The difference between what a person wants and what one perceives one is getting (input) is the immediate source of specific behaviors at any given moment. Thus, reality

therapy rests on the principle that human behavior springs from internal motivation, which drives the behavior from moment to moment ( Glasser, 1972; Wubbolding, 2001).

3. All human behaviors are composed of doing (acting), thinking, feeling, and physiology.

Behaviors are identified by the most obvious aspect of this total behavior. People are labeled “psychotic” because the primary and most obvious aspect of their total behavior is dysfunctional thinking. Depression, anger, resentment, and fear are most obvious in other persons, so their behavior is called a feeling behavior.

4. Because behavior originates from within, human beings are responsible for their behavior.

In other words, we are all capable of change. This change is brought about by choosing more effective behaviors. The aspect of human behavior over which we have the most direct control is that of acting, and secondarily, that of thinking.

5. Human beings see the world through a perceptual system that functions as a set of lenses.

At a low level of perception, the person simply recognizes the world, giving names to objects and events, but does not make judgments about them. At a high level of perception, the person puts a positive or negative value on the perception. Exploring the various level of perception and their helpfulness is part of the counseling or psychotherapy process.

In summary, choice theory is a psychology built on principles that emphasize current motivation for human choices. It stands in opposition to both psychological determinism and what Glasser (1998) called external control psychology. Human beings are free to make choices;

thus, although the past has propelled us to the present, it need not determine our future. Similarly, our external world limits our choices but does not remove them.

A seventh stress reduction technique is person-centered theory which is offered a new way to look at individuals, their development, and how they can be helped to change. From this frame of reference, teachers were viewed as fully in charge of their lives and inherently motivated to improve themselves. The responsibility for personal behaviors and the ability to choose to change them was also seen as belonging fully to the individual (Capuzzi. & Gross 2003). Rogers (1976) stated that practice, theory and research make it clear that the

person-29

centered approach is built on a basic trust in the person. Also, it depends on the actualizing tendency present in every living organism’s tendency to grow, to develop, to realize its full potential. This way of being trusts the constructive directional flow of the human being toward a more complex and complete development. It is this directional flow that we aim to release (Rogers, 1986, p. 198). In Rogers’ theory, "Man is an actualizing process" (Van Belle, 1980, p.

70). Actualization is the motivational construct in organismic theory and, thus, is embedded in the organismic growth process and is the motive for change. The organism/person is the basic unit of inquiry in Rogers’ conceptualizations. Although Rogers focused on the self-concept in earlier writings and brings in the concept of the formative tendency of the universe in later writings, the construct of the actualizing tendency for the human being is the clear foundation block in individual therapy.

Roger (1988) theorized all individuals as having inherent qualities that made nurturing possible; attempting to change basic personality characteristics or behaviors was not necessary.

He believed people saw the world from their own unique perspective, which is referred to as a phenomenological perspective. No matter what the phenomenological view of the world was, it was further assumed that all people are continually attempting to actualize their best and most productive selves.

The person-centered therapist, said Roger (1988), operates on a number of assumptions associated with the actualizing tendency. These assumptions include the orientation that emphasizes the world of the whole person wherein the therapist eschews knowledge ‘about’ the client, relates as an equal to the client, and trusts and respects the client’s perceptions as the authority about him/herself. Rogers (1963) stated that the basic person-centered value is that the authority of the person rests in the person rather than in an outside expert. This value emphasizes the internal (i.e. the client’s) rather than the external (i.e. the therapist’s) view. Clients are viewed as going in their own ways, allowed to go at their own pace, and to pursue their growth in their unique ways. The external view is meaningless in the therapy process since the only function of the therapist is to facilitate the client’s actualizing process. This process is a directional, growth directed process that includes movement towards realization, fulfillment and perfection of inherent capabilities and potentialities of the individual. It is a selective process in that it is directional and constructive. It tends to enhance and maintain the whole organism/person. A summary of the theory can be stated as follows:

30

1. There is one motivating force in a client; i.e., the actualizing tendency.

2. There is one directive to the therapist; i.e. to embody the attitudinal quality of genuineness and to experience empathic understanding from the client’s internal frame of reference and to experience unconditional positive regard towards the client.

3. When the client perceives the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard, the actualizing tendency of the client is promoted.

