Generaleneral Psychologysychology

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Behavior Model of Abnormal Behavior

The behavioral model is an alternative to the medical and supernatural models.  The therapy based on this approach is often called behavior modification or behavior therapy.  Behavior therapy may be defined as the application of scientific findings and the experimental method to help ameliorate behavior problems or to improve behavior.

Therapies based on the behavioral and medical models have very different goals.  Behavioral therapy, as the name implies, seeks to alter behavior and thereby give the individual increased control over themselves or their environment.  On the other hand, psychotherapies arising from the medical model regard behavior a a symptom and attempt to eliminate a hypothetical underlying cause of the "illness."

Here are a few pioneers of behavioral therapy.

  • Watson performed the famous experiment (Watson and Rayner, 1920) with Little Albert teaching him to be afraid of rats by pairing a rat with a loud unpleasant sound (classical conditioning). This experiment demonstrated that phobias can be learned.

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  • Mary Cover Jones, who was Watson’s student, demonstrated in 1924 that phobias can be unlearned. Peter, a small boy, had a phobia of rabbits and Ms. Jones taught him not to be afraid of rabbits by pairing rabbits (sometimes aversive to Peter) with candy (sometimes pleasant to Peter); this is a counterconditioning paradigm.

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  • Wolpe extended the counterconditioning paradigm. He had adults imagine the object or situation of particular fear to them (sometimes aversive), while at the same time relaxing physically (something pleasant). This is technique of systematic desensitization, which is very much used by behavior modifiers.

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  • Eysenck, a famous English behaviorist, stressed that behavior is the result of psychological factors as well as the environment.  This is sometimes called the S- O- R model.

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  • Skinner, one of the most significant psychologists of the last half of the 20th century, emphasized the importance of operant conditioning, that behavior is function of its consequences.

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    Bandura's research has shown the importance of modeling in learning new behaviors and therapies.
     
     
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