Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:20:43.491Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Concept of Generalization in Behaviour Therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

William R. Lindsay  and
Bertram E. Stoffelmayr
William R. Lindsay
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Monklands District General Hospital, Airdrie, Scotland
Bertram E. Stoffelmayr
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Several writers have been interested in the extent to which behaviour therapy techniques are derived from the principles of learning. The present paper reviews this issue with respect to stimulus generalization and response generalization in behaviour therapy. Generalization has been a problem because many therapists have reported that newly learned skills and behaviours have not transferred outside the treatment situation to settings in the patients' or clients' life. Reviewing the literature on stimulus generalization it is concluded that in research on learning theory, stimulus generalization is shown to occur along a single stimulus dimension while in the behaviour therapy literature researchers often attempt to produce generalization across many stimulus dimensions simultaneously and as a result generalization may be poor. It is suggested that subsequent therapy and research should be designed so that treatment situations and generalization situations differ on as few stimulus dimensions as possible, thus maximizing the probability of generalization. With respect to response generalization it is felt that the concept is weak as an explanation for behaviour change and it may be more useful to consider that behaviours are functionally related, so that changes in behaviour A will produce changes in behaviour B or that covert responses may account for changes in untreated behaviours. Finally, a recommendation is made that therapists be more precise about the stimulus dimensions along which they wish behaviour to generalize.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , October 1982 , pp. 346 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antonitis, J. (1951). Response variability in the white rat during conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology 42, 273–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arnold, W. (1944). An exploratory investigation of response generalisation. Journal of Comparative Psychology 38, 87–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayllon, T. and Azrin, N. H. (1968). The Token Economy: A Motivational System for Therapy and Rehabilitation. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Baron, R. (1966). Social reinforcement effects as a function of social reinforcement history. Psychological Review 73, 527–539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bekheterev, M. (1932). General Principles of Human Reflexology (Translation by E., and Murphy, W. from the Russian of the 4th Edit.). New York: International Publications.Google Scholar
Breger, L. and McGaugh, J. L. (1966). A critique and reformulation of “learning theory” approaches to psychotherapy and neurosis. Psychological Bulletin 65, 170–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butter, C. (1959). Stimulus generalisation along the dimensions of wave-length and angular orientation. (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation.) Duke University.Google Scholar
Butter, C. (1963). Stimulus generalisation along one and two dimensions in pigeons. Journal of Experimental Psychology 65, 339–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, C., Hersen, M. and Eisler, R. (1972). Token economy programmes in the treatment of hospitalised adult schizophrenics. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 115, 192–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guttman, N. and Kalish, H. (1956). Discriminability and stimulus generalisation. Journal of Experimental Psychology 51, 79–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartmann, D. B., Baker, T. B. and Wade, T. C. (1978). The professional reading practises of behaviour therapists. The Behaviour Therapist 5, 13.Google Scholar
Hovland, V. (1937a). The generalisation of conditioned responses 1: The sensory generalisation of conditioned responses with varying frequencies of tone. Journal of General Psychology 17, 125–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hovland, C. (1937b). The generalisation of conditioned responses 2: The sensory generalisation of conditioned responses with varying intensities of tone. Journal of Genetic Psychology 51, 279–291.Google Scholar
Hull, C. L. (1943). Principles of Behaviour. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Kalish, H. (1969). Stimulus generalisation. In Learning Processes, M. H. Marx, London: Collier-MacMillan Ltd.Google Scholar
Kazdin, A. E. (1975). Recent advances in token economy research. In Progress in Behaviour Modification Volume 1, Hersen, M., Eisler, I. and Miller, P. (Eds), New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kazdin, A. E. (1977). The Token Economy: A Review and Evaluation. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kazdin, A. E. and Bootzin, R. R. (1972). The token economy: an evaluative review. Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis 5, 343–372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kellog, W. (1939). The relationship between ambiguous conditioning and experimental extinction in dogs: a follow-up report. Journal of Comparative Psychology 27, 283–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimble, G. (1961). Hilgard and Marquis' Conditioning and Learning. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Kling, J. (1952). Generalisation of extinction of an instrumental response to stimuli varying in the size dimension. Journal of Experimental Psychology 44, 339–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lashley, K. (1924). Studies of cerebral function in learning v.: the retention of motor habits after destruction of the so-called motor area in primates. Archives of Neurological Psychiatry, Chicago 12, 249–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liberman, R. P. (1972). Behaviour modification of schizophrenics—a review. Schizophrenia Bulletin 6, 37–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liberman, R. P., Tiegen, J., Patterson, R. and Baker, V. (1973). Reducing delusional speech in chronic paranoid schizophrenics. Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis 6, 57–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lovass, D. I., Koegel, R., Simmons, J. and Long, J. (1973). Some generalisation and follow-up measures on autistic children in behaviour therapy. Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis 6, 131–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marks, I. (1981a). Behavioural concepts and treatments of neurosis. Behavioural Psychotherapy 9, 137–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marks, I. (1981b). Psychiatry and behavioural psychotherapy. British Journal of Psychiatry 139, 74–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mednick, S. and Freedman, J. (1960). Stimulus generalisation. Psychological Bulletin 57, 169–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinney, F. (1933). Quantitative and qualitative essential elements of transfer. Journal of Experimental Psychology 16, 854–864.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Leary, K. and Drabman, D. (1971). Token reinforcement programmes in the classroom. Psychological Bulletin 75, 6, 379–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Leary, K. and Wilson, G. T. (1975). Behaviour Therapy: Application and Outcome. Englewood Cliffs. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Paul, G. L. and Shannon, D. (1966). Treatment of anxiety through systematic desensitisation in therapy groups. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 71, 124–135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenbaum, G. (1951). Temporal gradients of response strength with two levels of motivation. Journal of Experimental Psychology 41, 261–267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenbaum, G. (1951). Use of reinforcement and imitation to reinstate verbal behaviour in mute psychotics. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 70, 5, 155–164.Google Scholar
Stokes, T. F. and Baer, D. M. (1977). An implicit technology of generalisation. Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis 10, 349–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wahler, R. G. (1969). Setting generality: some specific and general effects of child behaviour therapy. Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis 2, 239–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S. W. (1958). Generalisation of an instrumental response with variations in two attributes of the C.S. Journal of Experimental Psychology 56, 339–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickens, D. (1943). Studies of response generalisation in conditioning 1: stimulus generalisation during response generalisation. Journal of Experimental Psychology 33, 221–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickens, D. (1948). Stimulus identity as related to response specificity and response generalisation. Journal of Experimental Psychology 38, 389–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, G. T. (1981). Behavioural concept and treatments of neurosis: comments on Marks. Behavioural Psychotherapy 9, 155–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wincze, J., Leitenberg, H. and Agras, W. S. (1972). The effect of token reinforcement and feedback on the delusional verbal behaviour of chronic paranoid schizophrenics. Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis 5, 247–262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.