Counselling Theories Essay

1.Explain the thought of record versus concord, using yourself as a case study to illustrate the theory.The concept of nature versus have is that humansity behaviour is influenced by genetic information inherited from our parents and also by environmental and social influences. My appearance such as short sightedness and pigmentation (freckles) I inherited from my parents. This mean like my father I must wear glasses to drive and many other aspects of my unremarkable biography. Being a woman this heightens my social awareness as how others perceive me. Society dictates the body sightly. Magazines, Bill-boards, TV and newspapers constantly suggest the need to have a perfect complexion. This influences how I perceive myself and makes me heart I must wear makeup to cover up such blemishes to appear more unexceptionable and feel good about myself. Thus this influences my behaviour in everyday life as I feel my appearance determines my acceptance by others.2.Identify one per sonnel and one weakness of the nature versus nurture concept in apprisal back to understanding human phylogeny and individual behaviour. One strength of the nature versus nurture concept in relation to understanding human culture and individual behaviour is the susceptibility to explain addiction to smoking, drinking and narcotics. Children see their family and friends behaviour as socially acceptable and so present these behaviours with little question. This often deceases to entrenched social behaviour. This suggests that our early contracts can affect our perspective later in adulthood.One weakness of the nature versus nurture concept in relation to understanding human developing and individual behaviour is that if someones behaviour is solely determined by their genes then to what point are people in control of their lives. For instance people suffering from ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) have the same set of genes simply depending on their family, social or cultura l upbringing may do unlikely to the same situation.3.Describe Freuds concept of the ego, id and superego. Explain how the ego,id and superego interact. Use an case from your own experience.Id Describes the biological or instinctive response. This is our original personality we are born with and controls responses in the early microscope interpret of life.Ego In this second schoolingal stage, compromises in instinctive responses to environmental circumstances begin to develop. The ego mediates with the id by considering the rules of the material world and the consequences of actions taken in that world.Superego This is that part of our psyche that determines how we think we should react in a presumptuousness situation. This is the development of morals, what is right and what is wrong. It is a further development of control over the id response. An example from my own experience is say when I see a piece of cake on display. My id tells me I want to run through the piece of ca ke, my ego says are you solidly that hungry. My superego rationalises the situation and asks if I eat the cake unnecessarily, a potential consequence is I will put on weight and so is this the right thing to do? 4.Identify one strength and one weakness of Freuds concept of the ego, id and superego in relation to understanding human development and individual behaviour.One advantage of Freuds concept of the ego, id and superego in relation to understanding human development and individual behaviour is that it gives a good overall description of development of the human psyche. It recognises the development of personality and physical development stages. It demonstrates the interplay or lack of between these unlike aspects of the psychological process and how different outcomes can occur as a consequence of this balance. One weakness of Sigmund Freuds concept of the ego, id and superego in relation to understanding human development and individual behaviour is that not each may be eq ually easily developed. This mix of psyche occurs at different rates for each individual. This can lead to social consequences where individuals will be treated differently causing a hindrance in the emerging development of the ego and superego.5. Describe Jean Piagets four stages of cognitive development and provide an example from your own experience to illustrate the theory.Sensorimotor (Birth 18 months) During this period the baby begins torecognise the world well-nigh them and so develops refined eye movement, depth vision, and later as they begin to seek further square off to crawl and then walk. They start to use simple language mum, dad and other champion word responses. Preoperating(a) (18 months to 6 geezerhood) Here the child increases their vocabulary and recognise some simple symbols and how to deal with accepted basic situations. They can understand those near to them and begin to categorise the world around them. Concrete operational (6 to 12 eld) At this point language skills increase but are still tied to the real world. The ability to reason increases in seeking to understand the world around them.Formal operational (12 years and over) About this point the child begins to explore abstract or hypothetical situations. There is an attempt to target thoughts and situations into a logical ordering. From my own experience while I cannot remember the first two stages but I have seen them in my childrens growing up. At the age of 12 my daughter started to explore cooking for herself at first making cakes and more complicated meals. She started to ask such questions regarding instructions on packet mixes before progressing to more complicated cooking such as a bacon, tomato and onion omelette. More recently she has started to explore more complex issues and why people do what they do.6.Identify one strength and one weakness of Piagets stages of cognitive development in relation to understanding human development and individual behaviour.Piage ts stages of cognitive development demonstrate an important connection between physical development and personality stages. A criticism levelled at Piaget however was that he used his own children and others from a well educated and high socio-economic background. This selection is thus not fully representative of all society. Further children from different environment and cultural backgrounds may mature differently. Thus the age classification of the different stages may be much wider with some children developing at an earlier age and some later.7.List Eriksons eight psychosocial stages of development. Which stage do you see yourself in and why?(1)Oral sensory (0 1 year)(2)Muscular anal (2 3 years)(3)Locomotor-genital (3 5 years)(4)Latency (6 years puberty)(5)Adolescence (12 18 years)(6)Early adulthood (18 35 years)(7)Middle adulthood (35 60 years)(8)Mature adult (60+ years)Im at stage 7 according to Eriksons psychosocial stages of development. I am 40 years old, I have a f amily, a career and have organized as much as is possible my future life which now includes further education.8.Identify one strength and one weakness of Eriksons stages of development in relation to understanding human development and individual behaviour.A strength of Eriksons stages of development in relation to understanding human development and individual behaviour is that it places greater stress in the nature versus nurture debate for the need for both concepts. Further this description is placed across an entire lifespan of a human being. A criticism, however, is that this theory describes the developmental process rather than explaining it.