Task1 Counselling 1aPhysical signs and symptoms of stress
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Unit 7 Assignment 1 Applying psychology
Task1 Counselling
a
Physical signs and symptoms of stress
By Dawn Bewick
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Physical signs and symptoms that Mrs.A may be suffering from
Because Mrs.A has very low-self-esteem, which is a core identity issue, essential to personal validation and our ability to experience joy, will cause her to feel bad about herself because she has absorbed negative messages constantly from her husband.
Due to her low-self-esteem, Mrs A will also feel depressed, stressed and suffer anxiety, causing her physical health to deteriorate rapidly.
Many times women with this problem don't go for regular check-ups, exercise, or take personal days because they really don't think they're worth the time.
Due to the marital breakdown that Mrs A has gone through, her needs have not been met by her partner because she will feel she does not deserve to have them met, and her relationship with her son has suffered, being unable to discipline effectively, set limits, or demand the respect that she deserves.
Physical symptoms that Mrs A maybe suffering from include:
* Sleep disturbances
* Irregular heartbeat, palpitations
* Back, shoulder or neck pain
* Tension or migraine headaches
* Asthma or shortness of breath
* Chest pain
* Upset or acid stomach, cramps
* Sweaty palms and hands
* Cold hands or feet
* Constipation, diarrhoea
* Weight gain or loss, eating disorder
* Hair loss
* Muscle tension
* Fatigue
* High blood pressure
* Skin problems
* Periodontal disease, jaw pain
* Reproductive problems
* Immune system suppression, more colds, flu and infections
* Growth inhibition
Types of stress that Mrs A maybe suffering from:
Acute stress
This results from demands and pressures of recent past and anticipated demands and pressures of the near future. Most people recognise the signs of acute stress. They appear when something major happens like moving, changing jobs, or experiencing a loss.
Too much short-term stress can produce physical and emotional symptoms.
Daily naggings from a spouse or irritating noises can also make you feel stressed, but because it is short term, acute stress doesn't have enough time to do the extensive damage associated with long term stress.
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Episodic acute stress
If you endure acute stress frequently, you probably are experiencing episodic stress. You are always rushing, always late and if something goes wrong it is a major thing.
You are always trying to do too much and you can't organise the tangle of self-inflicted demands clamouring for your attention.
Chronic Stress
The grinding stress that wears people down day after day and year after year is chronic stress, which can destroy bodies, minds and lives.
If you are experiencing chronic stress, you cant figure out how to alleviate a miserable situation that seems to go on for an interminable period of time.
(b) How this Stress could be managed
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Identifying unrelieved stress and being aware of its affect on our lives is not sufficient for reducing its harmful effects. Just as there are many sources of stress, there are many possibilities for its management, however all require work toward change.
Changing the source of stress or changing your reaction to it.
> Mrs A must become aware of her stressors and her emotional and physical reactions.
> She must notice her distress, and not ignore it. Mrs A must learn not to gloss over her problems and determine how her body responds to the stress. Mrs A must ask herself, "Do I become nervous or physically upset", if so in what specific ways.
> Mrs A must recognise what she can change by avoiding or eliminating them completely.
> Will she be able to reduce their intensity (manage them over a period of time instead of on a daily or weekly basis). Mrs A must learn to shorten her exposure to stress, take a break, leave the physical premises, and devote her time and energy to making a change (goal setting, time management techniques, and delayed gratification strategies will be very helpful).
> Mrs A must reduce the intensity of her emotional reactions to stress, as the stress reaction is triggered by her perception of danger------physical danger or emotional danger.
> Mrs A is obviously viewing her stressors in exaggerated terms or taking a difficult situation and making it a disaster, by this, she is expecting to please everyone. Because Mrs A is so stressed, she is overacting and viewing things as absolutely critical and urgent and feels she must prevail in every situation.
> Mrs A must work at adopting more moderate views, and try to see the stress as something she can cope with rather than something that overpowers her and must try to temper her excess emotions and put the situation in perspective, and not labour on the negative aspects and "what if's".
> Mrs A must learn to moderate her physical reactions to stress, by slow, deep breathing to bring her heart rate and respiration back to normal. Relaxation techniques can reduce her muscle tension, heart rate, and blood pressure. Medications, if prescribed by her doctor, can help in the short term in moderating her physical reactions, however, they alone are not the answer. Mrs A must learn to moderate these reactions on her own which can be a preferable long-term solution.
> Mrs A must build on her physical reserves, exercise for cardiovascular fitness three or four times a week (moderate prolonged rhythmic exercise is best, such as walking, swimming, cycling or jogging).
> By eating well balanced nutritious meals and maintaining her ideal weight may also help.
> Mrs A must try to avoid nicotine, excessive caffeine and other stimulants, mix leisure with work and take breaks and get away when ever she can. I t will also help Mrs A if she could get enough sleep and be as consistent with her sleep schedule as possible.
> Mrs A must maintain her emotional reserves and develop some mutually supportive friendships/relationships. She must also pursue any realistic goals which are meaningful to her, rather than goals others have for her that she does not wish to share.
> Mrs A will have to expect some frustrations, failures and sorrows, but she must
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Always remember to be kind and gentle to herself - be a friend to herself.
By Dawn Bewick
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The Humanist Perspective when applied to counselling and how it will help Mrs A with her self concept
Introduction
Based on two theorists
Carl Rogers Humanistic perspective
By Dawn Bewick
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Abraham Maslow's humanistic perspective
The humanistic perspective is mostly widely known as the phenomenological approach to personality.
