FREE ESSAY ON BEHAVIORAL COGNITIVE THEORIES

BEHAVIORAL COGNITIVE THEORIES

Behavioral Cognitive Theories
And Techniques
Frederick Community College
There were several predominant theorists in the cognitive behavioral meta-theory. Each
theorist came to their conclusions, were received, and added to therapeutic skills in
different ways. Their biographical history allows for a better understanding of how they
came upon their conclusions. Their theories add to the understanding of human nature.
Their critics expose flaws or oversights in the theories. The techniques used in the
action stage of therapy today all have some historical roots in these theories and the
theories of others. The overall goal being to focus on making changes in behaviors,
thoughts, and feelings while continuing to explore feelings and examine values,
priorities, barriers.
Behaviorism began when Ivan Pavlov's dogs began to salivate upon hearing the sounds of
food being prepared. Unfortunately this phenomenon ruined his saliva measuring experiment
but it contributed the theory of classical conditioning. 
The theory is that when an unconditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus many
times a conditioned stimulus and conditioned response will result. The unconditioned
stimulus (US) in Pavlov's experiment was the food, which caused the dogs to salivate. The
unconditioned stimulus normally elicits this reaction. The neutral stimulus, something
that does not normally elicit the same reaction as the unconditioned stimulus, was a tone
or bell. When the two were presented together the conditioned stimulus or learned
stimulus became the tone and the learned behavior or conditioned response was to
salivate. 
John B. Watson (1878 - 1958) expanded Pavlov's theory into the behaviorism. Due to his
contribution he became know as the Father of American Behaviorism. He described
behaviorism as the study of overt rather than covert behavior. His emphasis was on
objectivity instead of extrospection. This concept was drastically different then the
psychoanalytical theory of the time. 
Burrhus Frederick Skinner (1904 - 1990) led a life that enabled him to take behaviorism
to an extreme. His father was an ambitious lawyer and his mother was a bright woman with
high moral standards. His younger brother died suddenly at the age of sixteen. Skinner
was raised in a small town as a middle class American. His parents did not use physical
punishments but their method of child rearing succeeded in teaching their son "to fear
God, the police, and what people would think" (Englar 209). 
As a child, Skinner was fascinated with machines and interested in knowing how things
worked. He developed a mechanical device to remind himself to hang up his pajamas, a
gadget that enabled him to blow smoke rings without violating his parents prohibition on
smoking, and a floatation system to separate ripe elderberries from green ones. As he
matured so did his inventions. He worked unsuccessfully for several years on a perpetual
motion machine. When his second daughter was born he invented an air crib to simplify her
care and give her unrestrained movement in a temperature-controlled space. Unfortunately
his air crib never marketed well. 
Skinner had wanted to become a writer. He majored in English at Hamilton College. He sent
some of his short stories to Robert Frost who encouraged him to write. After a while,
Skinner realized that he did not have anything important to say so he gave up writing for
a while. About this time he read a book by John Watson and Ivan Pavlov, which influenced
him to begin graduate work in psychology at Harvard. He got his PhD in 1931. He taught at
the University of Minnesota for nine years. He then became the chairman of the department
of psychology at Indiana University. He wrote Walden II, a book that describes a utopian
society based on psychological principles. He returned to teaching at Harvard. At the age
of 86 he died from leukemia. 
Skinner's was an optimist who believed that the answer lies in recognizing our lack of
control, and committing ourselves to being more effectively controlled by a behaviorally
designed technology. His idea of radical behaviorism was a stimulus-response theory of
psychology can account for all of the overt behaviors that psychologist seek to explain.
He also believed that individuals do not actually have a personality. 
