Behavioral/Social Learning Approach PDF

334 Chapter 13 / The Behavioral/Social Learning Approach Direct Observation The most obvious way to find out how often a behavior occurs is to observe the person directly. Although a therapist usually can’t watch a client all day long, it is often possible to observe a representative sample of the...

334 Chapter 13 / The Behavioral/Social Learning Approach Direct Observation The most obvious way to find out how often a behavior occurs is to observe the person directly. Although a therapist usually can’t watch a client all day long, it is often possible to observe a representative sample of the client’s behavior. If you want to know how much time a girl spends interacting with children her own age, you can watch the child on the playground during several recesses. However, the therapist can’t be everywhere and probably won’t be present when a socially phobic person goes on a job interview or a married couple has an argument. In these cases, the psychologist might rely on analogue behavioral observation. That is, the therapist creates a situation that resembles the real-world setting in which the problem behavior is likely to occur. For example, a therapist might stage a dance for clients suffering from acute shyness or ask a couple to enter into a discussion that recently sparked a disagreement. Occasionally behavior therapists ask clients to role-play. A therapist helping a man to be more assertive might ask the client to imagine that someone just cut in front of him in line. The client then acts out what he would do in that situation. In this case, the way the client acts in the role-playing exercise is probably similar to the way he acts when confronting real-life situations. However, good behavioral assessment requires more than simply observing a person. The behaviors to be observed must first be defined as precisely as possible. This is fairly simple when talking about the number of cigarettes smoked, but what if the target behavior is “appropriate classroom responses”? In this case the therapist might define appropriate responses as those relevant to the topic being discussed or those in which the child waits for recognition before speaking. But even these definitions leave considerable room for observer interpretation. A good definition includes examples of behaviors to be counted and rules for dealing with borderline cases. One way to improve the accuracy of behavior observation is to have two or more observers independently code the same behaviors. For example, two judges can watch the same child during the same set of recesses. If the two largely agree on how often they count the target behavior, we can be confident that the number is fairly accurate. However, if one coder sees few behaviors and a second coder sees many, we have no idea how often the target behavior actually occurs. One solution is to videotape the behavior so that many different judges can be used and disagreements can be resolved by replaying the tape. Behavior therapists must also be concerned about bias. Sometimes observers unintentionally see what they want or what they expect to see. To guard against this problem, therapists should define behaviors in a manner that minimizes subjective judgment. If possible, they can use observers who don’t know what the therapist expects to find. Self-Monitoring Although direct observation provides a relatively accurate assessment of behavior frequency, it is often too costly and time consuming to be useful. An alternative is self-monitoring—clients observing themselves. However, simply asking clients how often they engage in a certain act may be of little help. Clients frequently have a Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 335 Courtesy of Marlene Somsak Assessment: Behavior Observation Methods Psychologists working with children often use direct observation. This procedure allows them to assess how a child plays alone, how parents interact with their child, or how well a child interacts with other children. Many psychologists have also discovered the value of videotaping behavior samples for more extensive observation and coding later. distorted idea about how often a behavior occurs. In addition, it is usually important to understand the circumstances surrounding the behavior. Are there places the client is particularly likely to become overly talkative, such as in front of strangers or at a party? Is the behavior associated with a certain time of day, a certain type of activity, or a certain mood? Unfortunately, few clients can provide accurate information about these variables from memory. Therefore, therapists often ask clients to keep records of when and where they engage in certain behaviors. Clients are sometimes surprised by what they find. For example, people trying to watch their weight may discover that they eat more when they’re alone, when they’re watching television, or after they’ve had a drink. An interesting benefit of the self-monitoring method is that watching your own behavior can be therapeutic in itself. Clients forced to pay attention to their eating or smoking sometimes show improvement even before the treatment is started. Self-monitoring can also be used to assess progress throughout the treatment period. Of course, one problem that sometimes surfaces is the client’s honesty. Clients may not want to admit that they ate junk food or lost their temper several times last week. Therapists who suspect a problem may want to use other assessment methods, such as the one discussed next. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 336 Chapter 13 / The Behavioral/Social Learning Approach Observation by Others Some clients are unwilling or simply unable to provide accurate information about themselves. For example, self-monitoring is probably inappropriate with children or those with severe psychological disorders. In these cases, it may be possible to rely on other people to make the observations. Parents and teachers can often record the frequency of a child’s problem behaviors. A teacher might be asked to record each time she punishes a child for acting aggressively. Nurses and aides can record the occurrence of patients’ behaviors. Although this process can introduce bias, it often provides the most accurate assessment of a client’s behavior. Many psychologists use these reports to complement data obtained through other methods. For example, children sometimes act differently in the presence of a therapist than they do at home. A client may be able to role-play the appropriate behaviors when confronting a make-believe manager but may become timid when facing the real boss at work. Getting family members involved in the process can have other advantages, such as making them aware of the client’s problem and of how their reactions might affect his or her behavior. Strengths and Criticisms of the Behavioral/ Social ­Learning Approach B ehaviorism roared into the discipline a century ago and put a grip on psychology that didn’t loosen for several decades. Although not as influential as it once was, behaviorism in various forms remains alive and well today. Theories that evolved from behaviorism, such as the social-cognitive approach, also remain popular. Obviously, the behavioral/social learning approach to personality could not have withstood this test of time without having some unique strengths. And of course, no theory as ­influential as this one can hope to escape criticism. Strengths One reason for the endurance of the behavioral/social learning approach is its solid foundation in empirical research. This contrasts with other approaches to personality, which are sometimes based on intuition or on data gathered from biased samples. Most of the theorists covered in this chapter relied on empirical data when developing and refining their theories. Critics often challenge the existence of Freud’s