The Humanistic approach stresses the persons capacity for personal growth, freedom to choose one's own destiny and positive qualities.
These include trait theories - personality consists of broad dispositions, called traits, that tend to lead to the basic ways the person behaves, such as whether they are outgoing or friendly, or whether they are dominant and assertive.
Basic five factors
/ emotional stability - being calm rather than anxious, secure rather than insecure, self - satisfied rather than self-pitying
2/ extraversion - sociable instead of retiring, fun loving instead of sober, and affectionate instead of reserved
3/ openness - imaginative rather than practical, preferring variety to routine, and being independent rather than conforming
4/ agreeableness - being softhearted, not ruthless, trusting, not suspicious, and helpful not uncooperative
5/ conscientiousness - being organised rather than disorganised, careful rather than careless, and disciplined, not impulsive.
The humanistic perspective will help Mrs A to rely on the creation of a relationship that reflects three intertwined therapist attitudes such as unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence.
A paraphrased summary of Mrs A's words and especially her feelings and meaning that appear to accompany them is extremely important and should be carried out by the counsellor. This confirms the therapists interest, and will help Mrs a to perceive thoughts and feelings.
Mrs A's therapist should try to convey congruence by acting in ways that are consistent with Mrs A's feelings during therapy.
Through counselling the counsellor will seek to create a condition in which Mrs A can become more unified, self-aware and self-accepting and ready to grow again.
The counsellor will also prod Mrs A to become aware of her feelings and impulses that she has disowned and to discard feelings, ideas and values that are not really her own.
The counsellor will also do a lot of dialogues and pay attention to Mrs A's body language, drawing on the perspectives of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers as this
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view of self empathises individual growth towards self actualisation.
The counsellor will also place much of the responsibility for the treatment process on Mrs A, as they will take a non directive role, which is person centred therapy.
The counsellor has two primary goals of person centred therapy which will increase Mrs A's self-esteem and greater openness to experience.
Mrs A will look towards better self-understanding, lower levels of defensiveness, guilt and insecurity and learn to have more positive and comfortable relationships with others, increasing the capacity to experience and express feelings at the moment they occur, this approach relates to Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow theory.
Three interrelated attitudes on the part of the counsellor are central to the success of person - centred therapy which include congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy.
Congruence refers to the therapists openness and genuiness, the willingness to relate to Mrs A without hiding behind a professional façade.
Unconditional positive regard means the therapist accepts Mrs A totally for who she is without evaluating or censoring and without interrupting, judging or giving advice.
Using this method will create a non-threatening context in which Mrs A will feel free to explore and share painful, hostile, defensive, or abnormal feelings without worrying about personal rejection by the therapist.
By Dawn Bewick
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Task 2 Crime
Main concepts of the relevant psychological perspectives
The Cognitive Perspective
The cognitive perspective focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand and think about the world. By using this perspective, developmental psychologists hope to understand how children and adults process information and how their ways of thinking and understanding affect their behaviour.
Albert Bandura's theory focuses on how children and adults operate cognitively on their social experiences and how these cognitions then influence behaviour and development. His theory was the first to incorporate the notion of modelling, or vicarious learning, as a form of social learning. In addition Bandura also introduced several other important concepts.
Within this perspective humans are characterised in terms of five basic and unique capabilities, symbolising, vicarious, forethought, self-regulatory, self-reflective. It is these capabilities that provide humans with cognitive means by which to determine behaviour.
Bandura suggests that a persons behaviour will determine the aspects of their environment and that behaviour can affect the way in which they experience that environment through selective attention. People have the ability to influence their destiny, while at the same time recognising that people are free agents of their own will.
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Albert Bandura would suggest that Mrs A's son has learned aggression through behaviour modelling from his parents and that these aggressive responses are from observing others, either personally or through the media and environment.
Mrs A's son may live in a high crime rate area, so may act more violently than those who dwell in low crime areas.
If Mrs A's son is surrounded by culture conflict, decay and insufficient social organisations then this will be a major cause of his criminality. Because television is a source of behaviour modelling and that violence is ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
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Albert Bandura would suggest that Mrs A's son has learned aggression through behaviour modelling from his parents and that these aggressive responses are from observing others, either personally or through the media and environment.
Mrs A's son may live in a high crime rate area, so may act more violently than those who dwell in low crime areas.
If Mrs A's son is surrounded by culture conflict, decay and insufficient social organisations then this will be a major cause of his criminality. Because television is a source of behaviour modelling and that violence is often expressed as an acceptable behaviour, then Mrs A's son may exhibit a relatively high incidence of hostility, himself in imitation of the aggression he has witnessed. Mrs A's son may not be able to differentiate between reality and fantasy.
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Behaviourist Perspective
The theory of B.F.Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behaviour. Changes in behaviour are the result of an individuals response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment. A response produces a consequence such as defining a word, hitting a ball, or solving a problem. When a particular stimulus - response pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond.
A reinforcer is anything that strengthens the desired response. It could be verbal praise, a good grade or a feeling of increased accomplishment or satisfaction. The theory also covers negative reinforcers (punishment) that result in the reduction of undesired responses.
Ivan Pavlov identified conditioning as a universal learning process:
Classic conditioning - occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus. The post popular example is Pavlov's observation that dog's salivate when they eat or even see food. Essentially, animals and humans are biologically 'wired' so that certain stimulus will produce a specific response.
