3 - Behavior Modification and Learning Strategies

Abstract

This chapter reviews the ideas and methods in the fields of contemporary behavior modification and clinical behavior therapy that can contribute substantially to the development of learning strategies. Counseling and behavior-change activities of all sorts can be viewed primarily as the teaching of active self-management strategies for coping with problems of living. Most of these strategies have a heavily cognitive component—they are executed mainly between the stimulus and the response. The bulks of human behavior, and the most characteristically human part of it, consist not of coordinating one's responses with the prevailing reinforcement contingencies in fixed environments, but of attempts to change current physical and social environments to make them more rewarding or to realize other kinds of goals in living. Behavior modification brought to the behavior change scene some new, modestly effective behavior-change techniques, a learning theory rationale that provided an aura of scientific respectability, and a sincere ethical commitment to careful evaluation of treatment effectiveness. The learning theory foundations of behavior modification techniques have been largely undermined and replaced by explanations that resort heavily to active cognitive and imaginal processes. Moreover, new and often more effective techniques and change strategies have been developed that consist of teaching persons actively to self-direct and self-manage their own cognitive processes to produce desired changes in feelings and behavior. The fields of behavior therapy and behavior modification have undergone their own cognitive revolution.