Behavior Therapy

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BehaviorTherapy

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Life of Burrhus Frederic (BF) Skinner(1904-1990)

• Born in Susquehanna, Penn.
• Had one younger brother described family life as
  warm and stable
• Had an inclination towards building things (i.e.,
  a cabin in the woods, small motor cars, etc.)
• Heavily influenced by Francis Bacons theory of
  inductive method in science. He was also
  influenced by the writings of Pavlov and Watson
• Became involved with training pigeons to guide
  missiles during WWII
• Made a contribution to education through
  programmed instruction where students were
  taught information that is broken down into
  sequential steps, while given immediate feedback
  after completion of each step

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Behavior Therapy

• A clinical approach to treat a variety of
  disorders, in various settings, with a wide range
  of populations
• How is this different from behavior modification?

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Behavior Therapy was very popular during the
1950s and 1960s

• Why do you think this era supported this theory?

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Four Areas of Behavior Therapy

• 1. Classical Conditioning behaviors elicited
  from passive organisms (i.e., salivation, knee
  jerks)
• 2. Operant Conditioning behaviors are influenced
  by the consequences that follow them
• 3. Social Learning behavior is influenced by
  stimulus events, external reinforcement, and
  cognitive mediational processess
• 4. Cognitive Behavior Therapy cognitive
  processes linked with behavioral strategies and
  techniques to elicit change

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Modern Behavior Therapy

• Proposes that the person is the producer and the
  product of their environment
• Clients are helped to increase their skills to
  expand their viable options, thus creating
  individual freedom

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Behavior Therapy Assumes

• 1. Therapy should be modeled after the scientific
  method
• 2. Therapy should deal with current problems and
  less with past events
• 3. Clients are actively engaged in therapy and
  assume responsibility for change by taking action
  (doing something)
• 4. Clients will take what they learn in
  counseling and apply to their natural environment
• 5. Assessment and evaluation are an important
  part of the therapeutic process in order to
  determine if change is due to interventions used
• 6. Clients will learn to self-manage
• 7. Interventions will be uniquely tailored to fit
  the client ant presenting problem
• 8. Collaboration between client and therapist
• 9. Interventions will be culturally sensitive,
  practical, and applicable to every day life

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Goals of Therapy

• Goals defined by client but agreed upon by the
  counselor
• Goals must be concrete, clear, and able to be
  measured or assessed
• Increase personal choice
• Create new conditions for learning

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Therapists Role

• Active and directive
• Function as consultant and problem solver
• Use technques such as summarizing, reflection,
  clarification, and open-ended questions
• Conduct functional assessment prior to counseling
  to identify systems that maintain problem
  behavior, situational antecedents, dimensions of
  problem behavior, and consequences/reinforcers of
  behavior
• Develop and implement a treatment plan
• Evaluate success and conduct follow-up assessments

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Multicultural Application of Behavioral Therapy

• Strengths
• Fits well with clients who come from a cultural
  background that stresses doing over feeling
  and supports action
• ???

• Weaknesses
• Focus on narrow dimensions of client instead of
  the whole client
• Cultural implications and consequences of change
• ???