In this article, you will learn what the behavioral approach is, what classical and instrumental conditioning are, and for which mental disorders or problems behavioral techniques can be used effectively.
What is behaviorism?
If you associate behaviorism with training and Pavlov’s dogs , that is only part of the story about this therapeutic approach. The full story is based on an analysis of the influence of the environment, stimuli, and experiences on human behavior, conduct, and thinking. Therefore, the assumption of behavioral therapy is that functional disorders result from learned responses to stimuli.
Behaviorism is associated with any activity aimed at developing a specific, desired behavior. This brings us to the definition of acquiring new skills, i.e., learning. According to this approach, a person’s behavior is not something that a person has, but is the result of learning, environment, and influences on that person.
Behavioral therapy
In behavioral therapy, the most important thing is the so-called “here and now” and the future. It does not focus on exploring subconscious mental processes and past traumas, but teaches how to modify learned behaviors.
For example, imagine a situation where the large apartment or house you live in often has power outages and you find yourself alone in the dark late at night. As soon as the lights go out, you start to breathe faster, your heart rate increases, and your breathing becomes shallower. However, it turns out that after a few power outages, just being in a large house without other people causes your heart to beat faster. Interestingly, this reaction can occur in any large space, provided that you are alone in it. This is classical conditioning. In this case, the unconditioned stimulus is the lack of electricity and darkness, and the unconditioned response is an accelerated heartbeat. Being alone in a large room or space, which was initially a neutral stimulus, acquires the ability to elicit a conditioned response in the process of classical conditioning – an accelerated heartbeat when there is no one around you. This association resulted in an emotional reaction of fear of being alone at home. This is a good example to understand that fear reactions can be learned.
What is instrumental conditioning?
According to its creator, S. F. Skinner, instrumental conditioning explains the influence of certain consequences on changes in the frequency of behavior. These consequences can be reinforcing (rewarding) or punishing. Reinforcing consequences increase the likelihood of a particular behavior occurring, while punishment will result in a decrease in the frequency of that behavior (Babel, 2011).
Reinforcements and punishments as consequences of behavior can be positive or negative. Adding a positive stimulus (known as positive reinforcement) as a consequence of positive behavior will reinforce that behavior. This is why rewards and praise are so important in school for students with good academic results. On the other hand, adding a punitive stimulus as a consequence of negative behavior will be a positive punishment. A good example of this is when children have to apologize for their inappropriate behavior. In contrast, a negative punishment would be the withdrawal of a privilege, e.g., something very painful for today’s teenagers—screen time on a monitor or smartphone. In the case of negative reinforcement, the consequence is that after the behavior occurs, an unpleasant stimulus is removed from the environment, which increases the likelihood of the behavior reoccurring, e.g., a child who eats some vegetables will not have to eat everything on their plate.
Instrumental conditioning has a huge impact on our daily functioning, and learning mechanisms shape our behavior. Have you ever forgotten the PIN number for your home burglar alarm when you returned from vacation? After several attempts, the system locked up and the alarm went off. As a result, you had to call the monitoring company to ask them to cancel the alarm. In this case, calling the company was a positive punishment. This time, you saved the PIN in your phone. Saving the PIN was a negative reinforcement—thanks to your notes, you will avoid a situation like this after returning from vacation, another phone call to cancel the alarm, and the stress associated with it. The terms and conditions of your contract with the service company state that for each subsequent unjustified activation of the alarm without cancellation, you must pay a specified amount to their account. Such a fee will be a negative punishment because you bear the cost. Fortunately, your vacation turned out to be very successful and you really needed it, so there is a possibility that you will go away again and leave your house with the alarm on, provided that you remember the PIN. As you can see, there is a lot of behaviorism in our everyday life.
Therapeutic interventions – working on behavior change
Therapeutic interventions can be closely related to the behavior-reinforcement relationship and should change a person’s motivation for undesirable behaviors. In this way, they can lead to a learning process that involves developing certain ways of behaving, known as habits. There are two basic goals of behavior-based intervention methods: weakening the existing link between the reinforcements that maintain the difficult behavior and that behavior, and learning alternative desirable behaviors that fulfill the same function as the undesirable behavior being eliminated (Bąbel, 2008).