Rogers believed that everyone has the motivation and ability to change in order to become a better, more "self-actualized" person. Rogers (1957; 1959) point out that therapist experiences and manifests three basic attitudes in the relationship. These attitudes are labeled as congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference. Congruent persons are the individuals who trust their view of the world and their ability to act on their basic positive nature. Rogers’ most explicit statements about these attitudes were in his 1957 statement that hypothesized the necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change in all therapies and constructive interpersonal relationships that have constructive personality change as a goal. These conditions are also presented with a slightly different slant in his 1959 theoretical statement on psychotherapy, personality theory and interpersonal relations from the Client-Centered frame of reference. In the integration statement of 1957, he stated (p. 96):

1. Two persons are in psychological contact.

2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious.

3. The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship.

4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client.

5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client.

31

6. The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved.

There are slight but perhaps important differences between the 1957 and 1959 statements. In the 1959 statement, Rogers does not mention that the therapist should endeavor to communicate the experiences of empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard to the client. He continued to emphasize the importance of the client perceiving these two attitudinal experiences of the therapist. Also, the 1959 theory statement refers to the first condition (the pre-condition) simply as contact between the client and therapist rather than ‘psychological’

contact. Roger (1957) pointed out three attitudinal conditions are the following:

1. Congruency (or genuineness): Within the relationship (the therapist) is freely and limits, depending upon the personal characteristics of both the therapist and the client. Rogers, in his classic delineation of a theory of psychotherapy, personality and interpersonal relationships in 1959, hypothesized that in the psychotherapeutic relationship that the more fully and consistently the therapeutic attitudes are provided by the therapist and perceived by the client, the greater the constructive movement that will occur in the client. Rogers’ hypothesis can be generally stated in the following way: When the therapist can consistently be a certain way (i.e., embodying the attitudinal qualities) towards the client while trusting the client’s natural growth process, the forward growth tendency (the actualizing tendency) of the client will be promoted.

The natural growth process of the individual is promoted when the therapist can be a certain way by embodying certain attitudinal qualities. The therapist strives to be congruent, to experience unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding toward the client. It is interesting to note that Rogers’ message is that the therapist experience empathic understanding of the client’s

32

frame of reference and experience unconditional positive regard towards the client. He adds that the client must perceive these two conditions, at least, to a minimal degree. In therapy, the foundation block of the theory is the actualizing tendency; i.e., the tendency of the organism to grow in a positive and constructive direction; for the person to become all of his/her potentialities.

From the review of this chapter we can see secondary school teachers face so many problems and the need for helping them is really important so that they can deal with stress in the workplace. There are theories and therapies that can assist teachers just like any other professionals that are given help in the workplace. Hence, counseling would be the only best way to help them to cope with their situation life in Haiti. As Cormier and Hackney (1993) stated in their conclusion that if one examines the variety of counseling interventions that have been described in the professional literature, they tend to fall into four broad categories which are interventions that produce affective change; interventions that produce cognitive change;

interventions that produce behavioral change; interventions that produce social system change.

We believe if principals of school or administrator of school and the Ministry of Education helped secondary school teachers in Haiti express feelings or feeling states; to identify or discriminate between feelings or feeling states; or to alter or accept feelings or feeling states they would make more progress while they are teaching in classroom. In addition if they helped teachers develop adaptive and supportive behaviors to multifaceted situations. Developing adaptive behavior often means helping the teachers weaken or eliminate behaviors that work against the desired outcome. Moreover, if they helped secondary school teachers to change the individual's social environment or system, thus changing the patterns of interrelationship that elicited or supported these responses, they would increase more their productivity. It is obvious that secondary school teachers in Haiti have never learned to identify teachers’ problems and let them to express their feelings. Throughout this review we have looked at how teacher stress leads to physical and emotional exhaustion. To combat this problem we have also examined exercise and parent involvement in the classroom as mechanisms for coping with stress for teachers. The studies cited above demonstrate the effectiveness of aerobic exercise as a stress reduction technique among teachers and the positive effects of parent involvement while students doing works at home.

33

CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the method employed in this study concerning research framework, research methods, research procedures, population and sample, instrumentation, and data analysis. In accordance with the purpose of the study, the chapter provides some explanations about the factors that affect secondary school teachers’ stress in Haiti which are student behavior, teacher burnout, parent involvement, salary, work conditions and communication problems with co-workers, administrators of school, students and parents. In addition, it gives details about the framework which indicates the way the six variables were tested, and also explains the procedure, the instrumentation and the method used to prove the validity and reliability of the present study.