BEHAVIOURAL VIEWPOINT OF ABNORMALITY

1- The beh perspective was organised around a central theme- the role of
learning in human behaviour. Learning—the modification of behavior as a
consequence of experience

2- Behavioral psychologists believed that the study of subjective experience

(e.g., free association and dream analysis) did not provide acceptable
scientific data because such observations were not open to verification by other
investigators. In their view, only the study of directly observable behavior and
of the stimuli and reinforcing conditions that control it could serve as a basis
for understanding human behavior, normal and abnormal.

3- This perspective was developed through laboratory research rather than clinical
practice with patients; however, its implications for explaining and treating
maladaptive behavior soon became evident.

4- ROOTS: As we noted the roots of the behavioral perspective are in:

a) Pavlov’s study of classical conditioning and
b) in Thorndike’s study of instrumental conditioning (later renamed operant
conditioning by Skinner; today both terms are used).
c) Watson’s book Behaviorism -The behavioral approach really came together
with the 1924 publication of Watson’s book Behaviorism.

Behaviorists focus on the effects of environmental conditions (stimuli) on

the acquisition, modification, and possible elimination of various types of
response patterns, both adaptive and maladaptive.

5- CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
a) The hallmark of classical conditioning is that a formerly neutral stimulus
—the CS—acquires the capacity to elicit biologically adaptive responses
through repeated pairings with the UCS (e.g., Bouton, 2007; Domjan, 2009).

b) A specific stimulus may come to elicit a specific response through the process of
classical conditioning. For example, although food naturally elicits salivation, a
stimulus that reliably precedes and signals the presentation of food will also come to
elicit salivation (Pavlov, 1927). In this case, food is the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
and salivation the unconditioned response (UCR). A stimulus that signals food delivery
and eventually elicits salivation is called a conditioned stimulus (CS). Conditioning has
occurred when presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone elicits salivation—the
conditioned response (CR). The same general process occurs when a neutral CS is
paired with a painful or frightening stimulus such as a mild electric shock or loud
noise, as illustrated in Figure 3.6, although in this case fear rather than salivation is
conditioned.

c) However, we also now know that this process of classical conditioning is not as
blind or automatic as was once thought. Rather, it seems that animals (and people)
actively acquire information about what CSs allow them to predict, expect, or prepare
for an upcoming biologically significant event (the UCS). That is, they learn what is
often called a stimulus-stimulus expectancy. Indeed, only CSs that provide reliable
and nonredundant information about the occurrence of a UCS acquire the capacity to
elicit CRs (Hall, 1994; Rescorla, 1988). For example, if UCSs occur as often without
being preceded by a CS as they do with the CS, conditioning will not occur because
the CS in this case does not provide reliable information about the occurrence of the
UCS.
Classically conditioned responses are well maintained over time; that is, they are not
simply forgotten (even over many years). However, if a CS is repeatedly presented
without the UCS, the conditioned response gradually extinguishes. This gradual
process, known as extinction, should not be confused with the idea of unlearning
because we know that the response may return at some future point in time (a
phenomenon Pavlov called spontaneous recovery). Moreover, a somewhat weaker
CR may also still be elicited in different environmental contexts than in the one where
the extinction process took place (Bouton, 1994, 2002; Bouton
et al., 2006). Thus, any extinction of fear that has taken place in a therapist’s office
may not necessarily generalize completely and automatically to other contexts
outside the therapist’s office (see Craske & Mystkowski, 2006; Mystkowski & Mineka,
2007).

d) As we shall see later, these principles of extinction and spontaneous

recovery have important implications for many forms of behavioral
treatment. Classical conditioning is important in abnormal psychology
because many physiological and emotional responses can be conditioned,
including those related to fear, anxiety, or sexual arousal and those
stimulated by drugs of abuse. Thus, for example, one can learn a fear of the dark
if fear-producing stimuli (such as frightening dreams or fantasies) occur regularly in
the dark, or one can acquire a fear of snakes if bitten by a snake (Mineka & — Sutton,
2006; Mineka & Zinbarg, 2006). In addition, a young man who has his first few
powerful sexual experiences (UCR) with a very attractive woman (UCS) wearing some
form of distinctive clothing (CS—such as black fishnet stockings) may find in the
future that he becomes very sexually aroused (CR) simply upon seeing fishnet
stockings.

