Behavior Behavioral Therapy Therapy or Behavior Modification   (both terms will be used as synonyms) emerged around the middle of the 20th century as a revolutionary alternative in the field of “Mental Health. “It appears as a revolution against explanatory models and intervention procedures in its first moments. It is also presented as a scientific movement with more effective responses to existing social demands in this regard. Since its inception, it has been configured as an innovative, valid, and effective alternative. Not only to explain the problems raised but also to provide more effective solutions to these problems.

Abnormality And Adaptation

The prevailing psychopathological and therapeutic conceptions at that time tried to explain abnormal behaviors, citing supposed internal aspects of people as causes, biological or psychological, according to the schools.

Behavior Therapy is a radical change. In the first place, it abandons the concept of “mental health” (residue of Cartesian dualism) for that of “abnormal behavior.” It understands the abnormal based on its adaptation to the environment. People are not considered to be “abnormal” (or lacking in mental health) but to perform one or more abnormal behaviors (in that sense, non-adaptive). The objective, consequently, will focus on promoting the change of possible maladaptive behaviors, either by reducing or eliminating them or by developing other alternatives. This change is achieved through psychological intervention techniques. Taking into account the characteristics of the environment in which people must carry out these behaviors since the final objective will be for the person to learn to adapt to the environment, physical,

In other texts, Behavior Therapy’s emergence, development, and consolidation have been addressed in detail and depth (Kazdin, 1978, 1982; Labrador, 1986, 1990; Cruzado, Labrador, and Munoz, 1993). In this text, we will try to point out the essential characteristics of Behavior Therapy. Intervention techniques and application areas are presented, and finally, recent developments and some of the current challenges of Behavior Therapy will be noted.

The Radical Change Proposed By Behavior Therapy

The behaviors of people, the same as those of any other organism, are carried out following specific laws or rules, not by chance. These laws are determined by the adaptation of organisms to the environment. Thus, there can be no “qualitative” differences between behaviors; they are all governed by environmental adaptation, and the organism that does not carry out behaviors that adapt to the environment will not survive.

But, although the exact laws govern all behaviors, the conditions of the subject that emits them or the environment in which they are cast (physical or social) make certain behaviors less adaptive than others. However, they still need to escape the general laws that determine conduct. Consequently, all behaviors are learned, maintained, and modified according to the same principles or general rules. This implies that any diagnostic categorization (e.g., schizophrenia, autism, etc.) is incorrect since it assumes “qualitative” and not “quantitative” differences in people’s behaviors.

This conception supposes a radical change concerning the alternative models of abnormal behavior. There is no talk of “mentally ill” but of a “normal subject” (as long as he follows the same rules to issue his behaviors). This subject presents one or several “maladaptive behaviors” (including the term behavior in a non-restrictive sense. Where thoughts, emotions, cognitive responses in general, etc. can be placed). Consequently, the intervention must be aimed at modifying these maladaptive behaviors of people.…

The essential characteristics of this model can be summarized as follows:

Laws Govern Abnormal Behaviors.

Abnormal behaviors are acquired, maintained, and extinguished following the general laws governing other behaviors considered normal. For the same reason, they can be modified in the same way as normal behaviors. The importance of biological, constitutional, or predisposing factors is also considered. When their value is verified, they are regarded as a structural base on which the laws that govern the appearance of behaviors operate.

Therapist Analysis

The therapist’s work in Behavior Therapy focuses on analyzing, evaluating, and treating specific behaviors and their determinants, not on internal constructs or hypothetical underlying causes that cannot be objectified or operable. This work must also consider the subject’s specific characteristics and the physical, social, and cultural environment.

Measurable Behavior In Behavior Therapy

The importance of measurable behavior is stressed, and this is taken as the reference object. The term measurable does not always mean overt behavior. Some of the followers of this model have been interested in internal constructs or covert responses such as; anxiety or cognitive processes. Almost any behavior can be the object of study if there is an acceptable way of measuring it.

Continuous Assessment

The diagnostic process in Behavior Therapy consists of continuously evaluating the subject’s behavioral repertoires (altered and unaltered). Said evaluation implies the study of the behaviors and the specific variables or determinants that control their appearance. The use of global labels or diagnostic categories is dismissed as it does not specify information on the particular characteristics (behaviors and determinants) that the problem reaches in a specific individual.

Behavioral Change

The objective of the intervention will be to install a behavior(s) that the subject does not have or replace the one(s) that they have with another(s) that is more appropriate. It is about producing an observable and measurable behavioral change, directly or indirectly, in any of the three response modalities: motor, physiological, and cognitive. To achieve this, it is necessary to specify clearly, precisely, and structure the specific objectives of each intervention, its type, the conditions in which it will be carried out, and how its effectiveness will be investigated and evaluated.

