Lecture
Difficulties in the process of psychological correction of children and adolescents with behavioral disorders are caused by incorrect, distorted parental attitudes toward the child's problems. Changing parents' attitude toward their own role in raising the child is a fundamental principle in constructing a psychocorrectional program.
Psychological correction — a professional activity of a psychologist aimed at the practical resolution of psychological problems that the client has encountered in his or her life.
The psychologist faces the task of reorienting parents' attention from an isolated symptom to the child's personality as a whole. This is achieved through directed conversations with parents, with mandatory familiarization with the results of psychodiagnostic data, as well as through joint sessions with the children, the organization of which ensures the personal growth of each participant through the acquisition of new, unique experience of social interaction.
Family psychological correction is viewed as a set of interventions aimed at harmonizing the personality structure and family relationships of the adolescent, as well as at resolving current psychologically traumatic problems caused by disrupted family relationships.
Given the complex, multilevel structure of behavioral disorders in adolescents related to problems of family upbringing, the following blocks of psychocorrectional work with the adolescent and his family can be distinguished: diagnostic, constructive, organizational, communicative, and reconstructive.
The main goal of the diagnostic block is to form in adolescents and their parents an adequate understanding of their personal characteristics, experiences, potential capabilities, and styles of family upbringing. Within this block the following phases are distinguished:
Acquaintance with the parents and the adolescent begins with the first meeting, during which the psychologist listens to the parents' complaints and also forms an impression of them and the adolescent based on their behavior and manner of communicating with the psychologist. These two sources of information are the primary diagnostic data within primary psychodiagnostics. At this stage, the consulting psychologist must assess the content of the parents' complaints about the adolescent:
Among the complaints, unfounded ones are not uncommon; these can be divided into two categories: partially unfounded and absolutely unfounded. Partially unfounded complaints are, as a rule, due to the parents' psychological illiteracy. For example, the parents of an adolescent complain about his poor academic performance, attributing it to teachers' biased attitude toward him or to the son's frequent meetings with his father, who left the family. In the case of absolutely unfounded complaints, a question often arises about the psychological characteristics of the parents themselves; their complaints about the adolescent may be a kind of projection of their own personal problems.
For a primary psychological assessment, it is necessary to determine the content and structure of the complaint, to identify the explicit and hidden content of the complaint within this structure, and to analyze the subtext of the complaint.
Psychological diagnostics of adolescents with behavioral disorders is carried out as follows.
The constructive block of psychological correction is aimed at selecting the means and methods of corrective interventions, taking into account the individual psychological characteristics of the adolescent and his parents.
The psychologist faces the following tasks:
The effectiveness of family psychological correction is largely determined by strong and stable motivation of all family members to participate in it. The psychologist should tell family members about the organization of the psychological correction, about the time required, and about the responsibility of each participant in the sessions. To determine the psychological readiness of family members for the sessions, it is advisable to use the method of "paradoxical intention." The psychologist describes the difficulties that all participants in the psychological correction will have to overcome, emphasizing that sessions must be held at the same time and with a consistent group of participants. It is very important to correctly assess the reaction of the future participants to such statements by the psychologist. Also essential is the psychologist's explanation of the significance of psychological correction in a form accessible to the parents and the adolescent.
A psychologist organizing work with the family of an adolescent with behavioral disorders has to resolve many problems, for example: whether to work with the whole family at once or with individual members, whether to begin work with the adolescent's problems or with those of the parents, and so on. The organization of the psychocorrectional process depends both on the individual psychological characteristics of its participants and on the specifics of the problems. In this regard, the effectiveness of psychocorrectional sessions can be achieved by using a variety of styles and forms of work — individual work with one of the family members, group work, directive or non-directive methods of psychocorrectional intervention.
The success of solving particular tasks of psychological correction largely depends on the selection of psychocorrectional techniques. These may include techniques such as "deliberate inaction," "role exchange," psychodrama , art therapy , group discussions, and many others.
The main goal of the organizational block is the practical implementation of psychocorrectional tasks:
To accomplish the first task, it is advisable to conduct sessions with the family at the level of real behavior in the form of role-play. For example, the adolescent takes on the role of a parent or a friend and is asked to resolve the situation and choose the most acceptable ways out of it. All family members take turns in the leading role and resolve various situations previously staged by the psychologist. The psychologist selects difficult situations from the real life of the adolescent's family. Afterward, the results of the game are summarized, all the proposed behavioral options are written down, and it is discussed which options are most acceptable for the family.
