During their studies, psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors become familiar with behaviorism. This school of thought can be considered a piece of the puzzle that explains human behavior and mental health disorders, such as anxiety, OCD, phobias, addictions, or other maladaptive behaviors (avoidant behaviors, eating disorders, self-harm, etc. Based on this school of thought, therapies have been developed to treat mental health problems. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games. should not be banned”? Get an original essay As scientific research in the field of psychology and psychotherapy continued, behaviorism developed and other schools of thought emerged Knowledge of all. Important schools of thought and treatment modalities in the field of psychology constitutes the core curriculum of any accredited university degree in psychology and gives psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors the qualifications to use evidence-based treatment methods to mental health disorders and to facilitate personal development and growth. Ivan Pavlov is considered the father of behaviorism. This late 19th century Russian biologist was conducting research on digestion in dogs when he noticed something interesting. For his research, he temporarily inserted tubes into the cheeks of dogs to collect saliva during meals. After several feeding sessions, Pavlov noticed that the dogs began to salivate when they heard the food being brought to them rather than when it was put in their mouths. Pavlov observed that the dogs recognized associating the sound of food being brought with food. Since the sound of brining food always occurred right before bringing the food, the dogs began to salivate at the sound as if it were the food. To take this surprise discovery further, Pavlov, in the next round of experiments, would ring the bell just before the food was given to the dogs. As expected, over time, the dogs were just salivating in response to the sound of the bell. As so often happened in scientific research, he had accidentally discovered a very important principle in learning, which he called conditioning. He came to believe that all human thoughts, emotions, and language derived from this simple form of learning that psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors call classical or Pavlovian conditioning. John B. Watson, an American psychologist, was deeply impressed by early reports of Pavlov's work, because of the scientific precision and lack of introspection. He recognized that this discovery provided deep insight into human behavior and concluded that most human behavior is learned through classical conditioning. Because of the emphasis on precisely measuring overt behavior, Watson called the new school of thought, based on his and Pavlov's principles, behaviorism. Psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors use their knowledge of classical conditioning to understand the origins of certain mental health disorders and, when counseling, apply specific treatments based on this school of thought. According to behaviorism, phobias and psychosomatic illnesses are based on classical conditioning. A phobia is an intense irrational fear, such as the fear of needles, flying, birds,insects, etc. Imagine, for example, that a child playing in a swimming pool becomes frightened and almost drowns when a large dog jumps into the water and knocks the child over. This pairing may have been so intense that, even into adulthood, it left a conditioned fear of water, even though the dog and the water had rationally nothing to do with each other. other. Behavioral scientists specializing in phobias suggest that many, but probably not all, human phobias are the result of classical conditioning. In 1920, Watson and his associate Rayner conducted an experiment with little Albert that became the most widely cited example of classical conditioning of a phobia. All qualified psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors have studied this experiment. What should be noted at this point is that such experimentation would not be considered ethical by today's standards. Since the early years of psychology, a code of ethics has been developed that prohibits any experimentation that could harm a subject. Little Albert: Classically Conditioned FearAlbert was given permission to play with a white laboratory rat to find out if he was afraid of rats. According to observations, little Albert was not afraid of rats. Then, while he was playing with the white rat, an iron bar was struck loudly with a hammer behind the boy's head. The boy was surprised and started crying loudly. After seven such pairs (playing with the white rat and sudden loud noise), little Albert showed a strong fear response when given the rat to play with. He had learned to fear the rat through classical conditioning. Additionally, the fear generalized to other similar objects. Five days later, Albert reacted with fear to a white rabbit, a dog and a sealskin coat. He also got a little scared when he saw white cotton balls and a Santa Claus mask. Psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors also understand that classical conditioning may play an important role in psychosomatic illnesses. A psychosomatic illness is a bodily illness of psychological rather than biological origin (psycho=psychological, soma=body). Evidence collected by Dutch researchers showed that they can classically condition asthma attacks to a previously neutral stimulus. These psychologists were lucky to have two volunteers for their experiment. Two asthmatic patients, one with allergic sensitivity to grass pollen and the other to house dust, participated in the study. First, they inhaled the substance they were allergic to through a glass mouthpiece and each suffered a full-blown asthma attack. This combination was so effective that the first time they were brought to the laboratory, the subjects suffered allergy attacks as soon as the glass tip was placed in their mouth, even though it only contained oxygen. It was evident that their asthma attacks were classically conditioned. This raises the possibility that asthmatics learn to subject some of their attacks to neutral stimuli outside the laboratory. It is through the work of BF Skinner at Harvard University that psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors are gaining additional knowledge about the impact of learning on behavior and mental health. He emphasized the importance of learning in shaping our behaviors. Skinner was a radical behaviorist and argued that mental events or processes are completely useless in describing why people behave the way they do. Radical behaviorists essentially attempt to view behavior as a“black box”, meaning