Behavioural Techniques

Behavioural Techniques: The Core Idea

Behavioural techniques rest on a simple premise: problematic behaviours are learned, and they can be unlearned or replaced. The therapist's job is to reduce the client's arousal (especially anxiety), then systematically alter behaviour using the principles of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and vicarious learning. Two major techniques stand out — negative reinforcement and aversive conditioning — but the therapist has a whole toolkit to draw from.

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Relaxation Procedures

Anxiety is often the root of the problem. The client may smoke, overeat, or struggle to concentrate because anxiety drives those behaviours. If you lower the anxiety, the unwanted behaviours tend to drop away on their own.

Progressive muscular relaxation works by teaching the client to recognise tension. The client first contracts a muscle group (say, the forearm) to feel what tension is like, then is asked to let go completely. With repeated practice across all muscle groups, the client learns to enter a state of deep relaxation. Meditation, covered later in the chapter, is another route to the same relaxed state.

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Negative Reinforcement and Aversive Conditioning

Negative reinforcement happens when a behaviour helps the organism escape or avoid a painful or unpleasant stimulus. You learn to move away from danger because doing so removes the threat. This is a natural, everyday learning process.

Aversive conditioning works in the opposite direction: you pair an undesired behaviour with an aversive consequence. For instance, an alcoholic is given a mild electric shock while smelling alcohol. After repeated pairings, the smell alone becomes aversive, and the person gives up alcohol.

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Positive Reinforcement and Token Economy

When a desired behaviour occurs too rarely, positive reinforcement is used to increase it. A mother might prepare her child's favourite dish whenever the child does homework on time — the food reward strengthens the homework habit.

For more structured settings, token economy is used. Every time a wanted behaviour occurs, the person receives a token (a chip, a star, a point). Tokens are collected and later exchanged for a real reward — an outing, a treat, or a privilege.

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Differential Reinforcement

Unwanted behaviour can be reduced and wanted behaviour increased at the same time. There are two methods:

1. Positive reinforcement for wanted behaviour + negative reinforcement for unwanted behaviour — applied together.
2. Positive reinforcement for wanted behaviour + ignoring the unwanted behaviour — this is less painful and equally effective.

Example: A girl cries and sulks when she is not taken to the cinema. The parent is told: take her only if she asks politely without crying; if she cries, do not take her, and ignore the crying entirely. The polite asking increases; the crying decreases.

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Systematic Desensitisation

This technique, developed by Wolpe, is the classic treatment for phobias and irrational fears.

Steps:

1. The therapist interviews the client to identify all fear-provoking situations.
2. Together, they build a hierarchy — a list of anxiety-provoking stimuli, from the least frightening (bottom) to the most frightening (top).
3. The therapist relaxes the client (using progressive muscular relaxation).
4. The client is asked to imagine the least anxiety-provoking situation while staying relaxed.
5. If the client feels even a hint of tension, they stop imagining that scene and return to relaxation.
6. Over sessions, the client works up the hierarchy, maintaining relaxation at each step. …