Behavioral Therapy
Behavior therapy is focused on helping an individual understand how changing their behavior can lead to changes in how they are feeling. It is used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, and other types of psychopathology. (Herkov, 2006)
Key Roles:
B.F. Skinner
Joseph Wolpe
B. F. Skinner
THE GOAL: Focuses on increasing the person's engagement in positive or socially reinforcing activities. This is a structured approach that measures what the patient is doing seeking to increase the chances for positive experience. (Herkov, 2006)
TECHNIQUE:
Self-monitoring - First stage of treatment. Patient asked to keep log of their activities during day.
Schedule of weekly activities - Therapist and patient work together to create new activities
increasing chances of positive experience
Role playing - Used to help patient develop new skills and anticipate issues that may arise in future.
Behavior modification - Patient receives reward for engaging in positive activity.
Conditioning
Role playing (Herkov, 2006)
TREATMENT: Behavior techniques are sometimes used with other psychological interventions such as medication. This depends on the individual patient as well as how severe the symptoms are of the behavioral problem. (Nawaz, 2008)
INTERESTING FACT: Aversive therapy is another technique to is commonly used with behavior therapy. This involves associating maladaptive behaviors with an unpleasant stimuli. One such form used in the past is electric shock therapy although this is now considered to be unethical. (Nawaz, 2008)
References
Herkov, M. (2006, December 10). About behavior therapy. Retrieved from
Nawaz, B. (2008, April 3). Behavior therapy. Retrieved from
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