One of Skinner's most important contributions is operant conditioning. He believed that
many behaviors couldn't be explained by classic conditioning. He used the term respondent
behavior to explain Pavlov's dogs. Respondent behaviors are reflexes or automatic
responses that are elicited by stimuli. They are unlearned but may be conditioned or
changed through learning. In contrast, operant behaviors are responses emitted without a
stimulus necessarily being present. They are acts on the environment, made freely and
occurring spontaneously. These behaviors allow for operant conditioning or spontaneous
behaviors whose consequences determine their frequency. 
To test his theory he invented a box with a lever. This box is commonly known as the
Skinner box. He used reinforcement, defined as anything that increases the likelihood of
a response, to teach animals to push the lever. Since pushing a lever is not a natural
action for an animal. The behavior must be shaped. As the animal gets close to the
desired behavior they are reinforced. The next attempt must be even closer to the desired
behavior to achieve the reinforcement. Animal trainer all over the world uses this
technique.
At the time Skinner was trying these experiments, food pellets were not sold in stores.
He needed approximately 800 pellets per day, all made from scratch. This time consuming
chore led him to discovered three schedules of reinforcement and thus reduced the number
of pellets needed. 
Continuous reinforcement or reinforcement after ever successful behavior is extremely
effective in initially developing and strengthening behaviors. The downfall to this
technique is that once the reinforcement seizes so does the behavior. Because the
probability of extinction is so high this method is not recommended for teaching
continued behaviors. 
Interval reinforcement, reinforcement after a certain time period has elapsed, regardless
of response rate works slightly better. The downside to this technique of using fixed
periods of time allows the subject to learn when to expect the reward and therefore it
does not work as hard as if other schedules were used. To increase productivity, vary the
time period by waiting different lengths of time before giving the reward. 
Still a better schedule of reinforcement can be used. Ratio reinforcement is a schedule
determined by the number of appropriate responses that the organism produces. Again a
fixed number of attempts can be used for good results but varying the number of attempts
works much better. Even after the reinforcement is stopped, the behavior will continue. 
Just as there are different schedules of reinforcements there are also different types of
reinforcements. They are listed here from most effective to least effective. Generalized
conditioned reinforces are praise and affection. They have the power to reinforce a great
number of behaviors and can be self given. An example of this type of reinforcer would be
patting yourself on the back for a job well done. It is a way to intrinsically motivate
yourself. Positive rein forcers are rewards that occur when a behavior is followed by a
situation that increases the likelihood of the behavior occurring in the future. An
example of this type of rein forcer is giving a child a golden star for doing good work
or giving a college student a good grade on a research paper. Skinner used food pellets
as a positive rein forcer. Negative rein forcers occur when a behavior is followed by the
termination of an unpleasant situation. Cleaning your room to stop your parents from
yelling at you or paying a bill to stop the bill collector from calling are two good
examples of negative rein forcers. Skinner used the action of pressing the lever to stop
electrical shock administered through the bottom of the Skinner box. Punishment is when a
behavior is followed by the termination of an unpleasant situation. Spanking,
restrictions, revoking of driving privileges, and jail are all examples of punishment.
Satiation is permitting the behavior to occur until the individual tires of it. Although
it doesn't sound like a rein forcer, it is. An example of this rein forcer would be
letting two people fight out their disagreement. 
Skinner's theory was highly criticized because it attacks our illusion that we are in
full control of our behaviors. His theory does not explain a child's ability to come up
with a new sentence, never heard before. It also does not explain meaningful errors that
a child makes when learning how to speak such as "branged" which show the knowledge of
the suffix -ed as past tense.
Albert Bandura's (1925 - ) theory differs from Skinner's theory by suggesting that causal
influences on behavior do not simply go in one direction. But before his theories are
discussed a brief look at his life will give reference to how he came about his
conclusions. He was raised in rural Alberta, Canada. He was the youngest child and the
only son out of six children, of wheat farmers. His high school consisted of twenty
students and two teachers. This style of education required students to self-learn. In
fact, almost all of the students went on to professional careers. Bandura attended
University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1949. He enrolled in a psychology class
because it was scheduled for early morning when his car pool arrived. Fascinated by this
course he decided to major in psychology and received his B.A. Furthering his education
at University of Iowa he received his M.A. in 1951 and his PhD in 1952. After graduation
he became a professor at Stanford university where he has been studying social learning
of aggression, the power of modeling, how people influence their own motivation and
behavior and their perception of self-efficacy and the causes of stress reactions and
depression. He has written several books and articles, as well as received many awards.
