Deck 7: Gestalt Therapy

Question 1

Which theorist is credited with the development of Gestalt psychotherapy?

A) Gustav Gestalt
B) Fritz Perls
C) Otto Rank
D) Rollo May
E) Carl Jung

Answer 1

Fritz Perls

Question 2

How does Gestalt therapy particularly differ from orthodox psychoanalysis?

A) Gestalt therapy rejects the notion that sexual development has anything to do with later functioning.
B) Psychoanalysis promoted the use of hypnosis whereas Gestalt rejected it.
C) Gestalt therapists disagree with the Psychoanalytic focus on the client's past and lack of focus on the environment.
D) Psychoanalytic therapists use confrontation and Gestalt therapists rely on unconditional positive regard.
E) Gestalt therapists reject the notion of unconscious thought.

Answer 2

Gestalt therapists disagree with the Psychoanalytic focus on the client's past and lack of focus on the environment.

Question 3

"Gestalt" is a German word that roughly translates into

A) configuration.
B) meaning.
C) mind.
D) environment.
E) personality.

Answer 3

configuration.

Question 4

In Gestalt therapy, _________________ is the way in which an individual experiences and interacts with the environment and the present moment.

A) zeitgeist
B) primary behavior
C) influence
D) personal style
E) process

Question 5

Gestalt therapy is considered _____________ in that all aspects of an individual's experience are regarded as equally important and connect to form an organismic whole.

A) complex
B) unrealistic
C) holistic
D) systemic
E) second generation

Question 6

In the 1930s and early 1940s, ____________________ and _______________ were the only two major psychological schools of thought.

A) psychoanalysis; analytical
B) behaviorism; psychoanalysis
C) Gestalt; behaviorism
D) humanistic; existential
E) existential; Gestalt

Question 7

__________________ refers to the process of attending to one's most pressing needs and maintaining one's sense of well-being by interacting purposefully with one's environment.

A) Psychological balance
B) Mature systemic function
C) Psychological well-being
D) Organismic self-regulation
E) Figure-ground split

Question 8

How would one best articulate the personality differences between Fritz Perls and his wife, Laura?

A) Laura was moody and Fritz generally jovial.
B) Fritz was the "leader" and Laura the "follower."
C) Fritz valued disciplined learning and Laura raw experience.
D) Laura was an external processor whereas Fritz was an internal processor.
E) Laura was the "thinker" and Fritz the "doer."

Question 9

How does modern Gestalt therapy differ from Perls' classical approach?

A) Modern Gestalt therapists use cooperative dialogue and improvised, one-of-a-kind experiments.
B) Perls focused more on the "whole" person.
C) Modern Gestalt therapists have no use for figure-ground.
D) Perls' approach was much more disciplined.
E) Modern Gestalt therapists are more inclined to "shock" the client into action.

Question 10

Gestalt therapists define the term _____________________________ as a standard operating procedure used by a counselor to achieve a particular outcome when certain conditions are present.

A) practice
B) theory
C) technique
D) intervention
E) process

Question 11

The ___________________________ is a Gestalt technique in which unintegrated parts of the individual talk to each other.

A) ego-id interaction
B) empty chair technique
C) Electra conversation
D) top dog-underdog dialogue
E) figure-ground interaction

Question 12

What does the textbook indicate is the reason why classic approaches, such as transactional analysis and Jungian analysis, have been replaced in textbooks by others, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy?

A) Perls was too confronting and cantankerous for therapists to buy into his approaches.
B) Perls himself was not successful in helping his clients using the classical approaches.
C) The concepts in approaches such as transactional analysis were too complicated for widespread adoption.
D) Perls himself abandoned his original approaches for contemporary ones that promoted faster change in clients.
E) The contemporary cognitive-behavioral therapies claim to be empirically supported and/or "proven" effective with certain populations and clusters of symptoms.

Question 13

How can a theory of psychotherapy maintain its merit over time?

