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B.F. Skinner and Behavior Therapy
B. F. Skinner is without a doubt one of the most predominant people in the development of behavior therapy. His work was essential in the development of both behavior modification and behavior therapy. Behavior Therapy is a form of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy means word therapy, without drugs or other medical treatments. Behavior Therapy is used to treat a variety of problems in both adults and children. It is used to treat many different illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, and many other forms of psychiatric disorders.
The first occurrence of behavior therapy was in 1953 in a research project done by Skinner, Ogden Lindsley, and Harry C. Solomon. Behavior therapy is based upon the principles of classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is the teaching of a response to a new stimulus by pairing it repeatedly with a stimulus for which there is a biological reflex (Encarta Dictionary, 2006). The best-known example is Ivan Pavlov's experiment in which dogs heard a bell ring every time food appeared and eventually started salivating at the sound of the bell alone.
Operant conditioning is a form of learning that takes place when an instance of spontaneous behavior is either reinforced by a reward or discouraged by punishment. The principles involved have had a strong influence on behavior modification as well as on other kinds of therapy (Encarta Dictionary, 2006). In Skinner’s research, he put a rat in a cage later known as the Skinner box, in which the rat could receive a food pellet by pressing on a bar. The food reward acted as a reinforcement by strengthening the rat's bar-pressing behavior. Skinner studied how the rat's behavior changed in response to differing patterns of reinforcement. By studying the way the rats operated on their environment, Skinner formulated the concept of operant conditioning, through which behavior could be shaped by...