Instincts (e.g., hunger, thirst, survival, sex, and aggression) are very strong unconscious motivators of behavior.

Question 1 of 78

Psychological symptoms represent a desire to regain repressed parts of ourselves as well as parts of self that have never been revealed to consciousness.

Question 2 of 78

Environmental influences on the child can lead to the development of a neurotic character, but through education and therapy the person can change.

Question 3 of 78

Children learn behaviors through conditioning(e.g., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment).

Question 4 of 78

We are born with the potential for rational or irrational thinking.

Question 5 of 78

We are born with a predisposition toward certain disorders that could reveal itself under stressful conditions.

Question 6 of 78

We are born with five needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.

Question 7 of 78

We are born into a world that has no inherent meaning or purpose, and we subsequently create our own meaning and purpose.

Question 8 of 78

An inborn actualizing tendency lends direction towards reaching our full potential.

Question 9 of 78

We are born with the capacity to embrace an infinite number of personality dimensions.

Question 10 of 78

Reality is created through interactions or discussions within one's social circle.

Question 11 of 78

Change can occur in fewer than 6 sessions. Extended therapy is often detrimental.

Question 12 of 78

Diagnosing a client tends to pathologize a client.

Question 13 of 78

Deciding how to satisfy instincts (e.g., hunger, thirst, survival, sex, and aggression) occurs mostly unconsciously.

Question 14 of 78

Revealing unconscious material to consciousness allows for an integrated 'whole' person.

Question 15 of 78

We all are striving for perfection in our effort to be whole and complete.

Question 16 of 78

Past and present conditioning makes us who we are.

Question 17 of 78

Irrational thinking leads to emotional distress, dysfunctional behaviors, and criticism of self and others.

Question 18 of 78

By understanding one's cognitive processes (thinking), one can manage and change the way one lives.

Question 19 of 78

We all have a quality world containing mental pictures of the people, things, and beliefs most important in meeting our unique needs.

Question 20 of 78

We all struggle with the basic questions of what it is to be human.

Question 21 of 78

Children continually assess whether interactions are positive or negative to their actualizing process, or way of living in the world.

Question 22 of 78

The mind, body, and soul operate in unison; they cannot be separated.

Question 23 of 78

Values held by those in power are disseminated through language and become the norms to which we compare ourselves.

Question 24 of 78

Individuals can find exceptions to their problems and build on those exceptions to find new ways of living in the world.

Question 25 of 78

One of the most important issues in life is how individuals connect with one another empathically.

Question 26 of 78

Our personality is framed at a very young age and is quite difficult to change.

Question 27 of 78

Primordial images that we all have interact with repressed material to create psychological complexes (e.g., mother complex; Peter Pan complex).

Question 28 of 78

Children's experiences by age 5, and memories of those experiences, are critical factors in personality development.

Question 29 of 78

Behaviors are generally conditioned and learned in very complex and subtle ways.

Question 30 of 78

Although learning and biological factors influence the development of rational or irrational thinking, it is the individual who sustains his or her type of thinking.

Question 31 of 78

Core beliefs (underlying beliefs that map our world) are the basis for a person's feelings, behaviors, and physiological responses.

Question 32 of 78

We can only choose our actions and thoughts; our feelings and our physiology result from those choices.

Question 33 of 78

We are born alone, will die alone, and except for periodic moments when we encounter another person deeply, we live alone.

Question 34 of 78

The 'self' has a need to be regarded positively by significant others.

Question 35 of 78

From birth, the individual is in a constant state of self-regulation through a process of need identification and need fulfillment.

Question 36 of 78

Psychopathology (mental disorders) is a social construction. There is no separate reality that supports its existence.

Question 37 of 78

It is important to understand how a person successfully coped with problems, times when they did not have their problems, and what they want for their future, in order to help guide them toward solutions.

Question 38 of 78

The broad community of people within one’s social milieu is crucial to the development, or lack thereof, of one’s relational self.

Question 39 of 78

The development of defense mechanisms (repression, denial, projection) are ways of managing instincts.

Question 40 of 78

Archetypes, or inherited unconscious primordial images, provide the psyche with its tendency to perceive the world in certain ways that we identify as human.

Question 41 of 78

As children, how we learn to cope with inevitable feelings of inferiority affects our personality development.

Question 42 of 78

Conditioning (e.g., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment) can lead to a multitude of personality characteristics.

