Psychology for Dummies (79 page)
Read Psychology for Dummies Online
Authors: Adam Cash
Tags: #Psychology, #General, #Body; Mind & Spirit, #Spirituality
What about operant conditioning? What role does it play in behavior therapy? Take a look at anger, for example. If I get my way every time that I get angry, I’m being positively reinforced for that behavior; therefore, I’m more likely to keep using anger in this way. This is a common explanation for a child’s behavior problems. If a child behaves in a manner that is not acceptable, her parents may reinforce that behavior by providing attention to her that they may not provide in any other way. An example of a negatively reinforced behavior is seen when an individual gives in to peer pressure. The ridicule a teenager endures for not going along with the crowd can be hurtful. He may give in to peer pressure just to put a stop to the ridicule (the removal of a painful stimuli).
Having a difficult time being assertive is a great example of a behavior, or the lack of that behavior, that is maintained through punishment. If I live in a home where I’m laughed at or otherwise punished for being assertive and speaking my mind, I’m far less likely to be assertive in other situations. I’ve been punished for being assertive. Lacking assertiveness can be a serious problem, and it often leads to feelings of victimization and resentfulness.
Don’t take any wooden nickelsOne of the more advanced forms of reinforcement-based therapy is the creation of a
token economy.
A token economy is a structured system of reinforcement that uses
tokens,
symbolic reinforcers that represent more tangible reinforcers, to increase the likelihood of a target behavior occurring. The best example of a token is money. Money in and of itself is useless, except maybe for the paper it’s printed on. (The paper can start a nice fire or be used as pillow stuffing.) The power of money comes from what it can bring us or what it represents — the ability to purchase tangible goods.Token economies are often used in situations that require individuals or groups to follow a particular set of instructions or rules. Patients in a psychiatric hospital, for example, are often given points or other tokens for following institutional rules or performing one of their patient-specific target behaviors. In many cases, these tokens can be redeemed once a week at a snack or gift exchange. Some systems use tokens to help patients work toward leaving the hospital on small trips or excursions with the eventual goal of discharge in mind. This form of therapy is an excellent example of shaping.
A lot of what we learn we learn by watching other people. A common problem in marriages involves fighting over money. This is sometimes a consequence of watching our parents fight over money.
Modeling
is a form of behavior therapy that is used to teach people new behaviors by showing them how to behave in a healthier way. I might ask that the husband begin a conversation with me about money and I can model, or show, the couple how to discuss money in a healthier manner. This only works, however, if the therapist knows how to model healthy behavior!
The simplicity of the behavioral approach to psychological problems is made possible with an equally simplified (but not easy!) set of practices. Behavior therapists put a lot of emphasis on the scientific method and its focus on observable changes and measurement. The therapy techniques and activities are well planned out, highly structured, and systematic. The therapist is viewed less as a holder of some divine truth and more as a collaborative partner in the behavior-change process. The patient is expected to pull his or her own weight outside of therapy, as well as in the therapy session itself, by completing homework assignments designed to change behavior in the real world and to further the progress made during each session.
In keeping with a systematic and scientifically based approach to psychological disturbance, behavior therapists begin by conducting a thorough assessment of the patient’s problem. Here’s a simple outline of the basic steps of
behavioral assessment:
1. Identify the target behavior.
Step one involves taking a thorough look at the
target behavior
— the problem that the patient originally presents to the therapist.
Behavior therapists use a special technique to analyze the initial problem called an
ABC analysis.
ABC analysis:
Behavior therapists use a simple model called an
ABC analysis
to approach the analysis of the patient’s initial complaint. Spiegler and Guevremont describe the ABC analysis as an evaluation of the events that happen before, during, and after a
target behavior
(the patient’s problem behavior).
A.
Stands for the
antecedents
of a particular behavior, the things or events that happen just prior to the target behavior. A common problem that behavior therapists encounter involves couples that argue excessively, so it serves as a good example. The particular antecedents of interest in the case of such a couple may be the time, place, and surrounding circumstances that immediately precede each argument.
Time:
When each of them gets home from work
Place:
Dinner table
Circumstances:
Talking about each other’s day at work
B.
Stands for behavior, as in the target behavior. In the case of the bickering couple, the target behavior is the act of arguing, itself.
C.
Stands for the
consequences
of the behavior, or the events and general circumstances that occur after and are a direct result of
B.
In the case of the arguing couple, the
Cs
may be that both individuals get mad and stomp off, the man goes out for a drive, or the woman leaves the house to take a long walk.
2. Identify the present maintaining conditions.
Spiegler and Guevremont define the
present maintaining conditions
as those circumstances that contribute to the perpetuation of the behavior. They identify two specific sources:
Environment:
Conditions from the environment include time, setting, reactions from others, and any other external circumstances. This would be the who, what, when, where, and how of our arguing couple.
Patient’s own behavior:
The patient’s contribution includes his or her thoughts, feelings, and actions. This would be what each partner is thinking, feeling, and doing before, during, and after the arguments.
