Over the years, professional school counselors have played an essential role in providing responsive services by applying a wide range of clinical approaches to address student and staff problems. Notably, there are several counseling theories and techniques that have been useful for school counselors. These theories and methods shape how the school counselors provide therapeutic interventions in different situations. Most of the approaches have been developed from evidence-based practices or based upon other ideas about human functions. Additionally, numerous variables determine the success of counseling theories and methods. A single counseling approach applied by two counselors may not give the same results due to each case’s variables. One of the significant variables that determine the success of each theory is the counselor’s personality traits. According to Aardema & Wong (2020), clinical approaches and views can only give positive results when they fit the counselor’s personality traits. Given the nature of school counseling, counselors need to know the differences between the theories to provide suitable interventions for different cases. The counselors need to know the ideas that fit their personality traits and comfortably provide therapeutic intervention. Therefore, this essay will compare Behavioral theories, which is my most preferred approach, to the Humanistic therapy, which is my least preferred counseling approach.
Behavioral and Humanistic Theories
Behavioral theories are based on psychological approaches that mainly rely on scientific and objective research methods to examine a client’s psychology. In this approach, the counselor mainly focuses on the client’s observable actions, such as making clinical conclusions and providing the best therapeutic intervention. The method is based on scientific assumptions, which states that humans can change their behavior based on how they respond to various stimuli in their environment. This assumption is based on previous studies as well as the results obtained from psychology laboratory experiments which suggest that humans learn their behaviors through their daily interaction with their environment (Rise, Sheeran & Hukkelberg, 2010). Several laboratory experiments revealed that humans and other animals, such as dogs, may show certain behaviors when exposed to various stimuli for a long time. For example, an experiment carried out by an early behavioral theorist Ivan Pavlov showed that dogs responded to different stimuli in their environment after long exposure. The researcher noted that dogs learned responses such as salivation after prolonged exposure to the sound of a bell during their meals. The experiment concluded that humans can learn new reactions after being exposed to environmental factors and unlearn their behavior when the stimuli are removed or manipulated.
Humanistic theories are psychological approaches that mainly rely upon the study of an individual as a human and the behaviors that result from a person’s inner feelings and self-image. This approach is mainly based on the idea that every person has his/her unique personality traits hence human actions and behaviors are entirely as a result of one’s decision (Rise, Sheeran & Hukkelberg, 2010). The approach is also based on the idea that every human has his/ her own free will hence they are responsible for all their actions. Humanism was developed in the 1950’s as reaction to the increased psychoanalysis and behavioral theories that dominated psychology during the time. This development of the humanistic theories aimed at addressing the short comings and weaknesses of behavioral theories. Humanist theories considered behavioral and psychoanalysis theories as pessimistic given that the theories mostly focused on the most tragic emotions and failed to consider humans’ freedom of personal choice. Humanist theorists explain that humans are entirely responsible for their well-being and have a choice to decide whether the environment would change them. Further, the theorists demystify that all humans have an inborn capacity for self-actualization given that each individual has their own unique desires to achieve certain goals for his/her well-being. The humanist theories are also based on the idea that all humans have innate goodness and the negative behavior are as a result of mental and socio-economic problems that exist in societies.
Similarities between Humanistic and Behavioral Theories
Both Humanistic and Behavioral theories focus on human behavior and tries to explain the causes of behavioral changes. For instance, humanistic approach aims at establishing the causes of certain behavior by focusing on a client’s mental capabilities as well as the impact of socio-economic problems in a person’s life. The humanists believe that mental problems and socio-economic challenges are the major causes of behavioral deviation from an individual’s natural goodness. Similarly, behavioral theories aim at explaining the causes of human behavior by focusing on environmental factors that makes a person to adopt certain behaviors. The approach explains that humans learn their new behaviors from their environment hence a counselor mainly focuses on a client’s environment to note the stimuli that motivates them to adopt certain behaviors. Therefore, both approaches are applied by counselors to help them establish and understand the root cause of a client’s behavior and consequently provided the appropriate therapeutic interventions to help their clients.
Differences between Humanistic and Behavioral Theories
Behavioral theories mainly rely on scientific and objective research methods to examine a client’s psychology while humanistic approaches reject scientific methods applied behaviorists. Most behaviorist theorists stress the importance of having a scientific process that critically analyzes a client’s psychology and provides an evidence-based intervention that appropriately addresses the client’s problem. According to Dryden (2017), scientific methods are essential for psychology since it allows psychologists to keep data used by other psychologists or researchers who wish to develop better interventions for specific cases. Additionally, scientific methods will enable the testing and verification of behavioral theories. This leads to a better understanding of various psychological concepts that allow a counselor to provide therapeutic interventions successfully.