Question 43 of 78

When our cognitive processes result in irrational thinking, we will tend to have self-defeating emotions and exhibit dysfunctional behaviors.

Question 44 of 78

Genetics, biological factors, and experiences combine to produce specific core beliefs that affect how we behave and feel.

Question 45 of 78

At any point in one's life a person can evaluate his or her behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and physiology and make new choices that better meet his or her needs.

Question 46 of 78

Meaningfulness, as well as a limited sense of freedom, comes through consciousness and the choices we make.

Question 47 of 78

Because they want to be loved, children will often act in a way that significant others want them to act instead of acting in a manner that is real or congruent with themselves.

Question 48 of 78

Parental dictates, social mores, and peer norms can prevent a person from attaining satisfaction of a need. This unsatisfied need can affect us in ways in which we are unaware.

Question 49 of 78

Although many therapies describe structures that affect functioning (e.g., id, ego, self-actualizing tendency), there is no objective reality proving their existence.

Question 50 of 78

Focusing on the past is detrimental, serves little purpose, and takes too much time.

Question 51 of 78

People have a natural disposition toward relationships and connections with others.

Question 52 of 78

Because we spend the majority of our time unconsciously struggling to satisfy our unmet needs, happiness is an elusive feeling experienced infrequently.

Question 53 of 78

Very early in life we develop mental functions that lean toward “sensation or intuition,” and “thing or feeling,” which affect our perceptions. Their relative strengths are affected by how we were raised.

Question 54 of 78

At an early age, we develop a private logic that moves us toward dysfunctional behaviors or toward wholeness.

Question 55 of 78

By carefully analyzing how behaviors are conditioned, one can understand why an individual exhibits his or her current behavioral repertoire.

Question 56 of 78

It is not events that cause negative emotions, but the belief about the events.

Question 57 of 78

We all have automatic thoughts (fleeting thoughts about what we are perceiving and experiencing) that result in a set of behaviors, feelings, and physiological responses.

Question 58 of 78

When language shows caring and the taking of responsibility, good choices are made. When language is blaming, critical, and judgmental, poor choices are made.

Question 59 of 78

We sometimes avoid living authentically and experiencing life fully because we are afraid to look squarely at how we are making meaning in our lives.

Question 60 of 78

Anxiety, and related symptoms, can be conceptualized as a signal to the individual that he or she is acting in a nongenuine way and not living fully.

Question 61 of 78

Breaking free from defenses (e.g., repression) allows one to fully experience the present and live a more sane life.

Question 62 of 78

Reality is a social construction and each person's reality is organized and maintained through his or her narrative and discourse with others.

Question 63 of 78

Pathology, in all practical purposes, does not exist and is not inherently found within the person.

Question 64 of 78

It is critical to understand how sociopolitical forces such as sexism, racism, heterosexism, power, and privilege has marginalized a person and results in feelings of being disconnected from others.

Question 65 of 78

Early child-rearing practices are largely responsible for our personality development.

Question 66 of 78

People are born with a tendency to be either extraverted (e.g., being outgoing) or introverted (e,g., being an observer, looking inward).

Question 67 of 78

Childhood experiences, and the memories of them, impact each of our unique abilities and characteristics integral to the development of our character or personality.

Question 68 of 78

By identifying what behaviors have been conditioned, one can eliminate undesirable behaviors and set goals to acquire more functional ways of acting.

Question 69 of 78

Therapy should largely focus on how people tend to indoctrinate themselves with their irrational thinking.

Question 70 of 78

When one focuses on how core beliefs and one’s thinking process impacts dysfunctional behaviors and feelings, it is best to focus mostly on the present, not the past.

Question 71 of 78

Needs can only be satisfied in the present, so focusing on how past needs were not met is useless.

Question 72 of 78

Every choice we make affects ourselves, those close to us, and to some degree the world.

Question 73 of 78

Being around people who are real, empathic, and show positive regard results in the individual becoming more real.

Question 74 of 78

The ultimate way of living involves allowing oneself access to all of what is available to one’s experience. Essentially, the “Now” = Awareness = Reality.

Question 75 of 78

Problems individuals have are a function of their problem-saturated stories, received through language within the person’s social milieu, which become their reality but can be changed.

Question 76 of 78

Therapy should be quick and focused on solutions, not problems.

Question 77 of 78

Mutual empathy and mutual empowerment are at the core of growth-fostering relationships

Question 78 of 78