Behavioral Therapy

Synonyms

Behavior management; Behavior modification

Definition

Behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on changing and gaining control over unwanted behaviors based upon the principles of classical and operant conditioning. It is useful in the treatment of depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, smoking cessation, weight loss, stuttering, enuresis, tics, and other medical conditions.

Historical Background

Attempts to help people solve behavioral problems through attempts that closely mirror today’s “behavioral therapy” have a very long history. It is based on the idea that all behaviors are learned and in the case of psychotherapy, these unhealthy behaviors can be changed.

Nineteenth-century British penal colonies used “token economies” to reinforce inmates for obeying prison rules. The early Romans used “aversive conditioning” (e.g., placement of “putrid” spiders in the glasses of alcohol abusers) in order to decrease problem drinking. Seventeenth-century French...