Basic Foundations in Clinical Interventions

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Basic Foundations in Clinical Interventions

• CW Lejuez

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What is learning

• Process of change that occurs as a result of an
  individuals experience
• Includes products of learning as well
• Refer to as History
• Skinners changed organism

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• Early Roots of
• Learning Theory

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Earliest Influences 1

• Julian Offray de la Mettrie (1709-1751)
• LHomme Machine 1748
• First metaphor of man as a machine
• Where does GOD fit in?
• He doesnt (atheism)
• GOD can exist outside of human psychology
• Pursuit of pleasure only justification of life
• Conservative/religious society in France was not
  happy and even found hostility in Holland

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Earliest Influences 2

• Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
• Founder of Positivism
• Can only understand the world by avoiding
  metaphysical explanations
• Law of three stages
• Theological Stage Supernatural causes
• Metaphysical Stage Abstract forces (e.g.,
  destiny)
• Positive Stage Scientific method
• Includes observation, hypothesis,
  experimentation

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Earliest Influences 3

• Vienna Circle (early 1900s)
• Logical Positivism
• Added theory to positivism
• Credited with development of Operationalism
• Percey Bridgeman
• Logic of Modern Physics

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Earliest Influences 4

• Ivan Sechenov (1829-1905)
• Russian physiologist
• Applied methods of physiology to psychology
• Focused on reflexes
• As natural science is based on observation,
  psychology must be so as well
• Defined consciousness as a neural process

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Earliest Influences 5

• Ivan Pavlov (1829-1905)
• Russian physiologist
• Nobel Prize (1904) for work on digestive
  processes in dogs
• And the rest is history

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Thorndike (1874-1949)

• Learning by trail/error w/ accidental success
• Successful acts stamped out
• Successful acts stamped in
• Law of effect
• Of several responses made to the same situation,
  those which are accompanied or closely followed
  by satisfaction to the animal will, other things
  being equal, be more firmly connected with the
  situation, so that, when it recurs, they will be
  more likely to recur those which are accompanied
  or closely followed by discomfort to the animal
  will, other things being equal, have their
  connections with that situation weakened, so
  that, when it recurs, they will be less likely to
  occur. The greater the satisfaction or
  discomfort, the greater the strengthening or
  weakening of the bond

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Watson 1 (1878-1958)

• Reaction to introspection
• Data derived from ones own consciousness, or
  inferred from consciousness of others
• Coined term behaviorism in 1913 paper,
  Psychology as behaviorist views it

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Watson 2

• Watsons Definition of behaviorism
• Purely objective, experimental branch
• Theoretical goal is prediction and control
• Recognizes no dividing line between human and
  nonhuman animals
• Influenced heavily by Pavlov
• Little Albert

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Hull (1884-1952)

• Goal was to establish a mechanistic,
  hypothetico-deductive theory
• Principle variables in his theory
• reaction potential SER
• drive D (mechanism of reinforcement)
• habit strength SHR
• stimulus intensity dynamism V
• incentive K
• 1952 basic version of his theory
• SER SHR x D x K x V
• Hullian theory now mostly of historical interest

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Tolman 1886-1959

• Challenged law of effect
• Cognitive behaviorist
• intervening variables
• fit in between environmental events (independent
  variables) and behavior (dependent variables)
• introduced theorizing to behaviorism
• i.e., hunger
• believed animals were purposive (i.e., they had
  goals and intentions)

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Tolman 2

• Latent Learning
• Suggested need for mental representations
• Reinforcement is not necessary for learning
• cognitive maps are necessary for learning
• Tolman and Honzik (1930)
• R animals performed better than NR aninals
• But did they learn more
• No? see figure
• Alternative explanation

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Skinner (1904-1998)

• Devout dustbowl empiricism
• Atheoretical
• Focus on environment-behavior relations
• Focus on individual whole organism
• Founder of radical behaviorism
• Some conceptual fuzziness around private events
  and other mental states
• Suggests importance of mental events, but the
  manifestation of this is often unclear

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Early Application

• Lindsley, Soloman, Skinner (1953)
• Use of operant conditioning procedures with
  hospitalized psychotic patients
• Eysenck (1959)
• Application of pavlovian procedures
• Lazarus (1958)
• Application of objective lab procedures to
  therapy
• Wolpe (1958)
• Systematic desensitization
• Countercondition anxiety responses by pairing
  relaxation with fear cues

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• So What happened?

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So What happened?

• Lack of trained learning theorists in BT
• Misunderstanding of behavioral approach
• Therefore, inability to apply basics to more
  complex problems
• Fuzziness of radical behaviorism in its clinical
  application
• Movement toward theoretical eclecticism

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Rise of CBT

• Cognitive Revolution of the 1960s
• Mahoney, Beck, Bandura, Ellis, Michenbaum, etc.
• Doesnt necessarily deny learning principles, but
  requires cognitive mediation for effect
• Awareness, Attention, Expectancy, Attribution
• Response to utilization of animal models
• Use of thought stopping, self-reinforcement, etc.