Symposium: Conditioning Therapy Operant Conditioning and Some Aspects of the Psychotherapeutic Process *

Abstract

Operant conditioning studies demonstrate that an experimenter can alter the content of verbal communication and other forms of behaviour by the use of minimal cues. Most important is that this can take place without the conscious awareness on the part of the subject. Parallels between studies of operant conditioning and of psychotherapy suggest that operant conditioning may be one of the mechanisms mediating change during psychotherapy without either therapist or patient knowing that this is so. Application of this postulate to the psychotherapeutic process integrates some clinical and experimental findings and should prove a useful addition to the psychotherapist's understanding of factors operative in the psychotherapeutic process.