The Behavior modification techniques Have as objective to change the behavior of the subject with a psychological intervention.
The different approaches would range from applied behavioral analysis, behavioral mediational orientation, orientation based on social learning to cognitive and / or cognitive-behavioral orientation.
At present, these orientations are not independent and closed groups. Each develops its interventions according to the explanatory model of reference, but the psychologists adapt and are flexible in carrying out an intervention so that the person reaches a welfare state And personal competence.
Behavioral modification not only focuses on observable behaviors, but also on cognitive aspects and basic processes involved in their origin, development, maintenance and change.
The main characteristics would be the importance of the individual variables as well as the active role of the person in the process of change.
The context surrounding the person, an accurate assessment and individualized intervention programs also play an important role.
Added to this is the importance of the theoretical basis and the empirical evaluation of the intervention procedures, as well as the collaboration between professionals and the extension of areas and areas of application.
Here are some of the various behavior modification techniques that exist.
10 of the most commonly used behavior modification techniques
1- Systematic desensitization
It is a cognitive behavioral technique proposed by Wolpe And addressed to Decrease anxiety responses And avoidance behaviors before feared stimuli. It is one of the first behavior modification techniques.
Wolpe relied on the work of Watson And Rayner on conditioning fear, thinking that just as it could condition the fear in the person, too Could be removed Through the same procedure.
Through this technique, it is intended to associate stimuli that provoke that anxiety response with incompatible responses to it, such as relaxation .
This is what is known as counterconditioning; After several associations between these incompatible responses, would produce a new learning. Thus the anxiety-provoking situation will cease to do so, when the incompatible response occurs.
In addition, associating the answer to that particular situation will be generalized to different circumstances.
In systematic desensitization there is a decrease in response. The key aspect for the extinction of the response is the lack of reinforcement.
Fear is acquired through classical conditioning or association between unconditioned stimulus (which produces a response) and conditioned (given as a consequence of an earlier stimulus).
In systematic desensitization this conditioned stimulus is presented without being followed by the unconditioned aversive stimulus (unpleasant for the recipient). The latter would lead to the elimination of the conditioned response of fear to the stimulus.
2- Exposure Techniques
Behavioral technique Which aims to systematically address situations that generate responses of anxiety, avoidance or escape.
The person is exposed to such feared stimuli until anxiety or emotion diminishes as the consequences that he expects to happen do not occur.
With this technique, it is intended to prevent the person from establishing avoidance and escape as safety signals.
It is based on empirical evidence and shows that continued and prolonged exposure to feared stimuli reduces the response of fear and anxiety. It is a key technique for intervention in anxiety disorders .
The mechanisms that are associated with this therapy are habituation from a psychophysiological perspective, the extinction from a behavioral perspective and the change of expectations from a cognitive perspective.
Exposure sessions should be lengthy to ensure habituation to the feared stimulus or situation. This prevents sensitization or increased response due to continued exposure.
There are different types of exposure techniques such as live exposure, exposure in imagination, group exposure, self-exposure or exposure through new technologies.
3- Mindfulness
That term Refers to the concentration of attention and awareness or full consciousness and one of its clearest referents the clearest is meditation. It is a way of being in the world without prejudice, it is a philosophy or way of life.
It arises because of Western interest in Eastern tradition and Buddhism. Meditation or use of cognitive or physiological relaxation procedures, configure various techniques to achieve various effects of physiological and emotional deactivation.
This mindfulness consists in a process of observing one's own body and mind, allowing experiences to happen, accepting them as they come.
You have to pay attention to feelings, emotions and thoughts, without assessing whether they are right or wrong, adequate or inadequate.
The essential elements are the acceptance of both the positive and the negative, the concentration in the present moment, feeling everything without that need and that search for control.
It is the individual himself who chooses which experiences to choose, in what he implies, and on what he acts and focuses on.
With this technique, you do not want to reduce or control discomfort, fear, anger, etc. But is intended to experience these feelings and emotions. It is a renunciation of control of emotions, thoughts and feelings.
The method that is most used includes cognitive elements, meditation with specific types of relaxation, or activities centered on the sensations that the body experiences. It is used in the treatment of psychological disorders such as depression wave anxiety .
4- Molding
Also called learning by successive approximations, it is a technique based on the operant conditioning . It consists of reinforcing the successive approximations that the individual makes during the intervention until reaching the final behavior, in addition to extinguishing the previous answers that he has been giving.
At the time of performing the behavior is used the use of instigators or stimuli that promote the start of a response in a person who shows difficulties for it. They can be verbal, physical, environmental or gestural stimuli.
To carry out this technique a series of steps are followed:
- Define the final behavior, its characteristics and the contexts in which it can be carried out or not.
- Define the initial behavior, which must be a behavior that is given regularly so that it can be reinforced and that shares characteristics with the behavior to which it is intended.
- Determine the number of steps or intermediate behaviors and the time that will be in each of them. This will depend on the level of the final behavior, its difficulty, and the person's abilities and resources.
In addition, molding requires that while the new behaviors are being reinforced, the previous behaviors will be extinguished, presenting only the reinforcer when the concrete behavior of the stage in which the individual is found.
5- Chain
It is another technique of behavioral modification that is used to establish new behaviors in subjects, based on the operant conditioning and that is used when learning about everyday activities.
