Everett L. Shostrom

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Everett Leo Shostrom was a well known American psychotherapist. His approach to psychotherapy was more eclectic than was then normal integrating a wide range of theory, practice, and research. He was perhaps most well known for his film Three Approaches to Psychotherapy and his famous book Man, the Manipulator. He also produced some well known "tests" and "inventories". These include the following: the Personal Orientation Inventory, Personal Orientation Dimensions, the Pair Attraction Inventory, and the Caring Relationship Inventory. [1]

Contents

Three Approaches to Psychotherapy

Shostrom in 1965 produced a series of videoed therapy sessions between "Gloria", one of his patients, and three of the leading psychotherapists of that time; Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls and Albert Ellis. Each therapist took a different approach to help Gloria, a real person, with her problems - in particular discussing the need to be sensitive to her young daughter while dating again after her divorce. The approaches taken by the three therapists were respectively a Person-centered therapy, Gestalt therapy, and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. The film has been widely used as a training aid for counselors and therapists. [2] [1]

Personal Orientation Inventory

The Personal Orientation Inventory is a system developed by Shostrom (1963) to measure factors related to self-actualisation. It uses 120 pairs of choice items to make up ten sub-scales. With these scales being designed to address various aspects of the systems of personal values being held by the subject. The instruments were chosen on the basis of value concepts which he saw as having wide personal and social relevance. His claim was that it is suitable for, and it has been used in, a wide range of different areas. These include colleges, businesses, clinics as well as with counselors. [3] [4] [5]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

Carl Rogers American psychologist

Carl Ransom Rogers was an American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach in psychology. Rogers is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and was honored for his pioneering research with the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1956.

Psychotherapy Clinically applied psychology for desired behavior change

Psychotherapy is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome problems. Psychotherapy aims to improve an individual's well-being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. Numerous types of psychotherapy have been designed either for individual adults, families, or children and adolescents. Certain types of psychotherapy are considered evidence-based for treating some diagnosed mental disorders; other types have been criticized as pseudoscience.

Albert Ellis American psychologist (1913–2007)

Albert Ellis was an American psychologist and psychotherapist who founded rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). He held MA and PhD degrees in clinical psychology from Columbia University, and was certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). He also founded, and was the President of, the New York City-based Albert Ellis Institute. He is generally considered to be one of the originators of the cognitive revolutionary paradigm shift in psychotherapy and an early proponent and developer of cognitive-behavioral therapies.

Humanistic psychology Psychological perspective

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Counseling psychology Counseling theory

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References

  1. 1 2 Brammer, Lawrence M (1996) Everett L. Shostrom (1921-1992): Obituary.American Psychologist, Issue: Volume 51(1), January
  2. Rosenthal, Howard. (2006) Therapy's best: practical advice and gems of wisdom from twenty accomplished counselors and therapists. New York: Haworth Press.
  3. Shostrom, Everett L. (1963) Personal Orientation Inventory, Educational and Industrial Testing Service, San Diego
  4. Weiss, Arnold S. (1987) Shostrom's personal orientation inventory: Arguments against its basic validity, Personality and Individual Differences Volume 8, Issue 6, Pages 895-903
  5. Hattie, John(1986) A defence of the Shostrom personal orientation inventory: a rejoinder to Ray, Personality and Individual Differences Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages 593-594
  6. Wigger, Orval L. (1968) Book Review: Everett L. Shostrom. Man, the Manipulator. Nashville and New York: Abingdon Press, 1967. 256 pp. $4.95 Journal of Humanistic Psychology Spring, vol. 8 no. 1 87-88