| Chapter Outline (See related pages)
- The Behavioral Perspective
- Behavioral perspective views behavior as result of environmental
experience or learning
- Cause of behavior is in environment
- Proximal focus in treating behaviors
- The Background on Behaviorism
- Behaviorism rose in reaction to subjective analysis of one's
thought processes
- Learning is explanation of behavior
- Mechanisms of learning laid foundation for behaviorism
- Pavlov: The Conditioned Reflex
- Conditioned reflex is basic mechanism of learning
- Many responses were result of simple learning process
- John Watson: The Founder of American Behaviorism
- Believed psychology should focus on observable and measurable
behavior
- Rejected introspection as method
- Found emotional responses to be conditioned
- Edward Lynn Thorndike: The Law of Effect
- Studied relationship between behavior and its consequences
- Formulated law of effect describing how consequences
can strengthen and weaken behavior
- B. F. Skinner: Radical Behaviorism and Operant Conditioning
- Developed radical behaviorism: everything person
does, says, or feels is behavior
- Focused on practical applications of experimental analysis
- Contingencies in environment could be altered to change
behavior
- The Assumptions of Behavioral Psychology
- Study behavior by examining learning history
- Stimuli and responses must be observed and measured
- Goal of psychology is prediction and control of behavior
- Laboratory settings provide easy prediction and control
- Real-life settings add complexity
- Focus on outside of organism to locate real causes of behavior
- The Basic Mechanisms of Learning
- Respondent conditioning (classical conditioning)
- Pairing of stimuli leads to conditioning to what is initially
a neutral stimulus
- Respondent conditioning is learning of conditioned
response
- Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
- Unconditioned response (UCR)
- Conditioned stimulus (CS)
- Conditioned response (CR)
- Operant conditioning (instrumental conditioning)
- Operant behavior is associated with outcomes
- Operant conditioning involves increasing or decreasing
likelihood of behavior by its consequences
- Association between behavior and consequence is a contingency
- Reinforcement refers to process where events in environment
that increase probability that behavior will be repeated
- A primary reinforcer is one that we respond to
instinctively
- Conditioned reinforcers are stimuli that we have
learned to respond to through association to primary reinforcers
- Positive reinforcement strengthens response
- Negative reinforcement strengthens response by
avoidance or removal of aversive stimulus
- Punishment refers to process where behavior decreases
in frequency
- Negative reinforcement and punishment are often confused
for several reasons
- Similar consequences do not have similar effects on all
people
- It is hard to think of reinforcement as negative
- Functional analysis identifies variables controlling behavior
- Other Mechanisms Associated with Learning
- Extinction is elimination of a response by withdrawing
reinforcer that maintained it
- Generalization occurs when organism responds to similar
stimuli
- Discrimination is learning to distinguish among similar
stimuli
- Shaping refers to reinforcement of successive approximations
of desired response
- Learning to follow rules: Instructions as discriminative stimuli
- Behavior is acquired through modeling or imitation
- Modeling can occur without verbal instruction or external
reinforcement
- Abnormal Behavior as a Product of Learning
- Normal behavior seen as due to genetics and experience
- Abnormal behavior seen as due to genetics and experience
- Explanations favor complexity over simplicity
- Emphasis more on entire life history of individual
- Behavior is defined within its context
- Skeptical of usefulness of labeling people, which suggests medical
model
- Function of behavior not form is basis of prediction and influence
- Learning may be an important variable in abnormal behavior
- The Behavioral Approach to Therapy
- Using same mechanisms believed to produce normal behavior
- Respondent Conditioning and Extinction
- Maladaptive behavior can be unlearned
- Systematic desensitization
- Systematic desensitization (Joseph Wolpe) based
on weakening bond between stimuli and anxiety
- Client given relaxation training
- Hierarchy of fears developed
- Client practices relaxing while confronting fears in
hierarchy either in vivo or through imagining
- Effective for wide variety of problems
- Exposure
- Extinction as a clinical practice has replaced systematic
desensitization
- Patients are confronted with experiences they fear without
reinforcement
- Flooding involves prolonged confrontation
- In graded exposure, the confrontation is gradual
- Operant Conditioning
- Contingency management involves the manipulation of
consequences of behavior
- Behavior can be changed by managing its contingencies
- Multicomponent Treatment
- A disorder has many facets
- Different treatments address various problems
- The New Radical Behavioral Therapies: Integrating Acceptance
with Change
- Incorporates behavioral principles with acceptance
- Dialectical behavior therapy emphasizes validation and skills
training
- Behavior Therapy: Pros and Cons
- There are several criticisms of behavior therapy
- It is superficial since it does not focus on patient's
past or have insight as primary goal
- It addresses patient's symptoms and ignores underlying
causes
- It denies individual freedom
- Behavior therapy has been shown to be effective in treating
wide variety of problems
- It tends to be faster and less expensive than other treatments
- Paraprofessionals and nonprofessionals can use it
- It can be reported, discussed, and evaluated with precision
- Evaluating Behaviorism
- Criticisms of behaviorism
- Oversimplification
- It reduces life to small measurable units of behavior
- Ignores deeper workings of the mind
- Determinism
- Argues that there is no free will
- Argues that whatever we do is due to learning history
- The Issue of "Control"
- Suggests that behavioral engineering could be used for
totalitarian regime where people are coerced by reinforcement
- Control actually refers to predictability and using
scientific laws
- The Contributions of Behaviorism
- Adherence to objectivity and precision in behavioral research
