Practical Eight (Behavioural Experiments) Flashcards
Behavioural experiments are another way psychs can do what?
Test clients beliefs and cognitive distortions
What are BE?
An information gathering exercise designed to test the accuracy of an individual’s beliefs
BE are often broken down into?
hypothesis testing and observational forms
What is hypothesis testing?
Where we consider someones beliefs as a hypothesis that can be tested
What does HT involve?
Helping the person to challenge their unhelpful beliefs, allow the person to test a new helpful belief and finally allow the person to collect and evaluate evidence for both
HT example for - testing unhelpful belief?
Client with social anxiety avoids attending morning tea with his work colleagues every month. He avoids morning tea because he believes his work colleagues think he’s boring and stupid.
The client agrees to test this belief by attending a morning tea, try talking with at least one coll
HT example for - testing a new belief?
client with low confidence decides test a new belief “I deserve to be treated in the same way as other people” by being assertive and saying ‘no’ to an unreasonable request from a family member and observing what happens
HT example for - testing new and old belief evidence
a client with OCD resists the urge to perform a compulsion to test their belief that “I will
get hurt if I don’t perform my compulsion” (hypothesis A) or “my intrusive thoughts and
compulsions don’t affect what happens to me” (hypothesis B).
Discovery experiments?
A client may not have a clear hypothesis about what might happen - engage to see if its as bad as they thought
Direct observation?
Sometimes an individual has a hypothesis about
what might happen but does not feel capable of
testing it directly for themselves. - watch the psych do the task
Information gathering from other sources?
Such as gathering information from the internet
For example, a client with OCD has over-estimated
the dangerousness of driving their car might go to
the internet to gather more accurate information
about the relative safety of driving their car.
Planning a BE step 1?
Step 1: Identify the belief to be tested • What is the belief the client wants to test? Write it
down in a single sentence.
Planning a BE step 2?
Step 2: Rate the strength of the belief
• How strongly does the client believe the statement?
Rate it from 0% (not at all) to 100% (completely).
Planning a BE step 3?
Step 3: Plan an experiment that could test the belief
• Decide on the best method (as described previously)
to test the belief.
Planning a BE step 4?
Step 4: Identify any obstacles that could make it
difficult to carry out the experiment
• Is there anything that could get in the way of doing
the experiment?
