Review for Test 3

• Fear of failure will cause a person to procrastinate.

• For a person with fear of failure, success is VERY Important

• Success is so important to a person with fear of failure that they will procrastinate as a way to put off feeling the fear and pain

• “Putting the cart before the horse” is when a person believes they must be motivated before they can get started

• The truth is, motivation comes from doing the thing itself

• The most common type of procrastination is lack of desire

• Motivational interviewing can be a technique to use to help a person increase their desire.

• Unassertiveness

• A person who does things for others they would rather not do

• A person who is afraid to say no

Mastery Model

• Person has an unrealistic view of how productive people actually are

• Person tends to assume that most successful people don’t have frustrations or hardships

Coercion Sensitivity

• A response to bossy, demanding people

• You tend to put off doing work for this person but not necessarily for others

Passive Aggressiveness

• Person has difficulty expressing their negative feelings openly and directly

• Person tends to avoid conflicts when they are really angry

Perfectionism

• Delay starting projects because you try too hard

• Feel stressed before you even start

Lack of Rewards

• If you are very critical of what you’ve done

• If you rarely give yourself compliments or praise

• You will lack motivation and procrastinate

• Five Steps Process

• Cost-Benefit Analysis for Procrastination

• Step One:

• Step Two: Make a plan as to when we will start the project

• Step Three: Make the job easy (start doing just something, just do a little bit at a time, work in short spurts)

• Step Four: Think positively about ourselves, analyze thoughts of self-deception that lead to procrastination

• Step Five: Give yourself credit for doing the job

• TIC – Task interfering cognitions (i.e. distortion, excuse, rationalization)

• TOC -

You can assess whether or not your goals are appropriate if:

• You feel a sense of commitment

• You feel excitement about the project

When pursuing a goal, one can anticipate:

• A lot of hard work

• Frustrations from time to time

• Periodic discomforts

• Different views of what causes anxiety:

• Cognitive Therapists: Negative thoughts and irrational attitudes

• Psychoanalysts: Repressed conflicts and/or anger

• Medical Doctors: Imbalance in brain chemistry

• According to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, when we change how we think, we will change how we feel and how we react to anxiety

• According to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, before we are capable of feeling anxious, we must first interpret the situation. (i.e. man on the railroad tracks)

Neurotic Anxiety

• Distorted thoughts with little or no basis in reality

• When a client feels a lot of stress and believe they are dying, (but there is not medical evidence to show they are sick) they are most likely having a panic attack (aka anxiety attack)

• There is little or no medical evidence for anybody ever dying during a panic attack

• People who have anxiety or panic attacks have such negative thoughts because they interpret their stressful feelings in potentially horrible/catastrophic ways.

• Dr. Burns believes that repressed feelings (especially anger) are what can produce panic and/or anxiety disorders and that when we confront conflicts our feelings will tend to disappear over time

• According to Dr. Burns, the two most common feelings clients tend to deny are anger and repressed wishes/desires

• In our text, Dr. Burns reported a study where over 70% of patients went to 10 or more medical doctors with symptoms of anxiety/panic attacks but looking for physical/medical reasons for the attack.

• When MD’s tend to send patients to see a psychiatrist many tend to become offended/threatened at the suggestion

When clients take large doses of medication for anxiety for more than a few weeks, it can be

• potentially dangerous to the patient’s long-term health

• Increase the potential for developing addiction

• An increase in thyroxin output by our body is most often associated with Hyperthyroidism

• Not enough thyroxin = Hypothyroidism

• Low blood sugar = Hypoglycemia

• According to Dr. Burns, medical conditions rarely cause symptoms of anxiety and depression

Panic Attack symptoms can include:

• Increase in heart beat

• Racing thoughts

• Adrenaline rush

How to Fight Your Fears and Win

Experimental Technique

• Example: client is convinced they are dying, you ask them to do an experiment to prove whether or not they are dying. Do they have any evidence to support the conviction?

How to Fight Your Fears and Win

Paradoxical Technique

• Example: a person thinks they are having a nervous breakdown. Tell them, “go ahead and have one right now”.

• Also called “prescribing the symptom”

• Tends to make the fear/irrational belief lose power

How to Fight Your Fears and Win

Confront Your Fears

• Example: Client is afraid of elevators. You give them homework to go into the elevator.

How to Fight Your Fears and Win

Shame-attacking exercises

• Example: A shy client is afraid of “making a fool of themselves”. You create a scenario for them to deliberately do a very embarrassing task in front of others.

How to Fight Your Fears and Win

Positive Visualization

• Example: A client constantly focuses on a negative things happening in their life. You have them imagine a more positive scene to replace the negative.