Abstract
Cognitively-oriented clinical psychologists sometimes think of conditioning as the formation of associations in memory. From this perspective, conditioning research is important because it reveals the conditions under which potentially pathogenic associations are formed and can be changed. In this paper, I point out that it is also possible and useful to think of conditioning in ways that do not refer to associations. First, based on the idea that conditioning effects are due to the formation of propositional beliefs, it is possible to appreciate that conditioning research informs us about one way of forming or revising beliefs: via the experience of events. Second, conditioning research reveals the environmental causes of behavior and behavior change and thus has merit regardless of ideas about the cognitive processes and representations that mediate conditioning. By discussing these different perspectives on conditioning as well as the way in which they are related, I hope to provide the reader with a wider appreciation of the merits of conditioning research for clinical psychology.
Highlights
Cognitively-oriented clinical psychologists sometimes think of conditioning as the formation of associations in memory
On the Relevance of Propositional Models for Clinical Psychology Do propositional theories provide a viable alternative for association formation theories in clinical psychology, for instance, when we look at our patient who is terrified of flying an airplane? First, they provide a potential cognitive explanation for the role of conditioning in psychological suffering
There are different ways in which one can think about the role of conditioning research in clinical psychology
Summary
Cognitively-oriented clinical psychologists sometimes think of conditioning as the formation of associations in memory. Conditioning research reveals the environmental causes of behavior and behavior change and has merit regardless of ideas about the cognitive processes and representations that mediate conditioning By discussing these different perspectives on conditioning as well as the way in which they are related, I hope to provide the reader with a wider appreciation of the merits of conditioning research for clinical psychology. Many cognitively-oriented clinical psychologists continue to think of conditioning primarily in terms of the formation of associations in memory (e.g., Craske, Hermans, & Vansteenwegen, 2006; Craske et al, 2014) They see conditioning research as informing them about ways in which pathogenic associations in memory are formed and how their impact can be counteracted..
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