{"id":8,"date":"2013-09-24T00:41:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T00:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/?page_id=8"},"modified":"2019-07-23T03:33:39","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T03:33:39","slug":"excerpts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"arthur\"<\/a>Psychology desperately needs a comprehensive, accurate, internally consistent frame of reference on which the majority of the profession can agree and from which its various divisions can build their thinking, practice, and research.\u00a0\u00a0The field approach to psychology\u2026is my attempt to provide an initial step toward the development of such a unifying frame of reference.\u00a0\u00a0(Combs, 1999, p. 231)<\/p>\n

\u2026the universe and all its organizations are characterized by\u2026a process of being and becoming.\u00a0\u00a0This fundamental drive is a given, a fact of life.\u00a0\u00a0There is not much we can do to change it.\u00a0\u00a0We can only ignore it, impede its function, or facilitate its expression.\u00a0\u00a0It is a constant motivating force,\u00a0characteristic of the universe itself.<\/p>\n

The nature of persons and how they behave or misbehave is a product of the interaction of our basic need for being and becoming and our personal fields of awareness.\u00a0\u00a0The basic need of human beings is a given.\u00a0\u00a0The nature and extent of awareness is another matter.\u00a0\u00a0The existence of awareness is also a given for human beings but infinitely more open to change and influence than the drive for being and becoming.\u00a0\u00a0There is much we can understand about awareness and much we can do with that understanding to help ourselves and our societies achieve ever higher levels of fulfillment.\u00a0\u00a0(Combs, 1999, p. 15)<\/p>\n

Behavior, from the perceptual psychology point of view, is only a symptom.\u00a0It represents the externally observable manifestation of what is going on inside a person.\u00a0\u00a0To attempt an understanding of persons exclusively in behavioral terms, therefore, can provide us with only partial answers to questions about what people are like and why they behave as they do.\u00a0\u00a0Persons do not only behave; they also feel, think, believe, like, dislike, seek, understand, value, love, fear, hate, and aspire.\u00a0\u00a0A truly adequate psychology must provide insights regarding these important human qualities in order for us to more fully understand human functioning and behavior.\u00a0\u00a0To attempt an understanding of persons exclusively in terms of their perceptions or meanings is, however, similarly one-sided.\u00a0\u00a0Such internal experiences do not exist in \u201cpurity\u201d or isolation unrelated to a behaving human being.\u00a0\u00a0(Combs, Richards & Richards, 1976, p. x)<\/p>\n

Next to our beliefs about ourselves, perhaps no others are more important than those we hold about what people are like and why they behave as they do.\u00a0These beliefs provide the bases for every human interaction. What we do in dealing with other people is always predicated on some conception of what they are like and what we think they are trying to do….Becoming a true professional requires much more than the acquisition of knowledge and methods; the growth of helpers is a process of personal becoming.\u00a0\u00a0It calls for the very personal construction of a complex system of beliefs capable of providing trustworthy guidelines to professional thought and practice.\u00a0\u00a0It calls for commitment of self to the process.\u00a0\u00a0(Combs & Gonzalez, 1994, pp. 55, 203)<\/p>\n

The search for new ways to explore and understand the inner life and organization of persons has led to a whole new branch of psychological research, variously known as qualitative, subjective, person-centered, experiential, or perceptual field research….In general, understanding other people\u2019s meanings is accomplished by a process of observation, inference making, and testing of inferences\u2026.In addition, there already exist in the literature hundreds of studies on the effects of attitudes, values, and beliefs, as these relate to human behavior, which are clearly pertinent to understanding the perceptual field and its bearing on behavior.\u00a0\u00a0(Combs, 1999, pp. 241-242, 247)<\/p>\n

\u2026effective helping is not a simple\u00a0question of learning how to teach, counsel, nurse, administer, or whatever.\u00a0\u00a0Rather, effective helping must be understood as the development in the helper of a kind of personal theory; a system of beliefs that serve as guidelines for practice: a stable, trustworthy frame of reference for long-term goals or moment-to-moment decisions that helpers are required to make….research must be designed to explore what is happening experientially for all parties involved.\u00a0\u00a0In particular, research on helping processes must concentrate on the exploration of helper and helpee perceptions and on the dynamics of perceptual change in the helping relationship….(Combs & Gonzalez, 1994, pp. 27-28)<\/p>\n

Each of us knows that our own behavior is a direct result of how things seem to us at the moment of acting….When dealing with other persons, however, we nearly always revert to external explanations.\u00a0\u00a0We assume that other people are acting in response to the forces observable to us.\u00a0\u00a0We seek answers to social problems in the forces acting on people now or in the past.\u00a0\u00a0For example, the juvenile delinquent is described as a product of poverty, a broken home, bad companions, drugs, school failure, unemployment, or any of a hundred other facts in the adolescent\u2019s environment….the things orientation is so ingrained in each of us that we employ the manipulation-of-forces approach in all our relationships automatically.\u00a0\u00a0We may even apply it to ourselves as we try to explain our own behavior.\u00a0\u00a0We say we behaved the way we did because of what others said or did, because the situation called for it, because it was the right thing to do, and so forth….(Combs, 1999, pp. 235-236)<\/p>\n

Behavior….is not cause; it is result or symptom.\u00a0\u00a0The behavior of a person at any moment is only a symptom of what is going on inside as the person interacts with\u2026events in his or her environment.\u00a0\u00a0Preoccupation with symptoms in understanding\u2026professions is likely to be no more satisfying than consulting a physician who does nothing but deal with a patient\u2019s symptoms. (Combs & Gonzalez, 1994, pp.17-18)<\/p>\n

