BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES - Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie

might develop fear for flying after experiencing a near air disaster. Once
such a phobia develops, the individual may go to great lengths to avoid the
feared situation, and so eliminating a possible fear. Other phobias may be
learned through observation. fearful parents tend to produce children who
share their fears. This phobia might be inherited, but it is more likely that
parents provide a model and that the children imitate that model. Other
phobias might develop because they are rewarded. When a child is afraid
of going to school because he will be separated from his parents for a
while, he will say he has a stomachache or something like that. Then his
parents reward him with the comfort of staying home with his parents.
Behavioral techniques have proved successful in treating phobias,
especially simple and social phobias. One technique, systematic
desensitization, involves confronting the phobic person with situations or
objects that are feared. Exposure therapy, another behavioral method, has
recently been shown to be more effective. In this technique, phobias are
repeatedly exposed to the feared situation or object so that they can see
that no harm befalls them; the fear gradually fades. Antianxiety drugs have
also been used as palliatives. Drugs to treat depression have also proved
successful in treating some phobias.
► Exercises and Discussions:
1. What is the subject-matter of behavioral sciences?
2. What are the methods (sources) of knowledge in behavioral
sciences?
3. Describe the factors that influence human behavior (biological,
psychological and social).
4. What is abnormal behavior? Abnormal behavior types.
5. Construct your own definition of term “behaviors” in the light of
acquired knowledge.
► Recommended Essays
1. The importance of behavioral science for medical activity.
Psycho – somatic model of treatment.
2. A. Maslow’s conception of Motivation.
3. Emotion as incentive of human behavior.
4. Age and behavior.
► Literature:
1. Fadem Barbara. Behavioral science. Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins, 2008.
25