Reality Therapy and Self-Evaluation

The Key to Client Change

Robert E. Wubbolding

• Publisher: American Counseling Association
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781556203701
• eBook ISBN: 9781119376279
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Professional Development

This unique resource discusses the core concepts of self-evaluation and the WDEP system of reality therapy, and answers the commonly asked question: "How do I intervene with clients who appear to be unmotivated to make changes in their behavior?" Choice theory/reality therapy expert Robert Wubbolding provides mental health professionals with skill-building strategies for helping clients better self-evaluate, embrace the change process, and make more effective life choices. Detailed interventions and sample counselor–client dialogues throughout the book illustrate work with clients dealing with posttraumatic stress, anger issues, grieving and loss, self-injury, antisocial behavior, career concerns, relationship problems, and more. Dr. Wubbolding's techniques are readily applicable to mental health and educational settings, with cross-cultural application to clients of various ages.

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Chapter 1
Human Motivation: “In General Why Do People Do What They Do?”

The origins of reality therapy are rooted in the experience of psychiatrist William Glasser. He was formed by the conventional psychiatric training of the 1950s and 1960s, but Glasser came to believe that helping clients gain insight and study their early childhood conflicts did not necessarily cause behavioral change. He also noted that the successful therapy given to mental patients included holding them responsible for their behavior without blaming the world around them, their childhood, their parents, or their culture. He discussed this apparent anomaly with his supervisor, whom he referred to throughout his life as “my teacher, Dr. Harrington.” In a well-known and oft quoted gesture, Dr. Harrington reached across his desk and said, “Welcome to the club.” Thus reality therapy was given birth (Roy, 2014).

Reality Therapy Develops

As Glasser became a public figure lecturing throughout North America and Canada, his audiences consisted of counselors and therapists as well as educators at every level. After publishing Reality Therapy (1965), he crystalized his ideas as they applied to schools in his book Schools Without Failure (1968).

The Anchor and Mainstay of Reality Therapy

Why did counselors, therapists, and teachers find reality therapy appealing and effective? This is the key question answered throughout this book. In general, the counseling intervention known as self-evaluation—the core and cornerstone of reality therapy—is usable with virtually any client and adaptable to every known culture. The latter part of this statement might seem grandiose and simplistic; however, I have personally seen indigenous instructors adapt this principle to non-Western cultures. For example, when teaching in Singapore, I learned that helping clients self-evaluate means encouraging them to disclose how their parents and even grandparents would see their behavior and asking, “Is it helpful or unhelpful?” Glasser (1972) described self-evaluation as the basis for change. It can be very helpful to counselors regardless of their theoretical orientation. Glasser even extended its application to organizational development where it serves as an essential component of the Glasser Quality School. Qualifying as a Glasser Quality School results from thoroughly and comprehensively implementing the principles of choice theory/reality therapy (CT/RT) for several years and attaining goals of increased student achievement and behavioral improvement. Then, with administrative, staff, and parental involvement, through self-evaluation based on criteria established by the William Glasser Institute (now known as William Glasser International), the school declares itself a Glasser Quality School (Glasser, 1990; Wubbolding, 2007).

Reality Therapy Finds a Validating Theory

Choice theory, along with its application through reality therapy, provides the bedrock principles for self-evaluation. For the sake of brevity and because this book focuses on self-evaluation within the context of counseling, I refer to this complete system (theory and application) with the term reality therapy. This is the standard practice represented in many textbooks such as Capuzzi and Stauffer (2016), Corey (2017), Tinsley, Lease, and Wiersma (2016), and many others.

Glasser (1981, 1984) at first accepted the terms control theory or control system theory for validating the delivery system of reality therapy. The theoretical principles date to the 1940s. Even before that, John von Neumann, an associate of Albert Einstein, foreshadowed the use of analog and digital computers as an explanation for the human nervous system (Powers, 1973). More proximately, the influential writer Norbert Wiener (1948, 1952) described the brain as a negative input control system whose behavior is purposeful. When it is not achieving its purpose, it receives negative input that it is not on target; then it corrects its trajectory to align itself with its targeted goal, much like a torpedo or a rocket.

Similarly, according to control theory, the human brain functions analogously to a thermostat that reads the temperature in the room and signals its heating or air conditioning system to correct what might be called its behavior. It cools or heats the room for the purpose of achieving its goal, which is maintaining the room's preset or desired temperature.

With the emphasis on human choice and its corollary personal responsibility, Glasser (1998) significantly altered control theory. Consequently, he renamed this new version “choice theory.” A detailed rationale for this change is described in Glasser's book Choice Theory (1998), my book Reality Therapy for the 21st Century (Wubbolding, 2000b), and William Glasser's biography, William Glasser: Champion of Choice (Roy, 2014).

Principles of Human Motivation

Describing both the connection and the distinction between choice theory and its delivery system, Glasser and Glasser (2008) state, “Choice theory is the track and reality therapy is the train” (p. 1). CT/RT interface with each other and yet are separable. They are like two hands folded together: interdependent and yet independent.

