Psychotherapeutic Techniques as Conditioned Reinforcers in a Structured Interview

Abstract

The study attempted to investigate experimentally the effects of psychotherapy techniques such as interpretation, minimal social reinforcement, hostile statements, and reflections in a structured interview using a verbal conditioning paradigm. While Ss talked freely about any topic, personal references were reinforced by one of four ways on a fixed ratio of 5:1. Results indicated that interpretative statements and minimal social reinforcement increased personal references. Effects of the interpretative statements appeared to be more resistant to extinction. Reflections and hostile statements decreased personal references. These results suggest that different phenomena of verbal behavior observed by different schools of psychotherapy may be a function of different techniques utilized.