A) It needs to be strong in adhering to its foundational tenets.
B) It must be able to respond to the changing demographics and field conditions.
C) A new breed of theorists must emerge to revitalize the original theory.
D) One must view the theoretical underpinnings of an approach as constant.
E) It is most helpful if the therapist continues to seek clients that "mirror" him or herself.

Question 14

Gestalt was crafted as a conscious rejection of what two dominant political and psychological worldviews that existed in Germany in the 1930s?

A) Marxism and humanism
B) Nazism and existentialism
C) fascism and orthodox psychoanalysis
D) Marxism and orthodox psychoanalysis
E) Nazism and humanism

Question 15

Which of the following best articulates the fundamental tenet of Gestalt therapy?

A) The client is broken and needs to be repaired.
B) Only the therapist can clearly see the interaction and influence of historical oppression and negative influence.
C) The Gestalt therapist must be willing to be "rude" in order to help a client move beyond impasse.
D) Individuals and the environments around them co-exist in a process of reciprocal influence.
E) One must accept the fact that in order to survive in a social world, the individual must adjust to the majority view of culture and/or those in power.

Question 16

How do Gestalt therapists see the individual?

A) Individuals are singularly responsible for their own feelings, thoughts and behaviors.
B) An individual's sense of individuation is innate and rather unchangeable.
C) The individual is superior to the collective.
D) The individual is inferior to the collective.
E) Each individual is a part of a complex matrix of interrelationships, both past and present.

Question 17

Culturally responsive therapists suspend a culturally relevant perspective and adopt a ________________________ perspective.

A) culturally irrelevant
B) universal
C) inward
D) egotistic
E) emic

Question 18

The ___________________ perspective is known as the culturally relevant perspective.

A) diversity
B) multicultural
C) emic
D) integrated
E) etic

Question 19

Diverse and unique strands of each person form a whole that may be called the

A) self.
B) Gestalt.
C) ego.
D) individual.
E) organism.

Question 20

How does the concept of self-experience fit into working with clients in a world of diversity?

A) The Gestalt therapist understands that the client's self-experience is what needs to be confronted if the client is to function effectively in a diverse world.
B) Self-experience is an important therapeutic consideration, but really doesn't come into play in issues of diversity.
C) The Gestalt therapist recognizes the interrelationship of all aspects of self-experience without an externally imposed hierarchy of which aspects are most critical.
D) Self-experience is a reflection of the client's cultural foundation, but doesn't really impact the counseling relationship.
E) One cannot develop a healthy self-experience without exposure to diversity.

Question 21

The interrelationship between the ______________ and the ________________ is vital for survival on a biological and social level.

A) ego; superego
B) mind; body
C) part; whole
D) self; environment
E) body; spirit

Question 22

Field theory originated in the discipline of _________________ and was later translated into social psychology and personality theory by Kurt Lewin.

A) religion
B) medicine
C) military strategy
D) education
E) physics

Question 23

In Gestalt therapy, the _________________ is a dynamic interrelated system of relationships, each part of which influences every other part.

A) labyrinth
B) mosaic
C) community
D) field
E) context

Question 24

___________________ refers to the description of data available to the senses, what is given and evident in any immediate experience.

A) Phenomenology
B) Existentialism
C) Dialogue
D) Figure
E) Field

Question 25

Which of the following is a term that describes a relationship between two individuals that alternates between moments of I-It relating and I-Thou relating?

A) reciprocal
B) dialogue
C) therapeutic
D) concomitant
E) subjective

Question 26

Who brought the concept of dialogue to Gestalt Therapy?

A) Jon Frew
B) Fritz Perls
C) Martin Buber
D) Laura Perls
E) Alfred Adler

Question 27

The concept of ____________________ drives all of the other theoretical concepts attached to the theory of Gestalt.

A) organismic self-regulation
B) figure formation and destruction
C) awareness
D) contact
E) cycle of awareness and contact

Question 28

Gestalt psychologists call the object of focus the ________________, and everything else becomes the background.