6- OPERANT CONDITIONING
a) In operant (or instrumental) conditioning, an individual learns how to
achieve a desired goal. The goal in question may be to obtain something
that is rewarding or to escape from something that is unpleasant.
b) Essential here is the concept of reinforcement, which refers either to the
delivery of a reward or pleasant stimulus, or to the removal of or escape
from an aversive stimulus. New responses are learned and tend to recur if
they are reinforced.

c) It is now believed that the animal or person learns a response–outcome

expectancy (e.g., Domjan, 2005)—that is, learns that a response will lead to a reward
outcome, although it was originally thought that instrumental conditioning consisted
of simple strengthening of a stimulus–response connection every time that
reinforcement occurred. If sufficiently motivated for that outcome (e.g., being
hungry), the person will make the response that he or she has learned produces the
outcome (e.g., opening the refrigerator).
Initially a high rate of reinforcement may be necessary to establish an instrumental
response, but lesser rates are usually sufficient to maintain it. In fact, an instrumental
response appears to be especially persistent when reinforcement is intermittent—
when the reinforcing stimulus does not invariably follow the response—as
demonstrated in gambling, when occasional wins seem to maintain high rates of
responding. However, when reinforcement is consistently withheld over time, the
conditioned response— whether classical or instrumental—gradually extinguishes. In
short, the subject eventually stops making the response.
Conditioned avoidance response- A special problem arises in situations in which a
subject has been conditioned to anticipate an aversive event and so consistently
avoids those situations. For example, a boy who has nearly drowned in a swimming
pool may develop a fear of water and a conditioned avoidance response in which
he consistently avoids all large bodies of water. According to one influential theory,
when he sees a pond, lake, or swimming pool, he feels anxious; running away and
avoiding contact lessens his anxiety and thus is reinforcing. As a result, his avoidance
response is highly resistant to extinction. It also prevents him from having
experiences with water that could bring about extinction of his fear. In later
discussions, we will see that conditioned avoidance responses play a role in many
patterns of abnormal behavior.

d) As we grow up, instrumental learning becomes an important mechanism

for discriminating between what
will prove rewarding and what will prove unrewarding— and thus for acquiring
the behaviors essential for coping with our world. Unfortunately, what we learn is not
always useful in the long run. We may learn to value things (such as cigarettes or
alcohol) that seem attractive in the short run but that can actually hurt us in the long
run, or we may learn coping patterns (such as helplessness, bullying, or other
irresponsible behaviors) that are maladaptive rather than adaptive in the long
run.

7- GENERALIZATION AND DISCRIMINATION

The concepts of generalization and discrimination have many implications
for the development of maladaptive
Behavior
- In both classical and instrumental conditioning, when a response is conditioned to
one stimulus or set of stimuli, it can be evoked by other, similar stimuli; this
process is called generalization. A person who fears bees, for example, may
generalize that fear to all flying insects.
- A process complementary to generalization is discrimination, which occurs when
a person learns to distinguish between similar stimuli and to respond differently to
them based on which ones are followed by reinforcement. For example, because
red strawberries taste good and green ones do not, a conditioned discrimination
will occur if a person has experience with both.
- Although generalization enables us to use past experiences in sizing up new
situations, the possibility of making inappropriate generalizations always exists, as
when a troubled adolescent fails to discriminate between friendly and hostile
teasing from peers.
- In some instances, an important discrimination seems to be beyond an individual’s
capability (as when a bigoted person deals with others on the basis of stereotypes
rather than as individuals) and may lead to inappropriate and maladaptive
behavior.

8- OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING/VICARIOUS LEARNING

a) Human and nonhuman primates are also capable of observational learning—
that is, learning through observation alone, without directly experiencing an
unconditioned stimulus (for classical conditioning) or a reinforcement (for instrumental
conditioning). For instance, children can acquire new fears by simply observing a
parent or peer behaving fearfully with some object or situation that the child did not
initially fear. In this case, they experience the fear of the parent or peer vicariously,
and that fear becomes attached to the formerly neutral object (Mineka & Oehlberg,
2008; Mineka & Sutton, 2006).

b) For observational instrumental learning, Bandura did a classic series of

experiments in the 1960s on how
children observationally learned various novel, aggressive responses toward a large
Bobo doll after they had
observed models being reinforced for these responses (see Bandura, 1969). Although
the children themselves were never directly reinforced for showing these novel
aggressive responses, they nonetheless showed them
when given the opportunity to interact with the Bobo doll themselves.
c) The possibilities for observational conditioning of both classical and instrumental
responses greatly expand our opportunities for learning both adaptive and
maladaptive behavior.

9- IMPACT OF THE BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE

I. Because there was so much resistance from well-entrenched supporters of
psychoanalysis, behavior therapy did not become well established as a powerful way
of viewing and treating abnormal behavior until the 1960s and 1970s. By then, the
behavioral assault on the prevailing psychodynamic doctrine of the time (Salter, 1949;
Wolpe, 1958) was well under way and important evidence had been gathered on the
power of behavior therapy techniques.
II. By means of a relatively few basic concepts, the behavioral perspective attempts
to explain the acquisition, modification, and extinction of nearly all types of behavior.
III. Maladaptive behavior is viewed as essentially the result of (1) a failure to learn
necessary adaptive behaviors or competencies, such as how to establish satisfying
personal relationships, and/or (2) the learning of ineffective or maladaptive responses.
Maladaptive behavior is thus the result of learning that has gone awry and is defined
in terms of specific, observable, undesirable responses.
IV. For the behavior therapist, the focus of therapy is on changing specific behaviors
and emotional responses— eliminating undesirable reactions and learning desirable
ones. For example, fears and phobias can be successfully treated by prolonged
exposure to the feared objects or situations— an extinction procedure derived from
principles of extinction of classical conditioning. Or an inappropriate sexual attraction
to a deviant stimulus (such as prepubertal children) can be altered by pairing pictures
of the deviant stimuli with a foul odor or another unpleasant stimulus.
V. Classic work using the principles of instrumental conditioning also showed that
institutionalized people with
chronic mental illness can be retaught basic living skills such as clothing and feeding
themselves through the use of tokens that are earned for appropriate behavior and
that can be turned in for desirable rewards (candy, time watching television, passes to
go outside, etc.).
VI. The behavioral approach is well known for its precision and objectivity, for its
wealth of research, and for its demonstrated effectiveness in changing specific
behaviors.
- A behavior therapist specifies what behavior is to be changed and how it is to be
changed. Later, the effectiveness of the therapy can be evaluated objectively by
the degree to which the stated goals have been achieved.

 CRITICISM
Nevertheless, the behavioral perspective has been criticized for several reasons.
- One early criticism was that behavior therapy was concerned only with symptoms,
not underlying causes. However, this criticism has been considered unfair by many
contemporary behavior therapists, given that successful symptom-focused
treatment often has very positive effects on other aspects of a person’s life (e.g.,
Borkovec et al., 1995; Lenz & Demal, 2000)
- Still others have argued that the behavioral approach oversimplifies human
behavior and is unable to explain all of its complexities. This latter criticism stems
at least in part from misunderstandings about current developments in behavioral
approaches (e.g., Bouton, 2007; Bouton et al., 2001; Mineka & Oehlberg, 2008;
Mineka & Zinbarg, 2006).

10- CONCLUSION-
Whatever its limitations, the behavioral perspective has had a tremendous impact on
contemporary views of human nature, behavior, and psychopathology.