History Of Behavior Therapy

History of Behavior Therapy Behavior therapy begun in the late 1900’s, but it did not gain popularity as an established psychological approach until the 1950’s and 1960’s. This is due to the pioneering works of a number of brilliant men. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), John B. Watson (1878-1958), B.F.Skinner (1904-1958) and Joseph Wolpe (1915-1977) are just a few of the brilliant minds who have made significant contributions to the development of behavior therapy. Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov in the early 1900’s while making an attempt to better understand digestion accidently stumble on what we now know as classical conditioning (Ormrod, 2012, p. 34). Using dogs, a bell and meat powder, Pavlov discovered when a stimulus that give a unconditioned

Notice that each one of the pioneers discovery was done through observation of something. It is safe to say that Behaviorist believe that behavior is the result of stimulus and their responses. Since behavior therapy is based upon behaviorism, a working definition for Behavior therapy—rooted in the principles of behaviorism, a school of thought focused on the idea that we learn from our environment (psychology.about.com). Unlike the other therapies, behavior therapy is based on four theories, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning approach and cognitive behavior therapy. Made famous by Pavlov, classical conditioning pairs a neutral simulis with one that produces a response to get a conditioned response (Ormrod, 2012, pp. 34-35). Pavlov experiments with dogs is one of the perfect example of classical conditioning, the other perfect example is Watson demonstration with little Albert and the white furry rat. In both demonstrations the neutral stimuli became a conditioned response. It important to note that in classical conditioning the learner is passive, absorbind and automatically racting to a stimuli (Papalia & Feldman, 2010, p.