Behavioural or operant conditioning - occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus. Basically operant conditioning is a simple feedback system. If a reward or reinforcement follows the response to a stimulus, then the response becomes more probable in the future.
The above theorists would suggest that Mrs A's sons behaviour and emotional problems are considered the consequences of faulty acquired behaviour patterns or the failure to learn effective responses to his environment.
Mrs A's sons criminal behaviour is learned by his environment and shaped by its consequences. If the consequence is satisfying, his behaviour will be strengthened in the future, if it is uncomfortable then this behaviour will be weakened.
Because Mrs A's son has grown up with physical and verbal aggression from his parents, then they serve as an aggressive model. Mrs A's son, through imitation, may be acquiring aggressive response patterns although he is seemingly being taught that aggression is bad.
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Mrs A's sons behaviour is a result of a process of learning from observing what action
pays off and what works.
Biological Perspective
This perspective is the relationship between mind and body, and the influence of heredity on human behaviour are two main objectives of the biological approach.
The biological perspective believes that all psychological events are a result from brain activity and the nervous system.
It was believed that human genes evolved over millions of years to adapt the behaviour of our environment. There are several major causes to having abnormal behaviour such as genetic disorders that you are born with, brain disease or injury and mental illness.
Certain temperaments seem to be apparent in people even from birth and are sustained to some degree throughout the lifespan.
The four basic aspects of temperament have been described as; activity level, emotionality, sociability and impulsivity.
From the biological perspective, Mrs A's son's behaviour and criminal delinquency has been inherited by genetic predispositions that make him prone to delinquency and also neurological deficits that also play a part in his delinquency causation.
Serotonin, a chemical stored in the brain, with other brain chemicals, is related to communication among brain cells and impulse control, which are both related to delinquency.
Because genes act as the blueprint or map which help determine all aspects of human development, Mrs A's sons life was already mapped out from a biological perspective.
His behaviour is the genetic and hereditary influences on his temperament.
Psychodynamic Perspective
Sigmund Freud believed that there was a lot more to the mind than met the eye, much like an iceberg - only the very tip showing.
The psychodynamic theory also established the idea that what happens in a person's childhood is one of the most important factors in personality development, especially traumatic experiences. The theory states that children who go through such things repress their memories, and this is the cause of adulthood mental disease.
Freud was the one who came up with the concept of ones unconscious - the part of the
Mind where desires and memories are stored, unrecognised, only hinted at through
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dreams or slips of the tongue.
Rallying between the conscious and unconscious are the ID, EGO and SUPEREGO - separate and conflicting forces requiring a balance for mental health and normal behaviour.
The ID is a persons animal force, their need to satisfy basic psychological needs and the SUPEREGO is the ideal force, the civilised, competent figure the person strives to be. The ego sort of regulates the two, keeping the id satisfied while staying within the guidelines of the superego.
The strength of each individual force is a factor in personality - if a persons superego is too strong, they are seen as rigid and guilty. If a persons id is too strong, they are seen as delinquent and anti-social.
In order to further understand how personalities are shaped during childhood, Freud thought up the psychosexual stages which include:
Oral stage - birth - 18months
Anal stage - 18months - 36 months
Phallic stage - 3 - 6 years
Latency stage - 6 years - puberty
Genital stage - maturation of sexual interests
Relating Mrs A's Son to these stages
Oral stage - If Mrs A's son is not sufficiently nourished he will fixate his pleasure seeking energies on this stage - he will be constantly stimulating his mouth through smoking, biting, chewing etc. He will also exhibit passive dependence.
Anal stage - Mrs A's son may either become anal expulsive - disorganised and often late for appointments etc or oral retentive - highly controlled, rigid, and compulsively neat.
Phallic stage - Mrs A's son develops feelings for his mother and hatred for his father, who is in control of his mothers attention. Because of absence from his father, he will later develop problems with authority as he has never really concluded his Oedipal cycle.
Latency stage - nothing really happens at this stage - dormant
Genital stage - Mrs A's son will be an adult now, who's personality has already developed.
By Dawn Bewick
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Task 2
Main concepts of relevant psychological perspectives continued....
Psychodynamic - Mrs A's son has learnt through observation and modelling his parents behaviour as well as others and reinforcing this, particularly as the family represents the child's primary support group, much early learning has occurred through his family and home environment.
His father is very abusive, so Mrs A's son is likely to model this and reinforce poor interpersonal skills and coping behaviour (Bandura, 1973).
Mrs A's son will learn this behaviour limiting future development.
As there is one adult (his father) in the family who is abusive and neglecting, may well affect the later behaviour of their son by exposing him to adverse object relations and encourage the formation of insecure attachments.
Insecure attachments are claimed to be related to a later negative view of self, low social competence, poor adaptive ability and long term problems in relationship formation.
All of this has lead to her son turning to crime, through general disruptions in functioning caused by poor object relations and attachment.
Because different ages involve different developmental requirements and milestones, Mrs A's son has obviously not had these met within the family environment.
Evaluation of the perspectives
Humanistic
Humanism is a reaction to the pessimism of psychoanalytic theory and the mechanism of learning theory. As its core is a new image of what it means to be human. The theorists view human nature as inherently good and they seek ways to allow our positive potentials to emerge. They reject the Freudian view of personality as a battle ground for biological instincts and unconscious forces, and they oppose the mechanical 'thing like' overtones of the behaviourist viewpoint. We are not, they say, merely a bundle of mouldable responses, rather, we are creative beings capable of free choice. To a humanist, the person you are today is largely the product of all of your previous choices. The humanist viewpoint also places greater emphasis on immediate subjective experience, rather than on prior learning. Humanists believe that there are as many 'real worlds' as there are people.