He was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1973. Currently he
is teaching two undergraduate seminars on the psychology of aggression and personal and
social change. His hobbies include hiking in the Sierra, dining by in Bay Area
restaurants, and the San Francisco Opera. 
One of Bandura's contributions to behaviorism is the concept of reciprocal determinism.
That is to say that although environmental stimuli influence our behavior, individual
personal factors such as beliefs and expectations also influence how we behave. All three
factors, behavior, environment, and cognitive, interact. The cognitive factor refers to
the self-system or cognitive structures that provide reference mechanisms. In other
words, the self is a group of cognitive processes and structures by which people relate
to their environment and that help shape their behavior. Depending on where you start an
analysis, one aspect could represent environment, cognitive or behavior. An example of
this confusing theory is television. Commercials and advertising may effect what we
watch, viewing behavior determines what shows are produced, and the environment is
determined by what we select to watch. All factors are connected to one another. 
Another of Bandura's contributions is observational learning. He believes that people
learn primarily by observation either intentionally or unintentionally. Children learning
to speak would take longer to learn if they had to be reinforced after a spontaneous
utterance as in Skinner's theory. Anther example that supports this idea is learning to
drive a car. It would be dangerous to reward you only when you didn't hit a pedestrian.
The most interesting thing about observational learning is that what is learned can be
applied to other behaviors. For instance, when problem solving, one solution can work for
many different types of problems. The solution is not modeled for that problem yet the
problem can be solved. Observers draw similar features from different responses and
create rules of behavior that permit them to go beyond what they have observed. This
accounts for creativity. Bandura proved his theory with an experiment involving Bobo
dolls. They were inflatable plastic figures that would pop back up when you hit them.
Pre-school aged children would watch as an adult hit and yelled at the doll. Later the
children had an opportunity to play with the doll. The experimental group was twice as
aggressive to the doll then the control group. By manipulating variables in the
experiment, Bandura learned several things. We are more likely to be influenced by
someone who we believe is similar to ourselves than by someone who is different. Easier
tasks are imitated more than complex ones. Aggressive behaviors are more prone to be
copied then non-violent behaviors. People who are lacking in self-esteem, or are highly
dependent individuals, those who have been rewarded previously for conforming behavior,
incompetent, and highly motivated are especially prone to imitate a model. The strongest
variable is the reward consequence associated with a behavior. In other words, if a
person believes that there will be positive short or long-term rewards, the y are more
apt to copy the behavior. 
Observational learning is governed by four interrelated processes: attentional processes,
retention processes, motor reproduction processes, and motivational processes. The
attentional process is influenced by characteristics of the model, the nature of the
activity, and with the subject. These factors determine how aware we are of what is
happening and therefore how much we notice. Retention process has to do with how much we
remember. The longer the time between observing the behavior and doing it, the less we
tend to remember. Some things are remembered verbally and some are remembered though
images. Motor production processes is the process of cognitively organizing the response,
initiation of the response, monitoring of the response, and refinement of the response.