- Behaviorists recognize broad range of responses as legitimate
- Treatment methods are promising with wide range of disorders
and are applied in many settings
- The Cognitive Perspective
- Introduction
- Cognitive perspective argues that abnormal is product
of mental processing
- Many psychological disturbances involve serious cognitive disturbances
- Certain cognitive patterns may be actual causes of disorders
- The Background of the Cognitive Perspective
- Cognitive perspective grew out of behavioral perspective
- Cognition is the mental processing of stimuli
- Cognitive Behaviorism
- An alliance between cognitive view and behavior view is cognitive
behaviorism
- Mental processing of environmental stimuli influences behavior
- Albert Ellis: Irrational Beliefs
- Rational emotive therapy developed by Ellis
- Based on idea that psychological problems caused by people's
reactions to events and not events themselves
- A is for activating experience
- B is for beliefs that irrationally follow
- C is for consequences
- Problems stem from irrational beliefs that need to be confronted
and disputed
- Aaron T. Beck: Cognitive Distortions
- Psychological disorders often associated with specific patterns
of distorted thinking
- Distorted thoughts centered on triad--self, world, and future
- Distortions become automatic and need to be replaced with
more reasonable thoughts
- Cognitive Appraisal
- Evaluating stimuli is called cognitive appraisal and involves
using one's memories, beliefs, and expectations
- Person's interpretation of stimulus determines response to it
- Attribution is one form of cognitive appraisal and includes
three dimensions
- Dimensions influence feelings of hopelessness and helplessness
- Cognitive Variables Affecting Behavior
- Competencies--unique set of skills acquired through past
learning
- Encoding strategies--special way of perceiving and categorizing
experience
- Expectancies--develop sense of what is likely to lead to
rewards and punishments
- Values--we place different meaning on different stimuli
- Plans and goals--behavior is guided by plans and goals
- Bandura's expectancies
- Outcome expectancies--expectation that a behavior will
lead to a certain result
- Efficacy expectations--expectation that one will be
able to execute a behavior successfully; believed to be determinant
of coping behavior
- Information-Processing
- Information processing refers to how the mind takes in, stores,
interprets, and uses information from environment
- Automatic processing operates without conscious awareness
and may be part of many abnormal behavior patterns
- Controlled processing requires logic and consideration
- Computer as model of human mind
- Taking in certain information and filtering out the rest is called
selective attention and may play a role in some abnormal behaviors
- Organizing structures
- A schema is an organized structure of information
about a particular domain of life
- Schemas influence how we select and process new information
- Self-schemas are schemas that refer to our self-concept
and identity
- Irrational beliefs can cause anxiety and depression
- The Cognitive Approach to Therapy
- Cognitive restructuring attempts to help clients change
the ways they perceive and interpret events
- Self-instructional training emphasizes modifying self talk--the
things people say to themselves before, during, and after actions
- Ellis' and Beck's Cognitive Therapies
- In rational-emotive therapy (RET) (Albert Ellis),
client's irrationality is pointed out
- Irrational beliefs are disputed and questioned, and more
rational beliefs are modeled and rehearsed
- Constructivist Cognitive Therapy
- Constructivist cognitive therapy emphasizes construction
of new patterns
- Self-exploration through writing is important process
- Common Strategies in Cognitive Therapy
- Hypothesis testing involves clients testing their
assumptions in real world
- In Reattribution training, client's distorted attributions
are changed
- Decatastrophizing is a technique whereby client considers
what would happen if worst fear were realized
- Evaluating the Cognitive Perspective
- Criticisms of Cognitive Psychology
- It is unscientific since theory is based on inferring forces
that cannot be observed
- Recognizing that life is not rational may not be enough to
produce therapeutic change
- Changing thinking may not be appropriate or right
- Basis of how cognitive therapy works is unknown
- Contributions of Cognitive Theory
- Focuses on specific, operationalized variables
- Insists on empirical evidence
- Techniques can be easily applied
- Cognitive therapy most successful with depression, substance
dependence, and some personality disorders
- There are manuals available describing how to administer
and evaluate cognitive therapy
- The Sociocultural Perspective
- Sociocultural perspective views abnormal behavior to be result
of broad social forces
- Suggests that abnormal behavior may be the result of many diverse
social forces
- Mental Illness and Social Ills
- Social ills cause psychological ills
- Focus should be on social ills such as poverty
- Mental Illness and Labeling
- Sociocultural view suggests that labeling occurs because individuals
violate social norms
- Behavior consistent with role is reinforced; inconsistent behavior
is punished, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy
- Class, Race, and Diagnosis
- Psychological disturbances related to social class
- Differences found between people of lower socioeconomic class
and those of middle-class
- People with lower socioeconomic backgrounds labeled psychotic
and hospitalized
- People with higher socioeconomic backgrounds labeled
neurotic and not hospitalized
- Race affects diagnosis
- Blacks more likely to be diagnosed as alcoholic or schizophrenic
- Whites more likely to be diagnosed as depressed
- Prevention as a Social Issue
- Approach to treatment involves community prevention programs
- Three levels of prevention exist
- Evaluating the Sociocultural Perspective
- Conditions in society do contribute to psychological disturbances
- Some argue that socially engendered stress is primary cause
- Some argue that socially engendered stress is secondary cause
- More controversy with notion that abnormality is a cultural artifact
maintained through labeling
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