Psychodynamic
By present standard, psychodynamic theory seems to over-emphasise sexuality and biological instincts. These distortions were corrected somewhat by the neo-Freudians, but problems remain. Psychodynamic theory is good at explaining things after they occur, but offers little help in predicting future behaviour. For this reason, many psychodynamic concepts are difficult or impossible to test.
Behaviouristic
Learning theories have provided a good framework for personality research. Behaviourists have made the best effort to rigorously test and verify their ideas. They
have been criticised for understanding the impact that temperament, emotion, and
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subjective experience have on personality. To a degree, social learning theory is an
attempt to answer such criticisms.
Cognitive
Early proponents of the cognitive approach (such as Miller et al 1960) pointed out that behavioural accounts were inadequate because they say nothing about how people process information. Cognitive psychologists, on the other hand, went on to propose models of human thought and problem solving. These advances continue today.
Cognitive psychology has helped to explain many aspects of everyday behaviour and experience e.g why we forget things etc.
By applying knowledge from cognitive psychology, we can improve our performance in many areas.
Cognitive psychology has influenced and integrated with many other approaches and areas of study to produce for example, social learning theory, cognitive neuropsychological and artificial intelligence.
Cognitive psychologists assume that mental processes can and should be investigated scientifically. The belief of cognitive psychologists is that humans are not merely passive renders to their environment.
One of the weaknesses of the cognitive approach is its failure to address everyday behaviour and experience.
Biological
The biological perspective believes that all psychological events are the result from brain activity and the nervous system.
The normality that is expected in people is a properly normal functioning nervous system. The stages of development in this perspective are based on the changes in brain growth which are determined by our genes.
There are several major causes to having abnormal behaviour such as genetic disorders (that you are born with) brain disease or injury or mental illness which can give rise to both behavioural and psychological symptoms.
The main contribution to this perspective has been the new insight it has given mental and emotional disorders. Due to advance in this area it is now clear that disorders that was once thought to be purely psychological are now in fact genetic factors.
However this approach is criticised for not adequately explaining how the mind and body interact. It is also greatly criticised for its reductism, in which the approach tends to explain personal and social problems solely as actions of neurones or biochemical's failing to look at other leading factors.
By dawn Bewick
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Explain how the positive and negative reinforcement are used in the justice system
Asbo's
Asbo's were introduced by the crime and Disorder Act 19998 and are civil orders which exist to protect the public from anti-social behaviour. They are not designed as a punishment for the offender. They are community based orders and involve local people in the collection of evidence and in helping to enforce breach.
Asbo's are generally intended for use with adults, but recent information suggests that they are most often been used with children and young people who are over the age of 10.
If a person who is subject to an ASBO is seen to break the conditions imposed by the order, they can be arrested and brought before the court. Penalties imposed can range from 6 months to 5 years imprisonment, but its important to note that the youth court will manage cases where individuals are aged between 15-18 year olds and can only impose a maximum custodial sentence of 6 months.
The Sentencing Framework for Children and Young People
Both adult and youth crime frameworks are based upon the principles of proportionality, introduced by the criminal justice Act 1991, but this principle is modified within the youth justice system.
When sentencing, the court takes the following principles into consideration:
* Regard to the prevention of offending
* Regard to the welfare of the child
* Sentencing must reflect the seriousness of the offending
Tensions can arise between these principles, as a sentence that concentrates heavily on prevention of offences by imposing greater penalties will not necessarily be the best for the welfare of the child or reflect the seriousness of the crime. Principle aim of the youth justice system, section 37 of the criminal Justice Act 1998 introduced 2 statutory aims:
* To prevent offending by children and young persons
* It is a duty of all persons and bodies carrying out functions for the youth justice system to have regard to aim 1.
Achieving this statutory aim is not straight forward. There are 3 main points:
* A severe sentence can not be given to prevent offending where it does not reflect the seriousness of the crime
* Severe sentencing such as a custodial sentence, effectively prevents crime in the short run, but not in the long run will increase the chances of the child relapsing into crime.
The Welfare Principle
Section 44 of the children and young persons Act 1933 states that:
* Every court shall have regard to the welfare of the child or young person
This is reinforced more recently by the United Nations 'Convention on the Rights of the Child'.
The welfare principle may consider the interference with a young persons educational or work commitments and to be consistent with his/her religious beliefs.
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The principle of proportionality
The sentencing framework introduced by the criminal Justice Act 1991 - now contained in the powers of criminal courts (sentencing) Act 2000 is based on the notion of 'just deserts' it depends on the idea that the sentence for a given offence should reflect primarily the seriousness of the offence which has been committed. Legislation to achieve this establishes thresholds that must be reached before certain penalties are deployed, known as the 3 sentencing bands:
. Custodial sentence
(a) that the offence, or the combination of the offence and one or more offences associated with it, was so serious that only such a sentence can be justified for the offence.
(b) where the offence is a violent or sexual offence, that only such a sentence would be adequate to protect the public from harm.
2. Community sentence
Offence or the combination of the offence and one or more offences associated with it, was serious enough to warrant such a sentence.
3. Lower level order
When neither the custody or community penalty thresholds are met. This composes of a discharge, financial penalty or reparation order.
