Basic Principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

From the 1970 results are a multitude of jobs that evaluates the effectiveness of psychological interventions based on the application of the principles of learning theory, which studies and describes the behavior as the body's response to a given stimulus.

For behaviorism, which is the application to the clinic this theory, the symptoms of a disease is understood as an altered behavior and psychological treatment goal is to change the relationship between stimulus and response, modify the environment and / or changing behavior (by elimination, modulation or establishment of a new behavior is learned and practiced for psychological treatment).

Behavior Therapy takes place because from the scientific study of human behavior. His record is the work of Pavlov, his experiments showed that the repeated association of a stimulus to a particular behavior (or response) is one of the basic principles in the acquisition of behaviors, even in their extinction (or disappearance) and its generalization (to occur and manifest behavior if need be associated with the stimulus, and in other situations than the experimental).

Other references of behaviorism is the work of Thorndike and Skinner demonstrated experimentally how the environment can change behavior (increasing or decreasing) according what the consequences that occur when this is done. Simplified way of example, if the person's behavior is followed by a prize or a rewarding feeling is much more likely to be repeated, if every time there is a behavior not associated with any change in the environment or any particular emotion, it is possible that the conduct is left to do and die out.

The basic principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are four:

  1. All behaviors are learned and maintained in the same way, so the same procedures that affect and alter the normal behavior are useful to modify maladaptive behaviors.
  2. The atmosphere, the environment in which behavior occurs, has a major influence on learning and maintenance of all behaviors, the intervention on the environment can modify maladaptive behaviors.
  3. The goal of psychological treatment is altered or maladaptive behavior. It is necessary to identify and analyze the relationship with precipitating conditions (which are sometimes the same disorder) and know well the consequences that result, provided well-established targets.
  4. The approaches and procedures of behavior therapy based on the scientific method: the treatment is defined as a specific procedure that is:
    • clear and precise definition of the problem
    • application of some particular techniques and selected with the problem at hand and aim to achieve,
    • establish and implement a particular sequence in the application of these techniques and strategies,
    • evaluation of the whole procedure and expression of results in comprehensible and quantitative,
    • Possibility of exact repetition of the procedure and compare the results.