3. Establish the specific goals of therapy in explicit terms.
The original therapy goal may be to stop arguing. However, this description is a little too vague for a behavior therapist’s liking. A more precise measure of the target behavior may consist of identifying specific numbers, occurrences, or lengths of time of the arguments. So, instead of the couple simply trying to stop fighting, a more fitting target behavior is to reduce their fighting to once a week.
Two of the nice things about behavior therapy for both the patient and the therapist are its clarity and structure. Behavior therapists can use a variety of highly structured treatment techniques to approach their patients’ problems. Spiegler and Guevremont identify three classes of behavioral therapy techniques:
reinforcement-based therapy, decelerating therapy,
and
exposure-based therapy.
Reinforcement-based techniques of behavior therapy are based on the principles of operant conditioning, specifically the use of positive reinforcement.
After a thorough behavioral assessment, the therapist and the patient(s) follow these steps when participating in reinforcement-based therapy:
1. Identify a list of reinforcers to be used in the therapy.
This is a crucial process. Anything that’s likely to increase the probability of a desired behavior occurring again can be used as a reinforcer.
2. Determine how and when to administer the reinforcers.
Remember the schedules of reinforcement from Chapter 9? Continuous reinforcement is the best way to get a quick jump on changing a behavior. Continuous reinforcement involves the patient receiving reinforcement every time he or she performs the target behavior. When the patient begins to consistently perform the new behavior, the reinforcement can be
faded
and only given once in a while, even randomly. This is the best way to keep a behavior going.
3. Begin shaping.
Shaping
is a procedure in which successful approximations of the target behavior are reinforced in order to “shape,” move, or guide the patient toward the desired target behavior.
If the problem is studying and the target behavior has been identified as studying two hours a night without interruption, the student may be reinforced after studying for increasingly longer intervals leading up to the two-hour mark (20 minutes, then 30 minutes, then one hour, and so on) during the shaping process.
4. Create a formal contract that outlines all of the agreed-upon features of the treatment plan and clarifies when, how, and where the target behavior is to occur.
5. Conduct periodic reassessments throughout treatment to monitor the patient’s progress toward the goal.
Adjustments are made, as necessary, in the reinforcement procedures.
6. End therapy.
When the patient achieves the target behavior and maintains it for the desired length of time, therapy ends.
Bribing for basic school skillsI worked with autistic children for a few years using a reinforcement-based treatment approach, and one of the most challenging aspects of the therapy was finding reinforcers. The treatment consisted of using reinforcement to increase the children’s functional behaviors, such as communicating, socializing, playing, and learning basic school skills (recognizing letters, numbers, and colors, for example). The process consisted of teaching the target behaviors and reinforcing the children when they successfully performed them. But if the reinforcers had no reinforcing value, forget it.
Some children liked certain kinds of food or candy, so that’s what we used for them. Some liked certain toys or other objects, so we used those items too. If it improved their functioning, we used it. Some days candy worked; other days it was toys. One child liked it when I pretended to bonk my head on the table, so I used that as a reinforcer. Hey, whatever works right?
You may be thinking that all of this sounds like bribery. It is in a way. Sure, we “bribed” the kids to perform the goal behaviors, but think about the alternative. If we didn’t use reinforcement, the kids wouldn’t have learned these skills that have the power to improve the quality of their lives. I’d choose bribery over neglect any day.
Time-out tipsI’ve heard a lot of parents say that time out doesn’t work, but I often wonder if they’re actually doing it right. Spiegler and Guevremont point out four conditions that help make time out more successful:
Time-out time periods should be brief (five minutes or less), and the child should know how long the time period will last. A lot of parents leave their children in time out for too long. Younger children only need about one minute of time out for every year of their age — 4 years old: four minutes. Simple.
Never cry wolf — most of us are familiar with this ancient warning. If I yell out for help too many times when I don’t need it, I won’t get help when I really do need it. But how long does it take for people to realize that I’m full of it? Don’t they know that I only keep crying wolf because they keep running to help? Basically, their response reinforces my crying-out behavior. It’s all their fault! All they have to do is ignore my pleas and stop running to my aid. That’ll get me to stop.
The process of withholding or eliminating reinforcement, thus eliminating the response, is known as
extinction.
A long time ago, behaviorists figured out that a behavior stops when reinforcement stops.
Spiegler and Guevremont classify treatments that utilize the phenomenon of extinction as
deceleration therapies.
When the reinforcer that maintains a behavior is either withdrawn or withheld, the behavior eventually extinguishes. Deceleration therapy is conducted in much the same way as reinforcement-based therapy: Target behaviors and reinforcing conditions are identified. The main difference between the therapies is that reinforcers are withheld instead of given.
One of the best-known examples of deceleration therapy is the dreaded
time out.
Time out has become one of the most widely used disciplinary techniques by parents. The idea behind time out is that the undesirable target behavior of a child (or anyone for that matter) is being maintained by either the reinforcing social attention the child receives as a result of the behavior or some other reinforcer inherent in the situation itself such as getting a toy away from another child.
When little Johnny performs the target behavior, he’s taken to a designated time-out area, thus removing him from whatever reinforcers are present in the situation. Also, no potential reinforcers should be present in the time-out area that could provide the child with reinforcement while on time out.