cents in helping them to develop good social skills.
Some behavior therapy programs work with families where abuse has already taken place. According to Patterson, Chamberlain and Reid (1982), most of these programs combine behavior therapy with some form of insight therapy. However, if the program is strongly behavioral, then the insight therapy given is usually only provided toward the objective of facilitating the desired behavior change.
For example, Patterson et al. (1982) describe a behavior treatment program that teaches known abusers the behavioral management techniques used in the program discussed by Wolf et al. (1988)--e.g. smiles, praise, etc.. In addition, the program also provides discussion therapy.
However, the group facilitator repeatedly leads the insight or discussion part of the therapy to how parents behave in terms of managing their stress. The objective of the discussion is to teach parents new ways to cope with stress and thereby prevent the build-up of stress that can trigger an abusive episode. Thus, once again the focus is not in terms of providing parents with any insight other than how to cope with stress in a manner that reduces the abuse.
Adlerian theory and therapy has been discussed by Pervin (1980) as having a social-psychological and non-deterministic view of human nature. The theory postulates that all people have an innate desire to strive for perfection and life success; further, the theory states that all people need to deal with feelings of worthlessness and inferiority that arise when this desire for perfection is frustrated.
Based on the Adlerian view, abused adolescents would be viewed as suffering (as a consequence of the abuse) feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness which are characterized by the Adlerian perspective as feelings of "discouragement." One of the strongest methods Adlerian counselors use to help clients overcome discouragement is the process of e...