Over the course of their studies, psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors become familiar with behaviorism. You can see this school of thought as a piece of the puzzle that explains human behavior and mental health disorders, such as anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, phobias, addictions, or any other maladaptive behaviors (avoidance behaviors, disordered eating, self-harm, etc. ) ). Based on this school of thought, therapies have been developed to treat mental health conditions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay As scientific research in psychology and psychotherapy continued, behaviorism expanded and other schools of thought emerged. Knowledge of all the major schools of thought and treatment modalities in the field of psychology forms the core curriculum of any accredited undergraduate degree in psychology and provides psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors with the qualifications to use evidence-based treatment methods for 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 had temporarily inserted tubes into the dogs' cheeks to collect saliva during the meal. After several feeding sessions Pavlov noticed that the dogs began to salivate when they felt food being brought to them rather than when it was put in their mouths. Pavlov observed that the dogs recognized that they associated the sound of bringing food with food. Since the sound of pickling food was always heard immediately before bringing the food, the dogs began to salivate at the sound of that sound, as if it were the food. To further exploit this surprise, Pavlov in the next round of experiments would ring a bell just before the food was given to the dogs. As expected, over time the dogs only salivated in response to the ringing of the bell. As often happens in scientific research, he had accidentally discovered a very important principle in learning, which he called conditioning. He came to believe that all human thought, emotion, and language arose 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 the early accounts of Pavlov's work, due to its scientific precision and lack of introspection. He agreed that this discovery provided profound insight into human behavior and concluded that most human behavior is learned through classical conditioning. Because of its focus 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 apply specific treatments based on this school of thought during counseling. 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 became frightened and nearly drowned, when a large dog jumped into the water and knocked the child to the ground. This matingit may have been so intense that, even as an adult, it left a conditioned fear of water, even though the dog and the water rationally had nothing to do with each other. Behavioral scientists who specialize in phobias suggest that many, but probably not all, human phobias are the result of classical conditioning. In 1920 Watson and his partner 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 dawn of psychology, a code of ethics has been developed that prohibits any experimentation that could cause harm to a subject. Little Albert: Classically Conditioned Fear Albert was given permission to play with a white laboratory mouse to find out if he was afraid of mice. Based on observation, little Albert was not afraid of mice. Then, while he was playing with the white mouse, an iron bar was struck loudly with a hammer behind the boy's head. The boy was surprised and began to cry loudly. After seven of these pairings (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 mouse through classical conditioning. Furthermore, 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 some white cotton balls and a Santa Claus mask. Psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors also understand that classical conditioning can play a significant role in psychosomatic illnesses. A psychosomatic illness is a bodily illness of psychological and non-biological origin (psycho=psychological, soma=body). Evidence gathered by Dutch researchers has shown that they can classically condition asthma attacks to a previously neutral stimulus. These psychologists were lucky enough to have two volunteers for their experiment. Two asthmatic patients took part in the study, one with allergic sensitivity to grass pollen and the other to house dust. First, they inhaled the substance they were allergic to through a glass mouthpiece and each had a full-blown asthma attack. This pairing was so effective that during their time in the lab the subjects suffered allergy attacks as soon as the glass mouthpiece was placed in their mouths, even though it only contained oxygen. It was evident that their asthma attacks were classically conditioned. This raises the possibility that asthmatics may learn to have some of their attacks on neutral stimuli outside the laboratory. It is through the work conducted by BF Skinner at Harvard University that psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors gain further insight into how learning can impact behavior and mental health. He emphasized the importance of learning in shaping our behaviors. Skinner was a radical behaviorist and postulated that events or mental processes are not completely necessary to describe why people behave in certain ways. Radical behaviorists essentially try to think of behavior as a “black box,” meaning that whatever happens in the mind is irrelevant to psychology. According to radical behaviorism, there are simply stimuli that come along and influence how people behave, and then there are responses, or behaviors,as a result of such 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 about how we acquire behaviors. Positive reinforcement: is defined as any consequence of behavior