The Issue of Choice: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Melissa Trask
Liberty University
May 12, 2010
Abstract
Counseling has been in existence from the beginning of time. From Jethro to Freud, therapists and philosophers have been seeking insight into the core of human nature and cognitions. Cognitive-Behavioral therapy(CBT) recognizes that faulty cognitions and beliefs affect the behaviors of individuals. One method of cognitive-behavior therapy, reality therapy, incorporates the concepts of free choice and personal responsibility that are taught both in Scripture and Dr. William Glasser’s choice theory. Other aspects of CBT, such as cognitive restructuring and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), also work towards eliminating negativistic attitudes of clients in exchange for more effective and realistic methods for interpreting the situations experienced in daily life.
The Issue of Choice: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy It is suggested that an individual’s personality is a complex system of cognition, emotion, will, physiology, and spirituality. Hawkins proposes nine aspects of the human self to be active influences on one’s personality: “body, cognition, feelings, volition, human spirit, Holy Spirit, sin/flesh/SAS, temporal systems, and spiritual systems (Hawkins COUN507_BO1_200920). Each therapist individually determines what factors they believe to make up a person’s being. Larry Crabb views humans as involving both the physical and spiritual aspects of man. Man’s personality is then separated into five parts: the conscious mind, unconscious mind, heart, will, and emotions. He argues that the way in which an individual identifies what takes place in his/her life determines the emotional or behavioral outcome (Crabb, 1977). The cognitive-behavioral therapist sees individuals as functioning within continuous, shared interactions between behaviors and social conditions. Although these theorists once
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