Chapter 14 of your textbook discusses several types of behavioral therapies. For this assignment, I would like you to choose a behavioral therapy technique to learn more about. Some that your chapter includes are:
- Systematic Desensitization
- Aversion Therapy
- Social Skills Training
However, if you would like to look at a different behavioral therapy technique, you are welcome to do so. Please do the following for course credit:
- Briefly discuss what behavioral therapy is.
- Choose a behavioral technique. You can choose from the list above or discus a different one of your choice.
- Describe the technique you have chosen. What is it typically used for? How is it done? Etc.
Behavior therapies involve learning to direct efforts to change clients’ maladaptive behaviors. The therapists is not concerned on what the cause of the problems are, just to ensure that the client changes their behavior. Through the history of behavior therapies two main assumptions remain today. First is that behavior is a product of learning. Secondly what has been learned can be unlearned.
ReplyDeleteThe technique that I chose was social skill training. This technique is used to people who have not learned how to act in social settings. They are not sure how to hold or make a conversation, be friendly to people, or express their emotions. This technique helps to improve a person’s interpersonal skills that emphasize shaping, modeling, and behavioral rehearsal. With this training the therapist will have the client watch/observe a friend out in public and watch how they interact with their eye contact, active listening, and so on. Through this observational learning the therapist will then test the client by holding a rehearsal in the group setting and have the client rehearse what they learned. Then the therapist will provide positive feedback to the client and uses appropriate reinforcement. This process may continue for a while as well as the therapist providing homework for the client to do. Eventually the client will be asked to handle more complicated social situations like having them make a friend.
Behavior therapies involve using psychotherapy, behavior-adaptive therapy, or a combination of the two to help patients overcome a behavior or problem. Behaviors can be learned and behavior therapy often looks at the causes or enviornmental factors on the learned behavior.
ReplyDeleteThe technique I chose is aversion therapy. This type of therapy often helps patients overcome behaviors by associating a stimulus with a form of discomfort. Conditioning the stimulus with the unpleasant behavior with the hope of stopping the undesired behavior is the goal of aversion therapy. Aversion therapy is most commonly used in addictions (drugs and alcohol), historically in homosexuality, as well as in "sexually deviant" youth.
The goal of behavioral therapy is to change the symptoms that are causing the behavior to be problematic for the patient. Instead of focusing on the root cause of the maladaptive behavior, therapists focus on the symptoms that are caused by the maladaptive behavior and how they can be changed. Therapists hope that by using behavioral therapy with patients they are able to change the way that patients behave and eliminate maladaptive behaviors.
ReplyDeleteSystematic desensitization is used to help eliminate the anxiety that a patient may feel when they are introduced to a stimuli through counterconditioning. There are three steps to systematic desensitization. The first step is when a patient builds an anxiety hierarchy with the help of the therapist. The patient lists and ranks anxiety-arousing stimuli centering on a specific source of fear. The second step involves the therapist training the patient in deep muscle relaxation. The final step is to work through the anxiety hierarchy while remaining calm while visualizing the stimuli that cause anxiety. Patients begin by conquering the anxiety that is caused by imagined phobic stimuli. Once that anxiety is conquered, patients move on to conquering the anxiety that is caused by the real stimuli. Systematic desensitization is most often used for helping people to overcome specific phobias such phobias related to balloons or snakes.
Behavioral therapy focuses on behaviors or a combination of behavior with thoughts and feelings that might be causing them to experience distress in life. I chose aversion therapy, which is a therapy that utilizes behavioral principles to eliminate unwanted behavior. The goal of aversion therapy is to associate a stimulus with an unpleasant or uncomfortable sensation. In aversion therapy, the client is asked to think or even engage in the act that they are trying to eliminate. The therapists then expose them to discomfort such as a bad taste, a foul smell, or possibly even an electric shock. Through using these unpleasant stimuli, they hope that the patient will not engage in the unwanted acts. Aversion therapy is commonly used in treating bad habits, addictions such as alcoholism, smoking and gambling. Aversion therapy can even be used to treat anger and violence issues that a person is experiencing.
ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy is treatment that aids in changing potential for self-destructive behaviors. This form of therapy is helpful in the reformation of negative behaviors into positive ones. The reinforcement of desirable traits and abolish negative ones. Aversion therapy involves elimination of unwanted behaviors. This especially uses reinforcement attaching negative stimuli with all negative behaviors. During the therapy the patient must engage in negative behaviors while thinking of something unpleasant. Aversion therapy can be helpful in treating many different disorders including alcoholism. This can be an effective and working therapy based on a number of variables. Previous patterns are easily repeated. The biggest pitfall is possibly the unknowing effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy is a type of treatment that is used to help people change their potentially self-destructing behaviors to good habits instead. This type of therapy can also help people cope with difficult situations. I chose to discuss social skills training because it most directly relates to the type of people that I will be working with as a speech and language pathologist.
