Behavior Therapy: Basic Concepts, Assessment Methods, and Applications

sort Th periodpy Basic Concepts, Assessment Methods, and Applications. Different kinds of psychotherapies arouse existed through turn up history, and stomach always been rooted in philosophical views of man nature (Wachtel P. , 1997). Specific altogethery, behaviour therapy intents to help separates oercome difficulties in nearly whatsoever aspect of humankind experience (Thorpe G. & antiophthalmic factor Olson S. , 1990). The techniques of look therapy swallow been employ to education, the workplace, consumer activities, and n ch angstromiontheless sports, but deportment therapy in clinical settings is whoppingly have-to doe with with the assessment of mental health fusss.In general, doings therapy is a type of psychotherapeutics that aims on changing undesirable types of expression. It engages in identifying objectionable, maladaptive carriages and replacing them with healthier ones. . According to Rimm D. & Masters J. (1974), the label behavior therapy com prises a large number of different techniques that behave use of psychological-especially accomplishment- principles to deal with maladaptive human behavior. Behavior therapy is a relative new kind of psychotherapy (Corsini R. & Wedding D. , 2008).As a doctrinal approach, behavior therapy began in the 1950s, in differentiate to assess and fragility psychological disorders. Behavior therapy was highly- go uped by a small group of psychologists and physicians who were not satisfied with the conventional techniques of psychotherapy (Thorpe G. et al, 1990). They tie in behavior therapy to experimental psychology, differentiating it from other preexisting approaches. During behavior therapys prototypical gear phase, the utilize developed from principles of chaste and operant conditioning. There atomic number 18 variable views nigh the best way to define behavior therapy.However, or so health professionals agree to Eysencks definition Behavior therapy is the attempt to al ter human behavior and perceptions in a beneficial way according to the laws of modern learning theory. Erwin E. (1978), instead of proposing a specific definition for behavior therapy, he referred to some basic and classical attributes that this therapy possesses. According to Erwin, behavior therapy is employ by and large to lessen human suffering or to improve human functioning. He pointed out that it is a psychological rather than a biologic cause of treatment.In the cases of phobias treatment, behavior therapy is usually apply to treat the symptoms directly. Moreover, behavior therapy is characteristically used to modify maladaptive behavior or to teach adaptive behavior. This center that the focus is on individuals behavior. In some cases, behavior therapy techniques may all the same be used to reduce unwanted mental evinces as in Davinsons (1968) use of counterconditioning to reduce sadistic fantasy, simply because the mental state itself is unwanted (as stated in Erwin, 1978).Another basic characteristic of behavior therapy is that it is a lot used in an incremental rather than a holistic fashion. Problems that ar to be handle are number 1 divided into their fragments and each component is treated separately. Last, behavior therapy is studied and used experimentally, being closely think to learning theory research. iii main approaches in contemporary behavior therapy have been identified (Corsini R. et al, 2008). These are the applied behavior analysis (ABA), the neobehavioristic meditational stimulus- re carve upee model, and the loving cognitive theory.ABA refers to the application of the principles of learning and motivation from Behavior Analysis (the scientific study of behavior), and the procedures and technology derived from those principles, to the solution of problems of social signifi squirtce. This approach is establish on mule drivers radical behaviorism. It identifies behaviors that should be extinguished and behaviors that are to be taught. It makes use of reinforcement, penalisation, extinction, stimulus control, and other procedures derived from laboratory research (Corsini R. et al, 2008).It is most often applied to children with autistic spectrum disorders, but is an effective tool for children with behavioural disorders, quaternary disabilities, and severe intellectual handicaps. The neobehavioristic meditational stimulus-response (S-R) model features the applications of the principles of classical conditioning, and it derives from the learning theories of Ivan Pavlov, E. Guthrie, lark Hull, O. Mowrer, and N. miller (as cited in Corsini et al, 2008). The S-R model has been linked to systematic desensitization and flooding.Systematic desensitization was developed by Joseph Wolpe (1958). It is a therapy for phobias based on counterconditioning -a technique for eliminating a instruct response that involves p standard pressureing a conditioned stimulus with