By shaping behavior we understand that procedure in which reinforce successive approximations to a target behavior. For reinforcement to take place, the occurrence of some prior behavior is necessary. What reinforcement will do is strengthen the probability of occurrence of the behavior it reinforces. Behavior is an operant whose consequence is reinforcement.
Behavior modification is an especially useful tool for acquiring new behaviors, inhibiting maladaptive learning, or eliminating a phobia. Those behaviors that are most similar topographically and functionally to what is intended to be achieved will begin to be strengthened. Subsequently, it will become more demanding. Shaping is a dynamic process in which behavior and its consequences are transformed simultaneously. In this Psychology-Online article, we will explain shaping behavior and we will give examples and techniques.
Steps to follow for modeling
The behavior shaping procedure is configured in a structure composed of 3 elements:
1. The specification of a goal or terminal behavior
Criterion on which to estimate effectiveness or success.
The specification of a goal has a double difficulty: clinical and technical: The clinical responsibility related to agreeing and proposing a reasonable goal, relevant to the client’s interests, and that does not exceed the possibilities of technically viable professional help. The therapist must simultaneously consider the client’s circumstances, the reasonable possibilities of achievement given the point at which he is, and the confidence that he deserves in his own techniques.
Eventually, the goal may have to be varied, as a result of the progress made and in accordance with the available resources (lower or raise expectations).
2. Establishment of the starting point or “baseline”
Necessary to calibrate the goal and to begin the construction of the new behavior (source material).
It is necessary to know (through some behavioral evaluation technique) the current repertoire of the subject in relation to the development that is being promoted, that is, to recognize behaviors that are similar to the final ones that are desired (plus the functional aspect of the similarity than the topographical).
It is advisable to perform a behavioral test: A test in which the subject is exposed to the behavior of which he is capable in order to achieve the established objective. This test will meet 2 requirements:
- It will be a representative sample of the possible behavioral “population” (available repertoire).
- You will find out the maximum limit at which the subject functions (“learning potential”). This second step will also account for the incentives or motivators that move the subject to do something, that is, the reinforcers that can be managed.
3. Planning of successive approaches
The decisive questions are: How big each step will be and how much time it will take. If you have the behavioral test, you will already have “approximations” to start with. The first stages are usually slower because they require more practice than the following ones (previous learning facilitates the next).
The therapist must guarantee success to the subject, that is, a disposition of approaches in which positive reinforcement has occasion, due to the probability of appropriate behavior. At the beginning, reinforcement will be more frequent and the level of demand will be lower.
Positive reinforcement involves, at the same time, the systematic use of extinction for irrelevant and disturbing behaviors.
Additional modeling techniques
In addition to putting behavior modification training into practice, we can complement therapy with the use of the following techniques:
Use of discriminative stimuli
Although these stimuli do not give rise to the behavior, they are convenient to help bring about approximations to the final behavior. Anything whose presence facilitates a certain approximate behavior is useful to the process (tempting questions for answers, a phrase or incipient activity, notes, etc.). In general, any environmental provision that “selects” appropriate behaviors will be discriminatory in nature.
Once the support provided by the discriminative stimuli has been achieved, it is advisable to dispense with them, in a process of gradual withdrawal, so that the behavior under their control can be maintained without their presence “Fading of the stimulus.”
A special case of fading combined with shaping is the transfer of control from one stimulus to another.
Imitation or molding
(Strictly speaking, it is a type of discriminative stimulus). Instead of waiting, a model of what is wanted is proposed (if it is about modeling a motor accomplishment, an incipient movement is shown). The fading criteria also apply in these cases.
The physical guide
Resource used to achieve approximations towards motor skills. It consists of “shaping” through physical constrictions, the movements that constitute a motor function. They may also consist of “molds” or “orthopedics” (physical devices), which guide movement.
Once the terminal behavior has been achieved, it needs to be strengthened, for which formal reinforcement techniques are incorporated (token system or contingency contract).
