546 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
realistic goals. Rotter and Hochreich (1975) listed three sources of problems that
follow from inappropriate goals.
First, two or more important goals may be in conflict. For example, adoles-
cents frequently value both independence and protection-dependency. On the one
hand, they wish to be free from their parents’ domination and control, but on the
other, they retain their need for a nurturing person to care for them and protect
them from painful experiences. Their ambivalent behaviors are often confusing
both to themselves and to their parents. In this situation, the therapist may try to
help adolescents see how specific behaviors are related to each of these needs and
proceed to work with them in changing the value of one or both needs. By altering
need value, patients gradually begin to behave more consistently and to experience
greater freedom of movement in obtaining their goals.
A second source of problems is a destructive goal. Some patients persistently
pursue self-destructive goals that inevitably result in failure and punishment. The
job of the therapist is to point out the detrimental nature of this pursuit and the
likelihood that it will be followed by punishment. One possible technique used by
a therapist in these cases is to positively reinforce movements away from destruc-
tive goals. Rotter, however, is both pragmatic and eclectic and is not bound to a
specific set of techniques for each conceivable problem. To him, the appropriate
procedure is the one that works with a given patient.
Third, many people find themselves in trouble because they set their goals too
high and are continually frustrated when they cannot reach or exceed them. High goals
lead to failure and pain, so instead of learning constructive means of obtaining a goal,
people learn nonproductive ways of avoiding pain. For example, a person may learn
to avoid painful experiences by physically running away or by psychologically repress-
ing the experience. Because these techniques are successful, the person learns to use
flight and repression in a variety of situations. Therapy in this case would consist of
getting the patient to realistically reevaluate and lower exaggerated goals by reducing
the reinforcement value of these goals. Because high reinforcement value is often
learned through generalization, the therapist would work toward teaching patients
to discriminate between past legitimate values and present spurious ones.Eliminating Low Expectancies
In addition to changing goals, the therapist tries to eliminate patients’ low expec-
tancies of success and its analog, low freedom of movement. People may have low
freedom of movement for at least three reasons.
First, they may lack the skills or information needed to successfully strive
toward their goals (Rotter, 1970). With such patients, a therapist becomes a teacher,
warmly and emphatically instructing them in more effective techniques for solving
problems and satisfying needs. If a patient, for example, has difficulties in inter-
personal relationships, the therapist has an arsenal of techniques, including extin-
guishing inappropriate behaviors by simply ignoring them; using the therapist-patient
relationship as a model for an effective interpersonal encounter that may then
generalize beyond the therapeutic situation; and advising the patient of specific
behaviors to try out in the presence of those other people who are most likely
to be receptive.