Choice theory, the foundation for reality therapy procedures, especially self-evaluation, is summarized in the following principles.

The first principle is that human motivation originates within the human person. This means that human behavior cannot be completely coerced. The world outside the human mind does not force people to behave in a predetermined manner. The external world has a major influence on how people live, and it is quite evident that other people can be very persuasive. Al Capone once remarked that he could get what he wanted with a kind word and a gun more efficiently than with only a kind word. Nevertheless, people always retain at least some control over their actions. History is filled with examples of people refusing to alter their beliefs even to the point of suffering; such martyrs realized that they had choices.

From the point of view of choice theory, people generate behaviors for the purpose of satisfying five universal needs or genetic instructions. I prefer to describe these five motivators as somewhat hierarchical. The need for survival or self-preservation is more basic than the four psychological needs: belonging, inner control, freedom, and fun. Starving individuals often ignore the other needs in order to preserve their lives. Also, the need for belonging, although not as basic as survival, nevertheless occupies a central place in choice theory and therefore in the practice of reality therapy. Human service workers who work with the poorest of the poor are often faced with client problems that appear to have no solution. Their problems are many and their intensity is both extreme and fierce. The workers are at a loss, and they themselves feel helpless. Yet they can provide at least a modicum of assistance by helping their clients improve at least one human relationship. The five universal human needs are discussed in the following sections.

Belonging or Involvement With People

A counselor would find it impossible to identify a problem that does not at least contain a relationship issue. Consequently, counselors utilizing reality therapy often explore the interpersonal relationships of their clients. In his lectures, Glasser emphasized his belief that most long-term psychological problems are, in fact, relationship problems. I prefer to temper this principle by teaching that regardless of the presenting issue, improving human relationships helps to alleviate pain and suffering. The need for belonging can be made more concrete by recognizing three kinds of belonging: family belonging, work belonging, and social belonging. This need expresses itself primarily in the family. Children need to feel safe, nurtured, and appreciated, and as they grow, they need to feel valued. Children are born with a need to connect with the people around them. When I teach choice theory and reality therapy, I ask participants what they like about their jobs. A high percentage invariably answer, “The people I work with.” When workers feel appreciated and connected with their peers, their productivity increases, and, even more important, they satisfy their need for belonging on the job. Homeless individuals lack employment but often satisfy their need for belonging by associating with other homeless people. Social belonging means friendship. This is especially evident at times of transition, such as transferring from one school to another, changing jobs, or changing residences. In working with military families, a counselor needs to assist the children to adapt to frequently changing schools and making new friends to building support systems (“Understanding Military Culture,” 2016). Helping clients satisfy the multifaceted need for belonging constitutes a major focus for the practitioner of reality therapy. The need for belonging is often unfulfilled and even assaulted by the use of toxic behaviors such as arguing, blaming, and criticizing.

Discussion Questions

1. What additional aspects of the need for belonging can you describe?
2. In what ways can you apply the need for belonging in your counseling?
3. What role does belonging play in your life?

Power or Inner Control, Including Competence and Achievement

In addition to belonging, counselors often help clients satisfy their need for power. Like belonging, this source of human motivation expresses itself in a variety of ways. The satisfaction of power often means that one individual wins at the expense of another. Athletes, politicians, people seeking jobs or promotions, even rivalries in love relationships often involve the satisfaction or the frustration of the need for power. One person feels rewarded or fulfilled and the other person feels deprived or unfulfilled. In short, the drive for power often involves winning and losing.

The word power derives from the French word pouvoir, meaning to be able or capable without reference to the deprivation of another person. Upon receiving good news from a surgeon, a patient feels a sense of inner satisfaction, a feeling of inner control, without the thought that someone else is deprived of good health. This aspect of power underlies many human behaviors. When driving to a specific destination in an unfamiliar city, a sense of achievement or accomplishment often follows arrival at the journey's end. Some airline passengers feel a much higher degree of inner control when the plane's wheels touch the ground after a turbulent flight. These illustrations point to the undeniable fact that human behavior springing from power need not be competitive.

Though it is connected with belonging, the satisfaction of the power need also involves gaining recognition. This story is told about the New York Yankees basebal...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Chapter 1: Human Motivation: “In General Why Do People Do What They Do?”
• Chapter 2: Human Motivation: “Specifically Why Do People Do What They Do?”
• Chapter 3: The Counseling Environment: “How Do I Set the Stage for Self-Evaluation?”
• Chapter 4: What Is the WDEP System?
• Chapter 5: Career Concerns
• Chapter 6: Cross-Cultural Applications
• Chapter 7: Dealing With Loss, Posttraumatic Stress, Self-Injury, Conflict, and Anger
• Chapter 8: Reality Therapy FAQs
• Chapter 9: Conclusion
• Resources for Further Study
• References
• Index
• Technical Support
• End User License Agreement