Behavior
modification, sometimes called
Behavior therapy or applied behavior analysis, is the application of experimental findings from psychological research to the development and use of
techniques for changing human behavior. It has been used to treat phobias, alcoholism, overeating, smoking, sexual deviance, and mental disorders, including schizophrenia and catatonia. Behavior-modification techniques have also been used in toilet training and in improving children's classroom behavior and even their academic performance. In the late 1950s and early '60s the approach became a movement in the United States, South Africa, and England, largely as a reaction to the perceived failure of clinical models of psychotherapy.
Behavior modification grew out of the work of B. F. Skinner and of certain aspects of learning theory and has progressed to specific behavior methodologies. Thus it is not characterized by any one theory of behavior or even by an underlying concept of human nature. Lack of a central theory has led to a blurring of the meaning of the term, but behavior modification is generally regarded as encompassing three basic techniques:
desensitization,
aversion therapy, and
operant conditioning.
Desensitization involves the use of classical conditioning methods in treating phobias, for example, by gradually relaxing the anxiety related to specific stimuli. Aversion therapy is also an application of classical conditioning methods. In it, socially undesirable behavior, such as uncontrolled drinking, is linked with a punishing response; in this case nausea and vomiting are induced by means of drugs that cause the patient to react physiologically to alcohol. Operant conditioning uses reinforcement to increase the frequency of desirable behavior, and punishment to decrease the frequency of undesirable behavior. For example, if each verbalization by an autistic child is followed promptly by the presentation of food, the child may increase the number of verbalizations. Desensitization and aversion techniques are used in a clinical environment, whereas operant conditioning may be, and frequently is, undertaken in a normal school, home, or work environment.
Behavior modification has evoked criticism ranging from the theoretical to the ethical. Some psychologists have charged that because only symptoms are treated, it is likely that one symptom may be substituted for another, with no improvement in the underlying cause of the disorder. Others have asserted that behavior-modification techniques can be used to treat only a few types of discrete behaviors, not general or diffuse behaviors. Some nonpsychologists view behavior modification as being manipulative and dehumanizing, fearing that behavior-modification techniques may be used to abridge human freedoms and thus lead to greater social control.
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