Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 116 Cognitive Problems
"It sounds like you tend to hide your thoughts, or even 'problems,' from them in your daily life, is that right?"

Nan Zhuren then picked up on another piece of information and provided an explanation of the visitor's expression.

The visitor paused for a moment.

"I, um... I don't think I usually try to hide it. But after you said that, it seems like I have that tendency."

"Do you find it easier to hide your feelings than to explain them to others?"

"……meeting!"

[A deeper sense of identification.]

In counseling, the ability to concretize the feelings that clients have "a vague sense of but don't know how to express" in written form is a technique known as "explanation and elaboration."

This technique can verify the counselor's understanding of the client's problems, as well as the client's self-awareness.

It is very effective in quickly bridging the gap between the visitor and the counselor.

—The premise is that the description is accurate, otherwise it is easy to make things worse.

Nan Zhuren glanced at the wall clock; time was running out, and the information gathering phase was almost over.

He had one last question.

Have you talked to your parents about these feelings?

The visitor opened his mouth as if something was about to slip out, but then swallowed it back before speaking. After thinking for a while, he said, "I don't usually talk to them much... especially not about studying. I don't think they can help me handle this, and they're probably more worried than I am, so I didn't say anything."

Nan Zhuren nodded knowingly.

Then, they took over the power of discourse.

"I believe you expressed your feelings more this time than last time."

Nan Zhuren first made a small joke to ease the atmosphere.

"Based on your description, you seem to lack this kind of 'venting' in your life, and 'venting' itself has a soothing and even healing effect—I believe you are feeling it now."

“Indeed.” The visitor nodded. “I do feel better now than when I first came into the consultation room.”

Nan Zhuren smiled and said, "You came for consultation to solve your academic problems; and from what you just said, academic pressure does seem to be the cause of your recent series of problems."

“Academics are indeed important. From your description, I can tell that you are a person who sets high standards for yourself. Therefore, grades are definitely not something that is unimportant to you. It's not something you can just ‘pass’ or ‘get by’.” Nan Zhuren first offered a wave of support and positive attention.

The visitor continued to nod, his gaze lowered.

"But more than grades, I care about the emotions and feelings you experience because of them, and why you have these emotions and feelings because of your grades."

“I’m more focused on ‘you’.”

Nan Zhuren, with that face of his, said those words without any restraint.

The visitor's gaze suddenly rose.

"Similarly, I need you to shift your focus back to yourself and put yourself first—not on studying."

Nan Zhuren smiled and said, "Coincidentally, the 'Educational Psychology' section of psychology also studies 'how students learn,' which is what your teacher talked about in your last consultation. Today, I'm going to talk about another part—[Yeks-Dodson's Law of Motivation]."

"The law of motivation?"

"Yes. This law studies the relationship between motivation and work efficiency—of course, in our current situation, we can also use learning efficiency to replace work efficiency." "In short, research has shown that the relationship between motivation and learning efficiency is an inverted U-shaped curve. When students' learning motivation is low, their learning efficiency is low; as motivation increases, learning efficiency also increases; however, when learning motivation reaches a certain critical point, learning efficiency will actually decrease again as motivation increases."

Nan Zhuren looked into the visitor's eyes: "It's even lower than when you have 'low learning motivation'."

The visitor blinked but didn't say anything.

Nan Zhuren is waiting, waiting for the visitor to think.

"Teacher, are you saying that my problem is because my learning motivation is...too strong?"

The visitor's voice was somewhat dry when he said this.

Feeling down and helpless.

Nan Zhuren keenly sensed the visitor's negative emotions and promptly offered support and positive explanations: "This is not your problem. Having excessively high motivation for learning is not a bad thing in itself; perhaps it is a habit you have maintained since your senior year of high school that you are not adapting to the university learning environment—just as you said yourself, you have not adapted to university life."

This attribution to external factors promptly brought the visitor back to their emotional state.

Nan Zhuren glanced at the wall clock again.

"And this motivation is actually a kind of cognition."

The visitor paused for a moment, as if pondering the two words: "recognition?"

Nan Zhuren nodded: "That's right. There's a school of thought in psychology called the Cognitivism school. In the eyes of our school, events that happen in reality—like your academic problems—are 'important,' but not 'major,' or even 'primary.'"

In fact, it wasn't even "important" in some respects, but in order to prevent the visitor from feeling that their problem was being taken lightly, Nan Zhuren still gave it appropriate attention.

"First and foremost, it's your emotions and feelings. Soothing them so you can get back into your comfort zone is our first task right now."

"Once you feel a little better and get out of the 'blind spot' mindset, we can then explore 'why you have these emotions'—that is, your way of thinking."

Nan Zhuren looked at the visitor, who already had a learning expression on his face, his curiosity aroused.

"A person's emotions arising from a certain event stem from their perception of that event."

"And cognition is our most important core issue. If you still feel unwell next week, or if there are any questions you want to understand, then we can continue the consultation and explore your issues further."

"As for this week, I will assign you some homework, and I need you to complete it seriously to ease your current emotions."

The visitor nodded, pursed his lips, and revealed a serious look in his eyes.

Then Nan Zhuren began to speak slowly.

"..."

The visitor initially looked surprised, then became puzzled, and seemed somewhat hesitant.

However, Nan Zhuren then offered several pieces of support, which ultimately led the visitor to accept the assignments.

During this process, Nan Zhuren was multitasking, sketching out the consultation process, procedures, and so on in his hands, leaving them for future reference.

The consultation has ended.

After he turned and walked out of the consultation room, back to the office area, and made sure he had disappeared from the visitor's sight.

He finally frowned and wrote down his diagnostic conclusion after the [Conceptual Case].

(End of this chapter)