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Scared straight
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46mFwBUMulM
– ‘Scared Straight’ is a program designed to deter juvenile participants from
future criminal offenses. Participants visit inmates, observe first-hand
prison life and have interaction with adult inmates. These programs are
popular in many areas of the world.
– Petrosino and colleagues (2002) investigated “the effects of programmes
comprising organised visits to prisons by juvenile delinquents (officially
adjudicated or convicted by a juvenile court) or pre-delinquents (children
in trouble but not officially adjudicated as delinquents), aimed at deterring
them from criminal activity.”
– Nine trials met the criteria for the study. The researchers’ results indicated
“the [Scared Straight] intervention to be more harmful than doing nothing.
The program effect, whether assuming a fixed or random effects model,
was nearly identical and negative in direction, regardless of the metaanalytic strategy.” In other words, Scared Straight not only doesn’t work,
it may actually be more harmful than doing nothing.
– Another meta-analysis showed “Scared Straight” interventions could
possibly worsen conduct-disorder symptoms (Lilinefeld, 2005). A metaanalysis conducted by Aos and colleagues (2001) showed that “Scared
Straight” and similar programs produced substantial increases in
recidivism (chronic relapse into crime).
– According to Dr. DeMichelle, Senior Research Associate American Parole
and Probation Association, “Scared Straight” programs rely on a
deterrence-based strategy that fails to consider the driving mechanisms
of deterrence. These mechanisms include: certainty of receiving a
punishment or negative stimuli following a behavior, and swiftness of the
punishment or negative stimuli (referring to temporal proximity of
punishment to the unwanted behavior).
– In other words, punishment or negative stimuli must be presented shortly
after the unwanted behavior.
– [“Scared Straight”], I believe, was conjured up and implemented by
folks due to its intuitive appeal of doing something harsh or painful to
kids so they won’t commit crimes in the future. But, the reality is that the
approach is devoid of scientific investigation of human behavior”, says
Dr. DeMichelle (Hale, 2010).
Behavior,
Cognitive and
group
therapies
Behavior therapy
– Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted
behaviors
– Doubt the healing powers of awareness and view behaviors as the problems
Classical Conditioning
techniques
– Is reconditioning a solution?
– O. H. Mowrer- bedwetting solution with a boost in self-image
– Elevator claustrophobia
–
Counterconditioning- behavior therapy procedures that use classical conditioning to evoke
new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors
Exposure therapies
– Mary Cover Jones- rabbit (1924)
– Joseph Wolpe- exposure therapies- expose people to what they normally avoid
or escape (behaviors reinforced by reduced anxiety)
– Face the fear, and thus overcome their fear of the fear response itself.
Systematic desensitization
– A type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant, relaxed state with
gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias
– Progressive relaxation
– Find peace within imagined situations
Virtual reality exposure therapy- an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people
to electronic simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplanes flying, spiders, or public
speaking
-flying!
Aversive conditioning
– A type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as
nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol)
– Goal of producing an aversion to something the person SHOULD avoid
–
Nail biting? Nasty-tasting nail polish (taking positive to negative)
Is this totally successful? Eh… The problem arises because cognition influences conditioning. Needs
to be paired with other treatments
Operant conditioning
– Voluntary behaviors are strongly influenced by their consequences
– Therapists practice “behavior modification”- reinforcing desired behaviors and
withholding reinforcements for undesired behaviors
– Studies have shown that positive reinforcement without punishment is the
most effective
– Rewards may vary-- Token economy (an operant conditioning procedure in
which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and
can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats
How durable?
– Shift to “real-life” rewards (durability)
– Is it right? (controversial)
Cognitive therapies
– Therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking, based on the
assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional
reactions
– The depressed person interprets a suggestion as criticism, disagreement as
dislike, and praise as flattery..
– If such thinking patterns are learned, then surely they can be replaced
Rational-emotive behavior
therapy (REBT)
- A confrontational cognitive therapy, developed by Albert Ellis, that vigorously challenges
people’s ideological, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions (“Absurdity”)
Aaron Beck’s Therapy for
depression
Originally trained in a Freudian techniques, he started to analyze the dreams of
depressed people and found recurring negative themes of loss, rejection, and
abandonment that extended into their waking thoughts
In therapy, he and his colleagues attempt to reverse the catastrophizing beliefs
about themselves, their situations, and their future
General questioning seeks to reveal irrational thinking, and then to persuade
people to remove the dark glasses through which they view life
Cognitive behavior Therapy
(CBT)
– A popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing selfdefeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)
– Promote new ways of thinking and to practice a more positive approach in
everyday settings
– For example.. A person might keep a log of daily situations associated with
negative and positive emotions, and engage more in activities that lead them to
feeling good
Group therapy
– Therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permitting them
therapeutic benefits of group interactions
– Saves therapists’ time and clients’ money
– Offers a social laboratory for exploring social and behaviors and developing social
skills
– Enables people to see that others share their problems
– Provides feedback as clients try out new ways of behaving
Family therapy
– Therapy that treats the family as a system, views an individual’s unwanted
behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members
Self-help groups
– Many focus on stigmatized or hard-to-discuss illnesses