Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that studies unusual patterns
of behavior, emotion and thought, which may or may not be understood as precipitating a mental disorder. Although many behaviors could be considered as abnormal, this branch of psychology generally deals with behavior in a clinical context. There is a long history of attempts to understand and control behavior deemed to be aberrant or deviant (statistically, morally or in some other sense), and there is often cultural variation in the approach taken. The field of abnormal psychology identifies multiple causes for different conditions, employing diverse theories from the general field of psychology and elsewhere, and much still hinges on what exactly is meant by "abnormal". There has traditionally been a divide between psychological and biological explanations, reflecting a philosophical dualism in regards to the mind body problem. There have also been different approaches in trying to classify. Abnormal includes three different categories; they are subnormal, supernormal and paranormal. The science of abnormal psychology studies two types of behaviors: adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. Behaviors that are maladaptive suggest that some problem(s) exist, and can also imply that the individual is vulnerable and cannot cope with environmental stress, which is leading them to have problems functioning in daily life. Clinical psychology is the applied field of psychology that seeks to assess, understand and treat psychological conditions in clinical practice. The theoretical field known as 'abnormal psychology' may form a backdrop to such work, but clinical psychologists in the current field are unlikely to use the term 'abnormal' in reference to their practice. Psychopathology is a similar term to abnormal psychology but has more of an implication of an underlying pathology (disease process), and as such is a term more commonly used in the medical specialty known as psychiatry
History Supernatural traditions Throughout time, societies have proposed several explanations of abnormal behavior within human beings. Beginning in some hunter-gatherer societies, animists have believed that people demonstrating abnormal behaviors are possessed by malevolent spirits. This idea has been associated with trepanation, the practice of cutting a hole into the individual's skull in order to release the malevolent spirits.
Although it has been difficult to define abnormal psychology, one definition includes characteristics such as statistical infrequency. A more formalized response to spiritual beliefs about abnormality is the practice of exorcism. Performed by religious authorities, exorcism is thought of as another way to release evil spirits who cause pathological behavior within the person. In some instances, individuals exhibiting unusual thoughts or behaviors have been exiled from society or worse. Perceived witchcraft, for example, has been punished by death. Two Catholic Inquisitors wrote the Malleus Malefic arum (Latin for 'The Hammer against Witches'), that was used by many Inquisitors and witch-hunters. It contained an early taxonomy of perceived deviant behavior and proposed guidelines for prosecuting deviant individuals.
Asylums The act of placing mentally ill individuals in a separate facility known as an asylum dates to 1547, when King Henry VIII of England established the St. Mary of Bethelem asylum. Asylums remained popular throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance era. These early asylums were often in miserable conditions. Patients were seen as a burden to society and locked away and treated almost as beasts to be dealt with rather than patients needing treatment. There was scientific curiosity into abnormal behavior although it was rarely investigated in the early asylums. Inmates in these early asylums were often put on display for profit as they were viewed as less than human. The early asylums were basically modifications of the existing criminal institutions. In the late 18th century the idea of humanitarian treatment for the patients gained much favor due to the work of Philippe Pinel in France. He pushed for the idea that the patients should be treated with kindness and not the cruelty inflicted on them as if they were animals or criminals. His experimental ideas such as removing the chains from the patients were met with reluctance. The experiments in kindness proved to be a great success, which helped to bring about a reform in the way mental institutions would be run.
Deinstitutionalizations In the late twentieth century however, the public view on the mentally ill was no longer in such a positive light. A large number of mental hospitals ended up closing down due to lack of funding and overpopulation. In England for example only 14 of the 130 psychiatric institutions that had been created in the early 20th century remained open at the start of the 21st century. This trend was not only in the England and the United States but worldwide with countries like Australia feeling the pain of too many mentally ill patients and not enough treatment facilities. Recent studies have found that the prevalence of mental illness has not decreased significantly in the past 10 years, and has in fact increased in frequency regarding specific conditions such as anxiety and mood disorders. This lead to a large number of the patients being released while not being fully cured of the disorder they were hospitalized for. This became known as the phenomenon of deinstitutionalization. This movement had noble goals of treating the individuals outside of the isolated mental hospital by placing them into communities and support systems. Another goal of this movement was to avoid the potential negative adaptations that can come with long term hospital confinements. Many professionals for example were concerned that patients would find permanent refuge in mental hospitals which would take them up when the demands of everyday life were too difficult. However, the patients moved to the community living have not fared well typically, as they often speak of how they feel abandoned by the doctors who used to treat them. It also has had the unfortunate effect of placing many of the patients in homelessness. Many safe havens for the deinstitutionalized mentally ill have been created but they are not as effective as needed. It is estimated that around 26.2% of people who are currently homeless have some form of a mental illness. The placing of these individuals in homelessness is of major concern as the added stress of living on the streets is not beneficial for the individual to recover from the particular disorder with which they are afflicted. In fact while some of the homeless who are able to find some temporary relief in the form of shelters, many of the homeless with a mental illness "lack safe and decent shelter".