A range of factors which might routinely impact upon the seriousness of a crime are:
* Nature of the offence - amount of violence involved, use of weaponry, value of property lost, whether offence is committed by a group or individually, and whether it fits into the pattern of offending making previous convictions relevant
* Impact upon the victim - whether a public servant, abuse of trust, extent and nature of loss and whether any property has been recovered physical or psychological injury.
Intention and motivation - whether the offence was premeditated or spontaneous, whether the offence was provoked or committed under provocation, the young persons awareness of the impact of his or her behaviour upon the victim.
Role in the offence - whether the young person was a ringleader or played a minor role
Attitude to the offence - whether the young person exhibits remorse or concern for the victim, preparedness to make amends.
By Dawn Bewick
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The Morris Triplets - Case Study
They have been branded the 'terror triplets' and vilified as among the worst child thugs in Britain. When magistrates allowed the 13 year olds to be identified after they broke an anti social behaviour order, it was open season on the Morris triplets.
With youth crime topping the political agenda, Shane, Sarah and Natalie were highlighted as prime examples of teenage tearaways. Details of their misbehaviour and photographs of the three were published along with extensive quotes from the shopkeepers and residents in Gillingham, Kent, where the triplets live, calling for them to be locked up. Local politicians demanded firm action.
But after the magistrates imposed a two year supervision order on the Morris triplets, a rather different picture of the three can be revealed.
Though those closest to the triplets accept they are no angels it has emerged that the girls had no previous convictions and Shane had just one.
Concerns that the way the children have been portrayed could lead to long-term harm were raised by the trio's solicitor, by a member of the youth offending team and by a senior police officer.
The children have had a difficult life. They were born 6 weeks early in September 1988. Their parents Shirley who was then 22 and Patrick 21 already had two sons and they struggled to cope.
Patrick was unemployed at the time and the family lived in a small flat. They continue to this day to rely on state benefit. In their 13 years, the triplets have moved home at least 4 times, making it difficult for them to settle. They are also a handful at school and by the time Shane was 10 he had been thrown out of four schools.
All three of the children have been diagnosed as having (ADHD) which can leave the children distracted and impulsive.
Relating theorists to The Morris Triplets Behaviour
Freud would suggest that the Morris triplets were raised as children without the loving parent and developed unregulated ID's. Or maybe over indulged at the Oral Stage and required different treatments.
He would also suggest that the triplets needed unconditional love rather than a punitive, or institutionalised setting.
Freud may also suggest that the triplets hated their parents out of jealously between children and not having the luxuries that other children had, so not gone through the Genital Stage at all. Their EGO's were therefore undeveloped, and with nothing to mediate between the ID and SUPEREGO, their personalities were nothing but an endless series of raging conflicts, and this is what Freud would call the 'delinquent ego'.
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Albert Bandura - social learning theory, would suggest that the triplets crime and disorder was a learned behaviour. They may have learnt criminal behaviour through the groups which they associate with. If the triplets associate with more groups that define criminal behaviour as acceptance , rather than groups that define behaviour as unacceptable, then the triplets will probably engage in criminal behaviour.
This theory shows that the Morris triplets can socially learn deviant behaviour from those around them such as family, peers, school mates or anyone else that they come into contact with.
Eysenck's (1987) theory would suggest that the Morris triplets are hedonistic animals and that offending, pleasures them.
He would also suggest that their conscience is a conditional fear response and consequently the likelihood that the triplets will commit crime, depending on the strengths of their conscience.
The biological theorists would suggest that the Morris triplets criminal behaviour was a result of genetic abnormality, inherited from their parents.
John Bowlby would suggest that the Morris triplets are really 'affectionless' that is, they have been unable to intimately connect with others. He would also suggest that because of certain events in their lives, interference within the development of a secure primary attachment to their parents, such as multiple house moves or traumatic or arduous conditions in early childhood, and the fact that their were five children within the family unit, the triplets were insecurely attached to their parents in early childhood, leading the children to diminish these qualities and be more likely to develop an insecure attachment.
B.F Skinner would suggest looking at the Morris triplets behaviour as learned on the basis of the rewards they received. They would engage in rotten behaviour if they found it useful.
If the triplets got what they wanted from their parents and teachers by yelling, shoving and hitting, there is no surprise to discover that they would continue to yell, shove and hit.
Therefore the triplets should be rewarded for doing the good things that they do instead of the wrong thing.
By Dawn Bewick
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Task 3
Psychodynamic
Spitz (1965/1975) considered that the newborn does not feel separated from the environment. In the first half of the first year the infant does not have other memories besides memories of some signals. Spitz claimed that infants after the age of 6 to 8 months and separated very early from their mothers for three months or more were at risk for so called anaclitic depression. First symptoms after separation were crying, isolation, sleeplessness, weight decline, respiratory infections and afterwards after the weeping solified, stiffness, passivity and increased difficulties in making contact with the infant. After 5 months of separation and lack of proper mother substitute, can also cause the child to be hospitalised.
Humanistic
According to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, an individual has basic needs. These needs are physiological (food, drink) as well as psychological (safety, love) while many children who have gone into care are provided with necessary nutrition, but what Maslow would say is that what a child faces, when being abandoned by their mother is lacking a safe and loving environment.
Though the parent, may in fact love the child, the neglect is detrimental to healthy personality development and provides the child with uncertainty about his/her safety and security.
