Habit Reversal Procedures Flashcards
Definition of bad habits
Repetitive or stereotyped behaviours (persistent postural, gestural or verbal responses) that serve no useful purpose and tend to be an annoyance
Occur automatically/subconsciously
What cues a habit? How are they learned
Cued by aspects of performance context
Learned through process of repititoin, stored in procedural memory
What is procedural memory
Memory subsystem that supports minimally conscious control of skilled action
involve the striatum of the basal ganglia, associated with voluntary motor control
Habits are maintained by
automatic reinforcement
Examples of habits
- nervous habits
- motor tics
- vocal tics
- Tourette’s syndrome
- stuttering
Behaviour may be considered a disorder if it…
- is distressing to the person
- occurs with sufficient frequency or intensity to cause the person to seek treatment
- has adverse physical or social effects on the person
What is a nervous habit
Repetitive, manipulative behaviours that are assumed to occur when a person experiences heightened nervous tension
e.g. fingernail biting, teeth grinding
Nervous habits aka? Induced by…
Body-focused repetitive behaviours
Induced by boredom, frustration, stress
What are motor tics? E.g.?
Repetitive, jerking movements of the body
e.g. facial tics, head jerking
Motor tics may be due to..
Increased muscle tension
Certain movement may produce relief to injured area, tics persist after injury has healed
What is a vocal tic? E.g.
Repetitive nonspeech vocal sound that does not convey information or serve a social function
e.g. excessive throat-clearing, uttered sounds
What is tourette’s syndrome
Includes multiple motor tics and at least one vocal tic
Causes of tourettes
Genetic and environmental factors
Presents with other comorbid factors (like ADHD or OCD)
How is tourettes treated
Not medication, behaviour therapies (e.g. DRO)
What is stuttering? Beh treatment?
Speech disfluency in which a person repeats syllables or words, prolongs the length of a syllable or word, or experiences blocking
Therapies include breathing exercises, fluency shaping, stuttering modification therapy
Definition of habit reversal procedures
an approach for decreasing a behavior that does not concentrate on providing or withdrawing reinforcers and is implemented by the target person, usually under the supervision of a behavior analyst or other therapist
Two main components of habit reversal training
- Awareness training: person is taught to describe the problem beh and watch for it/notice when it occurs
- Competing response training: person taught to perform a beh that is incompatible with target beh
Habit reversal training may also apply…
- Social support: family member of friend can point out target beh, prompt competing beh, reinforce competing beh
- Motivation strategy: beh analyst works w client to determine situations and antecedents for the target beh as well as consequences
Steps to applying habit reversal training
- client learns to describe and identify problem beh
- client learns/practices a beh that is incompatible or competes w problem beh
- client reviews adverse affects of the disorder, records and graphs beh for motivation
Other habit reversal procedures
- Generalization training
- Aversion therapy
- Massed negative practice
What is generalization training
Focuses on how to control tics in everyday situations (person practices tic-control procedures in sessions)
Then does covert rehearsal
Then tries to control in real world
What is covert rehearsal
Person imagines common and tic-eliciting situations then performs the tic-control exercise
What is aversion therapy
a form of respondent conditioning which involved the repeated pairing of a troublesome reinforcer with an aversive event
e.g. disulfiram given with alcohol = nausea
Uses aversive stimuli (elastic band, electric shocks)
What is covert sensitization? What uses it
Aversion therapy uses it, it is imagined aversive stimuli
What is massed negative practice
Punishment procedure that requires the person to repeat the undesired target beh for a predetermined time period contingent on the occurrence of the target beh
Example of massed negative practice
After vocal tic, person force himself to make vocal tics for 2 mins
Beh treatments of obesity include
Goal-setting
Peer support
Physical activity
Self-monitoring
Nutrition education
Cognitive therapy