Oedipus complex, but it would be difficult to deny the mountain of evidence demonstrating that behaviors sometimes change through operant and classical conditioning. Another strength of the behavioral/social learning approach lies in the development of some useful therapeutic procedures. Studies find these procedures to be effective in treating a number of psychological problems, especially when combined with elements from cognitive therapies (Christensen, Atkins, Yi, Baucom, & George, 2006; Mitte, 2005; Shadish & Baldwin, 2005). Moreover, behavioral treatments are popular. One survey asked marriage and family therapists about their primary Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Strengths and Criticisms of the Behavioral/Social ­Learning Approach 337 treatment approach when working with clients (Northey, 2002). By a large margin, “cognitive-behavioral” was the most commonly cited approach. Treatments based on conditioning principles often have several advantages over other interventions. One advantage is the use of baseline data and objective criteria for determining success or failure. Other approaches often begin treatment without first determining the level of the problem; therapy is declared a success when the therapist or the client decides there has been some improvement. In addition, behavior therapy may be the most useful approach when working with certain populations, such as children or severely emotionally disturbed patients. These individuals might have a difficult time discussing abstract psychoanalytic concepts or dealing with some of the existential questions posed by humanistic therapists. Therapies based on conditioning principles also are relatively quick and easy to administer. Treatment often lasts a matter of weeks, compared with months or years with other approaches. The basic methods can be taught to parents, teachers, and hospital personnel, who can carry out the therapy without the therapist present. This means that more people can benefit from therapy procedures at a lower cost than is possible with most other types of psychotherapy. The social learning theories and Bandura’s social-cognitive theory added cognitive variables to the behavioral approach and thereby expanded the range of phenomena explained by this perspective. These theories have helped to fill in the gaps many psychologists see in traditional behaviorism. Social learning models of personality allow us to understand thoughts, expectancies, and values along with basic behavior conditioning principles within one theoretical framework. These models have also helped to bridge traditional behaviorism with cognitive approaches to personality. Criticisms A persistent criticism of the behavioral/social learning approach is that it is too narrow in its description of human personality. Although the approach touches on several crucial aspects of human experience such as thinking, emotion, and levels of consciousness, many psychologists feel that it does so in a limited way. ­Critics are particularly concerned with the Skinnerian brand of behaviorism, which rejects the usefulness of examining inner feelings and intuition. Others argue that the behavioral/social learning approach does not give adequate attention to the role of heredity. Another criticism, directed primarily at traditional behaviorism, is that human beings are more complex than the laboratory animals used in behavioral research. As Bandura and some of the social learning theorists recognize, people are capable of considering alternative courses of action, of weighing the probabilities and values of different reinforcers, of looking at long-term goals, and so forth. These critics do not deny that we often respond to stimuli in an automatic fashion or that some of our behaviors are conditioned. But they maintain that these are the least important and least interesting human behaviors. Despite the success of behavior therapists in dealing with many problem behaviors, some critics argue that these treatments sometimes distort the real therapy issues Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 338 Chapter 13 / The Behavioral/Social Learning Approach by reducing everything to observable behaviors. For example, a man who complains that he has no meaning in his life might be asked to define this abstract issue in terms of measurable behaviors. A behavior therapist might count the number of times the man engages in pleasant activities and set up a treatment program that rewards him for going to parties, talking with friends, reading good books, and so on. These activities might make the man feel better. However, critics might argue that the therapy has not addressed the real problem but has only temporarily diverted the client’s attention from the concerns that caused him to seek therapy. Summary 1. Behaviorism was introduced more than a century ago by John B. Watson. In its most extreme form, behaviorism limits psychology to the study of observable behaviors. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are used by behaviorists to explain the development and maintenance of behaviors. Personality is described as the end result of one’s history of conditioning. B. F. Skinner later became the spokesperson for what he called radical behaviorism. He rejected the use of inner states, such as anxiety, as explanations of behavior in favor of observable ­external events. 2. Traditional behaviorism identifies two basic kinds of conditioning. ­Classical conditioning occurs when a new stimulus is paired with an existing S-R bond. Operant conditioning results when a behavior is ­followed by either reinforcement or punishment. 3. Later social learning theorists expanded on the basic behaviorist position. Rotter argues that the probability of engaging in a behavior changes after rewards and punishments because our expectancies change. He uses these expectancies and the values given to particular reinforcers to predict which of many behavior options are enacted. 4. Bandura proposes that internal states, the environment, and behavior all affect one another. He maintains that people often regulate their own behavior and that we engage in purposeful, future-oriented thinking. Bandura has added to classical and operant conditioning the notion that we learn through observing others, although whether we perform the behaviors we learn depends on our expectancies for rewards or punishments. 5. Therapists often apply basic conditioning principles when working with their clients. Some of these therapeutic procedures, such as systematic desensitization, are based on classical conditioning. Others are based on operant conditioning. Bandura has identified clients’ self-efficacy beliefs as crucial for psychotherapy progress. Whether clients expect to succeed is an important determinant of therapy success. These expectancies come from a variety of sources, including past performance accomplishments and vicarious learning. 6. Behavioral assessment includes a variety of techniques, including direct observation, self-monitoring, and observation by others. Each of these Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Summary 339 techniques can provide useful data for determining baseline frequencies, the conditions under which the target behavior occurs, and the success of the treatment procedure. 7. The behavioral/social learning approach has its strengths and its criticisms. Among the strengths are its empirical base and the useful therapeutic procedures it has generated. The criticisms include an ­inappropriate attention to important causes of behavior. People have also criticized the way behavior therapists interpret problems into observable behaviors. Key Terms classical conditioning (p. 315) operant conditioning (p. 317) observational learning (p. 324) reciprocal determinism (p. 323) self-efficacy (p. 331) ­ Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.