Watson's Theory Of Behaviorist Theory

Behaviorist theory anchors on classical conditioning that explains the association of involuntary reflexes with other environmental conditions. The theory posited by Ivan Pavlov a psychologist who worked in experiments to learn digestion of food. He noticed that the dogs would anticipate when the attendants would start to make their preparations. He also noted that the dogs began salivating to stimuli associated with the food. Watson furthered the classical learning theory by Pavlov to human beings. He showed the boy a white rat and then sounded a loud noise. After seven pairings, the boy flinched at the sight of the rate even without the noise. The classical conditioning by Watson gave scientific validity to the rewarding system. Watson claimed

The underlying principles of operant conditioning state that all behavior are learned, behaviors rewarded by positive reinforcement tend to recur, negative reinforcement removed after a behavior increase the likelihood that the behavior will happen again. Continuous reinforcement of behavior is a quick way to increase a behavior, but the behavior will cease if the rewarding stops. Occasional rewarding of a desired behavior increases the behavior slowly, but the behavior will continue after the reward stops. For instance, to promote assertiveness, the reward of a person is positive feedback and continuous attention (Gordon & Browne, 2013).

The process of using rewarding or reinforcement to change the behaviors in therapy is known as behavior modification. The learning through consequences that result to drug addiction is strengthening from the benefits accruing after use. The ingestion of drugs that result to reduction of stress make a personal more comfortable or sexually aroused are bound to be frequently repeated. The consequences that appear after a person are positive reinforcement to the individual. The use of negative reinforcement to end a behavior includes the use of discouraging words to

1The treatment of drug addiction through operant conditioning includes the use of cue exposure. It relies on the identification of the trigger events that are most effective to the addict and hope to reduce the impact by extinction. The client exposes to the triggers without exposure or use of the drug. The exposure to the trigger without the use is bound to reduce the craving from the drug. The continuous repetition of the exercise reduces the craving however the client may relapse if the event does not continue.

Clients can benefit from contingency management programs which give the client rewards after successful achieving behavioral goals. For instance allowing the client to take home methadone doses after providing drug-free urine samples is a form of operant conditioning that positively rewards the lack of drug substances in the urine. Alternatively, the client suffers from reduced clinical privileges or reduced methadone doses when urine samples have traces of the drug. The client may benefit from using the voucher reward system that is more dynamic as it can treat different addictions. If the client has drug-free urine, the reward is a shopping voucher, while the reward for having substances in their urine is losing of the voucher (Carroll & Onken,