This text is a brief
overview of the whole field of behavior modification, including applications in
schools, half-way houses, homes, businesses, and mental hospitals. The intent
is to provide the reader with an integrated discussion of some basic principles
and theories of behavior and behavior change across a wide range of settings
and problem areas. I hope the book is useful as a supplementary text in courses
in behavior modification, particularly those whose subject matter emphasizes a
narrower domain of procedures or settings; as a supplementary text in courses
in which behavior modification is one of many components; and as a brief survey
for psychologists and other professionals who wish to know what has been going
on in behavior modification and perhaps be directed to other readings and
considerations.
There are currently
many good texts on behavior modification, which was not so a few years ago
in this relatively young discipline. Several texts deal with applications
in clinical and counseling settings, operant applications in education and
child rearing, or specialized topics, such as assertive training and self-control,
to mention only a few topics. In addition, there are several specialized journals,
thousands of relevant articles, and many edited books of original and reprinted
articles. One of my purposes is to provide readers with sources of information
so they may pursue areas of interest to them. I have included Suggested Readings
(at the end of most chapters), Further Readings (Chap. 11), and many references.
Despite the texts
currently available, none covers the whole field of behavior modification.
Each .is restricted by topic, settings of application, and/or procedures emphasized.
This is fine; but a need exists, which I hope this book fills, for an overview
of the entire field so that the reader develops an understanding of the breadth
of behavior modification principles, as well as of some of the interrelationships
among different approaches. By keeping the book relatively brief, I hope an
overview can be offered without losing the reader in too much detail. For
these reasons, I intend the book to be a supplement (as well as a core text)
for courses in behavior modification and related approaches. For example,
a course that is basically operant in nature could use the book to review
non-operant procedures—such as desensitization and aversive counterconditioning.
Or instructors emphasizing applications in clinical settings may wish to briefly
expose their students to how the principles being discussed apply to other
settings. Finally, many of my students in behavior modification have reported
that first reading a brief chapter giving an overview of a topic,
such as desensitization, aided their later understanding
and made ease of learning of more detailed and more comprehensive readings
on the topic.
This book may also
be a supplement to courses that cover behavior modification as one of many
topics—courses such as learning, abnormal psychology, clinical psychology,
educational psychology, and counseling. Perhaps just some of the book will
be read in some of these situations (one reasonable subset would be Chapters
1, 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10).
Behavior modification
procedures could be organized in many ways, such as by settings of application
or categories of problem behaviors. I have chosen an organization centering
around general paradigms (e.g., respondent conditioning, operant conditioning,
modeling). This has the advantage of providing some generality to change procedures,
as well as suggesting relationships among various approaches, particularly
as practitioners and theorists are generating new procedures and variations
of procedures under an unwieldy mass of new terms. I think the organization
I use is helpful in that it provides a conceptualization
which may facilitate the reader’s ability to see interrelationships among
behaviors and the practitioner’s ability to design a logical integrated change
program drawing from the whole field of behavior modification. On the other
hand, it is not always clear where a change procedure, such as covert sensitization
(aversive counterconditioning? operant punishment?), should go. In such cases,
I point out the different possibilities. And some approaches, such as assertive
training, are a combination of many procedures and have to be put into a chapter
where they best This book is a follow-up to an earlier book of mine, Behavior
modification: an overview (1972). Since I essentially rewrote the whole
book I do not see this book as a second or revised edition; but this is definitional.
This book is somewhat more comprehensive than the 1972 book and reflects changes
in the field of behavior modification, as well as changes in my knowledge
and thinking.
A note to those involved
in the current concern about sexist biases in our texts and language: Throughout
the text I use the common grammatical convention of using male pronouns to
refer to a person of either sex, intending to show no bias or preference for
one sex or the other. I considered alternative ways of writing to avoid using
this convention, but the alternatives seemed awkward and hindered communication
of my material, which is my main concern. I tried to make sure my examples,
real and fictional, did not contain a sex bias.
I am indebted to
the many practitioners and theorists in behavior modification who are responsible
for most of the material in this book, to my students and clients from whom
I learned much, to the reviewers of my first draft, and to my wife-typist-best
friend Benita who shares, supports, and pleases my being.
WLM