Explaining abnormal behavior People have tried to explain and control abnormal behavior for thousands of years. Historically, there have been three main approaches to abnormal behavior: the supernatural, biological, and psychological traditions. Abnormal psychology revolves around two major paradigms for explaining mental disorders, the psychological paradigm and the biological paradigm. The psychological paradigm focuses more on the humanistic, cognitive and behavioral causes and effects of psychopathology. The biological paradigm includes the theories that focus more on physical factors, such as genetics and neurochemistry. Supernatural explanations In the supernatural tradition, also called the demonological method, abnormal behaviors are attributed to agents outside human bodies. According to this model, abnormal behaviors are caused by demons, spirits, or the influences of moon, planets, and stars. During the Stone Age, repining was performed on those who had mental illness to literally cut the evil spirits out of the victim's head. Conversely, Ancient Chinese, Ancient Egyptians, and Hebrews, believed that these were evil demons or spirits and advocated exorcism. By the time of the Greeks and Romans, mental illnesses were thought to be caused by an imbalance of the four humors, leading to draining of fluids from the brain. During the Dark Ages, many Europeans believed that the power of witches, demons, and spirits caused abnormal behaviors. People with psychological disorders were thought to be possessed by evil spirits that had to be exorcised through religious rituals. If exorcism failed, some authorities advocated steps such as confinement, beating, and other types of torture to make the body uninhabitable by witches, demons, and spirits. The belief that witches, demons, and spirits are responsible for the abnormal behavior continued into the 15th century. Swiss alchemist, astrologer, and physician Paracelsus (14931541), on the other hand, rejected the idea that abnormal behaviors were caused by witches, demons, and spirits and suggested that people's mind and behaviors were influenced by the movements of the moon and stars. This tradition is still alive today. Some people, especially in the developing countries and some followers of religious sects in the developed countries, continue to believe that supernatural powers influence human behaviors. In Western academia, the supernatural tradition has been largely replaced by the biological and psychological traditions.
Biological explanations In the biological tradition, psychological disorders are attributed to biological causes and in the psychological tradition, disorders are attributed to faulty psychological development and to social. The medical or biological perspective holds the belief that most or all abnormal behavior can be attributed to a medical factor; assuming all psychological disorders are diseases. The Greek physician Hippocrates, who is considered to be the father of Western medicine, played a major role in the biological tradition. Hippocrates and his associates wrote the Hippocratic Corpus between 450 and 350 BC, in which they suggested that abnormal behaviors can be treated like any other disease. Hippocrates viewed the brain as the seat of consciousness, emotion, intelligence, and wisdom and believed that disorders involving these functions would logically be located in the brain. These ideas of Hippocrates and his associates were later adopted by Galen, the Roman physician. Galen extended these ideas and developed a strong and influential school of thought within the biological tradition that extended well into the 18th century. Medical: The medical approach to abnormal psychology focuses on the biological causes on mental illness. This perspective emphasizes understanding the underlying cause of disorders, which might include genetic inheritance, related physical disorders, infections and chemical imbalances. Medical treatments are often pharmacological in nature, although medication is often used in conjunction with some other type of psychotherapy. Psychological explanations Behavioral: The behavioral approach to abnormal psychology focuses on observable behaviors. In behavioral therapy, the focus is on reinforcing positive behaviors and not reinforcing maladaptive behaviors. This approach targets only the behavior itself, not the underlying causes. Biopsychosocial factors Therapies Psychoanalysis (Freud) Psychoanalytic theory is heavily based on the theory of the neurologist Sigmund Freud. These ideas often represented repressed emotions and memories from a patient's childhood. According to psychoanalytic theory, these repressions cause the disturbances that people experience in their daily lives and by finding the source of these disturbances, one should be able to eliminate the disturbance itself. This is accomplished by a variety of methods, with some popular ones being free association, hypnosis, and insight. The goal of these methods is to induce a catharsis or emotional release in the patient which should indicate that the source of the problem has been tapped and it can then be helped. Freud's psychosexual stages also played a key role in this form of therapy; as he would often believe that problems the patient was experiencing were due to them becoming stuck or "fixated" in a particular stage. Dreams also played a major role in this form of therapy as Freud viewed dreams as a way to gain insight into the unconscious mind. Patients were