12 BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION TECHNIQUES AND HOW THEY WORK - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The techniques of behavior modification are intended to change the behavior of the subject with a psychological intervention. Different approaches are used: applied behavioral analysis, mediational behavioral orientation, orientation based on social learning, cognitive and / or cognitive-behavioral orientation, among others.

At present, these orientations are not independent and closed groups. Each one develops its interventions according to the explanatory reference model, but psychologists adapt and are flexible when carrying out an intervention so that the person reaches a state of well-being and personal competence of their own.

Behavioral modification not only focuses on observable behaviors, but also on cognitive aspects and basic processes involved in their origin, development, maintenance and change.

The main characteristics of behavior modification are the importance of individual variables as well as the active role of the person in the change process. The context surrounding the person, an accurate assessment and individualized intervention programs also play an important role.

To this is added the importance of the theoretical foundation and the empirical evaluation of the intervention procedures, as well as the collaboration between professionals and the expansion of areas and fields of application.

Modification techniques used in therapy

1- systematic desensitization

It is a cognitive-behavioral cutting technique proposed by Wolpe and aimed at reducing anxiety responses and avoidance behaviors to feared stimuli. It is one of the first behavior modification techniques.

Wolpe was based on the work of Watson and Rayner on fear conditioning, thinking that just as fear could be conditioned in the person, it could also be eliminated through the same procedure.

Through this technique, the aim is to associate stimuli that provoke this anxiety response with incompatible responses to it, such as relaxation.

This is what is known as counterconditioning; after various associations between these incompatible responses, it would produce new learning. Thus, the situation that caused anxiety will cease to do so, when the incompatible response occurs.

Furthermore, by associating the response to that specific situation, it will generalize to different circumstances.

In systematic desensitization there is a decrease in response. The key aspect for the extinction of the response is the lack of reinforcement.

Fear is acquired by classical conditioning or association between unconditioned stimulus (which produces a response) and conditioned (it occurs as a consequence of a previous stimulus).

In systematic desensitization, this conditioned stimulus is presented without it being followed by the unconditioned aversive stimulus (unpleasant for the recipient). The latter would lead to the elimination of the conditioned fear response to the stimulus.

2- Exposure techniques

Behavioral technique that aims to systematically face situations that generate responses of anxiety, avoidance or escape.

The person is exposed to these feared stimuli until the anxiety or emotion diminishes when seeing that the consequences that he hopes will occur do not occur.

This technique is intended to prevent the person from establishing avoidance and escape as safety signals.

It is based on empirical evidence and shows that continued and prolonged exposure to feared stimuli can reduce the fear and anxiety response. It is a key technique for intervention in anxiety disorders.

The mechanisms that are associated with this therapy are habituation from a psychophysiological perspective, extinction from a behavioral perspective, and change of expectations from a cognitive perspective.

Exposure sessions should be long to ensure habituation to the feared stimulus or situation. This prevents sensitization or increased response due to continued exposure.

There are different types of exposure techniques such as live exposure, imagination exposure, group exposure, self-exposure or exposure through new technologies.

3- Mindfulness

This term refers to the concentration of attention and consciousness or mindfulness and one of its clearest references is meditation. It is a way of being in the world without prejudice, it is a philosophy or way of life.

It arises due to the Western interest in the Eastern tradition and Buddhism. Meditation or the use of cognitive or physiological relaxation procedures, configure various techniques to achieve various physiological and emotional deactivation effects.

This mindfulness consists of a process of observing one's own body and mind, allowing experiences to happen, accepting them as they are presented.

You have to pay attention to the feelings, emotions and thoughts, without evaluating whether they are right or wrong, adequate or inappropriate.

The essential elements are the acceptance of both the positive and the negative, the concentration in the present moment, feeling everything without that need and that search for control.

It is the individual himself who chooses which experiences to choose, what he is involved in and what he acts and focuses on.

With this technique, you do not want to reduce or control discomfort, fear, anger, etc. rather, it is intended to experience these feelings and emotions. It is a renunciation of control of emotions, thoughts and feelings.

The most widely used method includes cognitive elements, meditation with specific types of relaxation, or activities focused on the sensations that the body experiences. It is used in the treatment of psychological disorders such as depression or anxiety.

4- Molding

Also called learning by successive approximations, it is a technique based on operant conditioning. It consists of reinforcing the successive approaches that the individual makes during the intervention until reaching the final behavior, in addition to extinguishing the previous responses that she has given.

When carrying out the behavior, the use of instigators or stimuli is used that promote the initiation of a response in a person who shows difficulties in doing so. They can be verbal, physical, environmental or gestural stimuli.

To carry out this technique, a series of steps are followed:

• Define the final behavior, its characteristics and the contexts in which it can be carried out or not.
• Define the initial behavior, which must be a behavior that occurs regularly so that it can be reinforced and that shares characteristics with the behavior that you want to achieve.
• Determine the number of steps or intermediate behaviors and the time that will be spent in each of them. This will depend on the level of the final behavior, its difficulty, and the abilities and resources of the person.

In addition, shaping requires that while new behaviors are being reinforced, previous behaviors are extinguished, only the reinforcer appearing when the specific behavior of the stage the individual is in is issued.

5- Chaining

It is another behavioral modification technique that is used to establish new behaviors in subjects, based on operant conditioning and which is used when learning, above all, daily activities.

Complex behaviors can be decomposed into simpler behaviors, each one working separately and each simple behavior acting as a discriminatory stimulus for the next and as a reinforcer of the previous one.

Its procedure consists of the formation of a behavior by means of combinations of a sequence of simple steps, in which the subject advances as he masters the previous step.

This chaining can follow different sequences such as backward chaining, forward chaining and by presentation of the complex task.

