Behaviorism is an important school of thought in the field of psychology. One can view this school of thought as one piece of the puzzle that explains human behavior. Behaviourism also forms a basis for the treatment of mental health disorders. Mental health disorders are conditions like anxiety, OCD, phobias, dependencies, or any other maladaptive behaviours (avoidance behaviours, disordered eating, self-harm, etc.). Based on this school of thought, psychologists developed therapies to treat mental health conditions.
A good education gives psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors the qualifications to use evidence-based treatment methods for mental health disorders and to facilitate personal development and growth. Behaviorism is one school of thought that psychologists can integrate into their practice with patients and clients.
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Ivan Pavlov the father of behaviorism
Historians call Ivan Pavlov the father of behaviorism. This late 19th-century Russian biologist was doing research on digestion in dogs when he noticed an interesting thing. For his research, he had temporarily inserted tubes in the cheeks of dogs to gather saliva during eating. Pavlov made observations. After several dog feeding sessions, the dogs started salivating when they heard the sounds of the food being brought to them by Pavlov rather than when the food was put in their mouths. Pavlov observed that the dogs had recognized to associate the sound of bringing the food with the food. Since the sound of brining the food always happened immediately before bringing the food, the dogs started to salivate to the sound as if it were the food.
Pavlov in the next round of experimentation with the dogs, rang a bell right before he gave the food to the dogs. As expected, over time the dogs would salivate just in response to ringing the bell. As has so often happened in scientific research, he had accidentally discovered a very important principle in learning, which he called conditioning. He came to believe that all human thought, emotion, and language derived from this simple form of learning that psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors call classical or Pavlovian conditioning.
Behaviorism, coined by John Watson
Pavlov’s work deeply impressed the American psychologist John B. Watson. Dr. Watson appreciated Pavlov’s precision and the absence of introspection. Watson agreed that Pavlov’s finding gave deep insight on human behavior. Watson concluded that most human behavior is learned through classical conditioning. Due to the focus on the precise measurement of overt behaviour, Watson called the new school of thought founded on his principles and those of Pavlov behaviourism.
Psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors use their knowledge of classical conditioning to understand the origins of some mental health disorders. During counselling, psychologists apply specific treatments based on this school of thought. According to behaviorism, phobias and psychosomatic illnesses are based on classical conditioning. A phobia is an intense irrational fear, such as a fear of needles, flying, birds, insects, etc. Imagine a child playing in a pool was frightened and almost drowned when a large dog jumped in the water and knocked the child down. This one pairing may have been so intense that, even as an adult, it left a conditioned fear of water, even though the dog and the water rationally had nothing to do with each other. Behavioral scientists specializing in phobias suggest that many, but probably not all, human phobias are the result of classical conditioning.
Watson and his associate Rayner in 1920 conducted an experiment with little Albert.
Little Albert: Classically conditioned fear
The researchers gave Albert permission to play with a white laboratory rat. The psychologists wanted to find out if he was afraid of rats. Based on observation, little Albert had no fear of rats. Then, as he played with the white rat, a psychologist struck an iron bar loudly with a hammer behind the boy’s head. The sound startled Albert, and he began to cry loudly. After seven of such pairings (playing with the white rat and sudden, loud noise), little Albert showed a strong fear response when the psychologist gave him the rat to play with. He had learned to fear the rat through classical conditioning. Additionally, the fear generalized to other similar objects. Five days later, Albert reacted fearfully to a white rabbit, a dog, and a sealskin coat. He was also somewhat fearful when he saw white cotton balls and a Santa Clause mask.
Classically conditioned asthma attacks
Psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors also understand that classical conditioning can play a significant role in psychosomatic illness. A psychosomatic illness is a bodily illness that is psychological rather than biological in origin (psycho=psychological, soma=body). Evidence gathered by Dutch researchers showed that they can classically condition asthma attacks to a previously neutral stimulus. These psychologists were fortunate to have two volunteers for their experiment.
Two asthma patients, one with an allergic sensitivity to grass pollen and the other to house dust, participated in the study. First, they inhaled the substance to which they were allergic through a glass mouthpiece, and each suffered a full-blown asthma attack. This one pairing was so effective that the next time the psychologists brought the volunteers to the laboratory, the subjects suffered allergy attacks as soon as the glass mouthpiece was placed in their mouths, even though it contained only oxygen. It was apparent to the psychologists that the volunteers’ asthma attacks were classically conditioned. This raises the possibility that asthmatics may learn to have some of their attacks to neutral stimuli outside the laboratory.
