PYC4809 Assignment 3 2024
(635198) - DUE 25 September
2024
QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
,PYC4809 Assignment 3 2024 (635198) - DUE 25 September 2024
Task 1: Case study
READ THE FOLLOWING CASE STUDY AND ANSWER THE
QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW:
Case study Karen: Anxiety over choosing for herself Assume the
perspective of a Gestalt therapist, and show how you would proceed with
Karen, 27-year-old women who is struggling with value conflicts relating to
her religion, culture, and sex-role expectations. Here is what she has
related to you during the first session. Throughout her life Karen has
identified herself as a ‘good Catholic’ who has not questioned much of her
upbringing. She has never really seen herself as an independent woman; in
many ways she feels like a child, one who is strongly seeking approval and
directions from those whom she considers authorities. Karen tells you that
in her culture she was taught to respect and honour her parents, teachers,
priests, and other elders. Whenever she tries to assert her own will, if it
differs from the expectations of any authority figure, she experiences guilt
and self-doubt. She went to Catholic schools, including college, and she
has followed the morals and teachings of her church very closely. She has
not been married, nor has she even had a long-term relationship with a
man. Karen has not had sexual intercourse, not because she has not
wanted to but because she is afraid that she could not live with herself and
her guilt. She feels very restricted by the codes she lives by, and in many
ways, she sees them as rigid and unrealistic. Yet she is frightened of
, breaking away from what she was taught, even though she is seriously
questioning much of its validity and is aware that her views on morality are
growing more and more divergent from those that she at one time
accepted. Basically, Karen asks: ‘What if I am wrong? Who am I to decide
what is moral and immoral? I’ve always been taught that morals are clear-
cut and do 2 not allow for individual conveniences. I find it difficult to accept
many of the teachings of my church, but I’m not able to really leave behind
those notions that I don’t accept. What if there is a hell, and I’ll be damned
forever if I follow my own path? What if I discover that I “go wild” and thus
lose any measure of self-respect. Will I be able to live with my guilt if I don’t
follow the morality I’ve been taught?’ Karen is also struggling with the
impact of cultural restraints on her view of what it means to be a woman.
Generally, she sees herself as being dependent, unassertive, fearful of
those in authority, emotionally reserved, socially inhibited, and unable to
make decisions about her life. Although she thinks that she would like to be
more assertive and would like to feel freer to be herself around people, she
is highly selfconscious and ‘hears voices in her head’ that tell her how she
should and should not be. She wishes she could be different in some
important respects, but she wonders if she is strong enough to swim
against what she has learned from her culture, her parents, and her church.
Assume that Karen is coming for a series of counselling sessions in a
community clinic. You know the above information about her, and what she
wants from you is help in sorting out what she really believes about living a
moral life versus what she has been told is the moral way to be. She says
that she would like to learn how to trust herself and, in essence, have the
courage to know her convictions and live by them. At the same time, she
feels unable to act on her values, for fear that she will be wrong.
