Behavior therapy

Behavior therapy is a form of psychotherapy used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, and other forms of psychopathology.

Behavior therapy is based upon the principles of classical conditioning developed by Ivan Pavlov and operant conditioning developed by B.F. Skinner

Overview

Template:Noncompliant

Behavior modification is a technique of altering an individual's reactions to stimuli through positive reinforcement and the extinction of maladaptive behavior.

While founded in behaviorism, Behavior modification has long been used by psychotherapists, parents, and caretakers of the disabled, generally without any underlying behaviorist philosophy. It involves the most basic of methods to alter human behavior, such as reward and punishment, aversion therapy, reinforcement, and even biofeedback. The cultivation of life skills are often a central focus.

Analysis of the patients thoughts are not required, but many non-behaviorists feel the therapy can be powerfully improved with such cognitive analysis. Punishment is also frowned upon in many contexts, with extinction of conditioned reflexes often in its place.

A major focus of behavior modification is giving compliments, approval, encouragement and affirmation; a ratio of five compliments for every one complaint is found to be most effectual in altering another's behavior in a desired manner.

Behavior-based approaches to improving occupational safety performance focus on the study of safety behaviors before and after various interventions to the safety behavior of the individuals involved. The three items for introduction of a behavior-based system are: antecedent, behavior and consequence (ABC). According to behavior modification theory, worker behavior may be influenced by systematically reinforcing the right behavior until a new habit if formed.

From a sociological point-of-view, if punishment is too harsh or the withholding of rewards is too harsh, the subject may seem to be corrected of the maladaptive behavior by scientific measurements, but if a bad example is set — as described in social learning theory. This bad example and the bad feelings that are a result, as in causing an affective disorder (i.e. an emotiional disorder), the subject could cause the re-infliction of punishment as a chain reaction in society. The punishment and the bad feelings that result may spread through society and be the cause of a contagious reaction referred to as social illness.

There is a cost associated with caretakers having more breaks and longer breaks, but not to do this has a cost too. We have to consider false economy. It is very costly to our societies if people are treated badly by those in authority. It is very costly if Corrections officers are over-stressed. Similarly, those that work in our psychiatric in-patient institutions need to be well-chosen by human resource departments. In addition, they also need to have frequent breaks and need to have sufficient manpower to control their patients without resorting to detrimental behaviors, that might be a bad example to the patients, who might propagate these bad behaviors to society upon their eventual release.

Aversion Therapy

Template:Cleanup-date

Aversion therapy is a form of psychiatric treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. This conditioning supposedly causes the patient to associate the stimulus with unpleasant sensations.

Many people consider some forms of aversion therapy to be harmless, such as: Placing unpleasant-tasting chemicals on the nails to discourage nail-chewing, giving alcoholics drugs that make the intake of alcohol unpleasant, or simply scolding a child while they are doing wrong. However, stronger forms of aversion therapy can be used to brainwash or punish one's natural urges.

Aversion therapy and same-sex attraction

Aversion therapy to convert same-sex attracted individuals to opposite-sex attraction, while more common in the past, is still utilized by some people.

This practice is in violation of the codes of conduct and professional guidelines of the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association. Some forms of aversion therapy may be illegal to use for this purpose. This conduct also violates regulations set forth in many other countries.

In one example, in the 1970s and 1980s, suspected gay men and lesbians in the South African Defense Force underwent aversion therapy and chemical castration. Aversion therapy sometimes involved applying electric current, via electrodes, to men while they were shown pictures of naked men. The current would be turned off when photographs of naked women were shown.

Historically, in the Western world, injections of apomorphine were used, resulting in violent illness. At least one person has died as a result.

Aversion therapy and "sexually deviant" youth

However, forced aversion therapy is still sometimes used on children and teenagers who violate sex laws, especially those believed to have deviant sexual feelings. These youth have been forced to smell ammonia, describe humiliating scenarios, or engage in other uncomfortable situations, while looking at nude pictures, listening to audio tapes describing sexual situations, or describing their own fantasies. In order to measure sexual response, devices like penile plethysmographs and vaginal photoplethysmographs are sometimes used, despite the controversies surrounding these devices.

