4.1 GLM – Good lives model theory
In the first section, you will learn about different needs and what drives our actions, to better understand your own behavior.
According to the Good lives model (GLM) theory, individuals are always striving to fulfil the 9 primary needs. Read the list below and see if they apply to you.
The method that individuals choose to achieve their goal is where they may go wrong. Choosing inappropriate methods to achieve your goals can cause harm to yourself and/or others.
- Wellbeing
Experience of physical, mental, and sexual wellbeing.- For example, sufficient somatic and psychological health. The ability to express your sexuality in a way that brings pleasure and well-being to yourself and does not harm others.
- Knowledge
Experience of mastering basic things.- For example, having the necessary knowledge and skills to function as a member of society. Studying can be a way to fulfil the needs related to knowledge.
- Self-efficacy
Experience of competence, ability and skill through work, leisure activities and relationships.- For example, a feeling of being capable at your job or mastering a hobby.
- Agency
Opportunities to experience and express a sense of control, healthy self-esteem and experience of the possibility to influence what happens to you.- For example, when you need to make a decision, you have the sensation that it is you who is controlling the situation, you are not a bystander who is unable to play a role in the outcome.
- Relatedness
Experience of connection and interaction with other people.- For example, family or close friends, with whom you share an important emotional bond and a shared feeling of enjoying each other’s company.
- Inner peace
Experience of peace of mind and mental stability.- For example, the ability to face adversity and overcome it by restoring your internal balance without significant consequences to yourself or others.
- Spirituality
Experience of meaning and purpose in life and values.- For example, the feeling of knowing what things are important and valuable to you and what you want to achieve in your life. This could be, for instance, religion or other such belief.
- Happiness
Experience of happiness and satisfaction with oneself and one’s own life.- For example, the feeling that things are good enough taking into consideration the circumstances. A subjective feeling of happiness.
- Creativity
Experience of the opportunity to express creativity in a natural way.- For example, a sport, singing, playing an instrument, work, chores, doing art.
What makes people use CSAM?
The aim of the following tasks is to help you understand the motives that guide behavior and the needs that you may be trying to fulfil through your use of CSAM.
You will examine the extent to which you have sexual interests in children and how much these interests have guided your path towards using CSAM. You will investigate your personal problem-solving styles and self-regulation (for example, what stopped you from achieving a sense of control and power and sexual gratification by other means than using CSAM?). You will also consider alternative ways of fulfilling your needs (for example, need for power, control or sexual gratification) that you have previously fulfilled by using CSAM.
The aim of the following tasks is to help you understand the deeper goals and motives operating in the background causing you to use CSAM and the methods you choose to achieve these goals. Realizing this supports your sense of self-efficacy and hope and thereby develops your skills to set meaningful life goals and to flexibly explore different ways to achieve them.
What makes people use CSAM and what do they gain from it?
Reflect on the questions below and write down your thoughts. The questions are about people in general.
Are there negative feelings (loneliness, shame, sorrow, insignificance) associated with the use of CSAM, that individuals try to suppress by using CSAM?
What kinds of needs do I fulfil and what do I gain from using CSAM?
Think about your own motives and needs related to your use of CSAM.
Mirror the questions to the things you considered in ‘My life at the moment’. What area of your life is lacking, that the use of CSAM fills?
Look at the nine needs in the Good Lives Model below. Which of those needs do you aim to fulfil by using CSAM?
GLM needs
- Wellbeing
- Knowledge
- Self-efficacy
- Agency
- Relatedness
- Inner peace
- Spirituality
- Happiness
- Creativity
Example 1
What do you gain from using CSAM?
- “I was stressed but using CSAM made me feel more relaxed.”
Which GLM-need does the use of CSAM fulfil?
- 6. Inner peace – I use CSAM to make me feel better and more calm.
How can I meet these needs without using CSAM?
- In what other way, other than through CSAM use, could I feel better? For example ‘I could go out for a short walk’.
Example 2
What do you gain from using CSAM?
- “I get sexual satisfaction.”
Which GLM-need does the use of CSAM fulfil?
- 1. Sexual wellbeing – I get sexual gratification from using CSAM.
How can I meet these needs without using CSAM?
- In what other way, other than through CSAM use, could I achieve sexual gratification/satisfaction?
Example 3
What do you gain from using CSAM?
- “I feel less lonely/ I don’t feel lonely.”
Which GLM-need does the use of CSAM fulfil?
- 5. Relatedness
- 6. Inner peace
- 4. Agency – I don’t feel lonely when I watch CSAM, so using CSAM is a way to control my emotions. I feel capable when I watch CSAM.
How can I meet these needs without using CSAM?
- In what other way, other than through CSAM use, could I achieve relatedness/Inner peace/Agency?
My own needs
By using the above examples, try to identify your own needs based on the GLM model by reflecting on the following questions:
We suggest that you write down your needs and as many alternative ways to meet them as you can think of, as long as you feel that these alternative behaviors are in line with your values.