often asked to keep dream journals and to record their dreams to bring in for discussion during the next therapy session. There are many potential problems associated with this style of therapy, including resistance to the repressed memory or feeling, and negative transference onto the therapist. Psychoanalysis was carried on by many after Freud including his daughter Ana Freud and Jacques Lacan. These and many others have gone on to elaborate on Freud's original theory and to add their own take on defense mechanisms or dream analysis. While psychoanalysis has fallen out of favor to more modern forms of therapy it is still used by some clinical psychologists to varying degrees. Behavioral therapy (Wolpe) Behavior therapy relies on the principles of behaviorism, such as involving classical and operant conditioning. Behaviorism arose in the early 20th century due to the work of psychologists such as James Watson and B. F. Skinner. Behaviorism states that all behaviors humans do is because of a stimulus and reinforcement. While this reinforcement is normally for good behavior, it can also occur for maladaptive behavior. In this therapeutic view, the patients maladaptive behavior has been reinforced which will cause the maladaptive behavior to be repeated. The goal of the therapy is to reinforce less maladaptive behaviors so that with time these adaptive behaviors will become the primary ones in the patient. Humanistic therapy (Rogers) Humanistic therapy aims to achieve self-actualization (Carl Rogers, 1961). In this style of therapy, the therapist will focus on the patient themselves as opposed to the problem which the patient is afflicted with. The overall goal of this therapy is that by treating the patient as "human" instead of client will help get to the source of the problem and hopefully resolve the problem in an effective manner. Humanistic therapy has been on the rise in recent years and has been associated with numerous positive benefits. It is considered to be one of the core elements needed therapeutic effectiveness and a significant contributor to not only the well being of the patient but society as a whole. Some say that all of the therapeutic approaches today draw from the humanistic approach in some regard and that humanistic therapy is the best way for treat a patient. Humanistic therapy can be used on people of all ages; however, it is very popular among children in its variant known as "play therapy". Children are often sent to therapy due to outburst that they have in a school or home setting, the theory is that by treating the child in a setting that is similar to the area that they are having their disruptive behavior, the child will be more likely to learn from the therapy and have an effective outcome. In play therapy, the clinicians will "play" with their client usually with toys, or a tea party. Playing is the typical behavior of a child and therefore playing with the therapist will come as a natural response to the child. In playing together the clinician will ask the patient questions but due to the setting; the questions no longer seem intrusive and therapeutic more like a normal conversation. This should help the patient realizes issues they have and confess them to the therapist with less difficulty than they may experience in a traditional counseling setting. Cognitive behavioral therapy (Beck) Cognitive behavioral therapy aims to influence thought and cognition (Beck, 1977). This form of therapy relies on not only the components of behavioral therapy as mentioned before, but also the elements of cognitive psychology. This relies on not only the clients behavioral problems that could have arisen from conditioning; but also their negative schemas, and distorted perceptions of the world around them. These negative schemas may be causing distress in the life of the patient; for example the schemas may be giving them unrealistic expectations for how well they should perform at their job, or how they should look physically. When these expectations are not met it will often result in maladaptive behaviors such as depression, obsessive compulsions, and anxiety. With cognitive behavior therapy; the goal is to change the schemas that are causing the stress in a persons life and hopefully replace them with more realistic ones. Once the negative schemas have been replaced, it will hopefully cause a remission of the patients symptoms. CBT is considered particularly effective in the treatment of depression and has even been used lately in group settings. It is felt that using CBT in a group setting aids in giving its members a since of support and decreasing the likelihood of them dropping out of therapy before the treatment has had time to work properly. CBT has been found to be an effective treatment for many patients even those who do not have diseases and disorders typically thought of as psychiatric ones. For example patients with the disease multiple sclerosis have found a lot of help using CBT. The treatment often helps the patients cope with the disorder they have and how they can adapt to their new lives without developing new problems such as depression or negative schemas about themselves. According to RAND, therapies are difficult to provide to all patients in need. A lack of funding and understanding of symptoms provides a major roadblock that is not easily avoided. Individual symptoms and responses to treatments vary, creating a disconnect between patient, society and care givers/professionals.