By using trial and error, we adjust our behavior to fit the model. Motivation processes
distinguishes between acquisition and performance. Acquisition is what a person has
learned and performance is what that person can actually do. Bandura suggest that almost
any behavior can be learned without a direct reinforcement. The impact of the stimulus
itself commands our attention, therefore we learn from it. An example of this is when we
drive the same route to work everyday and learn there is a gas station on the way. We did
not have to be reinforced to learn that the gas station was there. Social learning theory
however states that when reinforcement is present it assist learning but is not a
necessary component for learning. There are several types of motivational reinforces,
extrinsic or external reward such as a gold sticker for good work, intrinsic or reward
from within such as positive self-talk, vicarious reinforcement with occurs when we learn
behavior from the success and mistakes of others, and self-reinforcement or setting
standards for yourself then regulating your behavior according to self-rewards or
self-produced consequences, 
Bandura also developed the concept of self-efficacy; a person's belief they are capable
of the specific behavior required to produce a desired outcome in a given situation.
Self-efficacy is different then self-esteem that reflects a person's feeling of worth.
Combined, self-efficacy and self-esteem direct our career choices, educational
preparations, and level of accomplishment. 
Critics of Bandura's theory believe that he has emphasized overt behaviors and for his
bias against psychoanalysis. He ignores distinctly human problems such as conflict and
unconscious motivation. 
Neal Miller and John Dollard's theory focuses on what Bandura ignores, conflict and
drives. They discovered that people form habits. A habit is some kind of learned
association between a stimulus and response that makes them occur together frequently.
Because habits are learned they may also be unlearned. In order to unlearn a habit,
drives, cues, responses, and reinforcement must be understood. Primary drives are
associated with physiological processes that are necessary for survival. They would
include eating to reduce hunger. Secondary drives are learned on the basis of primary
drives. We must make money in order to buy food; therefore we must learn a job skill.
Cues are specific stimuli that tells us when, where, and how to respond. A cue might be
in the form of McDonald's golden arches. When we become aware of a cue we respond to it.
Miller and Dollard believed there is a hierarchy of response. This tendency for certain
responses to occur before others is evident when we run to avoid pain then cringe in
order to tolerate the pain The hierarchy enables us to try out different responses. The
way it works is that when a behavior is not reinforced, it will be inhibited so another
behavior or response can grow stronger and supersede it in the response hierarchy. They
termed this phenomenon as extinction. When a response is not fixed in the hierarchy, a
learning dilemma may take place. We will try different responses till one is developed
that satisfies the drive. Responses become learned when they are reinforced. Reducing a
drive is reinforcing to an individual and thus will behave in ways that relieve the
tension created by strong drives. Primary rein forcers are those that reduce primary
drives. Secondary reinforces are originally neutral but they acquire reward value on the
basis of having been associated with a primary rein forcer. An example of this would be
earning money. 
Miller and Dollard explain frustration as something that occurs when one is unable to
reduce a drive because the response that would satisfy it has been blocked. We experience
a conflict when frustration occurs from a situation in which incompatible responses are
taking place at the same time. There are four different ways in which a conflict can
occur. Approach - approach conflict is when a person is attracted to two goals, both of
positive value, yet they are incompatible. Choosing between majors is a very common
conflict of this type. Avoidance - avoidance conflict occurs when a person must choose
between two undesirable alternatives. This occurs often when you must decide to clean the
house or write a report. Approach - avoidance conflict occurs when one goal is both
attractive and repulsive at the same time. Many smokers find themselves in this type of
dilemma on an hourly basis. Double approach - avoidance conflict occurs when a person
must deal with multiple goals that both attract and repel at the same time. Every person
experiences this; usually it is referred to as life. 
Dollard and Miller believed that if they could measure the complex forces that impel
human behavior and if we could develop formulas that encompass all of the variables
involved, we could also predict a person's actions in reference to a particular goal. 
Perhaps the reason a New Yorker, Albert Ellis (1913- ) took a different stance on why we
do things is because of his childhood. His mother was ill prepared to raise Ellis, his
younger brother and sister when his father's constant travels and eventual divorce took
him away from the family. Ellis also suffered from nephritis, a chronic illness that
caused severe headaches and kept him in the hospital and kept him from playing like other
children. He was shy and introverted and often outdone by his brave extraverted brother.
