2. An Overview of Behavior Therapy
Behavior Therapy uses a variety of methods to help clients change (cognitive
restructuring) their maladaptive thinking (cognitive distortion).
Cognitive restructuring is based on re-educating the client to help them change or
unlearn the faulty belief system that they are living by.
Behavior therapy is focused on taking action.
Behavior therapy is an Evidence Based Therapy that continues to change in order to
better adapt to client needs.
This presentation will give a brief summary of the following:
1. Classical Conditioning
2. Operant Conditioning
3. Social Learning
4. Cognitive Trend
3. Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning occurs when an event is paired with another event, feeling,
or belief about what will happen next, based on similar previous experiences.
For example, I once experienced a severe episode of food poisoning after
consuming a good amount of cheese ball at the company Christmas party. It
ruined my holidays. Since that time, I refuse to partake of cheese balls under any
circumstances because I refuse to take the chance, however miniscule it may
seem, that history will repeat itself and I will become terribly ill. I have learned
that cheese balls, or the people who prepare them, can make me sick and ruin
my holidays.
While this is not a life changing or damaging faulty belief, many similar
circumstances occur frequently and cause people to live their lives in fear, based
on an irrational belief.
The good news is that these cognitive distortions can be resolved by creating
new pairings or by simply educating a person about the reasons they react
negatively to some events or circumstances.
4. Classical Condtioning
Main Theorists:
Ivan Pavlov
Pavlov used dogs to present classical conditioning. The dog paired the sound of a bell
with feeding time. Afterwards, the bell was removed and the conditioning eventually
became extinct. The dog no longer associated the sound of a bell with feeding time.
Joseph Wolpe
Wolpe developed a therapy known as "Systematic Desensitization." This is a process
where clients are exposed to the negative event repeatedly (flooding) by using their
imagination or by literal experience (in vivo). During this process the client is also
using new methods of relaxation to help them change their old, negative response to
a new, more positive response to the event.
5. Classical Conditioning
Key Principles
Classical conditioning involves teaching that a certain event can be paired
with another event to elicit desired behavior.
This behavior can be changed by removing the pairing through flooding,
extinction or substitution.
Once the unwanted reaction is removed, a new reaction can be nurtured by
creating a new pairing.
Undesirable reactions can sometimes be based on a belief, rather than a
personal experience.
6. Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning focuses on events and reactions
that can be observed. It looks at the stimulus or cause
of an action to understand the process that leads to
the reaction.
Rather than focusing on why the stimulus causes a
particular reaction, operant conditioning works on
replacing negative reactions by creating new pairings
of stimulants with desired consequences.
7. Operant Conditioning
Main Theorists:
B. F. Skinner
Skinner is known as the Father of Operant Conditioning. His technique
involved positive reinforcement for desired behavior and a weakening of
support for undesired behavior. He believed that all actions were based on
environmental conditions.
8. Operant Conditioning
Key Principles
Operant conditioning is based on the principle that you can change a person's
behavior by providing positive environmental changes or negative
environmental changes.
A positive reinforcement provides a reward or rewarding experience following a
desired behavior.
The negative environmental change provides an unwanted circumstance that
the person will seek to avoid in the future.
Punishment is similar to negative reinforcement and is specifically used to stop
an unwanted behavior by creating an aversion.
Extinction is a process that weakens the unwanted behavior by not providing
positive reinforcement. Eventually the unwanted behavior becomes extinct
because it is no longer paired with a positive reinforcement as a consequence
of the behavior.
9. Social Learning
The social learning theory assumes that
people cannot make changes without
first processing and interpreting their
actions and the consequences of their
behavior.
Children, in particular, have models of
behavior such as teachers, television
characters, athletes, and friends that can
and do influence their behavior.
An example of negative social learning...
10. Social Learning
Main Theorists:
Albert Bandura
Bandura developed the social learning approach. He believed that an
individual was their own agent of change.
Richard Walters
Walters is also credited with developing the social learning approach.
11. Social Learning
Key Principles
Social learning involves interaction
between a person's environment, their
personal beliefs, including how they see
themselves, their expectations and
interpretations, and their behavior.
People can develop desired changes by
associating with people who become
models for their behavior.
People are capable of self-directed
changes in behavior.
12. Cognitive Trend
The brilliance of the Cognitive Behavior Therapies is that they are constantly
being researched so that they can be modified to suit a client's needs.
Some of these new therapies include:
Multimodal Therapy - Time and great care are used during the assessment
process to provide therapies that are well suited to each client. Lazarus uses the
Basic I.D. Assessment which covers seven areas of a personality.
Mindfulness - Teaches clients to focus on the present moment and accept
events or circumstances without judgment.
ABC Framework - The ABC Framework can be used to solve immediate problems
in a matter of minutes or in just one session. A = the triggering event; B =
Distorted or faulty belief; C = Consequence. When the client is educated
regarding their belief, then a new belief exists and the consequence can change.
13. Cognitive Trend
Main Theorists:
Arnold Lazarus
Lazarus developed the Multimodal Therapy which applies various methods
to multiple problems, based on the needs of the client and the goals they
wish to achieve.
Albert Ellis
Known as the grandfather of cognitive behavior therapy, Ellis developed
rational emotive behavior therapy.
Aaron Beck
Beck developed a cognitive theory of depression and founded his own
therapy center, the Beck Institute.
15. References
Corey, G., & California State University. (2013). Theory and practice of counseling
and psychotherapy. Australia: Brooks/Cole / Cengage Learning.
McLeod, S. A. (2010). Behavioral Therapy. Retrieved from
www.simplypsychology.org/behavioral-therapy.html