Other lower level needs that Maslow describes are an individuals desire for acceptance, belongingness, approval and recognition. These characteristics of a healthy personality are severely stunted by child neglect.
Maslow's theory stresses that an individual may not progress to the higher level needs, such as desire for knowledge, pursuit of goodness, order and truth. These needs cannot be met until the basic needs are fulfilled.
Children who suffer neglect from their natural parents will suffer from numerous emotional and psychological problems that prevent the development of acceptance and self-esteem.
Biological Perspective
A child or baby who suffers a mothers abandonment, suffers childhood experiences which appear to be especially powerful, because the child's brain is more malleable than that of an adult. A young brain is extra vulnerable to hurt in the first three years of life. A child who suffers parent departure can physically change the brain. The result is a child who shows impulsive aggression. A child who hits others when made fun of or put down. Other children can become unresponsive when exposed to turmoil and can become anti-social.
Behaviourist
Watson would suggest that most behaviours originate through learning processes. Watson was committed to testing ideas by the experimental method. He stated that during the early years of a child's life, parents control the child's experiences of frustration, gratification and determine whether the child is reinforced for aggressive or non-aggressive behaviour.
Parents serve as models for their child to imitate and if the maternal parent is not there, then the child will develop aggression.
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Attachment Theory
Attachment is a process which takes place between the primary caregiver and an infant.
John Bowlby based his work around the post World War 11 era to pressure women into remaining at home to care for their children rather than seeking employment.
The main aim of Bowlby's work was discovering the impact of traumatic separation on infants.
The attachment process is based upon fine tuning the relationship between caregiver and child. Multiple difficulties may arise in any situation. Separation due to illness, depression, stress and tension within the family may make it difficult for the primary caregiver or child to respond to each other. Major difficulties are likely to occur where the caregiver has unresolved issues in relation to their own attachment difficulties in childhood, but is likely to be a problem where these difficulties are not recognised.
Where a child has never experienced secure attachment, their ability to trust is severely limited. Past experiences is likely to mean that they are wary of adults and may expect the worst. At the very least they have been let down by adults, and the worst they have suffered emotional, physical or sexual abuse.
Bowlby would say that most children who go into care have experienced the world as a chaotic and dangerous place. They may not have internalised any of the normal rules that govern daily existence.
Secure attachment establishes a framework within which learning on all levels can take place. In the absence of secure attachment there may be no framework. The child's ability to learn, especially to learn about social relationships and expectations can become severely impaired.
Attachment is a necessary prerequisite to co-operation. It is proposed that the maintenance of affectional bonds, particularly the bond between a mother and her young child, it is essential to the survival of the human species and a compelling individual need.
Different patterns of attachment have been identified by Mary Ainsworth using the 'strange situation'. This was a laboratory experiment in which the interaction between mothers and their children were observed prior to, during and after a brief separation.
Ainsworth put these into categories:
* Secure attachment - child protested when mother left, sought her out while she was gone, greeted her with delight when she returned, explored more when mother present - category B
* Anxious attachment - distressed when mother left, little relief when reunited, highly anxious before, during and after separation, loathe to explore even when mother present - category C
* Avoidant attachment - relatively indifferent to mother, rarely cried when she left, little positive response on return, curiosity unaffected by mother's presence - category A
Bowlby and Ainsworth both suggest that consistency in the response of the caregiver is an important factor in building secure attachments. Where the environment is chaotic and the primary caregiver is not available to the child, then secure attachment will not be possible.
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Relate theorists to Mrs A
Spitz would suggest that Mrs A has failed to develop as a child socially and psychologically and suffers from depression starting in childhood through to adulthood due to the loss of her parent. Because Mrs A experienced extreme deprivation within the first year of life, she has been unable to overcome such poor developmental beginnings.
Spitz would suggest, that due to Mrs A's lack of stimulation as a child, there would be some deterioration with Mrs A's intellectual development and she could also be emotionally removed in terms of her capacity to form relationships.
Abraham Maslow would suggest that Mrs A could not focus on meeting her important individual growth needs until her basic needs had been met. Mrs A's nurturing needs would have been essential as a child for survival, and because she was placed into care and conscious of her needs at a particular age, then her need for security and protection would have been the most important need.
Maslow would also suggest that if Mrs A lacked in sound level of care and stimulation as a child and was looked after by a number of different caregivers, then her ability to trust may have developed inadequately or may have become seriously damaged.
Because Mrs A was placed in care as a baby, and was maybe adopted out, then she may view herself as just one of the many number of children who could have easily fulfilled the adoptive parents need to be a parent. Maslow would also say that Mrs A would have suffered pain and also a devastating loss of been taken away from her mother. It also means that Mrs A would have had to deal with the loss of relationships and the sense of loss of control over her life, causing a blow to her self esteem.
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John Watson would suggest that Mrs A has developed her behaviour entirely from the
environment that she has grown up in, and that it had nothing to do with maternal deprivation. He believed that Mrs A did not need to be hugged, kissed or held in her parents lap and should have been treated objectively as if she were a young adult. Watson would also say that had Mrs A's mother showed affection, then it would have potentially damaged Mrs A's character.
Bowlby and Ainsworth would suggest that Mrs A's problems in adulthood have stemmed from her childhood. Because Mrs A was separated and isolated from loving attentive parents, she has become agitated, distressed, depressed and withdrawn and also resulting in low self-esteem.
Mrs A has developed emotional and psychological disturbances and attachment bonding problems. Maybe the reason for her marital breakdown and problems with her son.