The three strategies employed by the therapist may involve: manipulating the variable preceding the difficult behavior, eliminating the reinforcements caused by the difficult behavior, known as extinction, and reinforcing behaviors other than those that can be modified, i.e.,alternative behaviors (Bąbel, 2008).
Methods based on manipulating antecedent stimuli include providing reinforcements regardless of the difficult behavior or providing them in large numbers, which will result in a reduction in the operations that motivate attention or a specific thing, and thus a reduction in the likelihood that the difficult behavior will occur. An example would be your attentiveness to a specific person or offering help with a difficult task, unrelated to a specific or crisis situation.
Extinguishing behaviors
However, when you and your therapist decide to extinguish behaviors, it means that your work will consist of ceasing to reinforce behaviors that have been reinforced until now. This will result in a reduction in the activity you are interested in, e.g., you will limit the amount of chocolate you eat, which you like so much when you have a good day and sit down to watch a movie in the evening. However, if a certain level of behavior is maintained by sensory reinforcement, e.g., at work you can only concentrate in silence, which makes it very difficult for you to perform your daily duties in an open space, then extinction will consist of minimizing the perception of this reinforcement. You may limit silence by creating an environment where you can work accompanied by calm music.
In the case of behavioral interventions, learning alternative behaviors to those that can be modified is practiced. One of them is a procedure that involves reinforcing a selected positive behavior (or several behaviors) that, in theory, can be performed simultaneously, e.g., instead of biting their nails, a person chews gum or bites a carrot.
Activity planning technique
Cognitive-behavioral therapy uses many techniques related to behavior change, e.g., among people with depression, there may be an activity planning technique. Why? It can be effective when the daily schedule is not structured, when the person has a low level of activity, and the therapist aims to develop certain habits and routines. It is worth using when you are very busy and important things are still not done. You procrastinate on important things and do not manage your time as you would like to. You put your plan on the activity planning card at the beginning of the week and fill it in during the week so that you can analyze the conclusions at the end. It is worth mentioning here the pleasure diary, which is a tool for all of us and is used to record, for example, planned good things that will happen during each day. And we are not talking about great experiences here, but pleasant experiences such as meeting a friend, an interesting conversation, or a good cup of coffee.
Another technique is to assess pleasure and cope with mood. Based on your activities, you note in a spreadsheet: what pleasure or dissatisfaction you feel, the consequences of your actions, and the impact on your well-being. You can rate your strategies on a scale of 1 to 5 and note them in the spreadsheet (Hayes, 2021).
Social skills training
Behavioral therapy also has its application in social skills training, which is generally intended to improve a person’s functioning, often in a group. Techniques used in this training include role-playing and modeling. They can be used individually and in small groups, but also in a mixed form (group sessions can be supplemented with individual sessions).In the first phase of the intervention, the therapist models the skill that needs to be trained so that in the second phase you can see exactly what you will do on your own. Role-playing may seem a little strange and a little artificial, but until you practice this skill, you are unlikely to use it outside the therapist’s office. It is important that you receive feedback at the end of each session. Between sessions, the therapist will assign homework tasks that you need to complete between meetings. This approach allows you to develop skills such as assertiveness, attentive listening, conflict resolution, and group cooperation. Social skills training is one of the most commonly recommended methods for working with children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.
Behavioral interventions also include relaxation techniques. It is worth remembering the importance of stimulation that affects different senses, such as music or visual stimulation. One such intervention is mindfulness training, during which you focus your attention on being here and now, which is very consistent with the assumptions of behaviorists. Similar to yoga or breathing exercises, imagery exercises or Jacobson’s training.
Exposure
One of the main behavioral techniques is exposure. Exposure therapy is used depending on the problem you report to your therapist. There are four variants of exposure: systematic desensitization, graded exposure, immersion, and the worst-case scenario in imagery work, known as decatastrophization and imagery exposure.
