Behavior Theraphy

• B.F Skinner was a prominent spokesperson for behaviorism and can be considered the father of the behavioral approach to psychology.
• Skinner was also a determinist; he did not believe that humans had free choice. He acknowledged that feelings and thoughts exist, but he denied that they caused our actions. Instead, he stressed the cause-and-effect links between objective, observable environmental conditions and behavior.
• Skinner maintained that too much attention had been given to internal states of mind and motives, which cannot be observed and changed directly, and that too little focus had been given to environmental factors that can be directly observed and changed. He was extremely interested in the concept of reinforcement, which he applied to his own lie.
• Albert Bandura and his colleagues did pioneering work in the area of social modeling and demonstrated that modeling is a powerful process that explains diverse forms of learning. He and his colleagues explored social learning theory and the prominent role of observational learning and social modeling in human motivation, thought, and action.
• By the mid-1980s, Bandura had renamed his theoretical approach social cognitive theory, which shed light on how we function as self-organizing, proactive, self-reflective, and self-regulating beings.
• Albert Bandura broadened the scope of behavior therapy by exploring the inner cognitive affective forces that motivate human behavior.
• Arnold A. Lazarus is a pioneer in clinical behavior therapy and the developer of multimodal therapy, which is a comprehensive, systematic, holistic approach to behavior therapy.
• Behavior therapy practitioners focus on directly observable behavior, current determinants of behavior, learning experiences that promote change, tailoring treatment strategies to individual clients, and rigorous assessment and evaluation.
• Two of the most significant developments in the field were:

  1. The continued emergence of cognitive behavior therapy as a major force and
  2. The application of behavioral techniques to the prevention and treatment of health-related disorders
• Four Areas of Development

  1. Classical Conditioning
  2. Operant Conditioning
  3. Social Cognitive Theory
  4. Cognitive Behavior Theraphy
• refers to what happens prior to learning that creates a response through pairing

  classical conditioning
• a type of learning in which behaviors are influenced mainly by the consequences that follow them

  operant conditioning
• it is interactional, interdisciplinary, and multimodal

  social cognitive theory
• operates on the assumption that what people believe influences how they act and feel

  cognitive behavior theraphy
• Modern behavior therapy is grounded on a scientific view of human behavior that accommodates a systematic and structured approach to counseling. This view does not rest on a deterministic assumption that humans are a mere product of their sociocultural conditioning. Rather, the current view is that the person is the producer and the product of his or her environment.
• Functional assessment (or behavioral analysis) to identify the maintaining conditions by systematically gathering information about situational antecedents (A), the dimensions of the problem behavior (B), and the consequences (C) of the problem.
• Antecedent events cue or elicit a certain behavior.
• Consequences are events that maintain a behavior in some way, either by increasing or decreasing it.
• Behavioral assessment interview, the therapist’s task is to identify the particular antecedent and consequent events that influence, or are functionally related to, an individual’s behavior.
• Behavioral practitioners must possess intuitive skills and clinical judgment in selecting appropriate treatment methods and in determining when to implement specific techniques
• Applied Behavioral Analysis: Operant Conditioning Techniques

  • Positive Reinforcement
  • Negative Reinforcement
  • Extinction
  • Punishment
  • Positive Punishment
  • Negative Punishment
• Positive reinforcement involves the addition of something of value to the individual as a consequence of certain behavior.
• Negative reinforcement involves the escape from or the avoidance of aversive (unpleasant) stimuli.
• Extinction which refers to withholding reinforcement from a previously reinforced response.
• Punishment is sometimes referred to as aversive control, in which the consequences of a certain behavior result in adecrease of that behavior.
• Positive punishment an aversive stimulus is added after the behavior to decrease the frequency of a behavior.
• Negative punishment a reinforcing stimulus is removed following the behavior to decrease the frequency of a target behavior.
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation has become increasingly popular as a method of teaching people to cope with the stresses produced by daily living. Jacobson is credited with initially developing the progressive muscle relaxation procedure.
• Systematic Desensitization is based on the principle of classical conditioning, is a basic behavioral procedure developed by Joseph Wolpe. This procedure can be considered a form of exposure therapy because clients are required to expose themselves to anxiety-arousing images as a way to reduce anxiety.
• Once it has been determined that systematic desensitization is an appropriate form of treatment, a three-step process unfolds:

  1. relaxation training,
  2. development of a graduated anxiety hierarchy, and
  3. systematic desensitization proper that involves the presentation of hierarchy items while the client is in a deeply relaxed state.
• Involves client exposure to the actual anxiety-evoking events rather than simply imagining these situations. Typically, treatment begins with a functional analysis of objects or situations a person avoids or fears. The therapist and the client generate a hierarchy of situations for the client to encounter in ascending order of difficulty.

  In Vivo Exposure
• Another form of exposure therapy, which refers to either in vivo or imaginal exposure to anxiety evoking stimuli for a prolonged period of time.

  Flooding
• Imaginal flooding is based on similar principles and follows the same procedures except the exposure occurs in the client's imagination instead of in daily.
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing orvEMDR is a form of exposure therapy that entails assessment and preparation, imaginal flooding, and cognitive restructuring in the treatment of individuals with traumatic memories.
• Francine Shapiro emphasizes the safety and welfare. Assist clients in dealing with post traumatic stress disorders
• The treatment consists of three basic phases involving:

  • assessment and preparation
  • imaginal flooding
  • cognitive restructuring
• Social Skills Training is a broad category that deals with an individual's ability to interact effectively with others in various social situations; it is used to help clients develop and achieve skills in interpersonal competence.
• One specialized form of social skills training consists of teaching people how to be assertive in a variety of social situations.

  Assertion Training
• Self-management strategies include self-monitoring, self-reward, self-contract-ing, and stimulus control.
• Multimodal Therapy: Clinical Behavior Therapy is a comprehensive, systematic, holistic approach to behavior therapy developed by Arnold Lazarus.