South African College of Applied Psychology (Pty) Ltd (The) - Capetown

PSYCHOLOGY 123

Definition and types of crises that might apply to Emma
Crisis are often unpredictable by nature and occurs with little to no warning at all, as in
the case with Emma (Herbst & Reitsma, 2016). The term crisis and trauma are used
interchangeably most of the time, but they are two completely different things (Dulmus &
Hilarski, 2003). A crisis may not necessarily be considered as traumatic due to the fact that there
might not be a threat present which is associated with events that can traumatize an individual
(Herbst & Reitsma, 2016). There is more than one definition by which the term crisis can be
defined. By definition according to Dada (2016), a person is in crisis when the demand on the
individual, exceeds his or her capacity to compensate and maintain equilibrium. In a similar vein,
as per Herbst & Reitsma (2016), when an unexpected situation arises which has severe
consequences that needs to be dealt with and leaves the individual feeling overwhelmed, such a
situation can be seen as being in crisis. Crisis can be characterized into two types, namely
situational crises and developmental crises (Dada, 2016). Based on my assessment of the
information Emma shared with her counselor during their one-and-a-half-hour session together, I
believe both of these crisis types are relevant to her case. A developmental crisis may arise due to
a dramatic change which results in the individual being unable to orientate themselves to a new
position as required by social, physical or psychological maturity (Dada, 2016). Emma
demonstrated that she was in a developmental crisis due to her inability to accept that her father
has moved on with a new partner and whom she does not like is noted in the following statement
“Her father seldom makes contact with her and forgot to phone her on her birthday. She has no
idea whether divorce proceedings are underway but indicated that her father is cohabiting with
his new girlfriend, who Emma has met on two occasions and seemingly dislikes”. A Situational
crisis can be defined as crisis which is an uncommon event that an individual has no way of
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predicting or controlling (Dada, 2016). One of the situational crisis I have identified in Emma`s
case was that her boyfriend who has stopped making contact her and who also may have
potentially defriended her on facebook. Due to the unexpected loss of support it further supports
my believe that Emma was experiencing a situational crisis during that time.