that leads to an increase in the probability of its occurrence. In the modern world of work, 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 refer to this as the “Skinner Box”. He discovered 4 different reinforcement schedules that have a profound effect on behavior. Fixed Ratio Program: This is a reward that is awarded after a specified number of desired responses. Variable Ratio Program: Here the reward is given after a variable number of desired responses Fixed Interval Program: The reward is given based on a predetermined period of time. Variable interval schedule: The reward is awarded based on a variable period of time. Negative Reinforcement: This type of reinforcement is the removal or avoidance of a negative event as a result of the behavior. For example. If you assertively ask a neighbor to turn off the loud music and the noise stops, your assertiveness will be strengthened because you have managed 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 the cessation of a negative event. Avoidance Conditioning: This is operant conditioning in which behavior is reinforced because it prevents something negative from happening that would normally happen. Punishment: negative consequence of a behavior that leads to a decrease in the frequency of the behavior. Some simple examples are speeding tickets or DEWA shutting you down for not paying your bills on time. Psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors are aware of the various forms of learning that can cause "abnormal" behavior. Here we are looking at maladaptive behaviors simply learned from anomalous experiences of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observing other people's behavior (this is called modeling). To put it another way, the individual deviates from the norm in his behaviors because his environment has taught him to do so. The logical deduction from this train of thought is that people can unlearn abnormal ways of behaving and learn adaptive behaviors. Based on this concept, some psychotherapeutic treatments have been developed which are 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: treatments for anxiety, treatment for depression, treatment for phobia, treatment for schizophrenia? The basic premise of behaviorism is that psychotherapy or counseling is based on learning in which the therapist or counselor provides advice to help the client unlearn abnormal ways of behavior and learn more adaptive ways to take their place. Here is an example based on the research findings of Ayllon and Haughton, 1964. Ayllon observed that when delusional schizophrenic patients made delusional statements, they receivedmore attention from the assistants than when they made "normal" statements. For example, when a patient said she was the Queen of England and wanted to smoke and salute King George, she received a lot of attention from the nurse. The psychologist Ayllon hypothesized, based on behaviorism, that this attention favors making “crazy” statements. He conducted a clinical experiment with 3 schizophrenic women who made delusional statements with high frequency. First, he measured the number of delusional statements in a given period of time to create a baseline. He then ordered the assistants 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 the treatment, the assistants were asked not to pay attention to the delusional statements, but to pay attention when the patients made normal statements. As expected, based on behaviorism, the number of delusional statements decreased dramatically and well below the baseline level, while normal statements increased significantly. These findings represented a significant breakthrough in the treatment of schizophrenic individuals to shape their behaviors into reality-based behaviors. Ayllon's findings show that our behaviors can be influenced, to a large extent, by subtle reinforcers such as the amount of attention we receive. The principles of behaviorism not only come into play in the field of mental health and the treatment of mental disorders, but also in the field of parenting and education. Behavioral therapy also lends itself to reducing fear in the case of abnormal fears, which psychologists, psychotherapists and qualified counselors call phobias. The treatment of phobias in this case is based on the extinction of the fear that arises in response to a stimulus and its replacement 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 multiple steps. In essence, it is a behavioral therapy method for treating phobias in which the client is taught not to fear phobic stimuli by learning to relax in the presence of gradually more threatening stimuli. The treating psychologist, psychotherapist or consultant and the client create a list that indicates the level of fear regarding the feared stimulus and is ranked from lowest to highest. Then the client receives training in progressive relaxation. This is a method of learning to deeply relax the muscles of the body. During this deep state of relaxation, the client learns to be relaxed with any level of fear. The result is that the phobia becomes extinct. Psychologist Thomas Stampfl (1967) invented flooding as a treatment for phobia. This alternative to systematic desensitization takes less time to implement and can be used with clients seeking treatment for phobia and who cannot easily relax their muscles. In this phobia treatment the psychologist, psychotherapist or counselor creates a situation in which the client is inundated with high levels of fear for prolonged periods of time. Typically, this is done in one extended session of 2 to 8 hours. The session does not end until the fear response is extinguished and the phobic stimulus is no longer capable of eliciting the fear response. Sometimes this is done only with imagination; however, the best.