People behave in terms of their beliefs and counselors are no exception.\u00a0Counseling is an instantaneous, creative, problem solving activity.\u00a0\u00a0And it is the therapist\u2019s belief system that determines the goals to be sought, the methods employed, the relationships established, and the success or failure of the process.\u00a0The therapist\u2019s belief system thus acts as a personal theory of counseling, the frame of reference\u2026which determines counselor choices, goals, and the ways in which the therapist\u2019s self is employed from moment to moment\u2026.The effect on the client, likewise, is determined, not by the methods used by the therapist, but by what the client perceives about the event….To get a true picture of what goes on in the counseling hour we must understand on one hand what the counselor believes and is trying to do, and on the other what the client experiences and how the experiences are viewed. (Combs, 1989, p. 97)<\/p>\n

Currently, our system of education in the United States is being castigated for its failure to adapt to modern needs.\u00a0\u00a0There is disappointment nationwide with the outcomes of education and increasing demands for \u201caccountability\u201d – insistence that schools and teachers clearly demonstrate that money poured into the system is getting real results.\u00a0\u00a0Much of what goes on in our schools is increasingly regarded as irrelevant by the public, teachers, and students alike.\u00a0\u00a0In response, massive efforts are being mounted by state and federal agencies to encourage innovations\u2026.A vast ferment is occurring with hundreds of solutions being loudly proclaimed by their inventors or practitioners.\u00a0Out of such ferment good things can happen; important innovations may spring into being.\u00a0\u00a0But much of this effort is doomed to failure because the basic myths which got education into trouble in the first place have not been questioned\u2026.A mature and responsible\u2026profession cannot be grounded in mythology.\u00a0\u00a0What distinguishes a profession from more mechanical occupations is the operation of the professional worker as a thinking, problem-solving human being.\u00a0Whatever educators do must be for some good and sufficient reason, defensible in terms more rational than custom, tradition, or convenience. (Combs, 1979, pp.6-7)<\/p>\n

The decisions we make about education in general or reform in particular are\u2026dependent upon the assumptions from which we begin.\u00a0\u00a0The dilemma we currently face, however, is not from wrong assumptions.\u00a0\u00a0Wrong assumptions lead to disastrous results [and]\u2026are quickly given up.\u00a0\u00a0A much bigger problem exists when the assumptions from which we begin are partly right\u2026.The trouble with partly right assumptions is that they get partly right results.\u00a0\u00a0Partially right outcomes turn people\u2019s attention away from examining basic assumptions.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, they encourage us to keep on trying in the same directions in the vain hope that if we can only do the thing more often, with greater energy or more determination, in time we will achieve the success we so ardently hope for\u2026.Our American education effort is saddled with dozens of partly right assumptions that impede our operations. (Combs, 1991, p. 5)<\/p>\n

Every day, educational leaders confront problems with both things\u00a0and\u00a0<\/i>people.\u00a0\u00a0Few leaders fail because they are unable to cope with things.\u00a0\u00a0When leaders blunder, it usually is because they have dealt ineffectively with people\u2026.A major problem for educational reform is the gap between current practice and the best modern thinking about what people are like and how they learn.\u00a0\u00a0(Combs, Miser & Whitaker, 1999, pp.7-9)<\/p>\n

The most pressing problems people face today are human ones – how to grow satisfactorily as individuals, on one hand, and how to interact successfully with others in an ever-shrinking world, on the other.\u00a0\u00a0We live in the most interdependent, cooperative society the world has ever known.\u00a0\u00a0We depend on the goodwill and cooperation of millions of other people\u2026.some of the greatest problems we face as individuals are those of human relationships at home, school, and work or as we are caught up in the dynamic forces of our complex social order\u2026.the world into which we are moving will…[require] cooperative, responsible citizens who are knowledgeable about themselves and human interrelationships and who are ready, willing, and able to put such knowledge to work.\u00a0\u00a0(Combs & Gonzalez, 1994, pp. 1-2)<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Combs, A.W. (1979).\u00a0Myths in education.\u00a0\u00a0Beliefs that hinder progress and their alternatives.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0Boston, MA:\u00a0\u00a0Allyn and Bacon.<\/p>\n

Combs, A.W. (1989).\u00a0A theory of therapy. Guidelines for counseling practice<\/i>.\u00a0Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.<\/p>\n

Combs, A.W. (1991).\u00a0The schools we need.\u00a0\u00a0New assumptions for educational reform<\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0Lanham, MD: University Press of America.<\/p>\n

Combs, A.W. (1999).\u00a0Being and becoming.\u00a0\u00a0A field approach to psychology.<\/i>\u00a0New York: Springer Publishing Co.<\/p>\n

Combs, A.W. & Gonzalez, D.M. (1994).\u00a0\u00a0Helping relationships.\u00a0\u00a0Basic concepts for the helping professions<\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0(4th<\/sup>\u00a0ed.).\u00a0\u00a0Boston: Allyn and Bacon.<\/p>\n

Combs, A.W., Miser, A.B, & Whitaker, K.S. (1999).\u00a0\u00a0On becoming a school leader.\u00a0\u00a0A person-centered challenge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.<\/p>\n

Combs, A.W., Richards, A.C., & Richards, F. (1976).\u00a0\u00a0Perceptual psychology.\u00a0A humanistic approach to the study of persons<\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0New York: Harper & Row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psychology desperately needs a comprehensive, accurate, internally consistent frame of reference on which the majority of the profession can agree and from which its various divisions can build their thinking, practice, and research.\u00a0\u00a0The field approach to psychology\u2026is my attempt to provide an initial step toward the development of such a unifying frame of reference.\u00a0\u00a0(Combs, 1999, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93,"href":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/93"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldpsychtrust.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}