Behavior Therapies and Challenges to Behaviorists

Question 1

Behavior therapies

Answer 1

“Behavior modification”

Psychotherapy based on conditioning models (some on classical and others on operant)

Question 2

Therapies based on classical conditioning

Answer 2

Primarily used in treatment of phobias, but also with obsessive-compulsive disorders

Question 3

Phobias and Classical Conditioning

Answer 3

Phobias: learned association between an aversive US and a CS (the object/situation of fear)
Extinction is used to rid person of phobia: repeatedly present the CS without the associated US that elicits fear
By flooding, implosion, systematic desensitization (counter-conditioning), conditioned aversion

Question 4

Flooding

Answer 4

client experiences the CS without the US that elicited fear; ex. have person hold the object of fear

Question 5

Implosion

Answer 5

client only imagines the fearful situation; by intensely concentrating on the fearful stimulus in a safe environment, client is able to confront phobia

Question 6

Systematic Desensitization

Answer 6

Process of using hierarchy of anxiety-producing situations coupled with relaxation techniques. Once deeply relaxed, individual is asked to imagine the least anxiety-producing situation, then after the relaxation response is reinforced to the CS, move up the hierarchy
Also called “counter-conditioning”

Question 7

Conditioned aversion

Answer 7

client is attracted to a behavior that is undesirable (ex. substance abuse, cigarettes, fetishes)
Pair the undesirable stimulus with an aversive UCS –> the neg. feelings associated to UCS will become associated also to the undesirable behavior (client will supposedly no longer be attracted to the undesirable behavior)

Question 8

Therapies based on operant conditioning

Answer 8

Attempt to alter the consequences of the client’s behavior in order to increase/decrease a behavior as desired
“Contingency management”

Question 9

Behavioral Contract

Answer 9

Type of Contingency Management (operant based therapy)
A negotiated agreement is made, stating the behavioral change desired and indicating consequences of certain acts (used in interpersonal relationships: Person A performs desired behaviors for Person B, and in return, Person B performs behaviors desired by Person A)

Question 10

Time-Out

Answer 10

Type of Contingency Management (operant based therapy)
Undesirable behavior occurs in situations that reinforce the behavior; therefore, removing the client from the reinforcing situation will prohibit opportunity for behavior to be reinforced (behavior will eventually be extinguished without reinforcement)

Question 11

Token Economies

Answer 11

Type of Contingency Management (operant based therapy)
Given for desirable behaviors and taken away for various undesirable behaviors; tokens can later be exchanged by client for array of rewards/privileges; especially used in mental hospitals where desirable behaviors may include self-care, making bed, positive interactions with other patients/staff, etc.

Question 12

Premack principle

Answer 12

Type of Contingency Management (operant based therapy)
A more preferred activity can be used to reinforce a less preferred activity (ex. telling a child he/she can play after studying; more desired activity-play- is used to reinforce less preferred activity-homework)

Question 13

Thorndike on problem solving

Answer 13

Best explained by the law of effect; argued that all problem-solving is learned by merely trial-and-error (an accidental correct response-like pressing the lever that opens the puzzle box-is reinforced (rewarded by food)

Question 14

Wolfgang Köhler (cofounder of the school of Gestalt psychology)

Answer 14

Disagreed with Thorndike (trial-and-error learning by law of effect)
Argued that Thorndike’s cats were forced into trial-and-error situation based on their situation (puzzle box)
Suggested animals can learn by insight (Perception of the inner relationships between factors that are essential to solving the problem)

Question 15

Köhler, problem solving, chimps

Answer 15

Suggested chimps used insight to reach food placed out of reach by climbing or knocking it down.

Question 16

Insight and conditioning

Answer 16

Insight presents a challenge to models of conditioning.

Question 17

Edward Tolman

Answer 17

“Cognitive map”: mental representation of a physical space (if a familiar path in a maze is blocked, rats can recall another route through the maze)
Conducted experiments with rat mazes to show that behavior isn’t always a matter of stimulus-response reinforcement learning

Question 18

Biological constraints

Answer 18

Affect classical and operant conditioning; species have different inborn predispositions to learn different things in different ways (these predispositions: “biological constraints”)

Question 19

Garcia experiment

Answer 19

Illustrated in a classical conditioning experiment with thirsty rats.
Group A rats allowed to lick tube releasing water sweetened with saccharin; Group B rats allowed to lick tube releasing unsweetened water while simultaneously flashing light and making click noise. Half of each group were exposed to either shock or nauseating drug (G1: sweet water (CS) + shock (UCS), G2: sweet water (CS) + nausea (UCS), G3: bright-noisy water + shock, G4: bright-noisy water + nausea)
Conditioning occurred only in G2 and G3; no conditioning (aversion to water) in groups 1 and 4

Question 20

Garcia effect (by John Garcia)

Answer 20

lack of conditioning in groups 1 and 4 suggests “preparedness” phenomenon
Rats are biologically inclined to associate illness with something ingested and pain with sights/sounds
Seen in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy (associate illness with food–> show aversion to certain foods that “make” them ill; researchers try to avoid this effect by giving patient novel food pre-treatment so patient will develop aversion to food they will not come across outside of chemotherapy rather than to a nutritive food)

Question 21

Garcia effect and taste-aversion

Answer 21

Can have an effect up to 24 hours after CS (ex. if you become ill even 24 hours after trying new food–> may become averse to eating any more of that food)

Question 22

Instinctual Drift (Biological Constraint in Operant Conditioning)

Answer 22

Tendency for species-specific behavior to override operant training (like shaping)

Question 23

Keller and Marion Breland

Answer 23

Believed operant conditioning could be used to train animals to do anything; used shaping to train a raccoon to pick up coins and deposit them into a piggy bank
Instinctual drift prevented raccoons from doing this because of reverting to species-specific behavior pattern of catching crayfish, rubbing them, and dipping them in water to remove shell.

Question 24

Bandura & Conditioning

Answer 24

demonstrated by Bobo doll experiment that behavior could be learned by observation: “vicarious reinforcement”