On the other hand, humanistic behaviors reject scientific methods to examine a client’s psychology, given that all humans are different. Humanists believe that all humans have unique personality traits and have a choice to behave as they desire. They argue that scientific records or experiments may not give precise information that can be applied in a client’s case since they have unique and natural personalities. Therefore, psychologists need to have data or scientific experiments to determine a client’s situation.
Behavioral theories suggest that humans do not have free will, while humanistic approaches stress that humans have the free will to choose the behaviors they desire. Behaviorists assume that humans do not have free will when learning a new behavior since environmental factors determine a person’s behavior. Behaviorists argue that a person’s background does not determine their ability to learn new things and adapt into new environments (Dryden, 2017). They argue that people learn behaviors and cues through observation, education, and daily interactions with people and the environment. Classical conditioning is one of the techniques used by classical behaviorists in training. The technique involves pairing a naturally occurring stimulus with a neutral stimulus. When the two get paired, the neutral stimulus acts as the naturally occurring stimulus by recording similar responses without the need for the naturally occurring stimulus to present itself.
Operant conditioning is another type of exercise used in behavioral theory. Operant training is also known as instrumental conditioning since it occurs through punishments and reinforcements. Instrumental conditioning is achieved by associating specific behaviors and specific consequences for the behavior. Most researchers have used operant training to train animals, including apes and dogs. When dogs do something terrible, they get punished by not getting their treats and getting the treats when they obey commands. The animals getting trained eventually relates bad behavior to no treats and good behavior to get a treat. They learn the good and the bad, which shows that the human mind can also get conditioned in the same way through punishment and reinforcements. When children play with the water, they are likely to get locked in the house for some time. Boredom acts as a reminder to stop playing with water. When the child reaches the lesson, they are less likely to touch water even when they spend the day playing outside to fear getting punished.
Unlike the behavioral theory, humanistic theorists claim that people have free will to make different life choices. Humanists believe that each individual has the innate sense of being the right person in society and bettering the world (Dryden, 2017). They think that human values are intrinsic and that each individual has an ingrown feeling and desire to make others happy and comfortable. Similarly, it claims that each person has the natural desire to fulfill their life goals even without external interventions, which is a considerable difference from behavioral theorists who claim that the environment and training change human behavior. Another critical difference between behavioral and humanistic theories is that behavioral theorists stress the importance of scientific tests, while humanistic theorists do not require scientific research. Since humanists do not value the need for scientific evidence, they believe that human beings are unique and that tests done on other species do not reflect human behavior’s nature. They think that the examination conducted by behavioral theorists are inaccurate since only humans possess the ingrown attributes and behaviors.
How Behavioral Approaches fit with my Personality Traits as opposed to Humanistic Approaches
I am a fast learner, and I believe in training and education. Behavioral approaches fit with my Personality since I am an open person who loves trying new things and experiences. Behavioral approaches indicate that each individual is teachable, and their behaviors can get molded through training. Throughout my life, I have learned numerous educational and recreational things that have improved my life and changed my childhood experiences and adulthood. I can vividly remember my Personality needed to change since I could not listen to simple commands and instruction from my parents. Instead of excessive punishments, they could withdraw some rights and opportunities to reminds me of the consequences of not following instructions. For instance, I could open the refrigerator and leave it open for hours despite strict instructions not to do so. To mold my behavior, my mother would force me to stay in the study room for 2 hours until I got used to the punishment and reflected on what would happen to me if I left the refrigerator door open. The small intervention changed my Personality from arrogant to a respective individual who followed instructions and obeyed commands. If my parents had used the humanistic approach and assumed that I would change my behavior with time, my Personality would probably be worse since humanistic approaches do not use scientific experiments and therefore, the results are unreliable.
Humanistic and behavioral theories are both used in psychology since they help assess and change human behavior. However, the humanistic approach does not fit with my personality traits since I have grown up as a fast learner, and my parents have taught me the importance of discipline and reinforcement. Instead of sitting back and waiting for my Personality to improve, they used small punishments such as grounding me to help me relate lousy behavior with negative consequences. Similarly, learning and openness have changed my Personality by interacting with new people and my personal experiences. Humanistic approaches also lack reliability since the humanistic theory does not rely on scientific evidence and tests. Humanists only believe that human beings have the innate feeling of doing good and achieving their goals which influences them to change their attitudes. I have lived my life as a believer of the ability to change and train personality traits and behavior which is part of behavioral theory.