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.