Take your learning a step further by testing your critical thinking skills on this scientific problem solving exercise

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Since her divorce three months ago, 65-year-old Phyllis has constantly felt tired, has had difficulty sleeping and eating, and has lost all interest in her family, friends, and usual activities. Once proud of her accomplishments and optimistic about her future, Phyllis now believes that everything she has ever done, or will do, is worthless. Although her husband was far from a perfect partner, Phyllis is convinced that the divorce really was her fault. Her once-close friends, weary of Phyllis's self-absorbed and hopeless attitude, have stopped calling her. The family physician referred Phyllis to a psychiatrist, who prescribed an antidepressant. The drug seemed to help somewhat, but Phyllis, worried that she would become addicted, stopped taking it regularly. Phyllis's son-in-law is concerned about her dejected attitude. Her daughter, however, insists that there is no cause for alarm. She says that her mother is simply growing old — that the listlessness is reminiscent of her maternal grandmother's behavior at the same age.

1. Should Phyllis's daughter be more concerned about her mother's behavior, or is she correct in attributing it to aging? Explain your reasoning.

2. How might Phyllis's behavior be classified by a clinical psychologist?

3. How might Phyllis's behavior be explained according to (a) the psychoanalytic, (b) the biological, and (c) the social-cognitive perspectives?

4. Which diagnostic perspective most closely represents your own belief about Phyllis's condition? Why?

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Deborah is very satisfied with the large amount of time and money she has invested in psychotherapy. When she began therapy, her life was in crisis and she was desperate for help in overcoming her depressed, pessimistic attitude. After shopping around, she finally found an understanding cognitive therapist who made her feel she could get her life back on track. After 3 months of psychotherapy, Deborah is once again enjoying her life and attributes her recovery to the psychotherapy.

Vincent is a middle-aged manager of an auto parts store. He is under a lot of pressure at work, has a very negative attitude about life, and "blows up" frequently at minor family annoyances. Although he admits that he is depressed and complains to his family a lot, he doesn't feel there is anything wrong with him. His family disagrees and is concerned that he is increasingly showing signs of psychologically disordered behavior. At their insistence, Vincent reluctantly agrees to see a psychotherapist. He picks a name at random from the phone book and grudgingly endures several weeks of "overpriced gibberish" to appease his family. Despite the good efforts of the psychotherapist, who attempts to countercondition Vincent's maladaptive behaviors, Vincent shows no improvement following psychotherapy.

1. Assuming their initial problems were equally serious, what could account for Deborah's and Vincent's very different experiences with psychotherapy?

2. Deborah now swears by cognitive therapy, while Vincent is very critical of behavior therapy. Are their recommendations acceptable as scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of psychotherapy? Why or why not?

FROM THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

22. Read the article quickly and give a short summary of it:

Jung, Carl Gustav (1875-1961) was born on July 26, 1875, in Kesswil, Switzerland, in the family of a protestant clergyman. After graduating in medicine in 1902 from the universities of Basel and Zurich, with a wide background in biology, zoology, palaeontology, and archaeology, he began his work on word association, in which a patient's responses to stimulus words revealed what Jung called "complexes" — a term that has since become universal. These studies brought him international fame and led him to a close collaboration with Freud.

With the publication of Psychology of the Unconscious (1912), however, Jung declared his independence from Freud's narrowly sexual interpretation of the libido by showing the close parallels between ancient myths and psychotic fantasies and by explaining human motivation in terms of a larger creative energy. He gave up the presidency of the International Psychoanalytic Society and founded a movement called analytical psychology.

During his remaining 50years Jung developed his theories, drawing on a wide knowledge of mythology and history; on his travels to diverse cultures in New Mexico, India, and Kenya; and especially, on the dreams and fantasies of his childhood. In 1921 he published a major work, Psychological Types, in which he dealt with the relationship between the conscious and unconscious and proposed the now well-known personality types — extrovert and introvert.

He later made a distinction between the personal unconscious, or the repressed feelings and thoughts developed during an individual's life, and the collective unconscious, or those inherited feelings, thoughts, and memories shared by all humanity. The collective unconscious, according to Jung, is made up of what he called "archetypes". These correspond to such experiences as confronting death or choosing a mate and manifest themselves symbolically in religions, myths, fairy tales, and fantasies. Jung wrote many works on analytical methods and the relationships between psychotherapy and religious belief. He died on June 6, 1961.