Behaviour Therapy based on operant conditioning

OPERANT CONDITIONING
Operant therapies are based on Skinner's assumption that people learn behaviours through reinforcement or rewards and punishment. e.g. we reward and punish our children in order to increase certain behaviours and stop others.
TREATMENTS:
Aversive Therapy
Aversive therapy aims to rid the client of the undesirable behaviour by pairing the behaviour with aversive consequences. e..g. If alcohol is paired with a nausea-inducing drug, or a sexually deviant impulse is paired with electric shock, the expected results is that the client will avoid the undesired behaviour. Merely thinking about alcohol makes the person feel nauseated. However, this method does not always last as upon withdrawing the drug or electric shock the old behaviour may returns.
Systematic Desensitisation
Systematic desensitisation introduced by Joseph Wolpe in 1958, is used mainly to treat phobias and specific anxieties. The client is fgradually exposed to the feared object or situation. Over time the panic induced by the feared object will disappear.
Flooding
Flooding treats anxiety in quite the opposite manner. The phobic patient is immersed in the phobic situation and are encouraged to experience the full force of the anxiety storm. For example, someone who is agoraphobic and afraid to leave home would be encouraged to spend an hour in the park and thus be flooded with anxiety. Gradually the anxiety would disappear.