Bowlby would also suggest that because Mrs A was separated from her mother at such an early age, she never formed a secure attachment which was important for her developmental functions.
As Mrs A works as a home care worker, she will be able to sympathise with the individuals that have no family, and reflect back to her childhood experiences of isolation and insecure attachment, maybe this will help Mrs A to overcome some of her major problems.
By Dawn Bewick
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Task 4 Education
Behavioural learning theory by Kolb 1984
David Kolb 1984 suggests that different people naturally prefer a certain single different learning style. Various factors influence a persons preferred style, notably in his experimental learning theory model.
Kolb defined three stages of a persons development, the development stages are:
. Acquisition - birth to adolescence - development of basic abilities and cognitive structures.
2. Specialisation - schooling, early work and personal experiences of adulthood - the development of a particular specialised learning style shaped by social, educational and organisational socialisation.
3. Integration - mid - career through to later life - expression of non dominant learning style in work and personal life.
Whatever influences the choice of style, the learning style preference itself is the product of two separate choices that we make which Kolb presented as lines of axis, each with conflicting modes at either end.
. Concrete experience - (feeling)----------V---------abstract conceptualisation (thinking)
2. Active experimentation (doing)----------V----------reflective observation (watching)
Kolb suggests that we cannot do both at the same time, and to an extent our urge to want to do both creates conflict, which we resolve through choice when confronted with a new learning situation.
We internally decide whether we wish to do or watch, and at the same time we decide whether to think or feel.
Our learning style is a product of these two choice decisions
. How to approach a task - grasping experience - (preferring to do or watch)
2. Our emotional response to the experience - transforming experience - (preferring to think or feel)
In other words we choose our approach to the task or experience by opting for 1 or 2.
. Through experiencing the concrete, tangible, felt qualities of the world (concrete experience)
2. Through gaining new information by thinking, analysing or planning (abstract conceptualisation)
And at the same time we choose how to emotionally transform the experience into
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Something meaningful and useful by opting for 1 or 2.
. Through watching others involved in the experience and reflecting on what happens (reflective observation) or
2. Through jumping straight in an just doing it (active experimentation).
Brief descriptions of Kolb's four learning styles:
* Diverging (feeling and watching) - these people are able to look at things from different perspectives. They are sensitive, they prefer to watch rather than do tending to gather information and use imagination to solve problems. They are best at viewing concrete situations. Diverging style prefer to work in groups, to listen with an open mind and to receive personal feedback.
* Assimilating (watching and thinking) - the assimilating learning preference is for a concise, logical approach. Ideas and concepts are more important than people. These people require good clear explanation rather than practical opportunity. They excel at understanding wide - ranging information and organising it is a clear logical format. People with an assimilating learning style are less focussed on people and more interested in ideas and abstract concepts. People with this style are more attracted to logically sound theories than approaches based on practical value. These learning style people are important for effectiveness in information and science careers. In formal learning situations, people with this style prefer reading lectures, exploring analytical models and having time to think things through.
* Converging (doing and thinking) - people with converging learning style can solve problems and will use their learning to find solutions to practical issues. They prefer technical tasks, and are less concerned with people and interpersonal aspects. People with a conveying learning style are best at finding practical uses for ideas and theories. They can solve problems and make decisions by finding solutions to questions and problems. People with a converging learning style are more attracted to technical tasks and problems than social or interpersonal issues.
A converging style like to experiment with new ideas, to stimulate, and to work with practical applications.
* Accommodating (doing and feeling) - the accommodating learning style is 'hands on' and relies on intuition rather than logic. These people use other people's analysis, and prefer to take a practical, experimental approach. They are attracted to new challenges and experiences, and to carrying out plans. They commonly act on gut instinct rather than logical analysis. People with an accommodating learning style prefer to work in teams to complete tasks. They set targets and actively work in the field trying different ways to achieve an objective.
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Jean Piaget (1896-1989) Cognitive learning theory
Piaget was very interested in knowledge and how children come to know their world. He developed his cognitive theory by actually observing children some of whom were his own children.
Piaget discovered that children think and reason differently at different periods in their lives. He believed that everyone passed through a sequence of four qualitatively distinct stages.
Although every normal child passes through the stages in exactly the same order, there is some variability in the ages at which children attain each stage.
The four stages are:
sensorimotor - birth to two years
Preoperational - 2 years to 7 years
Concrete Operational - 7 years to 11 years
Formal Operational (abstract thinking) - 11 years and up.
Each stage has major cognitive tasks which must be accomplished. In the sensorimotor stage, the mental structures are mainly concerned with the mastery of concrete objects. The mastery of symbols takes place in the preoperational stage. In the concrete stage, children learn mastery of classes, relations, and numbers and how to reason. The last stage deals with the mastery of thought.
A central component of Piaget's developmental theory of learning and thinking is that both involve the participation of the learner. Knowledge is not merely transmitted verbally but must be constructed and reconstructed by the learner. Piaget asserted that for a child to know and construct knowledge of the world, the child must act on objects and it is this action which provides knowledge of those objects., and the mind organises reality and acts upon it. The learner must be active, they are not a vessel to fill with facts. Piaget's approach to learning is a readiness approach. Readiness approaches in developmental psychology emphasize that children cannot learn something until maturation gives them certain prerequisites. The ability to learn any cognitive content is always related to their stage of intellectual development. Children who are at a certain stage cannot be taught the concepts of a higher stage.
