able to put our attention wherever we want it to be, we will always be heard, and that we will never...

Friedman and Schustack (2016) explained that Eysenck acknowledged there were a few logical flaws arising when creating research and testing plans to validate the nervous-system-based temperament theory. The theory posits that extroverts have a lower level of brain arousal which results in them seeking more stimulation from social settings, while introverts have a higher level of brain arousal, or central nervous system arousal, thereby seek less stimulation and shy away from overly exciting social environments (Friedman & Schustack, 2016).  It is difficult to derive conclusive empirical data to validate this as there have not been definitive ways to catalog and measure all human nervous arousals, or reactions to various stimuli. Another important disadvantage of this theory is the nature of the human body – it is self-regulating and continuously adapting to internal and external stimuli   (Derryberry & Rothbart, 1988; Friendman & Schustack, 2016). It works to co...

Friedman and Schustack (2016) explain that through numerous theories and research biology predisposes a person’s personality to hereditary traits, though not necessarily inheriting them. By extension, biology influences the way a person experiences life, from the moment of birth. Culture and environment have a great influence on biological personality inclinations as well, however. One example of this can be two sisters (myself and my sister in this example), two years apart, grow up in the same household with different outlooks on life and different interests. One asks her parents to allow her to be home-schooled because she dislikes the social structure at her high school while the other sister thrives in it and joins clubs and other extra-curricular activities. Even though the sisters have grown their own lives separately, whenever they meet or call, they discover they have made the same changes without coordinating together. Such changes include cutting or coloring their hairs the...

What is it? Where does it come from?            Carl Jung’s theories were a bit different but still carried similarities to Freud’s theories about personalities. For example, Jung theorized our psyche is a composite of a consciously aware ego, a personal unconscious, and collective unconscious (Friedman & Schustack, 2016, p. 77). Similar to Freud, the ego represents our conscious sense of self. Distinctly different from Freud, however, Jung believed our personal unconscious is composed of thoughts, feelings, experiences, and memories collected throughout our lives. He also believed our collective unconscious consists of thoughts, feelings, experiences, and memories collected over many lifetimes and passed down to each of us genetically in much the same way as biological instincts are passed down (Friedman & Schustack, 2016).   What is its purpose?           Jung explained that representations of the collective un...

          While Freud's opinion is that identity is fixed during childhood, Erikson theorized that identity formation continues throughout a lifetime emphasizing significant changes to an individual's sense of self as they experience substantial developmental milestones (Friedman &  Schustack , 2016).           Erikson believed a healthy personality results from the successful negotiation of eight specific developmental stages defined as follows: Trust versus mistrust Autonomy versus shame and doubt Initiative versus guilt Industry versus inferiority Identity versus role confusion Intimacy versus isolation Generosity versus stagnation Ego integrity versus despair             Successfully resolving pertinent crises manifesting at either of the eight stages is considered a successful negotiation of the stage. However, an important caveat to take note of is a successful negotiation does ...

This week revolved around personality development theories in different stages as well as fixations when each of the stages isn't passed through successfully. Some of the more interesting ideas presented this week were that of defense and coping mechanisms (Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W., 2016). I have always been a fan of Jacki Chan and chose to write about him this week. The person Jackie Chan is today is a result of multiple aspects of his personality being influenced by his surroundings and decisions made by his parents throughout his childhood. One major childhood influence was regular kung fu training due to his father's beliefs that it would help him build good character. Jackie's father enrolled him in the China Drama Academy in Hong Kong where he lived for ten years. The Academy taught Jackie "martial arts, acrobatics, singing and acting. (The Official Jackie Chan Website., n.d.)." The Academy training was rigorous, and discipline was harsh for...

At the beginning of his career, Freud posited that the structure of the mind and a personality are composed of three separate components which he categorized as the id, ego, and superego (Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W., 2016).  The id is defined as the unsocialized, instinctual aspect of the personality-driven by the pleasure principle, perpetually seeking to fulfill its impulses. The superego is defined as the internal, socialized, moral, and ethical part of personality developed in response to cultural and social standards, internalized to conduct behavior towards a paragon (Trevithick, 2011). The id and superego are understood to operate on an unconscious level, with the person being unaware or having incomplete awareness. The ego, on the other hand, is defined as the conscious decision-making aspect of personality and it can be understood as the mediator between the id and superego as it is driven by the reality principle and focuses on possibilities or rationalities. ...

One of the most substantial contributions to understanding personality was Freud's theory of opposing tensions in the world. He explained that underlying these tensions was sexual energy motivating and driving all human personality development which is described in the psychosexual development theory; there are five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital (Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W, 2016). According to Freud, successful completion of each developmental stage was necessary for healthy personality development while the unsuccessful conclusion of any stage could result in maladaptive issues to that specific stage, usually identified with fixations.   The first two stages are the oral and anal stages and occur during infancy and toddlerhood, respectively. During the oral stage, infants are driven to fulfill oral desires in the form of nursing. An infant's oral instinct is so strong that they will put anything in their mouth. Further intensifying their oral d...

There are eight basic aspects of personality that are generally accepted in personality psychology. Those are understood as eight different ways or perspectives into seeing how a person’s personality comes together, which are psychoanalytic, neo-analytic/ego, biological, behaviorist, cognitive, trait, humanistic, and interactionist (Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W., 2016). Each perspective is an important elemental contribution to creating a deeper understanding of the complex construct of personality. These perspectives represent an evolution of scientific thought and analysis from the simplistic categorization of personality as either nature versus nurture, or some variant thereof.  The psychoanalytical perspective emphasizes unconscious contributions, those can come from biological, genetic or natural/environmental influences but may also be from social or situational interactions learned or evolved over time.  The biological, humanistic, and trait perspectives ...

Personality assessment can be subjective or objective; each approach has advantages and limitations.           Objective personality assessment yields quantifiable and measurable data that remains uninfluenced by the personality researcher's interpretation during the data collection phase, considering the research design fits the personality aspect of the study. An example of this includes self-report questionnaires and other types of data gathered from biological measurements and structured observations and interviews. In contrast, subjective assessments require interpretation by experts and include methods directly oppositional to objective methods such as non-structured interviews, observations, projective tests and biological measurements (Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W., 2016). It is understood that the strengths and weaknesses of each approach to assessment are inherent to their methods. A principal advantage of obj...

There are eight basic aspects of personality that are generally accepted in personality psychology. Those are understood as eight different ways or perspectives into seeing how a person’s personality comes together, which are psychoanalytic, neo-analytic/ego, biological, behaviorist, cognitive, trait, humanistic, and interactionist (Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W., 2016). Each perspective is an important elemental contribution to creating a deeper understanding of the complex construct of personality. These perspectives represent an evolution of scientific thought and analysis from the simplistic categorization of personality as either nature versus nurture, or some variant thereof.  The psychoanalytical perspective emphasizes unconscious contributions, those can come from biological, genetic or natural/environmental influences but may also be from social or situational interactions learned or evolved over time.  The biological, humanistic, and trait perspectives ...