Behaviourist Therapy - Aversion Therapy Flashcards
What are the aims of aversion therapy?
Designed to cause an intense dislike or feeling of disgust to a particular stimulus
What can aversion therapy be used to treat?
- Drug and alcohol addiction and/or abuse
- Deviant sexual behaviour
- Compulsive nail biting
- Gambling
- Smoking
What are the 4 main components of aversion therapy?
- Classical conditioning
- Covert sensitisation
- Operant conditioning
- New developments
What is classical conditioning in aversion therapy?
- The aversive stimulus (e.g. a shock) is a UCS
- The UCS produces a UCR (e.g. an avoidance)
- When the UCS is paired with the undesired behaviour, (e.g. smoking), the behaviour leads to the same consequence
- When the shock is repeatedly paired with the smoking, the client starts to engage less in smoking
What is covert sensitisation in aversion therapy?
The patient imagines unwanted scenarios that could happen to them if they continue engaging in the unwanted behaviour
What is operant conditioning in aversion therapy?
Once classical conditioning has made the association, the client tends to avoid future contact with the stimulus. This is negative reinforcement which motivates the client to continue avoiding the situation
What are the new developments in aversion therapy?
Scientists have found drugs that help with aversion therapy. Tryptophan metabolites can stop alcohol from breaking down, causing an unpleasant taste, and when the patient avoids alcohol, the drug can make the patient feel tranquil and relaxed
How can aversion therapy be applied to the behaviourist assumptions?
It links to the assumption that behaviour is learnt through conditioning and that humans are born as a blank slate
What themes can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of aversion therapy?
- Research to support
- Patient dropout
- Treating the symptom not the cause
- Effects may not be long term
What research supports aversion therapy?
Smith et al (1997) found that alcoholics treated with aversion therapy had higher abstinence rates than those who were treated by counselling alone
How does patient dropout impact the evaluation of aversion therapy?
Bancroft (1992) found that up to 50% of patients either refuse treatment or dropout of the programme. Therefore only willing patients participate in the therapy
How does treating the symptom and not the cause impact the evaluation of aversion therapy?
A patient could have successfully undergone the therapy and lost the addiction to one drug, but may pick up of another drug as the underlying reasons for being addicted are still there
How does the effect not being long-term impact the evaluation of aversion therapy?
What’s an example?
The aversive stimuli are no longer present after the therapy course has been completed. For example, Pavlov’s dogs disassociated the bell with food after a couple days of not being reinforced
What are ethical issues with aversion therapy?
- The treatment of homosexuality
- The therapist’s control
What are the different methods that can be used to create unpleasant associations?
- Emetic methods
- Electrical methods
- Imaginal methods
- Sensory methods
- Pharmacological methods
