treatment of Abnormal Behavior ❮ 247Classical Conditioning Therapies
After Watson conditioned Baby Albert to fear a rat, he planned to remove the fear but
Albert was taken away. Soon thereafter, Mary Cover Jones worked with a young child who
feared white rabbits, rats, and similar stimuli. Over several months, she gradually intro-
duced a rabbit closer and closer to the child while he ate and played. The boy’s fear was
gradually eliminated. Joseph Wolpe dubbed her “the mother of behavior therapy.”
Classical conditioning therapies involving reconditioning include the countercondi-
tioning techniques of systematic desensitization, flooding, and aversive conditioning.
- Originally called reciprocal inhibition, systematic desensitization is a behavior therapy
founded on the idea that an anxiety response is inhibited by an incompatible relaxation
response. Joseph Wolpe explained systematic desensitization as reconditioning so that
the crucial conditioned stimulus elicits the new conditioned response. The procedure has
three steps. First, the client is taught progressive relaxation. Next, the therapist and client
create an anxiety hierarchy of all associated fears from the least-feared to the most-feared
stimulus. For example, for school phobia, they may list the following situations: thinking
about going to school, seeing a picture of the school, getting on the school bus, walking
toward the school, opening the school door, and finally sitting in the classroom. Third,
the therapist has the student imagine each of the fearful associations beginning with the
least-feared stimulus, the mere thought of going to school, and pairs it with relaxation.
After the student can relax with this fear, the process is repeated, finally ascending to the
most fear- provoking stimulus of actually sitting in the classroom. When the student can
sit in the classroom and be completely relaxed, the relaxation response is effective for
inhibiting the fear response. Systematic desensitization is typically accomplished within
10 sessions. - Flooding is an exposure technique, another classical conditioning treatment for phobias
and other anxiety disorders, that extinguishes the conditioned response. As a result of
the client directly confronting the anxiety-provoking stimulus, extinction is achieved;
the feared stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) is repeatedly presented without the reason
for being afraid (the unconditioned stimulus). For example, if someone afraid of dogs
is repeatedly exposed to friendly dogs that do not bite, the fear associated with the dogs
will eventually be extinguished. - Yet another form of behavior therapy based on the principles of classical conditioning,
aversive conditioning, trains the client to associate physical or psychological discomfort
with behaviors, thoughts, or situations he or she wants to stop or avoid. One example
of aversive conditioning uses a drug called Antabuse (US) to discourage the use of
alcohol. By itself, the drug has no chemical effect, but when paired with alcohol (CS),
the combination causes extreme nausea (CR). Similar to taste aversions discussed in
Chapter 10, after very few pairings of Antabuse and alcohol, the client learns to avoid
alcohol. Without an occasional pairing of the Antabuse with the alcohol again, this new
response can easily be extinguished.
Operant Conditioning Therapies
Operant conditioning therapies include contingency management techniques of behavior
modification and token economies designed to change behavior by modifying its conse-
quences. In both, rewards are used to reinforce target behaviors.
- In behavior modification, the client selects a goal and, with each step toward it, receives
a small reward until the intended goal is finally achieved. Weight Watchers and other
weight-reducing programs use this method to keep clients motivated. - In token economies, positive behaviors are rewarded with secondary reinforcers
(tokens, points, etc.), which can eventually be exchanged for extrinsic rewards, such as food.