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Conditioning and Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2014

Peter F. Lovibond
Peter F. Lovibond*
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales
*
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, PO Box 1 Kensington, NSW 2033, Australia. Email: P.Lovibond@unsw.edu.au.
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Abstract

When behaviour therapy was developed in the 1950s and 1960s, it was based firmly on the experimental psychology of the time, principally learning theory. Since that time effective verbal therapies have been developed, and clinicians are faced with the difficult task of selecting among so-called behavioural and cognitive interventions based on radically different philosophies. This paper reviews developments in learning theory, particularly human learning, which suggest that conditioning is a complex cognitive process giving rise to verbally accessible expectancies and beliefs. Such a perspective provides a common theoretical framework (cf. Bandura, 1977) that allows behavioural and cognitive strategies to be coordinated to modify a particular cognitive target, such as biased expectancy of harm in anxiety. It is argued that the terms behavioural and cognitive carry unwanted connotations, and that it is preferable to specify independently the content of information to be conveyed in therapy (e.g., reduction in expectancy), and the mode by which it is conveyed — experience, observation, or language. Learning theory, in conjunction with other areas of experimental psychology, continues to provide a conceptual basis for the understanding of psychopathology and the development of new psychological interventions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 10 , Issue 3: Special Issue: The Relevance of Basic Research to Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy , September 1993 , pp. 119 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1993

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References

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