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Chapter 9
Behavioral Counseling
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Although many psychologists have contributed to behavioral theory, B.F. Skinner is best known
as the translator of these theories into usable methods. This theory postulates that people are born
neutral, with equal potential for good and evil. People are responders to their environments. They
demonstrate the responses they have learned when the stimulus conditions are appropriate. All
behavior is learned, and can, therefore, be unlearned, and new behavior can be learned in its
place.
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After completing this chapter, the student will be able to:
1. Summarize the philosophical assumptions of behaviorism.
2. Explain the behaviorists’ view of human nature, innate drives, and tendencies of
humans.
3. Discuss the stimulus-response learning theory.
4. Outline the re-educational process of reinforcement and extinction.
5. Compare operant and respondent behavior.
6. Explain the steps in behavior analysis, reinforcement schedules, contingency
contracts and other behavior management techniques.
7. Compare behavioral therapy with other theories.
8. Evaluate the limitations and contributions of behavioral therapy.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Many psychologists have contributed to the behavioral counseling approach, but the person best
known to the public is B. F. Skinner. He did the most to translate the theories and ideas of other
behaviorists into methods that are usable by psychologists, educators, counselors, and parents.
A broad statement of the behaviorist view of the nature of people is Skinner’s belief that things
that happen to children influence and change them as biological entities. Behaviorists view
human beings as neither good nor bad but merely products of their environment. In this theory
people are viewed as responders who demonstrate the responses they have learned when the
stimulus conditions are appropriate. Therefore, a stimulus-response pattern is the basis of all
human learning. Very simply the person learns a specific response when a satisfying condition
follows an action.
Skinner stated that behavior is a product of three types of variation and selection: natural
selection, operant conditioning, and modeling. He believed that people choose behavior based on
anticipated consequences. In other words, things that happen to people influence and change
them; or, people are the products of the conditioning they receive from their environment. Born
neutral, people have equal potential for good or evil and for rationality or irrationality.
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Since all behavior is learned, it can be unlearned and new behavior learned in its place.
Behavioral counseling is an action therapy in which clients do something about their behavior
rather than trying to understand it. Clients learn to monitor their behavior, practice coping skills,
and complete homework assignments to help them reach their goals. Counseling is a process of
reeducation. Counselors help clients develop plans to reinforce adaptive or helpful behavior and
extinguish maladaptive or unhelpful behavior. The counselor’s role is, through reinforcement
principles, to help clients achieve goals they have set for themselves. Currently behavioral
counseling is used with covert processes such as cognitions, emotions, and obsessive ideation as
well as the tradition overt behavior problems.
In operant conditioning, operant behavior refers to behavior that operates on and changes the
environment in some manner. It is also referred to as instrumental behavior because it is
instrumental in goal achievement. People who use operant conditioning wait until the desired
behavior or an approximation of the desired behavior occurs, and then reinforce it with a
rewarding stimulus known as positive reinforcement (for example, praise, money, candy, free
time, and attention). Negative reinforcement (different from punishment) occurs when the
operant behavior is reinforced by its capacity to stop an aversive stimulus. For example, rats
learn to press a bar to shut off an electric shock, and children take their seats at school to shut off
the aversive sound of their teacher's scolding. Punishment, like positive reinforcement, occurs
after the behavior is emitted but tends to decrease its occurrence. Extinction is the process of
eliminating a learned behavior by ignoring the behavior or by not reinforcing it by withholding
attention and other rewards.
In counseling, behavior is analyzed. A sample four-step behavior analysis is discussed in the
text. The problem category (performing a task or dealing with people) and tasks (being unable or
being unwilling) are identified. After those two steps a determination of the problem cause (lack
of knowledge, obstacle or refusal) is undertaken. The final step is the selection of an appropriate
problem solution.
Schedules of reinforcement are designed to achieve the client's goals. Changing the balance of
positive and negative consequences requires selecting an appropriate schedule of reinforcement.
There are two schedules of reinforcement for the acquisition and establishment of a new
behavior: continuous and intermittent. Continuous reinforcement, the reinforcement of each
successful response, is best when the new behavior is first being learned. Once the new behavior
has been learned, continuous reinforcement has the effect of extinguishing the behavior by
satiating the learner. Reinforcement should be switched to one of four intermittent schedules:
fixed interval, variable interval, fixed ratio, or variable ratio.
All behavior change, internal and external, can be attempted through behavioral counseling.
Specific techniques reduce and eliminate anxiety, phobias, and obsessive thoughts, as well as
reduce inappropriate, observable behaviors. Several counseling methods are used. These include
contingency contracts, self-management techniques, shaping, behavioral momentum,
biofeedback, modeling, token economies, behavior practice groups, role-playing, homework
assignments, and assertiveness training. Contingency contracts are formal plans that pair
behavioral change with positive reinforcement. While contingency contracts are created by
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counselors (or other helpers) and the child, self-management contracts are formulated by the
person who can take more responsibility for their actions. Shaping is a general procedure
designed to induce new behaviors by reinforcing behaviors that approximate the desired
behavior. Behavioral momentum theory is that the reinforcement gained from doing easy tasks
builds momentum that carries over to completion of more difficult or low-compliance task.