A) ground
B) foci
C) figure
D) portrait
E) facade

Question 29

In Gestalt therapy, ________________________________ is an ongoing process in which individuals become aware of a need or interest and make contact with some aspect of the environment in a way that satisfies that figure, allowing it to recede into the background.

A) self-regulation
B) figure formation and destruction
C) ground breaking
D) emerging self-care
E) touch and go

Question 30

The needs, wants, and interests that activate a figure formation process reside in which time frame?

A) none of the time frames specifically
B) the past
C) the present
D) the future
E) the process must span all of the time frames

Question 31

_________________ is the process of directing your attention to the most salient aspect of the individual/environmental field at the present moment.

A) Blocking
B) Rumination
C) Cognitive shifting
D) Focusing
E) Awareness

Question 32

____________________ translate the individual's awareness into attempts to connect with aspects of the environment in a meaningful way.

A) Free associations
B) Contact functions
C) Engagements
D) Projections
E) Adjustments

Question 33

Which of the following terms is used to describe the changing of subjective experience as a result of contact?

A) grounding
B) transference neurosis
C) assimilation
D) neurotic displacement
E) analytic meltdown

Question 34

Which state represents the peak of the curve in the cycle of awareness and contact model?

A) sensation
B) energy excitement
C) action
D) contact
E) closure

Question 35

________________________ is an accommodation made by an individual who is striking a balance between getting a need met and fitting into the dominant field conditions that have power and control over his or her wellbeing.

A) Contact
B) Dialogue
C) Phenomenology
D) Creative adjustment
E) Figure formation and destruction

Question 36

Which of the following best articulates the Gestalt view of the relationship between self-awareness and the environment?

A) The environment influences one's self-awareness but changes in self-awareness have little or no effect upon the environment.
B) Increased awareness of self and environment is generally a good thing and leads to contact with the environment that is satisfying and enhances growth and personal development.
C) The Gestalt therapist focuses his or her work on the self-awareness of the client, knowing that issues with the environment occur outside of the therapeutic alliance and will resolve themselves.
D) Self-awareness can only flourish in a positive and supportive environment.
E) Self-awareness and the environment are disconnected from each other in individuals who are experiencing psychosis.

Question 37

The ____________________________ purports that change occurs by more fully experiencing what is, not by trying to get to what is not.

A) Gestalt Psychotherapy Society
B) theory of experiential change
C) research on Gestalt therapy
D) growth theory
E) paradoxical theory of change

Question 38

In Chapter 7, the author speaks of _________________ as being the lifeblood of growth and change.

A) contact
B) boundary maintenance
C) self-awareness
D) experience
E) social action

Question 39

In Gestalt theory, good contact results in

A) increased social engagement.
B) subjugation.
C) assimilation.
D) enhanced boundary maintenance.
E) incorporation.

Question 40

Fritz Perls used the term contact boundaries to mean the

A) lines between ourselves and others that both connect us and separate us.
B) place where our needs end and the needs of others begin.
C) lines we draw to keep other people's feelings at a distance.
D) barriers we need cross in order to live without the support of others, achieving autonomy.
E) limits of our self-awareness.

Question 41

If a Gestalt therapist wrote in his or her case notes that a client was introjecting, the therapist would mean that the client is

A) directing an action or thought toward him or herself rather than toward others.
B) assigning undesired parts of him or herself to others, especially when he or she feels guilty or angry.
C) taking in others' views and values to the point where they seem like his or her own.
D) failing to make accurate contact with his or her self and others as individuals.
E) setting unrealistic standards for his or her behavior in a neurotic attempt to self-regulate.

Question 42

If a Gestalt therapist wrote in his or her case notes that a client was projecting, the therapist would mean that the client is

A) directing an action or thought toward him or herself rather than toward others.
B) assigning undesired parts of him or herself to others, especially when he or she feels guilty or angry.
C) taking in other's views and values to the point where they seem like his or her own.
D) failing to make accurate contact with his or her self and others as individuals.
E) setting unrealistic standards for his or her behavior in a neurotic attempt to self-regulate.