The Great Depression made his life even more of a struggle as the family barely made it
without going on welfare. Despite these disappointments and hardships, Ellis refused to
be miserable. He majored in English at City College and wrote six novels, none of which
were published. His fascination for sex led him to pursue psychology in his graduate
work. At Teacher College of Columbia University he had hoped to do his dissertation on
love but his idea was censored. Finally he opted for a safe topic, "A Comparison of the
Use of Direct and Indirect Phrasing with Personality Questionnaires" (Englar 420). An
analyst associated with the Horney Institute for psychoanalysis unofficially trained
Ellis. Hw discovered himself to be an effective analyst but he gave it up to find a more
efficient way of helping clients. The New Jersey state system objected to his research on
sex despite his noted authority in the state. He moved to New York and became a well-know
practicing psychologist. Ellis has written many books including Sex Without Guilt, the
Civilized Couple's Guide to Extramarital Adventure and Why Some Therapies Don't Work -
The Dangers of Transpersonal Psychology (Behavenet 10/20/99). He is currently doing
workshops with topics such as "Better, Deeper and More Enduring Brief Therapy" and
"Treating Anxiety Disorders Effectively: Therapeutic Methods that Work!" in Kansas,
Iceland, and Okalahoma (Lima 10/01/99). 
Ellis's theory is that people have a strong innate inclination to live and be happy, to
seek pleasure and avoid pain. "They are goal oriented active and changing creatures with
a strong compulsion to fulfill their potential." But people also engage in numerous
irrational thoughts, unsuitable feelings, and dysfunctional behaviors that are inclined
to sabotage their potential. People are born with a distinct proneness to engage in
self-destructive behavior and learn through social conditioning, to exacerbate rather
than to minimize that proneness. People spend much of their energy trying to impress,
live up to expectations of, and outdo the performances of others. They are ego-oriented,
identity seeking, or self-centered. Many people care too much of what others think of us.
Our inappropriate emotions are caused by our tendency to exaggerate the importance of
other people's acceptance. His A-B-C Theory states that A is an activating event, B is
our belief system, and C is the emotional consequence. We perceive A, the activating
event causing C the emotional consequence when in reality is B the belief system that
caused C the emotional consequence. Being frightened might be perceived as being caused
by a dog chasing you when in reality your belief that all dogs are bad causes you to be
frightened. Also, we inherit a tendency to turn cultural preferences into musts and
social norms into absolute shoulds. This is determined by external as well as internal
forces. People have some free will and are capable of changing their behavior patterns.
Everyone is unique and must take responsibility for our actions. Ellis developed Rational
Emotive Behavior Therapy, which asks the clients to commit themselves to actions that
correspond to their true value system. By using an eclecticism approach, REBT encompasses
many different techniques borrowed from many different theories. Rational Emotive
Cognitive Therapy teaches clients to recognize their should and must thoughts, how to
separate rational thoughts from irrational beliefs, and how to accept reality. Emotive
evocative therapy uses role-playing, psychodrama, humor and unconditional acceptance to
reduce destructive ideas by making them seem absurd. Behavior therapy helps clients
change patterns of undesirable behaviors. In vitro desensitization and in vivo
desensitization are two of the skills used in behavior therapy. By exposing the client to
the anxiety-producing event gradually and pairing these experiences with relaxation
skills, the client learns how to control the anxiety. The difference is vitro
desensitization uses the imagination to expose the client while vivo desensitization uses
the actual event or simulation. The roller coaster fear classes that are currently in the
news use these techniques to help people overcome their fear. Closely related to Ellis's
theory is Aaron Beck's ( 1921 -) cognitive theory. 