ReplyDeleteFor many people, social skills needed to maintain a conversation or make eye contact gradually occurred without needing to be taught. For children who have for example an autism spectrum disorder, the ability to maintain eye contact during a conversation, or make small talk does not come naturally. The goal of social skills training is to help these patients learn to interpret social signals as well as how to react appropriately to them. This type of training usually begins with the therapist explaining to the client how to act during situations and how to interpret verbal or nonverbal language from another person. After this explanation, therapy is usually performed in a group therapy session, where the patient is able to practice these behaviors with other people. Positive feedback is usually given to encourage the social skills that are desired.
Behavioral therapy aims to change an individual’s behavior by therapeutic means. This therapy approach reinforces desirable behavior and eliminates unwanted or maladaptive ones. Systematic desensitization, also known as graduated exposure therapy, is a common behavioral technique used to overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders. There are three steps to this technique. First, an individual must identify the stimulus that causes the anxiety. For example, a person may have an extreme fear of dogs. Secondly, an individual must learn the relaxation or coping techniques. This may include medicines, breathing and relaxation exercises, or progressive muscle relaxation techniques. Lastly, the individual must use those learned skills to overcome the initial stimulus that was established in step one. An individual may make slow process in throughout this technique. They may start by looking at a picture of a dog to being in the same room as a dog. Eventually, they may be able to pet the dog. The ultimate goal is for the individual to learn how to cope and overcome the fear induced by the stimulus. Systematic desensitization is only one technique used in behavioral therapy.
ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy is a form of therapy that focuses on changing the behavior of an individual that is most likely to be self-destructive or cause stress in one’s life. Behavior therapy could also focus on a combination of thoughts and feelings that also aid the behavior. Systematic Desensitization is a form of behavioral therapy that is most commonly used for the treatment of anxiety disorders and phobias. This form of therapy uses classical conditioning based on the idea that the fears have been learned and they can be unlearned as well. Systematic Desensitization focuses on relaxation exercises and usually involves the patient thinking about putting themselves in that fearful situation that causes them anxiety. This therapy focuses on deep breathing exercises because when one feels panic or stress they might not even be aware that there heavy increased heart rate actually makes the stress worse. Muscle relaxation often times helps with panic disorder. The muscle tension is automatic when one panics but if they learn to control it, it will help them to calm down. Systematic desensitization begins with the imaginary idea of exposing yourself to the fearful situation. Next, by learning and being trained in the relaxation exercises, the patient is usually asked to break down this fear by using the techniques.
ReplyDeleteThe definition of behavior therapy is the combination of positive coping behaviors and thoughts. This type of therapy is usually measurable, so that the patient can see their progress throughout their treatment. There are several techniques that are used to treat a person’s mental and psychological states.
ReplyDeleteSystematic Desensitization is usually used for patients who suffer from phobias and other anxiety disorders. Through behavioral therapy, it is used to gradually reduce these fears and anxious feelings. For the first part of Systematic Desensitization, the patient identifies the specific items that cause the anxious feelings. Different stimuli or triggers may be found, which will then be ranked as to which ones provoke them from least to greatest. After this step, a patient learns positive coping and relaxing techniques. These types of techniques are used so that the patient feels like they are in control of their fears. Therapists will encourage the patient to imagine themselves encountering their anxiety-stimulus or fear when they are in a state of serenity. This process is done multiple times until their least to greatest provoking list is completed. Having a calm and collected patient will provide the positive results for both the therapist and subject.
Behavioral therapy is a form of therapy emphasizing techniques for changing behavioral patterns that tend to not help a person adjust to a new environment. The type of behavioral technique that I chose to research was aversion therapy. Aversion therapy is designed to make a patient give up an undesirable habit by causing them to associate it with an unpleasant effect. The major use of aversion therapy is for the treatment of addiction to alcohol and other drugs. Aversion therapy works on changing positive emotional associations with the sight, smell and taste of alcohol or other drugs. Another form of how aversion therapy is done is covert conditioning. Covert conditioning works by attempting to decrease the behavior by having the person imagine their target behavior while they imagine that the reinforcer does not occur.
ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy is a form of therapy used for unwanted or destructive behaviors. To begin with, I hate your spider picture at the top and it almost deterred me from doing this post since I am deathly afraid of spiders. Aversion therapy is a form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. For example, placing a gross-tasting substance under the fingernails to stop the act of nail biting. The major use of aversion therapy lately is for alcohol dependency. Aversion therapy works on changing positive emotional associations with the sight, smell and taste of alcohol.
