ch. 16.6- Behavioural Therapies

Behavioural Therapies

address problem behaviours and thoughts, and the environmental factors that trigger them through conditioning - learned over the course of our life, can treat using the principles of learning (extinction) to reduce problematic behaviour or promote good behaviour

Aversive conditioning

involves relaxing a positive response to a stimulus with a negative response, typically by using punishment - can be used to treat things like alcohol by giving medication which makes it taste even worse

systemic desensitization vs flooding

1. gradually exposing an individual to stressful stimuli such that the aversive response extinguishes- teach client set of relaxation techniques (breathing control) then present them with increasing anxiety inducing situations & measure arousal. repeated until physiological symptoms diminish

2. individual is immersed in stress-inducing situations - start with most anxiety producing situation and diminish it continuously

   ^ Exposure Therapies ^

virtual reality exposure

virtual reality technology can enhance exposure therapies by generating immersive environments that would not otherwise be possible to reproduce - broader range of situations

• PTSD treatment for soldiers > characterized by traumatic event causing exaggerated fear response, VR can help practice control with emotional responses & recontextualize their trauma