College of Humanities & Education
School of Education
Department of Primary Education
EDU 701 Counseling theory and practice
Assignment 3
Essay Writing
QUESTION
There are a number of approaches to counseling that can be used by a counselor. The approach depends on the situation, the context and other factors.
With reference to the theories of counseling discussed in the lecture, critically analyze and discuss which approach would be most appropriate for your school/class. Justify your choice of approach. Support your arguments with appropriate examples.
Approach That Would Be Most Appropriate For My Class:
Behavioral Approach
Analysis:
Behavioral Theory is an approach that addresses dysfunctional emotions, maladaptive behaviors and cognitive processes through a number of goal oriented, explicit procedures. It was during the period 1950-1970 that this approach started becoming commonly used by the aspiration of behaviorist learning theory like Ivan Pavlov, B.F Skinner, John B. Watson and Clark L.Hull. Behaviorism is a tenet based on the idea that behavior can be learnt without involvement of the mind. The theory of behaviorism has many different components, some of which include; classical conditioning which was discovered by Ivan Pavlov where a neutral stimulus causes no natural response in an organism is associated with an unconditioned stimulus, an event that automatically and naturally causes a response. Modern classical conditioning comes from an organism’s exposure to association with environmental events. Operant conditioning which was discovered by B.F. Skinner was based on the conclusion that if a behavior is followed by a rewarded positive reinforcement then the behavior to reoccur is more likely than the behavior which was followed by a punishment.
Criticisms of the Theory:
The behaviorist Theory contradictions with Darwin’s natural selection theory where Darwin believes that humans are...