Chapter 7: Behavioral Theory & Therapy Flashcards
Behaviorism and Behavior Therapy
Sprang from efforts to describe, explain, predict, and control observable animal and human behavior; considered reactions to unscientific psychoanalytic approaches to psychology; philosophically opposed to psychoanalysis
Difference between Behaviorism and Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysts subjectively focus on inner dynamics or mentalistic concepts, whereas behaviorists objectively focus on observable phenomena or materialistic concepts. Behaviorists use techniques derived from scientific research, whereas psychoanalytic techniques are usually derived from clinical practice
Similarities between Behaviorism and Psychoanalysis
Both are highly mechanistic, positivistic, and deterministic approaches to understanding humans
Historical Stages in the Evolution of Contemporary Behavioral Approaches to Human Change
Behaviorism as a scientific endeavor
Behavior Therapy
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Third Force in American Psychology
Existential-Humanistic Psychology; alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism; Contrast their theory with psychoanalytic theory and academic-scientific behaviorism as an explanation for human behavior and motivation
Behaviorism
Led by John B. Watson; Excludes consciousness and introspection, and believed in determinism rather than free will
William James
Credited with launching the field of psychology in the US; litlle regard for the scientific foundation of psychology;
John B. Watson
Believed in psychological science; immersed himself in experimental psychology; interested in the application of behavioral scientific principles to human suffering
Little Hans
Freud analyzed his fear because of unresolved Oedipal issues and castration anxiety
Little Albert
Watson used him to demonstrate that severe fears and phobias were not caused by obscure psychoanalytic constructs but by direct classical conditioning of a fear response
Little Peter
studied by Mary Cover Jones to investigate the effectiveness of counterconditioning or deconditioning
Contibutions of Early Behaviorists
Discovery by Pavlov, Watson, and their colleagues that emotional responses could be involuntarily conditioned in animals and humans via classical conditioning procedures.
The discovery by Mary Cover Jones that fear responses could be deconditioned by either (1) replacing the fear response with a positive response or (2) social imitiation
The discovery by Thorndike and its later elaboration by Skinner that animal and human behaviors are powerfully shaped by their consequences
Research Groups which Introduced the term Behavior Therapy to Modern Psychology
B.F. Skinner in the United States
Joseph Wolpe, Arnold Lazarus, and Stanley Rachman in South Africa
Hans Eysenck and the Maudsley Group in the United Kingdom
B.F. Skinner (U.S.)
Early work was an experimental project on operant conditioning with rats and pigeons in the 1930’s; Empasis was on the extension of Thorndike’s law of effect; Demonstrated power of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and stimulus control in the modification of animal behavior;
Behavior Therapy (Skinner)
Clinical term referring to the application of operant conditioning procedures to modify the behavior of psychotic patient
Joseph Wolpe
Interested in conditioning procedures as a means for resolving neurotic fear; conducted experiments in neurosis production; established the first nonpsychoanalytic, empirically validated behavior therapy thechnique
Systematic Desensitization
Josephy Wolfe’s therapeutic procedure; Involves training the anxious patient is first trained in progressive muscle relaxation exercises and then gradually exposed imaginally or in vivo to feared stimuli while simultaneously relaxing
Wolpe’s Systematic Desensitizaiton & Jone’s Deconditioning Principle
Similar wherein a conditioned negative emotional response is replaced with a conditioned positive emotional response
Arnold Lazarus & Stanley Rachman (South Africa)
Contributed significantly to the behavior therapy movement
Arnold Lazarus
Advocated the integration of laboratory-based scientific procedures into existing clinical and counseling practices; adamant opponent of narrow therapy definitions or conceptualizations
Stanley Rachman
Initial unique contribution involved the application of aversive stimuli to treating neurotic behavior, including addictions
Hans Eysenck
Used the term Behavior Therapy to describe the application of modern learning theory to the understanding and treatment of behavioral and psychiatric problems
Cyril Franks
Above all, in behavior therapy a theory is a servant that is useful only until a better theory and better therapy come along
Primary Convictions which Characterize Behaviorists and Behavioral Theory
Behavioral Therapists emply techniques based on modern learning theory & derived from scientific research
Main Models of Learning that form the Theoretical Foundation of Behavior Therapy
Applied Behavior Analysis
Nonbehavioristic, Mediational Stimulus-Response Model
Social Learning Theory
Applied Behavior Analysis/Radical Behaviorism
Behavior is a function of its consequences; based on the Stimulus Response Theory; focuses solely on observable behaviors; Goal is to increase adaptive behavior through reinforcement and stimulus control and to reduce maladaptive behavior through punishment and extinction
Skinner’s Demonstration that Behavior is a Function of its Consequences
When a particular behavior is followed by positive reinforcement, the tendency for an organism to engage in that specific behavior is strengthened or reinforced; When a specific behavior is followed by punishement or an aversive stimulus, the tendency for an organism to engage in that specific behavior is weakened
Neobehavioristic, Mediational Stimulus-Response Model
Based on Classical Conditioning Principles;
Classical conditioning
Referred to as Associational Learning because it involved an association or linking of one environmental stimulus with another; Pavlovian terms, an unconditioned stimulus is one that naturally produces a specific physical-emotional response;
Cognitive-Behavioral Movement
Began in the late 1950’s and became associated with mainstream behavior therapy
Behaviorists’ Theory of Psychopathology
Maladaptive behavior is always learned and can always be either unlearned or replaced by new learning; The concept of human learning is at the core of human behavior profoundly influences how behavior therapists approach the assessment and treatment of clients; inadequate learning or skill deficits
Basic Assumption in Behavioral Theory
Both adaptive and maladaptive behaviors are acquired, maintained, and changed in the same way: through the internal and external events that proceed and follow them; Behavioral case conceptualization involves a careful assessment of the context within which a behavior occurs, along with developing testable hypotheses about the causes, maintaining the factors, and treatment interventions
Behaviorists’ Procedures to the Clinical or Counseling Setting
Observe and assess client maladaptive or unskilled behaviors
Develop hypotheses about the cause, maintenance, and appropriate treatment for maladaptive or unskilled behaviors
Test behavioral hypotheses throught he application of empirically justificable interventions
Observe and evaluate the results of their intervention
Revise and continue testing new hypotheses about ways to modify the maladaptive or unskilled behavior(s) needed
Behavioral Assessment & Procedures
Main goal of behavioral assessment is to determine the external (environmental or situational) stimuli and internal (physiological and sometimes cognitive) stimuli that directly recede and follow adaptive and maladaptive client and behavioral responses
Client’s Behavioral ABC’s
A = Behavior's Antecedents (everything that happens just before the maladaptive behavior is observed) B = The behavior (the client's problem specifically defined in concrete behavioral terms C= The behavior's consequences (everything that happens just after the maladaptive behavior occurs)