Modeling consists of exposing the child to someone who exhibits behaviors to be adopted by the
child. Token economies are used on a group basis and involve earning or losing points to receive
reinforcement. Behavior-practice groups provide a setting for children to practice new behaviors
before trying them out in real-life situations. Role-playing helps children define a problem, put
themselves in someone else’s place or rehearse behavior.
Because behavioral counseling differs from traditional counseling principally in terms of
specificity, the behavioral counselor prefers to state goals as overt changes in behavior rather
than hypothetical constructs. The basic counseling function involved in behavioral counseling is
defined as discrimination—differential responding to different situations (individuals, groups,
institutions, and environmental settings). In behavioral counseling, continuing assessment of the
effects on outcomes of each counseling intervention determines effectiveness of the procedure.
Classical conditioning has its roots in the work of Ivan Pavlov. Classical or respondent
conditioning can be defined as a form of learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus (the
conditioned stimulus) elicits a response after multiple pairings with another stimulus (the
unconditioned stimulus). Some methods of classical conditioning are systematic desensitization,
flooding, hypnosis, aversive conditioning, and counter-conditioning. Systematic desensitization
is a procedure used to eliminate anxiety and fear by pairing a response incompatible with
anxiety, such as relaxation, with weak and then progressively stronger anxiety-producing stimuli.
Flooding consists of exposing the client to the most feared stimulus by putting themselves into
the situation repeatedly over a short period of time. Aversive conditioning pairs a noxious
stimulus with the maladaptive response.
The distinguishing features of behavioral counseling are the analysis of behavior and the
application of specific procedures to bring about change. Behavioral counseling has been
effective with eating disorders, aggressive and violent youth, and other treatment populations.
Behavioral counseling is most compatible with cultures that prefer behavioral interventions,
focus on the present, and directive approaches.
KEY CONCEPTS
1.
2.
3.
4.
According to the behaviorist view, people are influenced and changed by things that
happen to them.
Behavioral counseling is a process of relearning. Helpful behaviors are reinforced and
unhelpful behaviors are extinguished.
Positive reinforcement of a behavior is accomplished by providing a rewarding stimulus
after the desired behavior is emitted. Positive reinforcement is designed to increase the
occurrence of a desired behavior.
Negative reinforcement is accomplished by removing an aversive stimulus. Negative
reinforcement is designed to increase the occurrence of a desired behavior.
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5.
6.
Punishment is the application of an aversive stimulus in order to decrease the occurrence
of an undesired behavior.
Extinction is the process of decreasing the occurrence of an undesired behavior by
ignoring the behavior or by not reinforcing the behavior.
KEY TERMS, CONCEPTS, and PERSONALITIES
Aversive conditioning – The process of inflicting an aversive or unpleasant stimulus when an
undesired behavior occurs.
B.F. Skinner – A behavior theorist who believed that all behavior is learned, and thus negative
behavior can be unlearned.
Biofeedback – A method of reinforcement in which a machine provides the reinforcement, based
on brain waves, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.
Continuous reinforcement – A schedule of reinforcement that rewards each successful response.
This type of reinforcement is best when a behavior is first being learned.
Consequence - What a person perceives happens to him or her (positive, negative or neutral) as a
result of a behavior.
Contracts – Written agreements for individuals whereby behavioral goals are set and
reinforcements are established upon successful completion of the behavioral goals.
Counterconditioning – The pairing of a stronger, pleasant stimulus with an aversive stimulus in
order to overcome the anxiety associated with the aversive stimulus.
Extinction – The elimination of a learned behavior through the process of not reinforcing it with
rewards or attention.
Fixed interval schedule – An intermittent schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is
provided for the first response after a fixed time has elapsed.
Fixed ratio schedule – An intermittent schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is
provided at a fixed rate (ex.: every fifth correct response).
Flooding – A process to decrease anxiety and fear by exposing an individual to the most anxietyprovoking stimulus repeatedly over a short period of time. Also referred to as reactive or internal
inhibition.
Modeling – The process of exposing an individual to others who are exhibiting a desired
behavior.
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Negative reinforcement – The reinforcement of a behavior by its capacity to stop an aversive
stimulus.
Operant behavior - Behavior that operates on and changes the environment in some manner.
Operant conditioning – Increasing desired behaviors by reinforcing the behaviors once they have
been displayed.
Positive reinforcement – A reinforcing, rewarding stimulus given following a desired behavior,
or approximation of the behavior, in order to increase the behavior.
Punishment – A method of operant conditioning in which a stimulus that decreases the behavior
is presented following the behavior.