EMARD GARCIA
Behavioral geneticS
Behavioural genetics, also commonly referred to as behaviour genetics, is the field of study that examines the role of genetics in animal (including human) behaviour. Often associated with the "nature versus nurture" debate, behavioural genetics is highly interdisciplinary, involving contributions from biology, genetics, epigenetics, ethology, psychology, and statistics. Behavioural geneticists study the inheritance of behavioural traits. In humans, this information is often gathered through the use of the twin study or adoption study. In animal studies, breeding, transgenesis, and gene knockout techniques are common. Psychiatric genetics is a closely related field.
History Sir Francis Galton, a nineteenth-century intellectual, is recognized as one of the first behavioural geneticists. Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, studied the heritability of human ability, focusing on mental characteristics as well as eminence among close relatives in the English upper-class. In 1869, Galton published his results in Hereditary Genius. In his work, Galton "introduced multivariate analysis and paved the way towards modern Bayesian statistics" that are used throughout the scienceslaunching what has been dubbed the "Statistical Enlightenment". Galton is often credited as the pioneer of eugenics. Subsequently, Adolf Hitler is believed to have been motivated by Galton's work in enacting the Final Solution during World War II. In 1951, Calvin S. Hall in his seminal book chapter on behavioural genetics introduced the term "psychogenetics",
which enjoyed some limited popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. However, it eventually disappeared from usage in favour of "behaviour genetics". Behaviour genetics, per se, gained recognition as a research discipline with the publication in 1960 of the textbook Behavior Genetics by J.L. Fullerand W.R. Thompson. Nowadays, it is widely accepted that most behaviours in animals and humans are under some degree of genetic influence. Underscoring the role of evolution in behavioural genetics, Theodosius Dobzhansky was elected the first president of the Behavior Genetics Association in 1972; the BGA bestows the Dobzhansky Award on researchers for their outstanding contributions to the field. In the early 1970s, Lee Ehrman, a doctoral student of Dobzhansky, wrote seminal papers describing the relationship between genotype frequency and mating success in Drosophila, lending impetus to the pursuit of genetic studies of behaviour in other animals. Studies on hygienic behavior in honey bees were also carried out early in the history of the field. The social behaviour of honey bees has also been studied and recent work has focussed on the gene involved in the foraging behaviour of Drosophila; this essentially allowed for deriving a relationship between gene expression and behaviour, where the gene regulating foraging behaviour in Drosophila also regulated social behaviour in bees.
Methods The primary goal of behavioural genetics is to establish causal relationships between genes and behaviour. One common approach is the reductionist approach. Under this approach, scientists first observe a psychological or behavioural function (e.g., schizophrenia). Next, using known functions of brain systems and neurotransmitter systems, scientists correlate behaviour to these brain areas (e.g., excess glutamate release may stimulate excess dopamine in the limbic system leading to schizophrenic symptoms). Once scientists are able to map behaviour to biological systems, they can then turn to genetics to understand the development of these biological systems (e.g., an abnormal glutamate gene could be a candidate gene for schizophrenia). Initial attempts to associate particular genes (or at least chromosomal positions) to behaviour often involve a search for Quantitative trait loci (QTL). Other methods used with human populations involve twin studies and adoption studies. These two methods attempt to separate environmental contributions to behaviour from genetic contributions. The Human Genome Project has allowed scientists to understand the coding sequence of human DNA nucleotides. Once candidate genes for behaviors are discovered, scientists may be able to genetically screen individuals to determine their likelihood of developing certain pathologies. With non-human animals, selection experiments have often been employed. For example, laboratory house mice have been bred for open-field behavior, thermoregulatory nesting, and voluntary wheel-running behavior.