Aaron Beck's mother fell into depression after her only daughter died but it lifted when
she gave birth to Beck. He jokes that he had the ability to cure his mother at an early
age illustrated his need to control. He developed a near fatal illness when his broken
arm became infected. This led him to believe that he was inept and stupid. He began
working cognitively on these beliefs and his father encouraged his interests in science
and nature. Eventually he graduated from Brown University magna cum laude in 1943 and was
certified in psychiatry in 1953. He joined the Department of Psychiatry of the University
of Pennsylvania Medical Science from Brown as well as Distinguished Alumnus Award in
1990. He was also elected a fellow of the Royal college of Psychiatrists and has written
over 350 articles and 12 books. 
His concern with the lack of scientific basis for psychoanalysis led him to study the
dreams of depressed people. He hypothesized that their dreams would contain more
hostility then in non-depressed people. He found that this was not correct and that a
reoccurring theme in the dreams was defeat, deprivation and loss. He saw that people
distorted reality to the point where they could not recognize success when it occurred.
Although his cognitive theory was originally developed to facilitate treatment for
depression, it has become an effective treatment for many other disorders. 
There are three basic concepts in cognitive theory. The first being cognitions.
Cognitions refer to a person's awareness. Brought on by stimuli, they are changing
information processes. The second concept is that of schemas. A schema is many associated
thoughts grouped together. The third concept is cognitive distortions or errors in logic.
When schemas are created on the basis of faulty or irrational logic a distortion occurs.
There are several common distortions. Arbitrary inference is defined as a drawing a
specific conclusion without supporting evidence or even in the face of contradictory
evidence. An example of this is when a student gets a C on their first exam and concludes
that they will not be able to pass the course. Selective abstraction is defined as
conceptualizing a situation on the basis of a detail taken out of context and ignoring
all other possible explanations. An example of this is when a woman finds out that she is
pregnant; she suddenly begins to notice many pregnant women. Overgeneralization is
defined as abstracting a general rule from one or two isolated incident and applying it
too broadly. An example of this is when upon hearing about a robbery leads one to
conclude that everyone is being robbed. Magnification and minimization is defined as
seeing an event as more significant or less significant than it actually is. An example
of this is when a high school girls thinks her life is over when she doesn't get ask to a
dance. Personalization is attributing external events to oneself without evidence of
connection. An example of this is when a parent blames himself or herself every time a
child misbehaves. Dichotomous thinking is categorizing situation is extremes. An example
of this is when a person sees their performance as really good or really bad.
Cognitive therapy teaches client to do five things. The first is to monitor their
negative thoughts. The second is to recognize the connections between cognitions, affect,
and behavior. The third is to examine the evidence for these biased cognitions. The fifth
is to learn to identify and alter the beliefs that predispose them to distort their
experiences. There are several ways that this is achieved. Decatastrophizing or the "what
if" technique asks clients to imagine the consequences of an action or the worst possible
scenario. They can mentally prepare and often realize that the worst is not so bad.
Role-playing is another technique derived from this theory. Rehearsing situations they
will later find themselves in, they can gain confidence and become aware of set behaviors
that work well. 
In conclusion, there are many different techniques available to behavior cognitive
therapist. These skills were developed from theories of many prominent thinkers of our
time. Each of these thinkers can to their conclusions in part because of their history
and interactions with the world.
Works Cited
Craighead, Linda W., et al., ckm. Cognitive and Behavioral Interventions. Massachusetts:
Paramount, 1994.
Engler, Barbara. Personality Theories. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1999.
Hill, Clara, and Karen O'Brien. Helping Skills. Washington DC: American Psychological
Association, 1999.
Sonderegger, Theo. Psychology. Nebraska: Cliffs Notes, 1998.
Stone, Gerald. A cognitive-Behavioral Approach to Counseling Psychology. New York:
Praeger, 1980.
Web Sites: 
Http://www.lima-associates.com/ae102199.htm.
Http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/people/ellisa.htm.
Http://muskingum.edu/~psychology//psycweb/history/watson.htm#biography.
Http://muskingum.edu/~psychology/psyweb/history/skinner.htm.
Http://muskingum.edu/~psychology/psyweb/history/bandura.htm.