ED 4134 Item1 Glasser

William Glasser 1925-

Glasser’s “choice theory” explains that humans choose their own behaviours, which are driven by our genes to satisfy five basic needs:

• Survival
• Love and Belonging
• Power
• Freedom
• Fun

He also expresses that love and belonging is the most important of these needs, for without this element one becomes disconnected. In being disconnected almost all human problems are caused, such as mental illness, drug addiction, violence, crime, school failure, spousal and child abuse, and more. Glasser also formed 10 principles of his choice theory, which are listed below:

1. The only person whose behaviour we can control is our own

2. All we can give another person is information

3. All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship problems

4. The problem relationship is always part of our personal life

5. What happened in the past has everything to do with what we are today, but we can only satisfy our basic needs right now and plan to continue satisfying them in the future

6. We can only satisfy our needs by satisfying the pictures in/of our Quality World

7. All we do is behave

8. Al behaviour is Total Behaviour and is made up of four components: acting, thinking, feeling and physiology

9. All Total Behaviour is chosen, but we only have direct control over the acting and thinking components. We can control our feeling and physiology indirectly through how we choose to act and think

10. All Total Behaviour is designated by verbs and named by the part that is the most recognisable (Glasser)

Critical Reflection

Glasser makes a point about satisfying our basic needs as a reason for the way that people behave, and that we can control our behaviour in the way we act and think. As a teacher I feel it is important to understand the reasons why students behave the way they do in different situations, so the teacher can monitored the students during lessons with more anticipation and intuition.

References:

Glasser, W. Choice Theory. Retrieved on April 03, 2007, from
http://www.wglasser.com/whatisct.htm