another numberless stimulus to c ondition a new response. If the new response in incompatible with the old response, so that only one response buns occur at a time, then the new response clear replace the old one. In systematic desensitization, patients visualize fear- evoking stimuli while relaxing, to fellow traveler the stimuli with relaxation instead of fear. (Lieberman D. , 2004).Flooding is another psychotherapeutic technique discover by psychologist Thomas Stampfl (1967) (as cited in Harold, 1990) that is still used in behavior therapy to treat phobias. It works by exposing the individual to painful memories they already have aiming to deposit together their repressed feelings with their current awareness. Flooding works on the principles of classical conditioning (Lieberman D. , 2004). Social cognitive theory (SCT) refers to learning in harm of interaction among external stimulus response, external reinforcement, and cognitive meditational wait ones (Corsini et al 2008).Personal and environmental fac tors do not function as independent determinants rather, they intend each other. It is mainly through their behavior that individuals produce the environmental conditions that tinge their behavior in a mutual way. wise experiences are evaluated in relation to the past prior experiences help to subsequently direct and testify the individual as to how the present should be considered. Behavior therapy has mainly been associated with the era between 1950 and 1960, especially with the theories of I. Pavlov, E. mule skinner, J. Wolpe, and A.Bandura (Yates A. , 1975). It is a clinical application of psychology that relies on empirically-validated principles and procedures (Plaud, 2001). Since the first behavior therapy alternatives to the psychoanalysis and other associated therapies were introduced almost 50 agone (Wolpe, 1958), constant improvements in behavior therapy have mostly been supplied by its macrocosm on conditioning principles and theories (Eifert Plaud, 1998). Specifi cally, behavior therapy relies exclusively on the experimental methodological analysis initiated by I. Pavlov. Clinical applications of Pavlovian onditioning principles began in 1912, when one of Pavlovs students, was the first to establish the counter-conditioning effect in the laboratory. Studies on anxiety have intimately assisted behavior therapys study. According to Wolpe and Plaud (1997), Wolpes experimental studies were based on the implications of early Pavlovian experiments by giving emphasis to the splendor of the conditioning procedures. Actually, Wolpe made important contributions to behavioral therapy, such as proposing systematic desensitization and assertiveness training, both of which have become important elements of behavioral therapy.Albert Bandura is usually associated with the development of the social cognitive theory (Corsini et al, 2008). Albert Banduras social cognitive theory derived from social learning theory. It aims to excuse how behavioral principle s and norms are well-read through an interaction of the individual and his/her environment, mostly through the observing others. Skinner worked on radical behaviorism. He rejected traditional psychology and all the hold concepts that referred to what he called mentalism.That meant any concept that revealed a belief in cause and effect relationships between mental activities and conditioned behavior. In the 1966 interpretation of his 1928 book, The Behavior of Organisms, Skinner still named the belief that emotions are important factors in behavior a mental fiction. In addition, he purpose that it is wrong, or at least not scientific, to consider that people cry because they are sorry or tremble because they are afraid. Behavior therapy developed rapidly. Three waves, that actually are three divisions of the behavior therapys development, have been proposed.The first wave focused mainly on altering overt behavior. The act wave focused on the cognitive factors that contribute to behavior. This approach is in similar manner known as cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). The third wave of behavior therapy was proposed by Hayes, Hollette, and Linehan (as cited in Corsini et al, 2008). It includes dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy ( defend). On the whole, DBT claims that some individuals, due to unfavorable environments during childhood and due to unknown biological factors, react abnormally to emotional stimulation.Their level of arousal increases much to a greater extent rapidly, peaks at a higher level, and takes more time to go stomach to baseline. DBT is a technique for learning skills that aids to reduce this reaction. DBT applies mindfulness, inter in the flesh(predicate) effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance skills (Yates A. , 1975). Mindfulness skills include core skills. They are the most difficult skills to accomplish, but when lettered, the process of thoughts and emotions occurs in an sig nificantly different manner.Some of the processes included to the mindfulness skill, as listed by Corsini et al (2008), are the following notice or attend to emotions without trying to terminate them when painful, describe a thought or emotion, be nonjudgmental, stay in the present, focus on one thing at a time (one-mindfully). Mindfulness skills are applied in later sessions, when the other (three) types of skills on focus. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a quite new type of psychotherapy, found by Steven C. Hayes in the mid 1990s.It is the development and combination of behavioral therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which has mostly been the established therapy for treatment of conditions like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorders. Acceptance and commitment therapy, like CBT, is based on the philosophical system of Functional Contextualism, a modern philosophy of learning rooted in philosophical pragmatism and scopeualism, suggesting t hat words and ideas can only be understood within some kind of context and they are therefore often misinterpreted due to the fact that people have individual contexts.An additional therapy that has had an impact on ACT is relative chuck therapy, a type of behavioral analysis focused on dustup and learning. ACT is differentiated from CBT since it directly accepts the thought, Everybody hates me. This thought is viewed without passion, and sometimes it is transformed to a phrase like I am having the thought that everybody hates me. Ding so may be repeated until the thought becomes defused. Hayes identifies about atomic number 6 defusion techniques in ACT. Previous distracting thoughts are not actively dismisses by the individual going through ACT.This is another distinguishing factor from CBT which intends to reduce distracting and unhelpful thoughts. ACT therapists argue that the process of their therapy is much briefer than CBT, and for that reason it is considered more effec tive. There is a variety of concepts referring to behavior therapy. Two main categories of those concepts are the learning principles and the personal variables. In classical conditioning, the investigator begins with identifying a reflex response, one that is unrestrained regularly by a specific stimulus (Thorpe et al, 1990). In humans, these reflexes include he eye-blink response to dust or a puff of air in the eye, and the reflex of the knee jerk reflex in response to a hit in the correct point by the researchers hammer. Such reflexes appear regularly without any particular guidance, so they are considered to be unlearned or unconditioned. Classical conditioning occurs when a new stimulus acquires the ability to trigger one of these reflex responses. operative conditioning makes use of the principles of (positive or negative) reinforcement and (positive/negative) punishment to bring about a desired response. (Lieberman D. 1994). Positive reinforcement is the intromission of s omething pleasant or rewarding immediately following a behavior, but In contradict Reinforcement a particular behavior is strengthened by the resultant of the stopping or avoiding of a negative condition. Moving to punishment, negative punishment occurs when in an attempt to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring in the future, an operant response is followed by the removal of a desired stimulus, though in positive punishment an operant response is followed by the presentation of an aversive stimulus.Operant conditioning occurs when a consequence eventually becomes expected for a particular behavior. One example would be when a student is rewarded for getting good grades. The positive outcome of their behavior to study and achieve pucker those grades is motivated by the anticipation of a positive result in addition to the good grades. In order to teach individuals decomposable tasks, Skinner proposed a system of successive approximations of operant learning where tasks are illogical down into several steps that, when individually learned, summarily progress towards the complex task desired.Extinction refers to the reducing the probability of a response when a characteristic reinforcing stimulus is no longer presented. Discrimination learning is the process by which individuals learn to differentiate their responses to different stimuli. When the opposite occurs, that is when individuals fail to discriminate between different situations ending up with behavior on situations other than that in which it was acquired, generalization takes place (Corsini R. et al, 2008). Personal variables that were proposed by Mischel (1973, as cited in Corsini R. et al, 2008), explain and swapping between individual and situation.They include the individuals competences to create vary behaviors under appropriate conditions, his/her perception of events and people (including the self), expectancies, subjective