Many parents experience considerable difficulty performing the roles, withdraw, and refuse to perform them. The psychologist faces the task of strengthening the parents' motivation to participate in role-play (the second task). This is achieved through psychotechnical techniques: the psychologist's active support of all family members during the game; the psychologist's own direct participation in the role-play; and explaining to the parents the goals and objectives of the game, that is, creating a positive attitude toward the game.
It is advisable to use group discussions in order to jointly work out the optimal approach to a particular life situation, based on an understanding of its psychological meaning. The following main tasks of the group discussion can be identified:
3) forming in family members an adequate understanding of the potential capabilities of the family's members.
The main tasks of the group discussion are to increase motivation and to foster the group members' desire to become involved in analyzing and solving the problems being discussed. During the group discussion, the psychologist records the parents' attitude toward situations according to such parameters as motivation, emotional or rational attitude toward the situation, and constructive or non-constructive way out of the situation.
Psychological correction should not be limited to psychocorrectional sessions alone. Proper organization of the everyday life of the adolescent and his family is of great importance. To this end, the psychologist, together with the parents, draws up a plan for organizing the adolescent's leisure time and educational activities for a given period, and discusses the role of each parent in this or that type of activity of the adolescent.
The communicative block is responsible for establishing optimal relationships among all participants in the corrective process (the adolescent, the parents, and other family members), as well as for forming new techniques and methods of communication and behavior with adolescents. This is achieved through role-playing games followed by a discussion of the features of the interaction among the participants in the game. Video recording can be used, reviewing it together with the parents and the adolescents after the sessions and paying attention to nonverbal forms of communication: gestures, glances, tone of voice (demanding, harsh, soft, etc.).
An important principle of the psychological correction of parent-child relationships is the ontogenetic approach. It involves harmonizing the personality structure of the adolescent by influencing his emotional-volitional, need-motivational, and communicative-behavioral spheres. This approach involves a return to earlier ontogenetic stages of the adolescent's behavioral characteristics and of the parents' communication with him. Psychotechnical games such as "mind reading" and "living sculpture" are used. For example, the psychologist arranges things with the adolescent in advance, and the adolescent portrays certain feelings: disappointment, surprise, annoyance, joy, etc. The parent must guess which feeling the adolescent is portraying. Then the parents portray feelings, and the adolescent guesses them.
The process of group correction within the communicative block includes two main phases: the orientation phase and the preparatory phase.
During the orientation phase, the psychologist faces the task of forming the group as a whole and forming a positive attitude toward the sessions among the group members. The main psychotechnical techniques at this phase are spontaneous games aimed at developing a positive emotional background. Each family (consisting of two or three people) chooses a leader or team captain. Participants in the psychocorrectional sessions must perform a number of exercises for dexterity and resourcefulness, and solve three or four tasks. The entertaining form of the sessions during the orientation phase promotes closeness among the group members. The uncertainty of the goals of the sessions at this stage and the freedom of self-expression in spontaneous games may cause some anxiety in the parents. Therefore, it is recommended to hold no more than two or three sessions of the orientation phase.
The main goal of the preparatory phase of family group psychological correction is structuring the group and forming activity and independence in its members. This is achieved through special role-playing games and dramatization games aimed at relieving emotional tension. The games serve as a kind of simulation model of problematic situations of interpersonal communication. During the sessions, the psychologist analyzes how the group members get into their roles, how they help one another, and who among them takes on the function of leader. At this stage, it is also recommended to use techniques of nonverbal interaction through games such as "recognizing another person by touch" and "the guide," in which group members with blindfolded eyes move around the room with the help of a leader.
At the reconstructive block of group family psychological correction, the following tasks are addressed: correcting inadequate emotional reactions, and teaching independent identification of the appropriate forms of emotional response. This is achieved through psychodramatic enactments of conflicts from one of the families. The parents and the adolescent switch roles. After "watching" the psychodrama, the group members discuss the problem together.
The factors that prevent the emergence of destructive behavior are:
Psychological correction of children and adolescents with behavioral disorders is a lengthy process that requires the professional assistance of a specialist and is aimed at the practical resolution of psychological problems. Psychological prevention and correction of destructive behavior in children and adolescents is an important condition for preserving mental health and ensuring psychological safety.
Conclusions
Discussion questions
Comments