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Vygotsky and social cognition
The social cognition learning model asserts that culture is the prime determinant of individual development. Humans are the only species to have created culture, and every human child develops in the context of a culture. Therefore, a child's learning development is affected in ways large and small by the culture - including the culture of family environment, in which he or she is enmeshed.
Culture makes two sorts of contributions to a child's development. First, through culture children acquire much of the content of their thinking, that is, their knowledge. Second, the surrounding culture provides a child with the processes or means of their thinking, what Vygotskians call the tools of intellectual adaptation. In short, according to the social cognition learning model, culture teaches children both what to think and how to think.
Cognitive development results from a dialectical process whereby a child learns through problem solving experiences shared with someone else, usually a parent or teacher but sometimes a sibling or peer.
Initially, the person interacting with the child assumes most of the responsibility for guiding the problem solving, but gradually this responsibility transfers to the child.
Language is a primary form of interaction through which adults transmit to the child the rich body of knowledge that exists in the culture. As learning progresses, the child's own language comes to serve as their primary tool of intellectual adulteration. Eventually, children can use internal language to direct their own behaviour.
Internalisation refers to the process of learning, and thereby internalising a rich body of knowledge and tools of thought that first exist outside the child. This happens primarily through language.
A difference exists between what a child can do on their own and what the child can do with help. Vygotskians call this difference the zone of proximal development.
Since much of what a child learns comes from the culture around them and much of the child's problem solving is mediated through an adult's help, it is wrong to focus on a child in isolation. Such focus does not reveal the processes by which children acquire new skills.
Interactions with surrounding culture and social agents, such as parents and more competent peers, contribute significantly to a child's intellectual development.
Evaluation of learning theories
Learning style is the composite of characteristic cognitive, affective and psychological factors that serve as an indicator of how an individual interacts with and responds to the learning environment. Piaget and Vygotsky focus on the qualitive changes that
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occur in thinking overtime and through accumulating experiences. Kolb argues that
most of what we know, we learn from experience and he developed a learning cycle which breaks down this experimental learning into four stages.
Humans have evolved learning. As long as schools don't teach it out of children, they learn naturally due to intrinsic curiosity. Real life learning should inform in - school learning, and it involves connection to prior knowledge, intrinsic motivation, social interaction, cultural tools and using all four parts of the learning cycle (experience, reflection, hypothesis and action).
Learning is the creation of meaning based on experience, and effective teachers act as informed, purposeful guides as learners make their way towards greater knowledge and thinking skills. When this happens on a large scale, schools may then become a place in which all children can grow and develop to their fullest potential.
Memory - Reminiscence therapy - Dementia
Memory
Memory is a label for a diverse set of cognitive capacities by which humans retain information and reconstruct past experiences, usually for present purposes. Our particular abilities to conjure up long - gone episodes of our lives are both familiar and puzzling. We remember experiences and events which are not happening now, so memory seems to differ from perception. We remember events which really happened, so memory is unlike pure imagination. Memory seems to be a source of knowledge, or perhaps just retained knowledge. Remembering is often suffused with emotion. It is an essential part of much reasoning. It is connected in obscure ways with dreaming. Some memories are shaped by language, others by imagery. Much of our moral life depends on the peculiar ways in which we are embedded in time. Memory goes wrong in mundane and minor, or in dramatic and disastrous ways.
By Dawn Bewick
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Reminiscence and dementia
Reminiscence refers to recollection of memories from the past. It is familiar to us all and can be utilised for the benefit of others. For people with Dementia encouraging the act of reminiscence can be highly beneficial to their inner self and their interpersonal skills. Reminiscence involves exchanging memories with the old and young, friends and relatives, with caregivers and professionals, passing on information, wisdom and skills. It is about giving the person with Dementia sense of value, importance, belonging, power and peace.
Reminiscence activity and therapies are used frequently in our own lives and as well as therapeutic settings and residential care. We all use it to cope in times of stress, such as mourning, it can also help reduce injury to our self image and it can create a feeling of intimacy and give special meaning to contact time with others.
A variety of mediums can assist the act of remembering that use different senses.
It means that people who have difficulty communicating verbally can have the opportunity to do so in other ways. Establishing identity with or without words is a good example of how we have to adapt, giving a valuable opportunity to acquire and use new skills of communication.
* Visually - photographs, slides, painting pictures, looking at objects of autobiographical meaning
* Music - using familiar tunes from the radio, C.Ds, or making music using various instruments
* Smell or taste - using smell kits, different foods
* Tactile - touching objects, feeling textures, painting and pottery.
Reminiscence can be used as individual, group or family sessions and is generally categorised in three main types:
* Simple reminiscence - here the idea is to reflect on the past in an informative and enjoyable way
* Evaluative reminiscence is more of a therapy and may, for example, be used as a life reviewing or sometimes conflict resolving approach.
* Occasionally, unpleasant and stressful information is recalled and this has been called offensive-reminiscence it can be either the cause or the result of behavioural and emotional issues. Dealing with them can provide resolution - coming to terms
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with life events and possible closure.
In a care facility, or in a professional setting, the co-operation and inclusion of relatives and friends can enhance the reminiscence time for all parties. They may be
able to provide photos or remember incidents in the person's life that can increase the pleasure and engage a person with Dementia's attention more fully. Friends and relatives can also provide valuable information on any subject that a person may find distressing or upsetting that require increased support..
By Dawn Bewick