Ch 11 - Jeff Standen

odels of
abnormality
This often involves a life change. For example,
unemployment and retirement can lead to a loss of positive
reinforcement - a loss of rewarding social relationships and
reduced status and income. Life changes can also lead to
unpleasant experiences such as the shame and stigma of
unemployment or, in the case of retirement, being treated in
terms of the negative stereotypes of old age.
Research by Lewinsohn et al. (1979) showed that
depressed people received fewer positive reinforcements
and are likely to have more unpleasant experiences than
nondepressed people. The researchers found that a lack of
positive social reinforcement - the approval and
companionship of others - was particularly important.
|[ Treatment and the behavioural model
According to the behavioural model, the problem is the
behaviour and treatment - behaviour therapy - involves
modifying or changing that behaviour. The idea of 'mental'
or 'psychological disorder' is replaced by the idea of
inappropriate or maladaptive behaviour. A behavioural
therapist is more like a teacher than a doctor - their role is to
teach new behaviours rather than to cure mental illnesses.
Classical conditioning Behaviour therapies based on
classical conditioning include systematic desensitisation
and aversion therapy. Systematic desensitisation (Wolpe,
1958) is used for deconditioning phobic fears. A phobia
arises when something harmless has become associated
with something frightening. In the Little Albert study, a
white rat became associated with a frightening noise until
the rat itself became an object of fear. In systematic
desensitisation, the client is taught to relax and confront the
feared object or situation in a calm and peaceful setting.
The idea is that the object of fear will become associated
with a pleasant feeling of relaxation and calm, and lose its
frightening associations.
Aversion therapy is often used for treating addictions. It
aims to change maladaptive behaviour by associating it with
something unpleasant. For example, a client may be given
an electric shock or a nausea (sickness) inducing drug
whenever they reach for a cigarette. In this case, the idea is
that they will associate unpleasant feelings with cigarettes
and stop smoking.
Operant conditioning In behaviour modification
programmes based on operant conditioning, the therapist
rewards adaptive behaviour and withholds rewards from
maladaptive behaviour. The idea is to change behaviour by
applying reinforcement. An approach known as a token
economy is based on this idea. It is sometimes used in
schools, prisons and mental hospitals to change behaviour.
Behaviour seen as appropriate is rewarded with tokens
which can be exchanged for privileges such as longer
breaks, sweets, or a movie. Tokens are withheld when
behaviour is seen as inappropriate.
Evaluation of the behavioural model
Like the psychodynamic model, the behavioural approach is
critical of the biological model. It rejects the view that
normality and abnormality are sharply distinct. All
behaviours are acquired in the same way. It rejects the idea
that psychological disorders arise from underlying brain
dysfunctions and biochemical imbalances. All disorders are
maladaptive behaviours, arising from conditioning. It firmly
rejects any role for inheritance in abnormality.
However, the behavioural approach is also very critical of
the psychodynamic model, with its emphasis on concepts
like the Id, Ego and Superego, and processes like repression.
According to the behaviourists, all of these are unobservable
and unmeasurable.
A scientific approach? Behaviourists claim that their
approach is scientific - they focus exclusively on behaviour
that can be directly observed and measured. Behaviourists
claim support from a vast range of evidence from laboratory
experiments.
Reductionist, determinist and demeaning? Behaviourists
have been criticised for what many see as a simplistic and
narrow view of human behaviour. Can all human behaviour
be reduced to learning by association and reinforcement?
Behaviourism is an entirely deterministic account of human
behaviour. But are we really the prisoners of our
conditioning? Much of the laboratory evidence for
behaviourism comes from studies of non-human animals.
How far can experiments on rats apply to human beings?
Critics argue that a model which leaves out thoughts,
r
Key terms
Classical conditioning A form of learning based on an
association between two stimuli.
Operant conditioning A form of learning based on the use of
reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement The encouragement of behaviours by
means of rewards.
Negative reinforcement The encouragement of behaviours by
removing unpleasant events when those behaviours occur.
Systematic desensitisation Confronting feared objects or
situations in a calm and relaxed setting and associating these
feelings with them.
Aversion therapy A technique which aims to change
maladaptive behaviour by associating it with something
unpleasant.
Token economy A technique which reinforces appropriate
behaviour.by giving or withholding tokens which can be
exchanged for privileges.
mm
•P9H