that everything that happens in the mind has nothing to do with psychology. According to radical behaviorism, there are simply stimuli that enter and influence the way people behave, and then there are responses, or behaviors, resulting from those stimuli. Skinner coined the term operant conditioning. This psychologist defined operant conditioning as follows: learning in which the consequence of a behavior leads to changes in the probability of its occurrence. He identified 3 important concepts in how we acquire behaviors. Positive reinforcement: is defined as any consequence of a behavior that results in an increase in the probability of its occurrence. In the modern workplace, for example, pay increases based on job performance will most likely increase productive work behavior. Psychologist BF Skinner conducted research on laboratory rats to analyze how the timing of reinforcement influences behavior. Psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors often call this the “Skinner Box.” He discovered 4 different reinforcement schedules that have a profound effect on behavior. Fixed Ratio Schedule: This is a reward that is given after a specified number of desired responses. Variable ratio schedule: here, the reward is given after a variable number of desired responses. Fixed Interval Schedule: The reward is given based on a predetermined time interval. Variable interval program: the reward is awarded based on a variable duration. Negative reinforcement: This type of reinforcement is the suppression or avoidance of a negative event as a consequence of a behavior. E.g. If you confidently ask a neighbor to turn off their loud music and the noise stops, your confidence will be boosted because you were able to avoid the loud noise. There are two types of operant learning to shape our behaviors: Escape conditioning: This is operant conditioning in which behavior is reinforced because it causes a negative event to stop. Avoidance Conditioning: This is operant conditioning in which the behavior is reinforced because it prevents something negative that would normally happen from happening. Punishment: Negative consequence of a behavior which leads to a reduction in the frequency of this behavior. Some simple examples are speeding fines, or if DEWA has cut it, you don't pay your bills on time. Psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors are aware of the different forms of learning that can cause “abnormal” behavior. Here we look at maladaptive behaviors that are simply learned from abnormal experiences in classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and by observing the behavior of others (this is called modeling). In other words, the individual deviates from the norm in his behavior because his environment has taught him so. The logical deduction from this reasoning is that people can unlearn abnormal behaviors and learn adaptive behaviors. Based on this concept, certain psychotherapeutic treatments have been developed and implemented with the help of a qualified psychologist or counselor. How do mental health professionals, such as psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors, apply this knowledge in the treatment of mental health disorders: anxiety treatments, depression treatment, phobia treatment, treatment schizophrenia? The basic principle of behaviorism is that psychotherapy or counseling is based on alearning in which the therapist or counselor provides guidance to help the client unlearn abnormal behaviors and learn more adaptive ways to take their place. Here is an example based on the research results of Ayllon and Haughton, 1964. Ayllon observed that when delusional schizophrenic patients made delusional statements, they received more attention from attendants than when they made delusional statements “normal”. For example, when a patient said she was the Queen of England and wanted to smoke and greet King George, she received a lot of attention from the attendant. Psychologist Ayllon hypothesized, based on behaviorism, that this attention reinforced "crazy" statements. He conducted a clinical experiment with 3 schizophrenic women who made high frequency delusional statements. First, it measured the number of delusional statements during a given period to establish a baseline. Then he asked the attendants to pay attention to the patients whenever a delusional statement was made. During this phase of the experiment, the number of delusional statements increased significantly. During the third phase, which was the therapeutic phase of treatment, attendants were instructed not to pay attention to delusional statements, but to pay attention when patients made normal statements. As expected, based on behaviorism, the number of delusional statements decreased dramatically and well below baseline, while normal statements increased significantly. These findings were a significant advance in treating people with schizophrenia to shape their behaviors into reality-based ones. Ayllon's findings show that our behaviors can be influenced, to a large extent, by subtle reinforcers like the amount of attention we receive. The principles of behaviorism come into play not only in the field of mental health and the treatment of mental health disorders, but also in the field of parenting and education. Behavioral therapy also lends itself to fear reduction in cases of abnormal fears, which qualified psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors call phobias. Treatment of phobias in this case involves extinguishing the fear that arises in response to a stimulus and replacing it with a relaxation response. The two most common approaches to treating phobias are: systematic desensitization and flooding. Psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe (1958) developed systematic desensitization treatment for the treatment of phobias. Its procedure is complex and involves several steps. Essentially, it is a method of behavioral therapy for the treatment of phobias in which the client learns not to fear phobic stimuli by learning to relax in the presence of increasingly threatening stimuli. The treating psychologist, psychotherapist or counselor and the client create a list that indicates the level of fear regarding the feared stimulus and it is ordered from lowest to highest. Then the client receives training on progressive relaxation. It is a method for learning to deeply relax the muscles of the body. During this deep state of relaxation, the client learns to relax at each level of fear. The result is that the phobia dies away. Psychologist Thomas Stampfl (1967) invented flooding as a treatment for phobia. This alternative to routine desensitization takes less time to implement and can be used with clients seeking treatment.