ReplyDeleteLook into systematic desensitization for your fear of spiders...it's perfect for that type of thing :)
DeleteBehavioral therapy is a form of treatment that is used to help people change their behavior patterns. These behavioral patterns are considered bad and “self-destructive.” Desirable behaviors or traits are reinforced so negative traits are forgotten. Aversion therapy uses behavioral principles to eliminate unwanted behaviors. In this type of therapy the patient is asked to participate or think of the act in which they want to eliminate. Then the professional would expose them to unpleasant stimuli. This type of therapy is best for treating numerous disorders, alcoholism, smoking and gambling just being a few. This type of therapy isn’t always the most effective. This is because it is a very abstract type of therapy and there is no clear-cut solution.
ReplyDeleteBehavior therapy is a type of therapy that is used to change a behavior. This is done by psycho therapy, behavior analytical, or a combination of these two. The therapy might just focus on the behavior or the thoughts and feelings that could be creating the behavior. Aversion therapy is a type of behavior therapy designed to make a patient give up an undesirable habit by causing them to associate it with an unpleasant effect. The treatment focuses on changing the behavior and not finding out what causes the behavior. Some behaviors that have been treated with aversion therapy are addictions as alcohol, drug, smoking, and gambling. Administrating a small electric shock to the patient in the arm or leg is one unpleasant effect that is used to change a patient’s behavior. The patient knows exactly what the treatment includes and is never too much pain. When the patient comes in for a session they therapist might show pictures of a race track, betting sheet, or a description of gambling. These are all pair with a small shock to the patient. After awhile the patient will be given a portable device that delivers a small shock, so they can shock themselves which will help the progress of their treatment. The therapist will call the patient at home to monitor their progress as well as have office sessions once in awhile. After this the conditional effect happens. The discomfort from the electric shock becomes associated with gambling behavior allows the patient to stop gambling. Booster sessions in the therapist’s office occur once a month for 6 months. If relapse happens it is dealt with extra office visits.
ReplyDeleteThis is just one type of treatment. Other types are group therapy or emetic. Normal results include successfully completing the treatments, and if they practice relapse prevention such as office visits, they are more likely to break the habit.
Behavioral therapies are simply a type of therapy that isolates specific unwanted behaviors and tries to alter them. Unlike other therapies the cause isn’t looked at as closely as the main focus is how to get rid of the behavior. The therapy I decided to look at was aversion therapy because all that I have heard about it has been the negative uses of it and I wanted to see if there were positives from this type of therapy. The basic idea of aversion therapy is to repeatedly pair an unwanted or uncomfortable stimulus with the unwanted behavior. The behavior will hopefully become associated with that displeasure and will subsequently decrease or stop all together. One of the reasons I have such a negative connotation to aversion therapy is that it was at one time and still may be used on homosexuals to change their sexual orientation by most often applying slight, yet painful, electric shocks to the patient. The effectiveness of aversion therapy is truly yet to be determined for many reasons; including ethical issues over the use of punishments in therapy. What has been determined is that the effectiveness of aversion therapy depends on many uncontrollable factors.
ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy is focused on the idea that we learn from our environment. The goal of behavioral therapy is to reinforce desirable behaviors and eliminate unwanted ones. The techniques of this type of treatment are based on the theories of classical and operant conditioning. Behavioral therapy is very action based.
ReplyDeleteThe technique that I have chosen is flooding. I chose this because I have seen many instances of this on television and it has interested me. Flooding is when you expose someone to fear-invoking objects of situations rapidly. Therapists use this to treat phobias, anxiety, and other stress-related disorders. While in the process, the individual is prevented from escaping or avoiding the situation. The person tries to replace their phobias with relaxation. The experience can be very traumatic for a person but may be better than the life disturbances that it is causing.
Behavioral therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on changing behavior, helping to get rid of unwanted behavior and promote good behavior. It is action based, behavioral therapists use the same learning techniques that will lead to the desired behaviors.
ReplyDeleteAversion therapy is a form of treatment that eliminates unwanted behavior. The unwanted stimulus is repeatedly paired with discomfort. The goal is to make the person associate the stimulus with uncomfortable sensations. It can be used to treat bad habits, addictions, alcoholism, smoking, etc. Ethical issues are a huge issue with this type of therapy as well.
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ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy is essentially a process of turning bad habits into good ones. Also known as behavioral modification or cognitive behavioral therapy, the practice is usually applied to the treatment of anxiety disorders. Behavioral therapy is used to help individuals deal with stressful issues and difficult times.
ReplyDeleteSocial skills training is focused on improving both verbal and nonverbal communications in individuals who have trouble with social interactions. The inability of some to make small talk or maintain eye contact is more common than you might think; social skills training is a way of addressing these issues. Such training also heightens emotional intelligence, allowing people who undergo the procedure to make better sense of social surroundings. Training most often occurs in either individual or group therapy sessions, both of which are aimed at allowing participants to practice designated behaviors. Social skills training has been shown to help victims of such mental disorders as social phobia/shyness, schizophrenia, depression, and addiction.
