  THE RATIONAL PERSON
A Relatively Sane Person

by

 Martin Sandry, Ph.D. and Kenneth Peiser, Ph.D.
Registered Clinical Psychologists
Fellows of the Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy


Welcome to the world of THE RATIONAL PERSON!  This emulation game is intended to give pleasure while at the same time teaching the player what sane, logical, realistic, rational thinking is like.  In order to earn higher scores, you can learn from the mere playing of the game, or you could study rationality in any of the several sources listed in this manual.  In any case, no matter what your approach may be, we hope that you enjoy the experience of matching wits with
THE RATIONAL PERSON.

PART 1

Getting Started
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Installation

The game and its files may be copied using any copy program written for any Apple II computer.  When copying to a larger capacity disk such as a 3.25 inch or hard drive, make sure that the files STARTUP, FM, SI, INSTR, S.KIDS, RATIONAL.KIDS, and RATIONAL, end up in the same subdirectory.  If copying to a floppy disk dedicated to THE RATIONAL PERSON, then also be sure to copy the files ProDOS and BASIC.SYSTEM to the root directory.

Beginning

Insert a copy of the game (floppy) disk into drive #1 and turn on your Apple II or compatible.  If using a program launcher or are using BASIC.SYSTEM, launch or "-" or "RUN" STARTUP.  The drive will whir for a minute and you will be at your first choice-point.  If your computer is an Apple II or II Plus, you will be asked whether the computer you are using has lower case display capabilities.  Answer "Y" for "Yes" or "N" for "No." If you are using a IIgs, IIe, or IIc, all of which have lower-case fonts built in, the program detects this and skips the question.  If your Apple has more than 64K RAM, the program will detect this, create a RAM disk, and read all of the game's files onto it, thus speeding play.

You are then asked to select the ADULT or the KIDS demo game to play.

Instruction Screen

  Next, you are given the option of displaying the instructions
  on-screen.  Again, press "Y" for "Yes" or "N" for "No."

New Game or Resuming an Already Started Game

  You will then be asked whether you wish to start a new game
  (Option "N") or to resume (Option "R") a partially completed game
  which is saved on the disk.  If you choose option "N," then the
  game will start with Situation #1.

  If you choose Option "R" you will next be presented with a menu
  of previously stored games.  If there are more games stored than
  fit on the screen, a message at the top of the screen will tell
  you that you are now on Page 1 of n pages.  You can page back and
  forth by using the arrow keys.  Choose the game you want to play by
  pressing a letter key corresponding to the letter to the left of
  your choice.

  If you wish, it is possible to "back out" at any point in this
  part of the program.  If you hit "R" by mistake or change your
  mind about continuing rather than starting a new game, pressing
  the <ESCape> key will bring you back to the previous
  step.  This will bring you back to the choice point
  where you are asked whether you want to play a New game or to
  Resume a stored game.


Playing The Game
   ----------------------------------------------------------------

Statement of the Situation

  You are first presented with a statement of THE SITUATION within the highlighted box at the top of the screen.  Following this, you are asked to select whether you want to see the THOUGHTS or the FEELINGS about this SITUATION first.  Pressing the <Space Bar> toggles between THOUGHTS first and FEELING first modes.  The <RETURN> key plays whichever mode is highlighted when you press it. Of course, you can change your mind by using the ESCape key to go back and choose again.

Playing in THOUGHTS FIRST mode
------------------------------

The Thoughts menu

  You will be asked to answer the question,

                    WHAT WOULD I, THE RATIONAL PERSON,
                    TELL MYSELF IN THIS SITUATION?

  Following this are four possible thoughts about the situation.
  At this point you are expected to make believe that this is a real life situation which you are facing and to which you are reacting. You are also to make believe that you are the relatively sane, logical, realistic, rational person your computer now is programmed to emulate.  With this frame-of-mind, select the menu-number (1
through 4) of the thought which you, this ideally rational person, would tell yourself about the situation as described, after some thought.

  If you choose the psychologically healthiest alternative (from a Rational-Emotive point of view) as your first choice, you earn 10 points.  If you choose any of the other three possible responses, the banner which appears tells you so, and you are asked to make another selection.  If you get it right on the second try, you earn
5 points.  If not, you are presented with the (our) correct answer and no points are earned.

  Next, you select from the four alternatives presented in the Feelings Menu, the feeling(s) which thinking the rational thought would produce.

The Feelings Menu

  You will be asked to answer the question:

               WHAT WOULD <the thought about the situation>
               MAKE ME FEEL IN THIS SITUATION?

  Following this, four possible emotional reactions to the
  situation are presented.  Select the menu-number (1 through 4) of the feeling/emotional reaction which you believe that the thought would produce (in the context of the situation, which is still at the top of the screen).

  If you choose the psychologically most likely choice, you earn 10
  points.  If you choose any of the other three possible responses,
  the banner which appears at the bottom of the screen tells you,

              NO, IT WOULD PROBABLY NOT MAKE ME FEEL <your response>, BUT <another thought> COULD.
              TRY AGAIN (FOR 5 POINTS).

