Behaviourist Therapies

Behaviourist Therapies

• Behaviourist therapies, pioneered by psychologists like John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, view maladaptive behaviours as learned responses that can be unlearned or reformulated through conditioning techniques.

Systematic Desensitisation

• One of the most well-known behaviourist therapies is Systematic Desensitisation, primarily used to treat phobias.
• The therapy involves three stages: relaxation training, constructing a fear hierarchy, and pairing relaxed states with fear-triggering stimuli.
• The goal is to replace the fear response with relaxation, accomplished through classical conditioning.

Operant Conditioning Treatments

• Operant conditioning treatments manipulate the system of rewards and punishments to encourage adaptive behaviour.
• Token Economy Systems are common in institutional settings. Tokens are given for desired behaviours, which can be exchanged for rewards.
• Conversely, Aversion therapy associates unpleasant stimuli with maladaptive behaviours to deter individuals from engaging in them.

Behavioural Activation

• Behavioural Activation is a treatment for depression that encourages patients to engage in positively reinforcing activities.
• The therapy seeks to break the cycle of depression by replacing behaviours that worsen depression with more adaptive ones.

Criticisms of Behaviourist Therapies

• Critics point out that behaviourist therapies can be manipulative and respect for the patient’s autonomy is sometimes compromised.
• Behaviourist therapies also tend to focus on the symptoms rather than underlying causes, which can result in symptom substitution; a new, maladaptive behaviour may replace the eliminated behaviour.
• Also, the lasting effectiveness of behaviourist therapies is debated, with many studies suggesting benefits are short-term.

Strengths of Behaviourist Therapies

• The strengths of behaviourist therapies include the focus on clear, measurable goals and the use of empirical evidence, making the therapies highly scientific and evidence-based.
• They can also be highly effective in treating a range of disorders, providing a solution where other therapies have failed.
• Behaviourist therapies tend to be quicker and less costly than other therapeutic approaches.

When revising, check your understanding of the principles underlying behaviourist therapies and how they apply to real-world psychological situations. Make sure to examine both advantages and criticisms of the behaviourist therapeutic approach. Pay special focus on how these therapies demonstrate the essential behaviourist principle – behaviour change through learning experiences.