Verbal Instructions
They are also used as shaping aids.
- “Commands”: relating to the behavior to be done.
- “Tacts”: clarifying the task.
- “Autoclitics”: referring to the control of one’s own verbal behavior.
Modeling examples
- Self-molding: variant where, the individual himself carries out the process of successive approaches leading to a specific achievement. When one sticks to circumstances, he is in a position to be molded by them. It is about letting oneself be carried away by discriminative stimuli as a molding process.
- Group shaping: The most basic assumption will be the adjustment that occurs between two people. It would be the case of a successive mutual approach, resulting in joint achievement (client/therapist). A technique with its own entity.
- Systematic desensitization: successive approaches to a terminal achievement, and, in terms of reinforcement, the therapist “systematically” supports the steps in the desired direction, so that new behaviors develop. It would not so much remove the inhibiting fear as create positive behavior, including relaxation, if “desensitization” is based on it. Some modeling procedures (observational), and precisely the most effective ones (participatory with forced reproduction and gradual action), would be offered with (more) rigor in terms of shaping (Pelechano).
Areas and examples of application
1. Special education
It is offered, not only as a particular technique, but as a general criterion for action. Applications in autism and mental deficiency.
Autism: Lovaas’ work: Education plan aimed at language, consisting of 3 stages:
- Construction of the first words or “labels”.
- Construction of abstract terms.
- Development of a social language.
Both the total plan and the particular programs adhere to the logic of shaping, using “additional techniques.”
Mental deficiency: Programs designed by Galindo, Bernal, Hinojosa:
Four areas of development considered:
- Personal autonomy.
- Language.
- Social.
- Academic instruction.
These areas are structured into specific programs.
- Example: development of diction of inarticulate phonemes (“s”, “t”, and “r”).
A specific program has five steps:
- Training in auditory discrimination.
- Motor training of the different forms of the speech apparatus.
- Sound exercises to be agreed upon, where any approach is reinforced.
- Practice saying the name of familiar objects that contain the sound.
- Phonemes are trained in accordance with a verbal sequence.
2. Rehabilitation of motor functions
- It results in a molding process, at least when some biofeedback procedure is used.
- Rehabilitation of facial paralysis, by Carrobles and Godoy.
- It is about recovering the functional motility of certain muscles, supposedly a basic innervation, although damaged.v
- A relearning of certain “expressions” lost due to motor disability is required. It successively deals with 3 muscle groups, practicing movements reinforced by myoelectric activity converted into an expanded auditory (or visual) signal:
Frontal muscle: wrinkle the forehead and raise the eyebrows.
Orbicularis oculi muscle: closing the eyes.
Orbicularis oris muscle: tightening the lips.
3. Academic instruction
- Choice techniques for school delay and for optimizing performance.
- Teaching, both instrumental content (learning to read) and academic content.
- One of the most effective ways to learn to read consists of the gradual arrangement of the task: from the letter to the word, from the word to the phrase and from the phrase to the text.
- Socrates’ famous geometry lesson, in terms of programmed teaching, following Skinnerian criteria: Cohen reworks the Socratic method in a way that the teacher “teaches” less and demands more from the student. He arranges the task such that he asks for answers that are satisfied with explanations already given, but at the same time place before new knowledge.
4. Sexual dysfunctions
- Techniques for the development of male erection and female orgasmic capacity.
- Masturbation program for the development of the female orgasm (LoPiccollo and Lobitz): its characterization as molding allows it, it is not the mere enumeration of increasingly committed stages, but the process of developing physiological responses leading to a final differentiated response that requires participation of the previous ones.
5. Others
- Development of perceptual discriminations: musical ear, detection of visual signals, etc.
- Motor skill developments: sports training or dance.
With clinical interest:
- Overcoming fear through certain applications of systematic desensitization and participatory modeling of forced reproduction.
- Restoration of speech in selective mutism (non-verbal communication: mouth sounds: verbal communication). This procedure could also be claimed as an example of chaining.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.