Comprehensive Therapy

The intervention in Behavior Therapy can be directed not only to modify the subject’s behavior directly. Also, the physical or social environment of this is a way of changing his behavior.

Current Determinants

It is an approach focused on the here and now; the emphasis is placed on the current determinants of behavior. History is relevant because it informs about variables that influence present behavior.

Individual Customer Characteristics

Starting from this joint theoretical base, the therapist in Behavior Therapy must adapt his performance to the individual characteristics of the client and his environment, designing and applying, in each case, a specific intervention program to modify the particular behaviors or the conditions of the environment object of intervention. The objective is not to alter the “subject itself” but her behaviors, be it one or more, sequentially or simultaneously.

Experimental Evaluation

Intervention procedures in Behavior Therapy must be evaluated experimentally and demonstrate their effectiveness. It is necessary to establish both the effectiveness of intervention techniques or programs and of each of the components included. Said effectiveness will be evaluated based on the objective changes produced in the behavior(s) of the person, both in the short, medium, and long term, placing particular emphasis on its generalization to ordinary life.…

The knowledge, methods, and procedures of experimental psychology are used as a fundamental basis in Behavior Therapy to expand knowledge about the etiology of behavior, its evaluation, development, and modification. Particular emphasis is placed on using the experimental method to develop explanatory models and intervention procedures.

However, these shared characteristics have allowed different developments depending on the types of “abnormal” behaviors addressed and the intervention techniques or procedures used. Traditionally, attempts have been made to point out orientations or differential lines of action within Behavior Therapy, considering four basic orientations: applied behavior analysis, behavioral mediation orientation, orientation based on social learning, and cognitive-behavioral therapy (Labrador, 1990). It is complicated to distinguish these four orientations, giving a particular confluence of efforts, resources, and procedures in the established problems instead of an excellent dispersion in the procedures as new fields or issues are addressed.

Intervention Techniques In Behavior Therapy

One of the most outstanding and noteworthy aspects of Behavior Therapy has been the development of systematized and brief intervention procedures (at least in comparison with those proposed from alternative approaches), which have also repeatedly demonstrated their effectiveness, both in general and specifically in the different fields of application.

t is the first time a broad and systematized set of intervention techniques is presented, explaining the action form in detail. This way of approaching the learning of the professional work of clinical psychologists from a scientific perspective is likewise revolutionary compared to that developed by alternative approaches, in which this learning is close to initiation or novitiate rites. Thirty years later, the result can be summarized by pointing out that any psychologist, regardless of their theoretical orientation or affiliation school, currently has at least one manual of modification techniques or Behavior Therapy. Moreover, he occasionally (or habitually) uses these techniques, although, as has been indicated,

Analysis Of Intervention Techniques

This spectacular success of the techniques has also brought with it some problems. Among them, it is worth highlighting the use of these techniques from a technological and non-scientific perspective. It is considered that the fundamental thing to approach and solve a problem is to apply a method, and the objective has often been established to establish the appropriate technique for each situation. Something is necessary if these techniques are approached outside the theoretical context of reference.

This form of action is entirely contrary to the work of Behavior Therapy, whose fundamental starting point for carrying out intervention is an evaluation that allows identifying not only the problem behaviors and resources of the person but also the specific determinants of these behaviors. From here, as has already been stated, it will be necessary to design an intervention procedure specific to that particular case.

However, even considering this and other problems, developing intervention techniques in therapy and behavior modification has undoubtedly meant a significant step forward. Thirty years later, the techniques initially developed are still in use, and the number of available methods has increased significantly.

The first techniques (operant techniques, systematic desensitization, aversive techniques, etc.) were developed from learning theory. But, subsequently, as other problems and areas of intervention have been addressed and where learning theory was not capable of explaining or providing solutions to them, new techniques have been needed and developed outside of this theory. This is how biofeedback techniques, self-control techniques, rational psychotherapies, problem-solving therapies, etc., have appeared.

Some new techniques have been generated within Behavior Therapy itself, but others have been developed collateral, which has subsequently been added. Of these techniques, some present a solid justification and theoretical foundation; in others, this academic support is scarcer, frequently missing a transparent theoretical model of reference that allows explaining why these techniques work, offering explanations a posteriori instead. on the mechanisms involved in their effectiveness, often highly questionable.

But whatever how the techniques were generated, all of them must meet the requirement of experimentally demonstrating their performance’s effectiveness. This methodological requirement seems the only relevant for including a method among the so-called behavior modification techniques: experimentally showing its effect on people’s behavior.

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