In 1992, the Arizona Civil Liberties Union challenged the Phoenix Memorial Hospital for its use of these methods on children as young as 10. They were defended by the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. Since then, policies have usually discouraged the use of forced aversion therapy on children under 14.

Popular culture

Anthony Burgess explored the concept, and its moral implications, in his 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange.

A radio commercial in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas refers to the practice of aversion therapy.

The television show Robot Chicken opening has a scientist torturing a robotic chicken in the same matter.

Systematic Desensitization

Systematic desensitization is a type of behavioral therapy used in the field of psychology to help effectively overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders. More specifically, it is a type of Pavlovian therapy developed by a South African psychiatrist, Joseph Wolpe. To begin the process of systematic desensitization, one must first be taught relaxation skills in order to control fear and anxiety responses to specific phobias. Once the individual has been taught these skills, he or she must use them to react towards and overcome situations in an established hierarchy of fears. The goal of this process is that an indivudal will learn to cope and overcome the fear in each step of the hierarchy, which will lead to overcoming the last step of the fear in the hierarchy. Systematic desensitization is sometimes called graduated exposure therapy.

Clinical Procedure

Specific phobias are one class of mental illness often treated through the cognitive-behavioral process of systematic desensitization. When individuals possess irrational fears of an object, they tend to avoid it. Since escaping from the phobic object reduces their anxiety, patients’ behavior to reduce fear is reinforced through negative reinforcement a concept defined in operant conditioning. The goal of SD is to overcome this avoidance pattern by gradually exposing patients to the phobic object until it can be tolerated. In classical conditioning terms the elicitation of the fear response is extinguished to the stimulus (or class of stimuli).

Coping Strategies

Prior to exposure, the therapist teaches the patient cognitive strategies to cope with anxiety. This is necessary because it provides the patient with a means of controlling their fear, rather than letting it build until it becomes unbearable. Relaxation training, such as meditation, is one type of coping strategy. Patients might be taught to focus on their breathing or to think about happy situations. Another means of relaxation is cognitive reappraisal of imagined outcomes. The therapist might encourage subjects to examine what they imagine happening when exposed to the phobic object, allowing them to recognize their catastrophic visions and contrast them with the actual outcome. For example, a patient with a snake phobia might realize that they imagine any snake they encounter would coil itself around their neck and strangling them, when this would not actually occur. Research at the University of Pennsylvania has demonstrated the effectiveness of this technique in helping subjects reduce similar animal phobias.

Progressive Exposure

The second component of systematic desensitization is gradual exposure to the feared object. Continuing with the snake example, the therapist would begin by asking their patient to develop a fear hierarchy, listing the relative unpleasantness of various types of exposure. For example, seeing a picture of a snake in a newspaper might be rated 5 of 100, while having several live snakes crawling on one’s neck would be the most fearful experience possible. Once the patient had practiced their relaxation technique, the therapist would then present them with the photograph, and help them calm down. They would then present increasingly unpleasant situations: a poster of a snake, a small snake in a box in the other room, a snake in a clear box in view, touching the snake, etc. At each step in the progression, the patient is desensitized to the phobia through the use of the coping technique. They realize that nothing bad happens to them, and the fear gradually extinguishes.

External links

• Self administered Systematic Desensitization

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• "The Aversion Project: Human rights abuses of gays and lesbians in the SADF by health workers during the apartheid era"by Mikki van Zyl, Jeanelle de Gruchy, Sheila Lapinsky, Simon Lewin, and Graeme Reid, Simply Said and Done, Cape Town, October 1999.
• Ethical Treatment for All Youth
• Houser, Ward Aversion Therapy. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.), Garland Publishing, 1990. p. 101

External links

• ldonline.org - Behavior modification in the Classroom
• about.com - Changing Our Perspective Can Help Our Child To Behave
• ehow.com - How to Create a Behavior Modification Plan for Students With Behavioral Disabilities
• Association for Comprehensive NeuroTherapy - Behavior modification charts for home and school

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Behaviour_therapy  ^history
• Behavior_modification  ^history
• Aversion_therapy  ^history
• Systematic_desensitization  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Behavior therapy"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.