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
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.[1][2]
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.
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
ReferencesISBN 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
References
- ↑ Kirkhart, Robert and Evelyn, "The Bruised Self: Mending in the Early Years", in Kaoru Yamamoto (ed.), The Child and His Image: Self Concept in the Early Years. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972.
- ↑ Gottman, J. M., & Levenson, R. W. (1999). "What predicts change in marital interaction over time? A study of alternative models." Family Process, 38 (2), 143-158.
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
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