values and self-regulatory systems. Behavior therapy is applied for and aims to treat only learned behavioral problems. Sometimes, however, health and learned behavioral problems coexist. Whether the individual being in treatment has a learned behavioral problem alone, or a learned problem which coexists with a learned one has to be determined in the beginning of the process of behavior therapy.Two additional possible situations are either the individual in therapy to have a learned behavior problem as part of a psychosomatic disorder, or to have a medical problem that just appears to have been learned (Yates A. , 1975). Behavioral assessment is vital to behavior therapy. It developed rapidly during the 1970s, after initially being a covered part of behavior therapy in terms of research and professional development (Thorpe G. , et al, 1990). Now, behavior assessment is a rich and diverse subfield of behavior therapy that continues to develop rapidly.In clinical settings, behavior therapy is a method for treating mental health problems. interference involves proposing and putting into practice a plan of action that aims to resolve a problem. Deciding on the plan of action depends on the problem grooming so what has to be done in the early sessions of the therapy is the agreement of the therapist and the client on what is wrong and what has to be changed to improve or even eliminate it. Behavior therapy uses a number of assessment methods. In channelize imagery the individual is guided in imagining a relaxing slam or series of experiences (Rimm D. t al, 1974). When an individual visualizes an imagined scene reacts as though it were actually occurring therefore, imagined images can have a great impact on behavior. Role playing is a technique used in behavior therapy to provide partaking and involvement in the learning process (Thorpe G. et al, 1990). It helps the individual (learner) to gather up objective feedback about his/her performance. Role playing techniques can be applied to motivate individuals pay more attention to their interpersonal state.One of its most important aspects is that it helps the learner experience a real life situation in a protected setting. Physiological recording, self-monitoring, behavioral observation, and psychological tests and measurements are some more examples of the assessment techniques that can be applied during the behavior therapy (Corsini R. et al, 2008). In general, behavior therapists do not use standardized psychodiagnostic tests and projective tests. They broadly make use of checklists and questionnaires, self-report scales of depression, assertion inventories, etc.These assessment techniques are not sufficient for carrying out a functional analysis of the determinants of a problem, but they are effectual in establishing the initial severity of the problem and charting therapeutic efficacy over the course of treatment. In conclusion, the clinical investigations of behavior therapists have significantly ameliorate our understanding of how our behavior is coordinated with external events that occur in our lives they have created ways of mediating in disturbing interpersonal aspects that were not efficiently treated through other kinds of therapy.Behavior therapy can be applied to treat a full range of psychological disorders. These include anxiety disorders, depression and suicide, intimate dysfunctions, marital problems, eating and weight disorders, addictive disorders, schizophrenia, childhood disorders, phobias, pain management, hypertension, ginmill and treatment of cardiovascular disease, etc. (Thorpe G. et al, 1990). References Corsini R, & Wedding D. (2008). Current Psychotherapies. New York Thomson Brooks/Cole. Eifert, G. , & Plaud, J. (1998). From behavior theory to behavior therapy (pp. 1-14).Boston, MA Allyn & Bacon. Erwin E. (1978). Behavior Therapy Scientific, Philosophical, & Moral Foundations. New York Cambridge University Press. Harold (1990). Handbook of Social and military rank Anxiety. New York Plenum Press. Lieberman D. (2004). Learning and Memory an integrative approach. United states Thomson Wadsworth. Plaud, J. (2001). Clinical science and human behavior. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 57, 1089-1102. Rimm D. , & Masters J. (1974). Behavior Therapy Techniques and verifiable Findings. New York Academic press. Thorpe G. , & Olson S. 1990). Behavior Therapy Concepts, Procedures and Applications. Boston Allyn and Bacon. Wachtel P. , (1997). Psychoanalysis, Behavior Therapy, and the Relational World. Washington DC American Psychological Association. Wolpe, J. , & Plaud, J. (1997). Pavlovs contributions to behavior therapy The obvious and the not so obvious. American Psychologist, 52, 966-972. Wolpe, Joseph. 1958. Psychotherapy by interactive Inhibition. Stanford, CA Stanford University Press. Yates A. , 1975). Theory and Practice in Behavior Therapy. New York lav Wiley & Sons.