Wk 5 - Behavioural Therapy Flashcards
What is the timeline of psychotherapies from 1900/psychoanalysis on?
1940s- Person Centred therapy
1950 accidental discovery of lithium and phenothiazines=> second biological psychiatry (start of modern pharmacology)
Late 1950s behaviour therapy
1966 American Assoc of Behaviour Therapy
1971 Skinner’s Beyond Freedom and Dignity
1970s IPT; CBT
1990s DBT 1993; Schema therapy 1990s; Mindfulness meditation added to CBT to reduce relapse into depression;
1999 ACT
How did behaviour therapy start/form? (x5)
In 50s - reaction to psychoanalysis
Early therapists did modelling on animals - contingencies, reinforcers etc
Rejected intrapsychic phenomena that can’t be observed/measured
Current determinants of behaviour rather than childhood origins
Strong empirical basis
What are the two central tenets of behavioural therapy?
Scientific psychology must focus on relationship between environmental contingencies and behaviour, rather than presumed contents of consciousness
That principles governing behaviour of humans and other animals are essentially identical
How does classical conditioning work? (Pavlov - Russian scientist 1849-1936; Nobel prize in 1904)
(x3)
Repeated pairing of conditioned stimulus (bell) (CS) and
Naturally occurring (unconditioned) stimulus (food) (US)
Produced a conditioned response (salivation upon hearing the bell ring) (CR)
What famous experiment on classical conditioning did JB Watson and Rosalie Rayner do? (x3)
Little Albert – white rat paired with sudden loud noise => conditioned fear response
Generalised to other white furry objects - cotton wool, santa mask, watson’s own hair etc
Fear persisted after noises were stopped, even after 31 days
What are five conditions of operant conditioning?
Positive reinforcement - adding something (praise or reward) after target behaviour will increase the likelihood it will happen again
Negative reinforcement - removal of something will increase likelihood that behaviour will happen again
Positive punishment - adding something after behaviour decreases likelihood it will happen again
Negative punishment - removing something after behaviour decreases likelihood of repetition
Extinction - lack of contingency leads to cessation of behaviour
How did Skinner’s operant conditioning box work? (x3)
Training rat behaviour of pressing lever using stimuli lights
Reinforcements – food pellets;
Punishments - electric shocks.
What are 3 RL egs of operant conditioning?
Children learning ways to behave in various situations through praise or reprimand
Extinction of begging through planned ignoring
Pet obedience training
What was revolutionary about Bandura’s Social Learning Theory was published in 1969.
Work on aggression in adolescents = behaviour could be learned through modelling, which requires cognitive processes
• We learn not just from contingencies on our own behaviour, but from those of others behaviour around us.
What non-observable processes explain Bandura’s modelling? (x3)
Past reinforcement, ala traditional behaviorism. Promised reinforcements (incentives) that we can imagine. Vicarious reinforcement - seeing and recalling the model being reinforced.
What capacities must the observer have in order to practice modelling (Bandura) (x5)
Be able to attend and understand
Remember and recall, and
Be capable of performing
What was Skinner’s view of human nature? (x5)
Deterministic
Behaviour caused by contingencies in environment -
Radical behaviourism – no internal mechanisms.
But it’s a myth that it doesn’t consider any emotions, thoughts etc
Model is related to Banduras version
What was Bandura’s view of human nature? (x3)
Reciprocal determinism
Behaviour is a product of our environment but
Also behaviour influences our environment
How does Behavioural theory account for development of psychopathology? (x6)
Debunking the psychodynamic/unconscious stuff – it's just what you can observe, have reported to you o Failure of learning o Inappropriate learning • Modelling • Reinforcement
Explain Mowrer’s (1960) two factor theory of anxiety avoidance
Classical conditioning:
• UCS (growling) leads to UCR (fear)
• CS (dog) leads to CR (fear)
Operant conditioning:
• See dog = fear dog = run away = fear is reduced/running is reinforced
So it’s both acting together…
• Learn fear through classical conditioning
• Then operant kicks in, which reinforces the running away
How would classic behaviourism model anxiety? (x3)
Approach situation
Increase in anxiety
Future approach less likely
How would anxiety be modelled under Mower’s two factor model?
Anxiety present in situation
Situation left/avoided
Anxiety decreases
Avoidant behaviour is negatively reinforced by anxiety reduction
What is one behavioural explanation for depression?
That we model parents depression -
• Often there’s family history of depression
• Observational learning that going away/hiding is a coping method for stress
How did Seligman explain depression? (x1)
Through what experiment? (x2)
As the result of learned helplessness
The yoked do experiment – one tied to the one getting shocked couldn’t escape = learned helplessness
• They never learn to run, even when no longer tied
Same with abusive relationships, horrid work environments etc
•
What is explained by learned helplessness theory? (x1)
Depression can result from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation
How did Peter Lewinsohn et al 1979 explain depression? (x5)
Can result from stressor which disrupts normal behaviour patterns
Causing low rate of positive reinforcement
Lots of daily activities get us pleasurable reinforcements, or sense of achievement (even if activity wasn’t that fun)
So if there’s a balance in favour of the fun things, less depression
If more not-fun stuff, depression