6- Time out

It is within the operant conditioning techniques and consists of the reduction of behaviors by withdrawing the person from the situation in which they are obtaining the reinforcer that maintains them. This enhancer is obtained contingent upon it.

To carry it out, it is necessary to have identified the reinforcer who maintains this behavior and to be able to remove the person from the environment in which it is being reinforced.

The application of this technique produces a rapid reduction of the behavior, but to be effective it requires that the person leave the area in which the stimulus is obtained, using it only in specific periods of time.

In addition, the decrease in this behavior is due to history and the reinforcement program that has maintained it, as well as the intensifying value of the situation.

It is used mostly with children, mainly in educational contexts. Still, it can be used with people of any age. There are different variants of the technique such as time out of isolation, exclusion, non-exclusion or self-imposed.

7- Response cost

This method consists of the withdrawal of the reinforcer contingent upon the emission of a behavior to be eliminated. It is similar to negative punishment, since it is a procedure that consists of removing a stimulus that acts in a positive way for the person.

For its application, it is necessary to identify powerful incentives that can be withdrawn immediately after carrying out this behavior, applying it systematically and continuously.

The negative consequences of the withdrawal of a reinforcer are expected to outweigh the possible positive effects of the stimuli that are maintaining the behavior.

This procedure produces very quick effects, but it can also produce emotional responses and facilitate aggressive behaviors.

It is necessary to be able to withdraw the reinforcer in a contingent and consistent way to the emission of the behavior to be eliminated, for this it is necessary that the person has reinforcers that are effective for the intervened subject.

It is also advisable to resort to positive reinforcement of more appropriate behaviors and alternatives to the problem behavior. This will prevent the appearance of negative emotional behaviors.

8- Token Economy

This technique is a system for organizing external contingencies whose purpose is to control the context in which it is being carried out.

The word economy refers to the fact that this method works as an economic system in which the person charges or pays with tokens depending on whether or not they perform certain behaviors.

The tokens act as conditioned and generalized reinforcers, being used from bonds, bills, stickers to plastic tokens.

The person obtains these tokens when they emit the desired behavior, functioning as a temporary bridge between the emission of that behavior until the subsequent incentive is obtained.

These tokens act as secondary stimuli that will later be exchanged for primary reinforcers or rewards that can range from material objects to carrying out activities or obtaining certain privileges.

With this system, a quantified control of the number of behaviors emitted by the person can be carried out, allowing to control the evolution of the behaviors and changing the intervention based on said evolution.

It is a technique that is carried out especially in institutionalized centers, in educational contexts, in sports environments and in different community settings.

9- Behavioral contracts

Written and formal document that specifies the behaviors that a person or group of people agrees to develop, and the consequences that they will obtain for performing them or not.

It does not need as much control at the contextual level nor does it require the implementation of new generalized reinforcers, such as the token economy.

In addition, there are various forms of contract such as negotiated or non-negotiated, verbal or written, individualized or standard, public or private contracts.

The recipient of the contract can be a person, a couple or a group of people. It is used mainly in family and couple therapy.

The target conduct or behaviors must be clearly defined in the contract, as well as the duration and time when they must occur.

The consequences will also be specified, both for issuance and non-issuance; the evaluation criteria to carry out a control, as well as the start and duration of the contract.

It contains the demands of the parties expressed through specific behaviors. It specifies the relationship between behavior and rewards or punishments and allows effective control of the environment.

10- Self-control techniques

These techniques are aimed at instilling and reinforcing people so that they are capable by themselves of regulating their behavior through strategies and procedures to achieve established goals.

At the beginning of the intervention, training is carried out to provide them with all the necessary information on how these strategies work and thus become aware of the active role that the individual plays in obtaining and reaching their achievements.

To notice progress, the person must be committed and aware of the change process and their abilities to achieve those goals.

The strategies that are carried out at the beginning follow steps similar to the modeling process, through the design of a system of successive approximations.

The therapist will have a supporting role that will be more present at first but then will have less and less weight, gradually removing these aids.

The steps to be followed in this technique would be to promote commitment to change, specify and evaluate the problem, plan objectives, design and apply change strategies, and promote maintenance and possible relapses.

The self-control training program consists of several phases:

• Self-observation.
• Goal setting.
• Training in specific techniques.
• Establishment of performance criteria.
• Application of techniques in real contexts.
• Review of the applications made in real contexts with the therapist.

11- Satiation

The technique of satiation is based on the excessive presentation of a reinforcer in a short space of time so that the individual generates internal aversion for it. That is, its reinforcement is weakened.

For example, if a child only wants to eat sweets and protests if they give him another food, the application that would be carried out with this technique would be to feed him only with sweet products. Eventually he will end up detesting the treats and that would complete the behavior modification technique.

12- Extinction

With this technique, the positive or negative stimuli that sustained the individual's reinforcement are omitted until it gradually disappears. It is a methodology widely used with young children.

For example, if a child never wants to bathe and every time he is touched he screams or cries, the usual thing is that his parents scold, punish or even hit him. This would be the child's reinforcer, since all she wants to achieve is to attract the attention of her parents.

Therefore, this technique should act in a totally opposite way, ignoring the child and any of his unpleasant ways of acting when showering. Finally, this behavior will end up disappearing, since the child will understand that nothing is useful.

References

1. Labrador Encinas, FJ (2008). Behavior Modification Techniques. Pyramid Psychology.
2. Behavioral contracts. Recovered from psychology-online.com.
3. Behavior modification. Recovered from psicopedagogía.com.
4. Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques. Recovered from mente-informatica.com.
5. Exposure techniques. Recovered from artpsycho.webnode.es.
6. Exposure therapy and techniques. Recovered from psychology.isipedia.com.