Adolescent behavioural problems. A comparative
analysis of hypnosis with psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic models.
Hypnosis is known to be very
effective for the full range of adolescent problems, including oppositional
behaviour, confidence and self-esteem building, social skills and
learning/sports skills. Hypnosis (Eriksonian approach) simply allows the
adolescent to let go of limiting beliefs that lead to behavioural problems and
replaces them with ego-strengthening and self-esteem beliefs that provide
personal support within a changeable environment.
In contrast, psychoanalytic and
psychotherapeutic models propose various combinations of cognitive and
behavioural change based on concepts about the origin of the behaviour. We
would like to propose that such concepts are essentially irrelevant when
hypnosis is used. With hypnosis we can simply ask the unconscious mind of the
adolescent to do what needs to be done to solve the problem in a way that
supports the teenager.
The discussion below identifies
various psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic theories around aggressive
behaviour in teenagers. They have value in arriving at a cognitive
understanding of the behavioural problem but are of limited value in actually
helping the teenager. For this brief and imperfect tour of the models we
postulate a teenager with aggressive behaviour. Much of the analysis is also
applicable to other behavioural problems.
Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory proposes
that people have a death instinct that has, in normal functioning people, been
repressed. As noted by Corey (1996), Freud postulated that death instincts – an
unconscious wish of a person to die or hurt themselves or others - account for
the aggressive drive in people. Changes in the home, school or other environment
may encouraged the death instinct to be expressed in adolescents. This may lead
to disturbing risk-taking behaviours including exposure to violent situation,
drug-taking, risky driving and so on.
An alternative view is offered by
Erikson in Turner and Helms (1995). In Erikson’s view adolescence is a time in
which the individual seeks to develop an integrated sense of self through
facing and resolving a crisis of self
identity versus role confusion. At such a time the adolescent faces great
stress in personal interactions with their peer group, torn between wanting to
assert their individuality and difference while at the same time achieving the
security of group belongingness. Such stress may express itself in
inappropriate displacement aggression and projection onto family members.
Maslow’s Theory of Self
Actualisation (as cited in Turner and Helms 1995) suggests the possibility that
adolescents may be seeking to address needs for safety or belongingness and
security. We are not aware of all the situations that a particular adolescent
faces. Should it be that any of these environments pose a safety or security
threat to the teenager, for example child abuse, teacher bullying or peer
bullying, it is to be expected that the child shall respond by raising his or
her overall level of aggression in an attempt to increase his overall feeling
of security.
Roger’s Self-concept Theory (also
cited in Turner and Helms 1995) poses the idea that individuals have an “Ideal
Self” and a “Real Self” which may be congruent or conflicting. Conflict may lead to a level of discomfort
which may be expressed as aggression. It is possible that an adolescent
exhibiting unwanted (by others) behaviour is attempting to handle such inner
conflict at this time, possibly stimulated by some environmental change that
has forced the teenager into an identity that is incongruent with his or her
real self. This change could be the
recent imposition of strong behavioural expectations at home or school,
possibly from a new teacher or class-mate.
The “Nature and Nurture Theory”
proposes that the genetically-determined personality may be in conflict with
the environmentally-determined attitudes or “mental manager”. We may suppose
that environmental pressures of some kind have lead to a reduction of the role
of the mental manager in suppressing inherent aggression in the teenager, or
that the mental manager is deliberately adopting an aggressive behaviour that
is masking an inherent non-aggressive personality. In the former, some recent
liberalisation at home or school is likely. In the later, some recently
introduced encouragement for “grown-up aggression” is possible. We would look
for changes in the identity of family members (is there a recent change to
father or step father?) or school teachers in addition to seeking information
perhaps via psychometric tests, that might identify inherent genetic tendencies
toward aggression or non-aggression.
Conflict theory, in contrast, could
explain the teenager's behaviour in terms of the current balance of power
within the family. As stated by Lips and Sprey (as cited in Turner and Helms
1995) people face the “perpetual problem of coming to terms with themselves and
the conflicting interests of those around them” and that important concepts are
“power, competition, resources, negotiating and bargaining”. It is likely, within this perspective, that
the adolescent is seeking to increase his power, resources and autonomy within
the family setting and that this claim is being resisted by a parent. Any current
aggression by the teenager possibly represents his or her exercise of power
within the context of his or her limited financial and other resources. A
parent's search of assistance may represent an attempt to increase power over
the adolescent through the acquisition of behaviour modification language and
skills from the counsellor.