Journals Behavioural geneticists are active in a variety of scientific disciplines including biology, medicine, pharmacology, psychiatry, and psychology; thus, behavioural-genetic research is published in a variety of scientific journals, including Nature and Science. Journals that specifically publish research in behavioural genetics include Behavior Genetics, Molecular Psychiatry, Psychiatric Genetics, Twin Research and Human Genetics, Genes, Brain and Behavior, and the Journal of Neurogenetics.
Although there is some disagreement as to how to precisely define behaviour in a biological context, one common interpretation based on a meta-analysis of scientific literature states that "behavior is the internally coordinated responses (actions or inactions) of whole living organisms (individuals or groups) to internal and/or external stimuli" Behaviors can be either innate or learned. Behavior can be regarded as any action of an organism that changes its relationship to its environment. Behavior provides outputs from the organism to the environment. Behavior therapy is a broad term referring to psychotherapy, behavior analytical, or a combination of the two therapies. In its broadest sense, the methods focus on either just behaviors or in combination with thoughts and feelings that might be causing them. Those who practice behavior therapy tend to look more at specific, learned behaviors and how the environment has an impact on those behaviors. Those who practice behavior therapy are called behaviorists. They tend to look for treatment outcomes that are objectively measurable. Behavior therapy does not involve one specific method but it has a wide range of techniques that can be used to treat a persons psychological problems. Behavior therapy breaks down into three disciplines: applied behavior analysis (ABA), cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), and social learning theory. ABA focuses on operant conditioning in the form of positive reinforcement to modify behavior after conducting a Functional behavior assessment (FBA) and CBT focuses on the thoughts and feelings behind mental health conditions with treatment plans in psychotherapy to lessen the issue.
Assessment Behavior therapists complete a functional analysis or a functional assessment that looks at four important areas: stimulus, organism, response and consequences. The stimulus is the condition or environmental trigger that causes behavior. An organism involves the internal responses of a person, like physiological responses, emotions and cognition. A response is the behavior that a person exhibits and the consequences are the result of the behavior. These four things are incorporated into an assessment done by the behavior therapist. Most behavior therapists use objective assessment methods like structured interviews, objective psychological tests or different behavioral rating forms. These types of assessments are used so that the behavior therapist can determine exactly what a client's problem may be and establish a baseline for any maladaptive responses that the client may have. By having this baseline, as therapy continues this same measure can be used to check a clients progress, which can help determine if the therapy is working. Behavior therapists do not typically ask the why questions but tend to be more focused on the how, when, where and what questions. Traditional tests like the Rorschach inkblot test or personality tests like the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory) are traditionally used for behavioral assessment because they are based on the personality trait theory where it assumes that a persons answer to these methods can predict behavior. Behavior assessment is more focused on the observations of a persons behavior in their natural environment. Behavioral Assessment specifically attempts to find out what the environmental and self-imposed variables are. These variables are the things that are allowing a person to maintain their maladaptive feelings, thoughts and behaviors. In a behavioral assessment person variables are also considered. These person variables come from a persons social learning history and they affect the way in which the environment affects that persons behavior. An example of a person variable would be behavioral competence. Behavioral competence looks at whether a person has the appropriate skills and behaviors that are necessary when performing a specific response to a certain situation or stimuli. When making a behavioral assessment the behavior therapist wants to answer two questions: (1) what are the different factors (environmental or psychological) that are maintaining the maladaptive behavior and (2) what type of behavior therapy or technique that can help the individual improve most effectively. The first question involves looking at all aspects of a person, which can be summed up by the acronym BASIC ID. This acronym stands for behavior, affective responses, sensory reactions, imagery, cognitive processes, interpersonal relationships and drug use.