Systematic desensitization is a therapeutic method used to treat anxiety disorders, mainly phobias. It involves overcoming fear and avoidance through gradual exposure to the object in the imagination. During therapy, multiple and slowly increasing contacts between the person and the object of fear are arranged in their thoughts, thanks to which the process of habituation can take place, i.e., the gradual disappearance of fear until it completely disappears. The therapeutic effect is achieved through the person’s full involvement in experiencing the anxiety-related situation and eliminating avoidance strategies for coping with unpleasant emotions. Imagine that you are afraid of spiders. The first step will be to prepare your “fear ruler.” Thanks to it, you will find that seeing a small spider causes you 40 points of fear (on a scale of 0 to 100), and touching a spider causes you 100 points of fear. The therapist may suggest a technique that involves administering a small dose of what causes your fear when you are calm and relaxed. This deep relaxation will affect your muscles, and the stimulus that causes fear will be represented in your imagination rather than in reality. In your case, they may start by looking at pictures of small spiders together, moving on to the next one and continuing until you can imagine a spider and are able to “virtually touch” it.
A technique similar in terms of the degree of difficulty for a person with an anxiety disorder is graded exposure therapy. It differs from systematic desensitization in that it takes place in the real world. It begins with exposure to the strongest stimulus approved by the person and gradually increases its intensity during subsequent sessions, e.g., you touch the door handle with one finger at the beginning, then with more fingers, and finally with your whole hand. You can also set the duration of the touch and then extend it. Another type is immersive exposure, which involves intense exposure to anxiety-provoking stimuli, e.g., you touch the door handle, then you touch your arm or your other hand.
The last technique of imaginative exposure is decatastrophization. In this case, the therapist will ask you to imagine the worst possible scenario that you think could happen in relation to what stresses you or causes you anxiety. Once you have voiced or written down all your possible fears, you will think about the consequences soberly and, together with your therapist, you will construct the most realistic scenario.
An interesting method of work is exposure with response prevention. The reaction in this task is nothing more than a form of behavior undertaken by a person in order to prevent the anticipated negative consequences of a situation. By suppressing the reaction during exposure, the person has a chance to see the likelihood of the anticipated disaster occurring if certain specific behaviors are abandoned (Hanć, 2011). For example, imagine a friend who checks the contents of her purse at least twice every time she travels from home to work by bus because she is afraid of being robbed. In her case, the goal of behavioral work will be to free her from the compulsion to check. This technique is very often used in obsessive-compulsive disorders.
Behavioral interventions – for whom?
Behavioral interventions can be very useful in modifying various behaviors, e.g., solving problems in: cigarette addiction, internet addiction, drug addiction, coping with pain, self-harm, treating obesity, anxiety, phobias, tics, building parenting skills, work planning and organization, therapy for children on the autism spectrum, learning physical activity, or minimizing aggressive behavior (Bąbel, 2008). If you are struggling with these kinds of problems, make an appointment for online psychotherapy.
Behavioral strategies in cognitive-behavioral therapy can be aimed at directly modifying symptoms, but their main task is to conduct experiments that should lead to challenging the belief in the truth of certain automatic thoughts or patterns. In this way, the therapist works with you to construct an experience called behavioral experiments to directly verify your thoughts and beliefs. These can be conducted immediately during a session or between sessions. For example, a person with depression may have the automatic thought, “No matter what I read, I won’t understand it anyway.” The therapist may ask them to read a short text from a book to test the extent to which this thought is true (Beck, 2012).
It is important that the therapeutic interventions undertaken increase the likelihood of effectiveness and lead to generalized and lasting change. Behavioral techniques have been, are, and will continue to be used because they simply work. Give it a try, because maybe you have just decided to say goodbye to your last cigarette, and for various reasons it didn’t work out before?
Guest post:
Iwona Izbicka, MA
Bąblel P. (2011). Behavioral therapy for developmental disorders from the perspective of behavior analysis. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, vol. 16 (3), 27-38.
Hanć T. (2011). Neuroimaging effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders. Psychiatria Polska. 2011, vol. XLV, no. 6, 911–922,
Hayes S. C., Smith S. (2021). Trapped in Thoughts. GWP Sopot