The theory of classical
conditioning, developed by Pavlov (cited in Wade and Tavris 1998), would see
the teenager's behaviour as the simple generalisation of conditioned aggression
towards people generally, or authority figures, such as the mother. For
example, an act by a person or authority figure, that the boy interprets as
life-threatening in an emotionally vulnerable moment, could be later
generalized into fear that others are intending similar life-threatening
behaviour. In other words, the teenager's
aggression could be simply a phobic defence response to imagined threats. The
same theoretical perspective would suppose that the parent's response to the teenager's
aggression could be conditioned fear in the face of aggression by the teenager.
Operant conditioning, as formulated
by Skinner (cited in Carlson and Buskist 1997), would extend the classical
conditioning view of the teenager's behaviour to suppose that the behaviour,
although a generalisation of a conditioned response, is also seeking something additional from the
environment, some reward which will accrue from his or her current behaviour,
over and above the initial need for the response. The concept of operant conditioning is
summarised as the Law of Effect (Thorndike cited in Carlson and Buskist 1997)
in which “the occurrence of a favourable outcome strengthens the response that
produced it.”. Applied to the case of
the teenager’s behaviour, the Law of Effect indicates that the teenager may
have recently responded to a threatening experience and then learnt that his or
her defensive aggressive response delivers certain additional benefits, which
consequently serve to reinforce the behaviour. This is also expressed as the
“Three-Term Contingency” (Skinner op cit) in which the discriminative stimulus
(in this case something in the teenager's environment) generates a response (in
this case possibly defensive aggression) which leads the responder (the teenager)
to action (via the deliberate further performance of aggression) a follow-up
event. Therefore, we conclude that something is happening in the adolescent's
environment which initially favoured aggression as a defensive response, but
which now provides status or power, or other, benefits to the teenager. This
could be an increase in power and autonomy in relation to his or her parent or
some status benefit from his or her school or peer group environment.
The Theory of Stimulus and Response
(Clarke 1998) offers the additional perspective in that it proposes a
“mediating response” between the stimulus (the environmental situation) and the
response (the teenager's aggressive behaviour).
The “mediating response” or “mediator” is said to intervene and divert
an otherwise automatic response into an alternative response. In so far as this
mediator is a thought generated by the teenager, the mediating response is, in
effect, actioned by the mental manager.
This throws into doubt the idea that the environment is somehow
producing a defensive aggressive reaction by the teenager. It suggests instead
that something (unknown at this stage) is occurring in the environment but the teenager
is applying some logic and deliberately creating an aggressive behaviour in order
to achieve some end. Thus we must look again at the benefits to the adolescent
from aggressive behaviour. These are likely to be stress-release, power or
status, depending on the stimulus. The stimulus may be imaginary projection or
some actual change in conditions in the home, school or peer environment.
Social Learning Theory formulated by
Bandura (Mazur 1986), perhaps in some combination with operant conditioning,
provides the final, in this discussion, theoretical framework for the teenager’s
behaviour. Imitation, says Bandura,
occurs naturally in humans and the performance of these new imitated behaviours
is based on an expectancy of reward. The
reward may be a diminution of undesired environmental stimulus (such as threats
or bullying from a parent or from teachers or peers) or an increase in a
desired situation (status, praise, attention). In searching for benefits to the
teenager from performance of unwanted behaviour, we consider the factors that
encourage imitation as identified in research by Mischel (Mazur 1986). Such
factors could include an increased level of uncertainty in the teenager in
relation to his or her environment at school or home or with his or her peer
group; the appearance in the teenager's environment of a strong role model that
confers, or is likely to confer, some praise or esteem benefit; or simply that
the teenager is bored with current behaviour and finds imitation of aggressive
behaviour and possible participation in an aggressive environment somewhat more
interesting than the comfort he or she has known. Therefore, this perspective
suggests the possibility of role insecurity or boredom by the teenager,
possibly at school, coupled with the appearance of a charismatic role model
that rewards the teenager for demonstration of aggressive behaviour.
Carlson,
Neil R. and Buskist, William 1997. Psychology:
The Science of Behaviour, 5th edition. Allyn and Bacon
Publishers, USA
Clarke, Dr. John 1998. Advanced Professional Counselling. J
& S Garrett Pty. Ltd. Brisbane, Australia
Corey, Gerald 1996, Theory and Practice of Counselling and
Psychotherapy, 5th edition, Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, USA.
Mazur, James E. 1986. Learning and Behaviour, Prentice-Hall
Inc., USA pp 258-276
Turner, Jeffrey S. and Helms, Donald
B. 1995, Lifespan Development, 5th
edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, USA.
Wade, Carole and Tavris, Carol 1998
Psychology, 5th edition, Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc,
USA