Behavioral therapy is a technique designed to produce a change in behavior rather than find the roots of the problem. Aversion Therapy is a behavioral therapy used in very desperate situations. Aversion therapy includes using an aversive stimulus paired with a stimulus eliciting an undesirable response. For example, some desperate alcoholics will use an emetic (drug that causes vomiting) after drinking alcohol in their therapy sessions. Although the emetic will not be used outside of the therapy session, the alcoholics are so revolted by the aversive therapy that they find it easier to resist the urge to drink.
ReplyDeleteBehavior therapy involves the principles of learning to direct efforts to change clients’ maladaptive behaviors. One kind of behavior therapy, in which an aversive stimulus is paired with a stimulus that elicits an undesirable response, is called an aversion therapy. With alcoholics, the therapist pairs drug-induced nausea with their favorite alcoholic drink during the therapy session, in hopes to create an aversion to alcohol for the patient. There are a number of things that use the technique of aversion therapy, such as alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, sexual deviance, gambling, shoplifting and overeating.
ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy refers to psychotherapy, behavior analytical therapy, or a combination of the two. These methods focus on either just behaviors or in combination with the thoughts and feelings that might be producing them.
ReplyDeleteSocial Skills Training is a form of behavioral therapy that many professionals use to help people lacking in social skills to build their skills as well as self-esteem. Social Skills Training benefits those who never learned how to act in social situations. It helps them to learn how to interpret social signals, so that they can determine how to act appropriately around other people and in a variety of different situations. SST helps people improve their social skills or change selected behaviors, as a result they will raise their self-esteem and increase the likelihood that others will respond favorably towards them. Those facilitating this training help the patients learn to change their social behavior patterns by practicing selected behaviors in either individual or group therapy sessions. Another goal of social skills training is to increase the patient's ability to function in everyday social situations. Social skills training can help patients to work on specific issues that they may be experiencing in their every lives or jobs.
Behavior therapy is a therapy/treatment for patients with neurotic disorders and/or symptoms. It works by training the patient to react when presented with a certain stimuli. Cognitive behavioral therapy is as an effective treatment in patients with Depression. This therapy aims to help patients improve the health of their thoughts and feelings. It does so by helping the patient recognize negative thought patterns, scrutinize and hopefully replace them with healthier thinking. Also, therapists aim to help their patients negative behavior brought on from negative thoughts and feelings.
ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy is an application of principles used in the direct efforts to change a maladaptive behavior. A psychologist uses different techniques in order to change a particular behavior of the patient. The type of therapy I chose is Aversion Therapy. Aversion therapy is considered to be extremely controversial; it is a therapy in which an aversive stimulus is paired with the stimulus that creates an unwanted response. This type of therapy is considered a last resort, after other types of therapy has failed. It uses classical conditioning to create the aversion to the original stimulus; the example given in the book is that alcoholics have drug induced nausea paired with their favorites drinks at therapy sessions. Although it is not very widely used, it is mostly used for: drug and alcohol abuse, sexual deviance, gambling, shoplifting, stuttering, cigarette smoking, and overeating.
ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy is the use of therapy to change a behavior in a person. Aversion therapy is a technique where a aversive stimuli is paired with a stimuli the provides an unwanted, sometimes unpleasant, response. This type of therapy is considered a last ditch effort after all other types of therapy have failed. Through classical conditioning,a adverse effect is added to the primary stimulus, in an effort to reduce the primary stimulus. It is not very widely used, it is mostly used for drug and alcohol abuse, sexual deviance, gambling, shoplifting, smoking, and overeating.
ReplyDeleteBehavior therapies use the principles of learning to directly affect and change the learned problem. One of these behavior therapies is aversion therapy. Aversion Therapy is a behavior therapy which pairs something that the individual likes and is a problem to something that is unpleasant and the individual would choose to stay away form. This is used for in alcoholics; they pair a person’s favorite drinks with drug induced nausea.
ReplyDeleteBehavioral therapy, in my own words and perspective, is talking through mental health issues by either just focusing on the outlying issue or going deeper and further into the client's mind and working through the life events that may have triggered the mental health issue to begin occurring.
ReplyDeleteI chose to discuss social skills training because being social is a gigantic part of life. You may be able to get by for a few days without being social but you won't be able to get by for life without being social. In order to work well in a job setting or find a significant other you have to be able to use interpersonal skills. For some people interpersonal skills don't come naturally. Teaching one to be able to make small talk is one technique used to further that person's social skills. Helping to build one's self-confidence is a another big aspect of training. Having a low self-esteem can really exemplify someone's inability to becoming social.
After reading about social skills training I have realized I could see myself becoming passionate about this behavioral therapy and can one day see myself working with client's with these issues.