Complex behaviors can be broken down into simpler behaviors, each working separately and acting each single behavior as a discriminative stimulus of the next and as a reinforcer of the previous one.
Its procedure consists in the formation of a behavior by means of combinations of a sequence of simple steps, in which the subject is advancing as it dominates the previous step.
This chaining can follow different sequences such as backward chaining, forward chaining and presentation of the complex task.
6- Time out
It is within the techniques of operant conditioning and consists of the reduction of behaviors by withdrawing the person from the situation in which is obtaining the reinforcer that maintains it. This reinforcer is obtained contingently to it.
To carry it out it is necessary to have identified the reinforcer who maintains that behavior and to be able to remove the person from the environment in which it is reinforced.
The application of this technique produces a rapid reduction of the behavior, but to be effective it requires that the person leaves the field in which the stimulus is obtained, being used only in concrete periods of time.
In addition, the reduction of this behavior is due to the history and the program of reinforcement that has maintained it, as well as to the intensifying value of the situation.
It is mainly used with children, mainly in educational contexts. Still, it can be used with people of any age. There are different variants of the technique such as time out of isolation, exclusion, non-exclusion or self-imposed.
7- Cost of response
This method consists in the withdrawal of the reinforcer in a contingent way to the emission of a conduct to eliminate. It is similar to negative punishment, since it is a procedure that consists of removing a stimulus that acts in a positive way for the person.
For its application, it is necessary to identify powerful incentives that can be withdrawn immediately after carrying out this behavior, applying it systematically and continuously.
It is expected that the negative consequences of the withdrawal of a reinforcer are more important than the possible positive effects of the stimuli that are maintaining the behavior.
This procedure produces very fast effects, but can also produce emotional responses and facilitate aggressive behavior.
It is necessary to be able to withdraw the reinforcer in a contingent and consistent manner to the emission of the conduct to be eliminated, for it is necessary that the person has reinforcers that are effective for the subject intervened.
It is also advisable to resort to positive reinforcement of behaviors more appropriate and alternative to problem behavior. This will prevent the occurrence of negative emotional behaviors.
8- Chip Economy
This technique Is a system of organization of external contingencies whose purpose is to control the context in which it is being carried out.
With the word economy, it is referred to that this method works as an economic system in which the person charges or pays with chips according to whether or not he performs certain behaviors.
The chips act as conditioned and generalized reinforcers, using from bonuses, bills, stickers to plastic chips.
The person obtains these cards when he / she emits the desired behavior, functioning as a temporary bridge between the emission of that behavior until obtaining the subsequent incentive.
These tokens act as secondary stimuli that later will be changed by primary reinforcers or prizes that can go from material objects to the accomplishment of activities or to the obtaining of certain privileges.
With this system, it is possible to take a quantified control of the number of behaviors emitted by the person, allowing to control the evolution of the behaviors and changing the intervention in function of this evolution.
It is a technique that is carried out mainly in institutionalized centers, in educational contexts, in sports environments and in different community areas.
9- Behavioral contracts
Written and formal document specifying the behaviors that a person or group of people agrees to develop, and the consequences that will result from doing them or not.
It does not need so much control at the contextual level nor does it require the implementation of new generalized reinforcers, such as the chip economy.
In addition, there are various forms of contract such as negotiated or non-negotiated, verbal or written contracts, individualized or standard, public or private.
The recipient of the contract can be a person, a couple or a group of people. It is mainly used in family and couple therapies.
The target behavior or behaviors should be clearly defined in the contract, as well as the duration and timing at which it should occur.
The consequences will also be specified, as much for the emission as for the non emission; The evaluation criteria to carry out a control, as well as the start and duration of the contract.
It contains the demands of the parties expressed through specific behaviors. It specifies the relationship between behavior and rewards or punishments and allows controlling the medium effectively.
10- Self-control techniques
These techniques Are aimed at instilling and reinforcing people so that they are able to regulate their behavior through strategies and procedures to achieve established goals.
At the beginning of the intervention, training is carried out to provide them with all the necessary information on how these strategies work and to become aware of the active role played by the individual in obtaining and achieving their achievements.
To note progress, the individual must be committed and aware of the change process and of his or her ability to achieve those goals.
The strategies that are carried out at the beginning follow a similar steps to the process of modeling, through the design of a system of successive approximations.
The therapist will have a support role that at first will be more present but then will have less and less weight, removing those helps little by little.
The steps to be followed in this technique would be to favor the commitment to change, to specify and evaluate the problem, to plan the objectives, to design and implement the change strategies and to promote maintenance and possible relapses.
The self-control training program consists of several phases:
- Self-observation.
- Setting goals.
- Training in concrete techniques.
- Establishment of execution criteria.
- Application of techniques in real contexts.
- Review of the applications made in real contexts with the therapist.
References
- Labrador Encinas, F.J. (2008). Behavior Modification Techniques. Psychology Pyramid.
- Behavioral contracts. Retrieved from psychology-online.com.
- Behavior modification. Recovered from psicopedagogía.com.
- Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques. Recovered from mind-informatica.com.
- Exposure techniques. Retrieved from crawler.webnode.com.
- Therapy and exposure techniques. Retrieved from psychology.isipedia.com.