Behavior Therapy Flashcards
(45 cards)
Stimulus-response theory (S-R)
- Operant conditioning principle
- An environmental event directly causes a response from the organism
Stimulus-organism-response theory (S-O-R)
- What’s going on inside the organism determines the response
Operant conditioning
- Founded in 1911
- Assumes a behavior is controlled by the environment
- Introduced the ideas of reinforcement and punishment
Classical conditioning
- Founded in the 1920s
- A neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response through repeated pairing with another stimulus
Little Albert experiment
- Example of classical conditioning
- Took a once neutral stimulus (rabbit) (NS) and paired its presence with a loud noise (US) which was frightening (UR)
- Albert then learned to associate the rabbit (CS) with the loud noise (US) and would become upset (CR) just from the rabbit
Temperament
Biological dispositions that express themselves in environmental responses/behaviors
Do pure behaviorists worry about internal experiences?
- No
- Behavior is explained in terms of variables in the environment: learning, situational cues, and temperament
Reinforcement
Should increase the likelihood of a behavior
Positive reinforcement
- Adding something to increase the likelihood of a behavior
- Giving candy to a child after they behave at the doctor
Negative reinforcement
- Taking something away to increase the likelihood of a behavior
- Removing a child’s chores if they do well on a test
- Procrastination; removing the stress by putting off studying
Punishment
Should decrease the likelihood of a behavior
Positive punishment
- Adding something to decrease a behavior
- Giving an alcoholic medicine that will make them throw up if they drink alcohol
Negative punishment
- The removal of something to decrease a behavior
- Taking away a cat’s favorite toy because they threw up on the carpet
Discrimination learning
Learning a behavior that is particular to one or a few specific situations
Generalization
Learning a behavior that can be used everywhere
Vicarious learning/observational learning
Learning behavior through examples/watching
- Bobo doll experiment
Rule-governed behavior/instructional learning
Learning behavior without directly seeing it or experiencing it; learned through contact with rules/teaching
- Not running into a busy street
How can operant conditioning be a source of distress?
- Negative reinforcement in procrastination: taking away stress by not doing work, but eventually you’ll be swamped!
- Positive reinforcement in tantrums: rewarding a child so they will stop actually reinforces their tantrums!
How can classical conditioning be a source of distress?
- Insomnia: the bed (US) used to induce sleepiness (UR) as you’re only supposed to sleep in bed. But, with repeated pairings to your phone, food, or work in bed, these (CS) become paired with the bed (US), and then paired with wakefullness (CR)!
Goals of behavior therapy
- Change behavior by…
- Correcting maladaptive learning experiences
- Introducing adaptive learning: learning behavior for certain contexts
Behaviorists believe…
- That all behaviors make sense in the context of their environments because there is something in the environment maintaining it
- That all behaviors have a function
Exposure
Gradually exposing a person to their fears in a safe environment
- Therapist demonstrates the behavior to show transparency and trust
Stimulus control
- Control the stimuli in the environment
- Extinguish the stimuli with inappropriate control
- Develop adaptive conditioning (break the learned behavior and learn a new one)
- Ex) cleaning your car so it isn’t paired with smoking anymore
Extinction (operant conditioning)
When a behavior is no longer reinforced; “putting it on extinction”