ABSTRACT
How can social behaviour be changed? We have described some of the normal patterns and processes of social interaction, but in order to use this knowledge we need to develop ways of acquiring or modifying social behaviour. A great number of techniques for changing behaviour have been developed in recent years, and for convenience these may be grouped as follows: the first group may be termed skills training, which is aimed at changing social behaviour directly and derives mainly from experimental and particularly social psychology; the second includes the dynamic techniques, such as sensitivity training and psychotherapy, which aim to change relationships by means of awareness and insight; the third includes milieu treatments, where the total environment is planned along therapeutic lines; and the fourth may be termed ‘symptom’ treatments, such as behaviour therapy and drugs which indirectly produce change by eradicating or suppressing disruptive symptoms. The main emphasis in this chapter and chapter 5 will be on the first group, with brief discussion of the others where relevant to the main theme.