B.F. Skinner the radical behaviourist
It is through the work that B. F. Skinner conducted at Harvard University that psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors gain more insight on how learning can impact behavior and mental health. He emphasized the importance of learning in shaping our behaviors. Skinner was a radical behaviorist. He posited that mental events or processes are completely unnecessary in describing why people behave the way they do.
Radical behaviorists essentially try to think of behavior as a “black box,” meaning that whatever is going on inside the mind is irrelevant to psychology. According to radical behaviorism, there are simply stimuli coming in and influencing the way that people behave, and then there are responses, or behaviors, as a result of those stimuli. Skinner coined the term operant conditioning. This psychologist defined operant conditioning in the following way: learning in which the consequence of behavior leads to changes in the probability of its occurrence. He identified 3 important concepts in how we acquire behaviors.
Positive reinforcement in behaviorism
Is defined as any consequence of behavior that leads to an increase in the probability of its occurrence. In the modern workplace, for instance, pay increases based on work performance will most likely increase productive work behaviour.
The psychologist B. F. Skinner conducted research with laboratory rats to analyze how the timing of reinforcement influences behavior. Psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors often refer to this as the “Skinner Box.” He discovered 4 different schedules of reinforcement that have a significant effect on behaviour.
- Fixed ratio schedule: This is a reward that is given after a specified number of desired responses.
- Variable ratio schedule: Here the reward is given after a varying number of desired responses
- Fixed interval schedule: The reward is given based on a predetermined passage of time.
- Variable interval schedule: The reward is given based on a variable amount of time passing.
Negative reinforcement in behaviorism
This type of reinforcement is the removal or avoidance of a negative event as the consequence of behaviour. E.g., if you assertively ask a neighbour to turn off his loud music and the noise ceases, your assertiveness will be strengthened. This is because you were able to avoid the loud noise. There are two types of operant learning to shape our behaviours:
Escape conditioning
- Is operant conditioning in which the person’s behaviour is reinforced because it causes a negative event to stop?
Avoidance conditioning
- Is operant conditioning in which the behaviour is reinforced because it prevents something negative that would normally happen from happening?
Punishment in behaviorism
A negative consequence of a behavior that leads to a decrease in the frequency of the behavior. Speeding tickets, for example, are a form of punishment.
Psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors are aware of the various forms of learning that can cause “abnormal” behavior. Here we are looking at maladaptive behaviours as simply learned from abnormal experiences of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and by observing other people’s behaviour (this is called modeling). To put it another way, the individual deviates from the norm in his behaviours because his environment taught him to. The logical deduction from this train of thought is that people can unlearn abnormal ways of behaving and learn adaptive behaviors. Based upon this concept, some psychotherapeutic treatments have developed that are implemented with the help of a qualified psychologist or counsellor.
Application of behaviorism in psychotherapy
How do psychologists and counselors apply this knowledge in the treatment of mental health disorders? The basic premise of behaviorism is that psychotherapy or counseling is based on learning. The therapist or counselor will provide counseling to help the client unlearn abnormal ways of behaving and learn more adaptive ways to take their place.
Behavioral treatment for schizophrenia
Here is an example based on the research findings by Ayllon and Haughton, 1964. Ayllon observed that when delusional schizophrenic patients made delusional statements, they received more attention from the attendants than when they were making “normal” statements. For instance, when a patient said she was the queen of England and wanted to smoke and to please give King George greetings, she received a great deal of attention from the attendant. The psychologist Ayllon hypothesized, based on behaviourism, that this attention reinforced making “crazy” statements.
Ayllon’s clinical experiment
He conducted a clinical experiment with 3 schizophrenic women who often made delusional statements. First, he measured the number of delusional statements in a given time period to increase a baseline. Allyson instructed the attendants to pay attention to the patients every time they made a delusional statement.
During this phase of the experiment, the number of delusional statements increased significantly. In the third and therapeutic phase of the treatment, Allyson instructed the attendants not to pay any attention to delusional statements the patients made. He informed the attendants to pay attention to patients’ making normal statements. As expected, based on behaviourism, the number of delusional statements decreased dramatically and was well below the baseline, and normal statements significantly increased.