Treatment outcomes Systematic desensitization has been shown to successfully treat phobias about heights, driving, insects as well as any anxiety that a person may have. Anxiety can include social anxiety, anxiety about public speaking as well as test anxiety. It has been shown that the use of systematic desensitization is an effective technique that can be applied to a number of problems that a person may have. When using modeling procedures this technique is often compared to another behavioral therapy technique. When compared to desensitization, the modeling technique does appear to be less effective. However it is clear that the greater the interaction between the patient and the subject he is modeling the greater the effectiveness of the treatment. Aversive treatment of sexual deviations according to the empirical literature has generally seen a reasonable degree of success and this includes follow up periods. While undergoing exposure therapy a person usually needs five sessions to see if the treatment is working. After five sessions exposure treatment is seen to benefit the patient and help with their problems. However even after five sessions it is recommended that the patient or client should still continue treatment. Virtual Reality treatment has shown to be effective for a fear of heights. It has also been shown to help with the treatment of a variety of anxiety disorders. Virtual reality therapy can be very costly so therapists are still awaiting results of controlled trials for VR treatment to see which applications show the best results. For those with suicidal ideation treatment depends on how severe the persons depression and feeling of hopelessness is. If these things are severe the person's response to completing small steps will not be of importance to them because they dont consider it to be a big deal. Generally those who arent severely depressed or fearful, this technique has been successful because the completion of simpler activities build up their confidences and allows them to continue on to more complex situations. Contingency contracts have been seen to be effective in changing any undesired behaviors of individuals. It has been seen to be effective in treating behavior problems in delinquents regardless of the specific characteristics of the contract. Token economies have been shown to be effective when treating patients in psychiatric wards who had chronic schizophrenia. The results showed that the contingent tokens were controlling the behavior of the patients. Response costs has been shown to work in suppressing a variety of behaviors such as smoking, overeating or stuttering with a diverse group of clinical populations ranging from sociopaths to school children. These behaviors that have been suppressed using this technique often do not recover when the punishment contingency is withdrawn. Also undesirable side effects that are usually seen with punishment are not typically found when using the response cost technique. Characteristics By nature, behavioral therapies are empirical (data-driven), contextual (focused on the environment and context), functional (interested in the effect or consequence a behavior ultimately has), probabilistic (viewing behavior as statistically predictable), monistic (rejecting mind body dualism and treating the person as a unit), and relational (analyzing bidirectional interactions). Behavioral therapy develops, adds and provides behavioral intervention strategies and programs for clients, and training to people who care to facilitate successful lives in the communities.
Clinical applications Behaviour therapy based its core interventions on functional analysis. Just a few of the many problems that behaviour therapy have functionally analysed include intimacy in couples relationships, forgiveness in couples, chronic pain, stress-related behaviour problems of being an adult child of an alcoholic, anorexiachronic distress, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, insomnia and obesity Functional analysis has even been applied to problems that therapists commonly encounter like client resistance, partially engaged clients and involuntary clients. Applications to these problems have left clinicans with considerable tools for enhancing therapeutic effectiveness. One way to enhance therapeutic effectiveness is to use positive reinforcement or operant conditioning. Although behavior therapy is based on the general learning model, it can be applied in a lot of different treatment packages that can be specifically developed to deal with problematic behaviors. Some of the more well known types of treatments are: Relaxation training, systematic desensitization, virtual reality exposure, exposure and response prevention techniques, social skills training, modeling, behavioral rehearsal and homework, and aversion therapy and punishment. Relaxation training involves clients learning to lower arousal to reduce their stress by tensing and releasing certain muscle groups throughout their body. Systematic desensitization is a treatment in which the client slowly substitutes a new learned response for a maladaptive response by moving up a hierarchy of situations involving fear. Systematic desensitization is based in part on counter conditioning. Counter conditioning is learning new ways to change one response for another and in the case of desensitization it is substituting that maladaptive behavior for a more relaxing behavior. Exposure and response prevention techniques is also known as flooding and response prevention. Flooding and response prevention is the general technique in which you expose an individual to anxiety-provoking stimuli while keeping them from having any avoidance responses or keeping them from freaking out. Virtual reality therapy provides realistic, computer-based simulations of troublesome situations. The modeling process involves a person being subjected to watching other individuals who demonstrate behavior that is considered adaptive and that should be adopted by the client. This exposure involves not only the cues of the model person as well as the situations of a certain behavior that way the relationship can be seen between the appropriateness of a certain behavior and situation in which that behavior occurs is demonstrated. With the behavioral rehearsal and homework treatment a client gets a desired behavior during a therapy session and then they practice and record that behavior between their sessions. Aversion therapy and punishment is a technique in which an aversive (painful or unpleasant) stimulus is used to decrease unwanted behaviors from occurring. It is concerned with two procedures: 1) the procedures are used to decrease the likelihood of the frequency of a certain behavior and 2) procedures that will reduce the attractiveness of certain behaviors and the stimuli that elicit them. The punishment side of aversion therapy is when an aversive stimulus is presented at the same time that a negative stimulus and then they are stopped at the same time when a positive stimulus or response is presented.