  Make a different selection.  If the rational alternative is chosen at this point, the score counter (in the upper right-hand corner of the screen) is incremented by 5 points immediately and the game continues to the next SITUATION.  If another incorrect choice is made at this point, THE RATIONAL PERSON tells you the thought underlying your second selection and the"correct" feeling response.Zero points are credited, and the next situation is presented along with game mode selection alternatives and the option to quit.


Playing in FEELINGS FIRST mode
------------------------------

The Feelings Menu

  You will be asked to answer the question:

          WHAT WOULD I, THE RATIONAL PERSON,
          FEEL IN THIS SITUATION?

  Following this are four possible emotional reactions to the
  situation.  You are expected to make believe that this is a real-life situation which you are facing and to which you
  are reacting.  You are also to make believe that you are the mostly
  sane, logical, realistic, rational person as your
  computer now is programmed to emulate.  With this frame-of-mind,
  select the menu-number (1 through 4) of the feeling/emotional
  reaction which you believe this ideally rational person would
  feel about the situation as described after some thought.  <RETURN> is not necessary.

  If you choose the psychologically healthiest choice, you earn 10
  points.  If you choose any of the other three possible responses,
  the banner which appears at the bottom of the screen tells you,

          NO, I WOULD PROBABLY NOT FEEL <your response>.
          TRY AGAIN (FOR 5 POINTS).

  At this point you are expected to hit a numerical choice between
  1 and 4 again.  If the rational choice is made at this point, the
  score counter (in the upper right-hand corner of the screen) is
  incremented by 5 points immediately and the game continues to the
  next part of the same SITUATION.  If another incorrect choice is
  made at this point, THE RATIONAL PERSON tells you the "correct"
  answer; zero points are credited, and the game continues to the
  Belief/Thought Menu

The Belief/Thought Menu

  The next screen retains the statement of THE SITUATION, but the
  bottom of the dialog box contains the statement, in inverse:

          I FELT <correct Feelings response>.
          I THOUGHT...

  The task at this point is to select the thought (expression of a
  belief; again, choices 1 through 4) which would produce the
  feeling shown in the dialog box.  This is so that you can learn
  the correspondence between thoughts and feelings.  If the correct
  choice is made on the first try, the score counter is incremented by 10 points.  Again, if an incorrect choice is made on the first try, you are invited to try again for five points.

  An exciting and informative feature of this game is that
  when the incorrect choice is made from the Thought Menu, the
  feeling which that particular thought would produce is
  displayed.  If an incorrect choice is made on the second try, THE
  RATIONAL PERSON tells you the correct answer, i.e., the rational
  thought which would produce the best coping emotional response of those offered.

  The SITUATION under play is now concluded.  At the
  conclusion of each SITUATION, the menu bar at the bottom of the
  screen asks whether you want to (C)ontinue or (Q)uit.  Actually,
  any key other than "Q" will present the next SITUATION and the
  game will continue (there are 110 situations in the Omnibus
  edition of the game).

The QUIT option

  If the (Q)uit option is chosen, the next menu asks whether
  you want to (S)ave the current game on the disk, or whether you
  want to discard your points and the record the program keeps of
  your game so that you can (E)xit quietly.  Choose "S"
  or "E."

  If you are already playing a game which is a continuation
  from a previous playing session, choosing "E" will not erase the
  previously stored information from the disk so you can start at
  the same point in the game as you did this time.  If you wish to
  save your game, you will be asked to type a name or code to label
  the file on the disk so that you will be able to start your next
  playing session with the next SITUATION.

  If you enter a new name at this point, then BOTH games will be saved on the disk.  Pressing <RETURN> without typing anything will save the scores with the same name or label as last time (the "default" filename).

  EDITING A FILENAME

  If you make a mistake while entering the filename, the ESCAPE key allows you to back up an start over.  You may also change your mind about whether to quit or not at this point.  The program will not permit you to enter any character which ProDOS will not accept.



PART 2

The Basis of the Program
  ------------------------------------------------------------------

  In 1957, Dr. Albert Ellis published a basic work in the field
  of the psychology of emotions, "A Guide to Rational Living"
  (Stuart).  In that book, and in the practice of psychotherapy
  which followed, the idea that adults are each totally responsible
  for virtually every feeling which we experience has been a major
  influence in the practice of psychotherapy.  He (Ellis) developed
  the "ABC" theory of emotions which has received an increasing
  amount of scientific validation since its inception.  "A" is the
  SITUATION, event, or activity to which we respond by telling
  ourselves an evaluative or judgmental (B)elief.  As a
  (C)onsequence of telling ourselves this (B)elief, we feel one or
  another emotion.  Which of the wide variety of emotional reactions
  we will feel ("C") depends upon which "B" we tell ourselves.  For
  example, if "A" (the SITUATION) is:

          "My car got a flat tire, and I'm in a hurry."

  and "B" (the Belief/THOUGHT) is;

         "It is awful that things didn't go the way I want them to
          go but they should!  My tire shouldn't have gone flat!  I
          can't stand it."

