ABSTRACT

This chapter summarizes the historical origins of the Behaviourist perspective and considers the key principles of this approach as applied to psychological disorders. It provides an evaluation of therapeutic practices which utilise this approach and also considers the key principles and therapeutic practices allied to the behaviourist perspective and its implications for psychotherapy. In the psychology literature, Burrhus Frederic Skinner is considered one of the most well-known American behaviourists and is believed to be the originator of operant conditioning. The behaviourist approach has been criticised for failing to take into account cognitive processes within learning, and therefore it is argued that its theoretical explanation for understanding human behaviour falls short. Cognitive behaviour therapy holds the core assumption that maladaptive cognitions result in the maintenance of emotional and behavioural impairment. Behaviourists interpret the aetiology of psychological disorders as stemming from faulty learning, for fears have been acquired through the processes of classical conditioning and operant conditioning.