Contemporary behavior therapy

-had significant impact on:

Education
Psychology
Psychotherapy
Psychiatry
Social Work
-Behavioral techniques were expanded to provide solutions for business, industry and child rearing problem.
- known as the “first wave” in the behavioral field.
-techniques were viewed as the treatment of choice for many psychological problems.
In 1980’s
-Increased attention was given to the role of emotions in therapeutic change as well as the role of biological factors in
psychological disorders.
Two (2) most significant development occurred:
1. The continued emergence of cognitive behavior therapy as a major force
2. The application of behavioral techniques to the prevention and treatment of health related disorders.
In 1990’s
-Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies
-formerly known as the Association for Advancement of Behavioral Therapy
-claimed 4,300 members
-Cognitive therapy was considered to be the “second wave” of the behavioral tradition.
In 2000’s
-the “third wave” of the behavioral tradition emerged, enlarging the scope of research and practice.
-newest development:
- Dialectical behavior therapy - Its main goals are to teach people how to live in the moment, develop healthy
ways to cope with stress, regulate their emotions, and improve their relationships with others.
-Mindfulness based stress reduction
- Mindfulness based cognitive therapy
-Acceptance and commitment therapy
Four areas of Development:
 Classical conditioning (respondent conditioning) refers to what happens
prior to learning that creates a response through pairing
Ivan Pavlov, illustrated classical conditioning through experiments with dogs.
Example of a procedure that is based on classical conditioning is Joseph Wolpe’s systematic Desensitization
Desensitization - a reduction in emotional or physical reactivity to stimuli that is achieved by such means as
deconditioning techniques.
 Operant conditioning involves a type of learning in which behaviors are influenced mainly by the consequences that follow
them.
 social learning approach (or the social-cognitive approach), developed by Albert Bandura and Richard Walters
(1963), is interactional, interdisciplinary, and multimodal (Bandura, 1977, 1982)
-the environmental events on behavior are mainly determined
by cognitive processes governing how environmental influences are perceived
by an individual and how these events are interpreted.
 Cognitive behavior therapy
emphasizing the interaction among affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions (Lazarus, 2003; Wilson, 2008).

Key concepts:
View of Human nature:
-the person is the producer and the product of his or her environment.
-Aim: to increase people’s skills so that they have more options for
responding.