Provides a review of Mowrer's Two-Factor theory and its application to acute intervention following trauma. The article identifies conditioned fear as variable rather than universal or automatic and suggests that acute post-traumatic interventions should remain flexible while assessing and addressing the different types and levels of problematic and adaptive reactions. Discusses an interesting application of a behavioral model for debriefing. Given an assessment and understanding of the contingencies surrounding an individual conditioned fear response, a debriefer using this model would be able to provide an individualized intervention to address problem areas.
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