Abnormal Psychology

The History of Abnormal Psychology 23

1986, 1987). These psychologists focused their research on the associa-

tion between a behavior and its consequences—factors that infl uence

whether a behavior is likely to recur. For instance, to the extent that

using a drug has pleasurable consequences, an individual is more likely

to use the drug again.

At about the same time in Russia, Nobel-Prize–winning physi-

ologist Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) accidentally discovered an associa-

tion between a refl exive behavior and its antecedents, an association

created by a process sometimes referred to as Pavlovian conditioning

(Pavlov, 1936). He studied salivation in dogs, and he noticed that

dogs increased their salivation both while they were eating (which

he predicted—the increased salivation when eating is a reflexive

behavior) and right before they were fed (which he did not predict).

After investigating why this latter salivation might occur, he deter-

mined that the dogs began salivating when they heard the approach-

ing footsteps of the person feeding them. The feeder’s footsteps (a neutral stimulus)

became associated with the stimulus of food in the mouth, thus leading the dogs to

salivate when hearing the sound of footsteps; the dogs’ past association between the

feeder’s footsteps and subsequent food led to a behavior change.

Pavlov investigated the refl exive behavior of salivation, but other researchers

have found that refl exive fear-related behaviors (such as a startle response) can be

conditioned in the same fashion. These fi ndings contributed to the understanding of

how the severe fears and anxieties that are part of many psychological disorders can

arise—how neutral stimuli that have in the past been paired with fear-inducing ob-

jects or events can, by themselves, come to induce fear or anxiety. We will consider

such conditioning in more detail in Chapter 2.

Among the most important insights of behaviorism, then, is that a person’s be-

havior, including maladaptive behavior, can result from learning—from a previous

association with an object, situation, or event. Big Edie appears to have developed

maladaptive behaviors related to a fear of being alone. This may have been a result

of past negative experiences with (and the resulting associations to) being alone.

The behaviorist approach has also accounted for some aspects of substance abuse,

including alcoholism, which can arise because of the association between drink-

ing and feeling more relaxed soon after drinking: Based on past experiences with

alcohol, someone who wants to become less tense may reach for a bottle. Behavior-

ists have discovered different ways that associations can be learned, and each sort

of learning can affect psychological disorders (we will discuss forms of learning in

Chapter 2 and treatments based on these forms of learning in Chapter 4).

Behaviorism ushered in new explanations of—and treatments for—some psy-

chological disorders, but researchers soon learned that not all psychological prob-

lems could readily be explained as a result of maladaptive learning. Rather, mental

processes and mental contents are clearly involved in the development and mainte-

nance of many psychological disorders. The behaviorists’ emphasis on controlled,

objective observation and on the importance of the situation, however, had a deep

and lasting impact on the fi eld of psychopathology.

The Cognitive Contribution

Psychodynamic and behaviorist explanations of psychological disorders seemed in-

compatible. Psychodynamic theory emphasized private mental processes and mental

contents; behaviorist theories emphasized directly observable behavior. Then, the

late 1950s and early 1960s saw the rise of cognitive psychology, the area of psy-

chology that studies mental processes starting from the analogy of information pro-

cessing by a computer. Researchers developed new, behaviorally based methods to

track the course of hidden mental processes, and these mental processes began to be

demystifi ed. If a mental process is like a computer program, direct connections can

be made between observable events (such as changes in the time it takes to respond

to different stimuli) and mental processes.

Behaviorism focuses on observable behaviors

and their consequences. According to behavior-

ists, maladaptive behaviors that are related to

psychological disorders, such as drinking too

much alcohol, can arise because the pleasurable

consequences of the behavior lead people to want

to engage in it again.

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