Question 43

If a Gestalt therapist wrote in his or her case notes that a client was retroflecting, the therapist would mean that the client is

A) directing an action or thought toward him or herself rather than toward others.
B) assigning undesired parts of him or herself to others, especially when he or she feels guilty or angry.
C) taking in other's views and values to the point where they seem like his or her own.
D) failing to make accurate contact with his or her self and others as individuals.
E) setting unrealistic standards for his or her behavior in a neurotic attempt to self-regulate.

Question 44

In the context of Gestalt therapy, what is meant by the term confluence?

A) It is the point in therapy where the counselor and client communicate well.
B) It is the point in therapy when the client is in touch with most of his or her split-off parts.
C) The client directs an action or thought toward his or herself rather than toward others.
D) The client has a partner who understands him or her completely.
E) The client identifies with another person so much that the client's psychosocial boundary with the other person becomes blurred.

Question 45

If a Gestalt therapist wrote in his or her case notes that a client was deflecting, the therapist would mean that the client is

A) directing an action or thought toward him or herself rather than toward others.
B) assigning undesired parts of him or herself to others, especially when he or she feels guilty or angry.
C) taking in other's views and values to the point where they seem like his or her own.
D) failing to make accurate contact with his or her self and others as individuals.
E) setting unrealistic standards for his or her behavior in a neurotic attempt to self-regulate.

Question 46

According to the author of Chapter 7 of the textbook, the true test of a psychotherapy theory is its

A) versatility.
B) stability.
C) complexity.
D) utility.
E) simplicity.

Question 47

Which of the following would NOT be a goal of a Gestalt therapist who is prescribing experimentation?

A) clarifying the dimensions of the situation
B) sharing his or her expertise at problem-solving by suggesting a solution to the problem
C) calling forth awareness of how experiences are interrupted or regulated
D) staying with a strong impression until it comes into focus
E) making the experience vivid

Question 48

Experiments are commonly proposed at the _________________ phase of the Cycle of Awareness and Contact.

A) sensation
B) energy excitement
C) action
D) contact
E) closure

Question 49

What do all Gestalt experiments have in common?

A) They are all pursued at the suggestion of the client.
B) All Gestalt experiments are so extensive that they require multiple sessions to complete.
C) Homework (action between sessions) is a hallmark of all Gestalt experiments.
D) They are used only with clients who are not able to verbally process their experiences.
E) They all vitalize the counseling process.

Question 50

What would a Gestalt therapist say about client resistance?

A) The therapist would say that resistance is a healthy and normal reaction.
B) In Gestalt therapy there is no such thing as resistance.
C) Resistance results from a weak relationship between the client and the counselor.
D) Clients lacking self-awareness are most likely to be resistant.
E) Resistance is a necessary aspect of successful therapy.

Question 51

How did Perls conceptualize the communication between counselor and client?

A) Like behaviorists, Perls believed that the quality of the relationship between the counselor and the client is not as important as the counselor's skills.
B) Perls felt that the quality of the relationship is the responsibility of the client. A properly motivated client will connect and benefit. One who is not will not.
C) Perls believed that remembering and explaining are the main processes of communication leading to awareness.
D) Much like humanistic theorists, Perls believed that empathic contact between the counselor and client was critical for therapy to succeed.
E) Perls believed that predicting and analyzing are the main processes of communication leading to awareness.

Question 52

What are the two dimensions of all counseling approaches?

A) right and wrong
B) content and process
C) how the client feels and what the client thinks
D) symptoms and interventions
E) entry and termination

Question 53

Which of the following accurately represents the two fundamental ways in which change is conceptualized in Gestalt therapy?

