Behavior Therapy
View of Human Nature

People have the capacity to actually make
changes in their environment

Increasing people’s freedom and skills allows
them to have more options for responding to the
environment

Change occurs by taking actions rather than only
reflecting on the problems

People need to take responsibility for their own
behavior
Therapeutic Goals

Focus on what the client wants to do

Help clients accept responsibility for change

Discuss advantages and disadvantages of the goals

Reduce maladaptive behaviors and learn more
adaptive behaviors

Client and therapist collaboratively decide on
concrete, measurable, and objective treatment goals
Therapist’s function and Role

Be active and directive

Serve as an consultant, problem solver, or educator

Conduct a thorough functional assessment

formulate initial treatment goals, use strategies for
behavior change, evaluate the success of the change,
and conduct a follow-up assessment

Serve as a role model for the client

Focus on current problems
Client’s Experience in Therapy

To be taught concrete skills

To be motivated to change

To expand their adaptive behaviors

To implement new behaviors
Therapeutic Relationship

Therapeutic relationship still can contribute
significantly to the process of behavior change

The client’s positive expectations for change
contribute to successful outcomes

Common factors (warm, empathy, or acceptance)
are necessary but not sufficient for behavior
change to occur.

The progress is due to specific behavioral
techniques instead of therapeutic relationship
Therapeutic techniques and procedures
Operant conditioning techniques
 Positive reinforcement
 A child gets a good grade and is praised by teachers.
 Negative reinforcement
 Escape from aversive (unpleasant) stimuli
 Extinction
 Withholding reinforcement from a previously
reinforced response
 Positive punishment
 Spanking a child for misbehavior
 Negative punishment
 Taking TV time away from a child for misbehavior
Therapeutic techniques and procedures

Progressive Relaxation
 Tense and relax muscle including face, neck,
shoulders, chest, stomach, arms, and legs

Systematic Desensitization – Joseph Wolpe (1958)
 1st step: Learn relaxation
 2nd step: Make a list of anxiety hierarchies
 3rd step: Imagine anxiety-evoking situation
while being relaxed
Therapeutic techniques and procedures

Modeling
 Observe another person’s behavior and make
use of that observation
 Live modeling
 Symbolic modeling

Assertion Training
 People have the right to express themselves
 Identify irrational beliefs
 Practice assertive behaviors
Therapeutic techniques and procedures

In Vivo therapies
 Approach the actual fear-inducing situation or
event gradually or directly

Imaginal Flooding therapies
 Expose to the mental image of a frightening or
anxiety-producing object or event
 Experience the image of the event until the
anxiety gradually reduces
Therapeutic techniques and procedures

Self-management strategies
 Self-monitoring, self-reward, or selfinstruction

Three phases integrating behavioral techniques
with contemporary psychodynamic approach



Assessment and relationship-building
Insight—understand how early relational patterns are
related to present difficulties
Behavioral techniques
Research on Behavior Therapy

In general, studies indicated that more improvement for
behavioral therapy or CBT than for psychodynamic,
client-centered, or control group.

Behavioral treatments are more effective than nonbehavioral treatments regardless of the type of problem,
client age, or therapist experiences.

A considerable research has been conducted behavioral
therapy treatment of depression, anxiety, OCD, phobias,
alcoholism, sexual dysfunction, panic attack, or other
disorder.
Summary and Evaluation

Contributions
 Use Empirical-Validated Treatment
 In general, behavior therapy is more effective than no
treatment

Limitations
 Change behavior, but not feelings
 Ignore relational factors
 Ignore insight
 Treat symptoms rather than causes
 Control and manipulation by the therapist