Behaviour Modification

Types of Behavioral Therapy

There are different types of Behavioral Therapy approaches, that help address learned responses and conditioning, including:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the most popular form of Behavioral Therapy. It relies on behavioral techniques, but adds a cognitive element, focusing on the problematic thoughts behind behaviors. This type of therapy concentrates on an individual’s existing problems and how to solve them. The long-term goal, being to change their thinking and alter their behavioral patterns, to healthier ones.

Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy utilizes play to assess, prevent, or treat psychosocial challenges in children. Therapists gain insights into children’s behavior by watching them play. They may be asked to draw a picture or use toys to create scenarios in a sandbox. The therapist also teaches parents various methods to improve communication with children, through play.

Applied Behavior Analysis

Applied Behavior Analysis focuses on improving specific behaviors, such as social skills, communication, reading, and academics, as well as adaptive learning skills. It is effective for children and adults with psychological disorders, and is commonly practiced as a means of therapeutic intervention for Autism.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Dialectical behavioral therapy is a form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that tries to identify and change negative thinking patterns, while pushing for positive behavioral changes. It utilizes both behavioral and cognitive techniques to help people learn to manage their emotions, cope with distress, and improve interpersonal relationships.

Exposure Therapy

Exposure Therapy is useful for treating specific phobias and other forms of anxiety. It utilizes behavioral techniques to help reduce feelings of anxiety, distress, or fear that a person may have, due to a disorder or previous trauma. It exposes individuals to a situation or stimulus that triggers feelings of fear or panic for them. Over time, this controlled exposure helps the individual to overcome these fears within a safe space.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is an action-oriented approach that focuses on dealing with irrational beliefs. It helps individuals identify negative or destructive thoughts and feelings, and manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in a healthier, more realistic way.

Social Learning Theory

Social Learning Theory proposes that new behavior patterns can be acquired by observing and imitating others. Observing others being rewarded or punished for their actions, can directly lead to learning and behavioral change.

Benefits/ Importance of Behavioral Therapy

Behavioral Therapy has been effective in treating a number of different conditions such as anger issues, anxiety, bulimia, depression, stress, substance abuse and relapse prevention, and several other conditions. It also helps individuals:

• Recover from mental disorders by providing a support network
• Build self-esteem by focusing on problems and working toward their solution
• Turn negative thoughts into positive, more realistic ones
• Control anger and recognize the reasons behind it
• Communicate feelings with other individuals
• Improve coping skills for stressful situations
• Prevent relapses with the help of necessary tools

Assessment

Behavioral therapy techniques use reinforcement, punishment, shaping, modeling, and related techniques to alter behavior, producing fast and effective results. It is important to know about the basic principles of Behavioral Therapy to understand how it works. The techniques used in this type of treatment are based on the either of the following two theories:

Classical Conditioning

In classical conditioning, an automatic conditioned response is paired with a specific stimulus that creates a behavior. During the process, previously neutral stimuli are paired with a stimulus that naturally and automatically evokes a response. After repeated pairings, an association is formed and the previously neutral stimulus will come to evoke the altered response on its own.

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning utilizes reinforcement and punishment to either increase or decrease the frequency of a specific behavior. It is based on the idea that behaviors followed by desirable consequences are more likely to occur again in the future, while those followed by negative consequences are less likely to occur.

Procedure

Before introducing an intervention, several things must take place. First, it must be established that there is,indeed, a behavior problem. Factors which may influence or cause a student’s behavior, such as a medical condition, language difficulties, or cultural differences, must be investigated. Additionally, input from other staffand from parents is necessary in establishing which behavior is problematic. Second, a functional analysis needs to be completed in order to establish which antecedents and consequences are supporting the behavior (or which antecedents and consequences are needed in the case of promoting behavior).

Third, it must be determined whether the target behavior is of priority to justify intervention. For example, while pencil tapping may be an annoying behavior, it probably does not warrant implementation of a token economy. In deciding whether a behavior necessitates intervention, you will need to look at its frequency (how often it occurs as compared to peers), the intensity at which the behavior is exhibited, and the rate at which the student is able to learn new behaviors.After these steps have been taken and it is agreed that a problem which warrants intervention does exist,behavior modification can be implemented.

What are examples of behavior modification interventions?

Examples of behavior modification which can be used to increase behavior are: praise and approval, modeling, positive programming, shaping, token economy, self-monitoring, and shaping. Methods which can be used to decrease behavior are: extinction, reinforcing incompatible behavior, relaxation, self-monitoring, and shaping.