A) Through increased engagement in therapy and recognition by significant others in the client's life
B) By the internal and external processes that occur during a counseling session
C) Through the recovery or heightening of awareness and an expansion of the client's range of contacting styles
D) Through successful client completion of tasks related to Gestalt experiments and through client reflection of the change they believe has occurred
E) Through therapeutic relationship building and evaluation of therapeutic outcomes

Question 54

Why is Gestalt therapy more appropriate for longer-term therapy?

A) The goals of raising awareness and increasing the range and accuracy of contact styles cannot occur quickly.
B) Clients of Gestalt therapy typically enter therapy in an impasse.
C) Since experiments are a key intervention, there needs to be enough time allotted to them to make them useful.
D) Most Gestalt therapists need at least three sessions to establish the kind of therapeutic relationship necessary for the approach.
E) Because of the philosophical tenets of the therapy, diagnostic tools are not acceptable practice.

Question 55

In the last 10 years in the field of counseling and psychotherapy there has been a debate about the trend toward identifying, teaching, and practicing ESTs. What does the acronym EST stand for?

A) Ego Sensitization Therapy
B) Equal Share Therapy
C) Experiential Standardized Test
D) Empirically Supported Treatment
E) Expanded Self-Awareness Theory

Question 56

___________________ evaluation is simply attending to the impact of your interventions moment to moment in a counseling session.

A) Nomothetic
B) Formal
C) Ideographic
D) Summative
E) Formative

Question 57

Which of the following is NOT listed by Sue and Sue as a culture-bound characteristic of traditional Western counseling approaches?

A) a separation of mental and physical functioning
B) the ability to tolerate ambiguity
C) client-initiated communication
D) a belief in the power of insight
E) a proclivity for the collective

Question 58

For which clients in particular might the concept of organismic self-regulation be especially troublesome?

A) racially diverse clients
B) clients living in poverty
C) those clients with biologically based mental illness
D) clients from a collectivist culture
E) those clients who have experiences past sexual abuse

Question 59

Which of the following statements expresses the greatest challenge facing Gestalt therapy?

A) Gestalt therapy is so popular with clients that there is a severe shortage of appropriately trained Gestalt psychotherapists.
B) The general therapeutic community still tends to identify Gestalt therapy with the way Fritz Perls practiced and wrote 40 years ago.
C) Gestalt therapy is always a long-term therapy and therefore is not financially attainable to many in our society.
D) The Gestalt approach has been so integrated with other approaches that it is not able to maintain an identity of its own.
E) There has been a great deal of research conducted on the effectiveness of Gestalt therapy, but to this date none unequivocally support its use.

Question 60

Briefly describe the figure/ground concept in Gestalt psychology.

Question 61

How did Laura and Fritz Perls extend the concept of organismic self-regulation?

Question 62

List two characteristics of Perls's approach to psychotherapy that led some to refer to his style as the "boom-boom-boom style?"

Question 63

List and briefly describe the two favorite therapeutic techniques of Fritz Perls.

Question 64

List four of the six behaviors outlined by the author as things that Gestalt therapists do NOT do.

Question 65

List five of the seven ingredients outlined in Chapter 7 of the textbook as contributing to the complex mix of the client.

Question 66

List the three philosophical foundations of Gestalt Therapy

Question 67

List the six theoretical concepts underpinning the therapy developed by Fritz and Laura Perls.

Question 68

Identify the three time frames recognized by Gestalt therapists.

Question 69

Identify, in order, the eight steps within the Cycle of Awareness and Contact.

Question 70

What two strategies do Gestalt therapists use to effect client change?

Question 71

In Gestalt terminology, what does increasing contact mean?

Question 72

List and briefly define the five disturbances that can occur on the verge of contact.

Question 73

What are the three hallmarks of a good Gestalt experiment?

Question 74

List the five steps that a Gestalt therapist would go through in establishing a therapeutic relationship.

Question 75

Define the three limitations to Gestalt therapy as identified in the textbook.