BEHAVIOR THERAPY

BEHAVIOR THERAPY

WHAT IS BEHAVIOR?

• The way one conduct oneself.
• The treatment of others; moral conduct.
• The way in which a machine, chemical substance,etc. acts or works.

BEHAVIORISM:

• The theory that human behavior is determined by conditioning rather than by thoughts or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns.

BEHAVIOR THERAPY:

• Treatment approach that uses the principles of skin-nerian (operant conditioning) or pavlovian (classical conditioning)behavior theory to bring about behavioral change.
• The belief is that most behaviors are learned.
• Operant conditioning refers to the manipulation of selected reinforces to elicit and strengthen desired behavioral responses; the reinforcer refers to the consequence of the behavior, which is defined as anything that increases the occurrence of a behavior.
• In classical conditioning (respondent conditioning), the individual responds to a stimulus, but is basically a passive agent.
• Desensitization is a form of behavior therapy whereby exposure to increasing increments of a feared stimulus is paired with increasing levels of relaxation, which helps reduce the intensity of fear to a more tolerable level.
• Aversion therapy is a form of behavior therapy whereby negative reinforcement is used to change behavior; a stimulus attractive to the client is paired with an unpleasant event in hopes of endowing the stimulus with negative properties and dissuading the behavior.
• Modeling is behavioral therapy whereby the therapist acts as a role model for specific identified behaviors so that the client learns through imitation.