PSYC 202 Lecture Notes - Token Economy, Systematic Desensitization, Attention Seeking
Document Summary
Feelings by applying in a clinical context the methods used and the discoveries made by experimental psychologists in their study of both normal and abnormal behaviour. Because learning paradigms assume that behaviour is the result of learning, treatment often involves relearning a new, more adaptive response. Counter-conditioning is relearning achieved by eliciting a new response in the presence of a particular stimulus. A response to a given stimulus can be eliminated by eliciting a new response in the presence of that stimuli. A person who suffers from anxiety works with the therapist to compile a list of feared situations, starting with those that arouse minimal anxiety and progressing to the most frightening. The person is also taught to relax deeply. Step-by-step, while relaxed, the person imagines the graded series of anxiety-provoking situations. The relaxation tends to inhibit any anxiety that might otherwise be elicited by the imagined scenes.