Examples of the type of negative stimulus or punishment that can be used is shock therapy treatments, aversive drug treatments as well as response cost contingent punishment which involves taking away a reward. Applied behavior analysis is using behavioral methods to modify certain behaviors that are seen as being important socially or personally. There are four main characteristics of applied behavior analysis. First behavior analysis is focused mainly on overt behaviors in an applied setting. Treatments are developed as a way to alter the relationship between those overt behaviors and their consequences. Another characteristic of applied behavior analysis is how it (behavior analysis) goes about evaluating treatment effects. The individual subject is where the focus of study is on, the investigation is centered on the one individual being treated. A third characteristic is that it focuses on what the environment does to cause significant behavior changes. Finally the last characteristic of applied behavior analysis is the use of those techniques that stem from operant and classical conditioning such as providing reinforcement, punishment, stimulus control and any other learning principles that may apply. Social skills training teaches clients skills to access reinforcers and lessen life punishment. Operant conditioning procedures in meta-analysis had the largest effect size for training social skills, followed by modelling, coaching, and social cognitive techniques in that order. Social skills training has some empirical support particularly for schizophrenia. However, with schizophrenia, behavioral programs have generally lost favor. Some other techniques that have been used in behavior therapy are contingency contracting, response costs, token economies, biofeedback, and using shaping and grading task assignments. Shaping and graded task assignments are used when behavior that needs to be learned is complex. The complex behaviors that need to be learned are broken down into simpler steps where the person can achieve small things gradually building up to the more complex behavior. Each step approximates the eventual goal and helps the person to expand their activities in a gradual way. This behavior is used when a person feels that something in their lives cannot be changed and lifes tasks appear to be overwhelming. Another technique of behavior therapy involves holding a client or patient accountable of their behaviors in an effort to change them. This is called a contingency contract, which is a formal written contract between two or more people that defines the specific expected behaviors that you wish to change and the rewards and punishments that go along with that behavior. In order for a contingency contract to be official it needs to have five elements. First it must state what each person will get if they successfully complete the desired behavior. Secondly those people involved have to monitor the behaviors. Third, if the desired behavior is not being performed in the way that was agreed upon in the contract the punishments that were defined in the contract must be done. Fourth if the persons involved are complying with the contract they must receive bonuses. The last element involves documenting the compliance and noncompliance while using this treatment in order to give the persons involved consistent feedback about the target behavior and the provision of reinforces. Token economies is a behavior therapy technique where clients are reinforced with tokens that are considered a type of currency that can be used to purchase desired rewards, like being able to watch television or getting a snack that they want when they perform designated behaviors. Token economies are mainly used in institutional and therapeutic settings. In order for a token economy to be effective there must be consistency in administering the program by the entire staff. Procedures must be clearly defined so that there is no confusion among the clients. Instead of looking for ways to punish the patients or to deny them of rewards, the staff has to reinforce the positive behaviors so that the clients will increase the occurrence of the desired behavior. Over time the tokens need to be replaced with less tangible rewards such as compliments so that the client will be prepared when they leave the institution and wont expect to get something every time they perform a desired behavior. Closely related to token economies is a technique called response costs. This technique can either be used with or without token economies. Response costs are the punishment side of token economies where there is a loss of a reward or privilege after someone performs an undesirable behavior. Like token economies this technique is used mainly in institutional and therapeutic settings. Considerable policy implications have been inspired by behavioral views of various forms of psychopathology. One form of behavior therapy, (habit reversal training) has been found to be highly effective for treating tics.