  Then "C" (the FEELING consequence of telling yourself "B") would likely be anger, or even a tire-kicking rage.  If, on the other
  hand, "B" were:

         "I don't like it that my tire is flat.  Now I'll have to
          get it fixed and I'll probably be late.  That's too bad,
          but it isn't awful and I can stand it because there's no
          reason why things should go my way."

  Then "C" would likely be something more like feelings of
  frustration, concern, and/or irritation.

  In the first case, the "B" was irrational (illogical and
  unrealistic), thus causing unnecessarily distressing, exaggerated
  feelings.  In the second case, "B" consists of logical, realistic
  statements of personal opinions about the situation.  Because the
  opinions are largely negative in tone, the resulting feelings are also negative, but are not exaggerated.

  THE RATIONAL PERSON game presents you with "A" first, then
  asks you to choose the rational "C" from a list of four
  possibilities.  The game was carefully designed so that three of
  the choices presented are always irrational (non-coping in the
  sense of being over-emotional, under-emotional, or totally
  inappropriate).  Once the correct choice is determined by you or
  by the computer, you are presented with four choices for "B."

  Again, only one of the choices would likely produce the rational
  feeling, and the other three would likely produce irrational
  feelings.


Characteristics of Irrational Thinking

  Irrational ideas tend to be:

     -illogical (If you don't like me, nobody will ever like me)
     -unrealistic (I never do anything right)
     -unprovable (All men would act the same way)
     -overgeneralizations (If I fail this test I'm totally stupid)
     -catastrophizing (It's awful and terrible that my salary increase
      wasn't as much as I wanted)
     -dichotomous (If I'm not totally good, then I'm no good at all)
     -demanding (Things should, must, have to, ought to go my way and
      I need them to)
     -perfectionistic (It would be terrible if I got less than I want
      on my exam).

  While these are the most frequent distortions of thinking and
  logic, there is an unlimited number of variations on these
  themes, such as outright paranoia (Martians are after me),
  bizarre ideas (Julius Caesar is my father), superstitious (Black
  cats bring bad luck), senseless (Bad words should upset me),
  etc.

Generic Irrational Ideas

  The following are twelve irrational ideas commonly believed in
  our society.  They are called "generic" irrational ideas because
  they are so very general.  Each of these generic ideas can be
  expressed in our thoughts in thousands of different-sounding
  ways.  It is the purpose of THE RATIONAL PERSON to give you a
  "feel" for the very many guises which these few simple
  statements can take in various kinds of situations.  They are:

   1. I need everybody who is important to me to love me.

   2. I must be superior or perfect in whatever I do.

   3. People who do bad things are bad people and must be punished.

   4. It's awful, terrible, and catastrophic when things go wrong.

   5. My feelings are caused by events or other people.

   6. I can't control or change my emotions.

   7. If something might go wrong, I have to get upset and worry about it.

   8. It's easier to avoid than face life's difficulties.

   9. I can't overcome the effects of all the bad things that happened to me.

  10. There's a perfect solution for every problem and it must be found.

  11. Happiness comes from not having important things to do nor any responsibilities.

  12. Others have to help me because I can't do very much on my own.

  13. I can't help but get upset over other people's problems.

  14. The world should be fair.

  15. I need drugs to stay happy, and I can control my use of them.

  In order to change your irrational or inappropriate reactions to life situations, you first have to recognize the irrational ideas that you believe.  Then you replace them with logical, realistic, rational ideas.

  We hope that THE RATIONAL PERSON helps you at least (1) to recognize the differences between rational and irrational beliefs, (2) to learn the connections between various kinds of thinking (self-talk) and the kinds of feelings to which they are related, and (3) to stimulate your interest in thinking, feeling, and acting more rationally.  If it does so, the following reference list will be of use to you.
References
  ------------------------------------------------------------------

   1. IDEAS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL.
      A program for THIS computer by Dr. Martin Sandry.  Twelve irrational ideas are examined as to why they are irrational, and with what to replace them. (PsychSoft, 1983).

   2. How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything.  Yes, Anything!.
      Common irrational ideas are examined in detail.  Rational counterparts for each idea are presented along with homework assignments and exercises to help incorporate them into your daily living (Lyle Stuart 1988).

   3. Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy.
      The first textbook by Dr. Albert Ellis about the ABC theory of emotion.  Written for the professional community, it is so delightfully clear that      non-professional persons will enjoy and benefit from reading it Lyle Stuart, 1962).

   4. Catalog of the Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy. Published several times each year, this free catalog may be ordered directly from the Institute.  It contains many books, computer programs, audio and video tapes of Dr. Ellis and other Rational-Emotive therapists, as well as posters and other self-help aids.  Write to Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, 45 East 65th Street, New York, NY  10021.

   5. The list of common irrational beliefs was culled, adapted, and expanded by Kenneth Peiser, Ph.D. in 1987.