These findings were a significant breakthrough in the treatment of schizophrenic individuals to shape their behaviors into reality-based behaviors. Ayllon’s findings show that our behaviors can be influenced, to a great extent, by subtle reinforcers like the amount of attention that we receive. The principles of behaviorism don’t only come into play in the mental health field and in the treatment of mental health disorders, but also in parenting and the field of education.
Behavioral treatment for phobias
Behavior psychotherapy also lends itself to fear reduction in the case of abnormal fears, which qualified psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors call phobias. The treatment of phobias in this case is based on extinguishing the fear that comes in response to a stimulus and replacing it with a relaxation response. The two most common approaches to treating phobias are systematic desensitization and flooding.
Dr. Joseph Wolpe
Psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe (1958) developed the treatment of systematic desensitization for the treatment of phobias. His procedure is complex and involved multiple steps. In essence, it is a behavior therapy method for the treatment of phobias. The psychologist teaches the client not to fear phobic stimuli by learning to relax in the presence of successively more threatening stimuli. The treating psychologist, psychotherapist, or counsellor and the client create a list that states the fear level regarding the feared stimulus. Together, they rank it from lowest to highest. Then the client receives training on progressive relaxation. This is a method of learning to deeply relax the muscles of the body. Then the client deeply relaxes with each level of fear. This eliminates the phobia.
Dr. Thomas Stampfl
The psychologist Thomas Stampfl (1967) invented flooding as a phobia treatment. This alternative to systematic desensitization takes less time to implement, and psychologists can use it with clients seeking phobia treatment who cannot relax their muscles easily. In this phobia treatment, the psychologist, psychotherapist, or counselor creates a situation where the client is flooded with high levels of the fear for prolonged periods of time.
Typically, psychologists do this in a prolonged session of 2 to 8 hours. The psychologists do not end the patient’s session until the patient’s fear response is extinguished. This means the phobic stimulus is no longer capable of eliciting the fear response. Sometimes the psychologist encourages the patient to use his imagination only. However, the best flooding treatment for phobias is the in vivo treatment. This means the psychologist exposes the client to the feared object or situation. E.g., a person with a cat phobia will spend so much time with a cat in close proximity until the fear is gone.
Behavioral therapy for basic skills
Qualified psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors also use behaviour therapy, or operant skills training, for the teaching of new, adaptive skills based on the basics of conditioning. Social skills training, for instance, has a healing effect for people with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Such individuals often have a hard time interacting with other people. They can appear shy, awkward, or “odd,” and have difficulties expressing their feelings. Most people have experienced uncomfortable situations in which they felt this way. However, for a person with a mental health diagnosis, this is a pervasive experience coloring almost all of their social encounters.
Psychologists tap into the basics of behaviourism and provide social skills training during counselling sessions to individuals with social deficiencies. Psychologists shape patient behavior through modeling, role playing, and reward systems (positive reinforcement) into socially acceptable behaviors. If communication is a problem, clients’ will learn to speak more often, to speak in a voice that is loud enough, to make appropriate eye contact, and to make fewer odd comments. Qualified psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors also perform assertiveness training, which is a method of behaviour therapy that teaches individuals assertive rather than passive or aggressive ways of dealing with problematic situations.
Behaviorism in summary
It is evident that behaviourism has offered psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors insights and tools to offer evidence-based treatment to individuals suffering from a variety of mental health disorders. We must remember that behaviourism is one school of thought and offers treatments based on its scientific findings. Well-qualified psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors in their treatment of mental health disorders draw from a variety of schools of thought and treatment modalities. A good therapist, during a counselling session, will deal with what emerges and will intuitively draw on the theoretical approach that will best serve the patient.
Dr. Annette Schonder
Clinical Counsellor,
Marriage Therapist, Hypnotherapist
(American Board)
Call +971 4 457 4240
Sources
Feldman, R. S. (2015). Understanding psychology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Lahey, B. B. (2012). Psychology: an introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior: B.F. Skinner. New York: Macmillan.
Watson, J. B. (2012). Behaviorism. London?: Forgotten Books.
Weigel, J. A. (1977). B.F. Skinner. Boston: Twayne.
Wolpe, J. (1960). In behaviour therapy and the neuroses.