B. F. Skinner's Theory: The Definition Of Malladaptive Behavior
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One definition of maladaptive behaviour is that it is a type of behaviour that ‘inhibits a person’s ability to adjust to a particular situation. The individual falls into these behaviours in an attempt to escape discomforts in life. Instead of helping the situation these maladaptive behaviours make things worse. In the case of behaviours such as addiction it is a case of the cure being worse than the disease. Maladaptive coping strategies will often ease the symptoms but they lead to deterioration in the overall problem’. Behavioural theorists define maladaptive behaviours, such as addiction, as a ‘powerful habit pattern, an acquired vicious cycle of self-destructive behaviour that is locked in by the collective effects of classical conditioning’…show more content… If a behaviour is rewarded, that behaviour is repeated (Comer, 2004). B.F. Skinner is considered the best-known behaviourist to use reinforcement techniques and is responsible for much of the sophistication of modern training and teaching. The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behaviour. Changes in behaviour are the result of an individual's response to events, stimuli, which occur in the environment. According to Skinner, voluntary or automatic behaviour is either strengthened or weakened by the immediate presence of a reward or punishment (Skinner:…show more content… Large-scale reviews of research on the outcomes of psychological therapy have shown behavioural methods to have generally positive, significant, beneficial effects for a wide range of client problems. They fare well both as compared with control and placebo comparison groups and also alongside other therapies, and have been described as the treatment of choice for a number of disorders (Dobson and Craig, 1998; Lambert and Bergin, 1994; Nathan and Gorman, 1998; Roth and Fonagy, 1996). There is no doubt that behaviour therapies can help the individual beat their maladaptive behaviours such as addiction. This is why such techniques have been widely adapted in rehabs and other treatment