Reciprocal inhibition – A principal of learning that states that an organism cannot make two
contradictory responses at the same time.
Respondent behavior – Behavior learned when a stimulus that already elicits a response is
presented with a neutral response, and the behavior becomes associated with the (previously)
neutral stimulus.
Role reversal – A method of counseling role-play in which individuals switch roles in order to
gain empathy for the each other’s role.
Shaping – The process of inducing new behaviors by reinforcing close approximations of the
desired behavior until the exact desired behavior is obtained.
Systematic desensitization – A process used to eliminate anxiety and fear. The process consists
of exposing an individual to a non-anxiety-provoking stimulus and working your way up to the
feared stimulus. The basis includes the idea that if muscles are relaxed, they cannot experience
anxiety at the same time.
Tabula rasa – The idea that people are born neutral with the capacity for either good or bad based
on learned behaviors.
Token economies – A behavioral modification technique in which individuals are given tokens
for displaying a desired behavior. The tokens earned can be turned in for rewards.
Variable interval schedule – A schedule of intermittent reinforcement in which reinforcement is
provided on the first response after some average period of time.
Variable ratio schedule – A schedule of intermittent reinforcement in which reinforcement is
provided after a varying number of responses.
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REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. According to the behaviorist perspective, people are born basically:
A. good.
B. evil.
C. neutral.
D. ignorant.
2. Behaviorists believe that human beings:
A. learn specific responses when a satisfying condition follows an action.
B. focus sharply on one specific need while relegating all other needs to the background.
C. have a natural tendency toward rational thought and progress.
D. create problems for themselves by denying the reality of the world around them.
3. Because human behavior is
A. evil; dangerous
B. learned; unlearned
C. adaptable; changed
D. simple; analyzed
, all behavior can be
.
4. Behaviorists believe that humans are:
A. thinkers.
B. planners.
C. instigators.
D. responders.
5. What are the two types of behavior focused on by behavioral counselors?
6. A parent who ignores a child’s constant pleas for candy in the grocery store is practicing:
A. negative reinforcement.
B. extinction.
C. positive reinforcement.
D. punishment.
7. Giving children extra recess time for remaining in their seats quietly during instructional time
is an example of
A. negative reinforcement.
B. extinction.
C. positive reinforcement.
D. punishment.
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8. In your own words define each of the following reinforcement schedules:
A. variable interval
____________________________________________________________
B. fixed ratio
____________________________________________________________
C. fixed interval
____________________________________________________________
D. variable ratio
____________________________________________________________
9. When analyzing behavior, three phases are considered. They are:
A. cause, effect, reaction
B. antecedent, behavior, consequence
C. behavior, response, belief
D. antecedent, action, response
10.
Which of the following would not be considered a goal of behavioral counseling?
A. preventing problems
B. altering maladaptive behavior
C. helping client reach self-actualization
D. teaching decision-making
11.
When counseling children, a behavioral counselor must remember:
A. to match reinforcement to the child’s developmental level.
B. to use rewards the child is likely to appreciate.
C. both A & B
D. neither A nor B
12.
When working with children who are capable of taking responsibility for their behavior, a
behavioral counselor may choose to utilize:
A. biofeedback.
B. self-management.
C. shaping.
D. contingency contracts.
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13.
A procedure which is aimed at inducing new behaviors by reinforcing behaviors that are
similar to the desired behavior is:
A. biofeedback.
B. self-management.
C. shaping.
D. contingency contracts.
14.
Children can practice new behaviors in a safe setting in:
A. token economies.
B. modeling.
C. behavior analysis.
D. behavior-practice groups.
15.
A counselor working with a child with test anxiety creates a continuous stream of testlike situations for the child to face. This is an example of:
A. flooding.
B. systematic desensitization.
C. modeling.
D. counterconditioning.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Explain the difference between operant and respondent behavior, citing examples of the
different techniques used for each.
2. According to behavioral theory, people are both the product and the producer of our
environment. Do you agree or disagree with this premise?
ACTIVITIES
1. A seventh grade teacher comes to you for help with a student in her math class who is
constantly distracted, never turns in homework, and displays a poor attitude towards her and
the other students in the class. You determine, based on your conversation with the teacher
and an initial meeting with the student, that a behavior contract is the most effective way to
address this problem. Create a sample behavior contract using the information from the
chapter. What type of contract (contingency, self-management) will you use? What will the
contract entail? How will you set it up and evaluate it?
2. Behaviorists utilize relaxation techniques with clients to help them reduce the anxiety they
feel related to specific tasks or activities. For at least a week, spend 20-30 minutes a day
practicing relaxation training using one of the exercises listed in the text. Pay close attention
to your body before, during, and after the exercises. What do you notice? Did it become
easier to relax after practicing a few times? How do you think relaxation training can be used
in your life, personally or professionally?
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