Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T14:32:19.611Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Power of Extrapolating Basic Laboratory Principles: The Behavioural-Cognitive Approach of Implosive Therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2014

Donald J. Levis
Donald J. Levis*
Affiliation:
Binghamton University
*
Psychology Department, Binghamton University, PO Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-60000, USA
Get access

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to emphasise the importance of basic research in the advancement of theory and clinical technique. To illustrate the power of such a strategy the theory and imagery technique of Implosive (Flooding) Therapy will be briefly described along with a recent modification that has resulted in the development of a new technique which is capable of reactivating all past traumatic memories responsible for the development and maintenance of psychopathology. This new approach has resulted in a number of important discoveries that challenge many currently held beliefs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 10 , Issue 3: Special Issue: The Relevance of Basic Research to Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy , September 1993 , pp. 154 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abramson, L.Y., Seligman, M.E.P., & Teasdale, J.D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulations. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 78, 49–74.Google Scholar
Agras, W.S. (1987). So where do we go from here? Behavior Therapy, 18, 203–218.Google Scholar
Amsel, A. (1967). Partial reinforcement effects on vigor and persistence: Advances in frustration theory derived from a variety of within-subjects experiments. In Spence, K.W. & Spence, J.T. (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 1, pp. 2–66). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Amsel, A. (1971). Frustration, Persistence, and Regression. In Kimmel, H.D. (Ed.), Experimental psychopathology (pp. 50–70). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Amsel, A. (1989). Behaviorism, neobehaviorism, and cogni-tivism in learning theory: Historical and contemporary perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Brady, J.V. (1970). Endocrine and autonomic correlates of emotional behavior. In Black, P. (Ed.), Physiological correlates of emotion (pp. 95–125). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Boudewyns, P.A., & Shipley, R.H. (1983). Flooding and implosive therapy. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J.S. (1965). A behavioral analysis of masochism. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 1, 65–70.Google Scholar
Dollard, J., & Miller, N.E. (1950). Personality and psychotherapy. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1936). The problem of anxiety. (Bunker, H.A., Trans.). New York: Psychoanalytic Quarterly Press and W.W. Norton. (Original work published in German, 1926. British translation published in 1936 as Inhibitions, symptoms and anxiety).Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1959). Collected papers (Vol. 1, Rivera, J., Trans.). New York: Basic Books. (Original work published in 1924 and 1925 by the Hogarth Press Ltd. and The Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London).Google Scholar
Gaito, J. (1979). The kindling effects: An experimental model of epilepsy. In Keehn, J.D. (Ed.), Psychopathology in animals: Research and clinical implications (pp. 169–196). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gallup, G.G., & Maser, J.D. (1977). Tonic immobility: Evolutionary underpinning of human catalepsy and catatonia. In Maser, J.D. & Seligman, M.E.P. (Eds.), Psychopathology: Experimental models (pp. 334–357). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Gantt, W.H. (1971). Experimental basis for neurotic behavior. In Kimmel, H.D. (Ed.), Experimental psychopathology: Recent research and theory (pp. 33–50). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Harlow, H.F. (1964). Early social deprivation and later behavior in the monkey. In Garner, H.H. & Toman, J.E.P. (Eds.), Unfinished tasks in the behavioral sciences. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
Hull, C.L. (1931). Goal attraction and directing ideas conceived as habit phenomena. Psychological Review, 38, 487–506.Google Scholar
Kalish, H.I. (1981). From behavioral science to behavior modification. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Karasu, T.B. (1986). The specificity versus nonspecificity dilemmas: Toward identifying therapeutic change agents. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 687–695.Google Scholar
Kostanek, D.J., & Sawrey, J.M. (1965). Acquisition and extinction of shuttlebox avoidance with complex stimuli. Psychonomic Science, 3, 369–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasner, L. (1985). Review of Bellack, A.S., Hersen, M., and Kazdin, A.E. (Eds.), International handbook of behavior modification and therapy. New York: Plenum, 1982; The Behavior Therapist, 8, 13.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J. (1966). Effects of serial CS presentation and other characteristics of the CS on the conditioned avoidance response. Psychological Reports, 18, 755–766.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levis, D.J. (1970). Behavioral therapy: The fourth therapeutic revolution? In Levis, D.J. (Ed.), Learning approaches to therapeutic behavior change (pp. 1–35). Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J. (1980). Implementing the technique of implosive therapy. In Goldstein, A. & Foa, P.E.B. (Eds.), Handbook of behavioral interventions. A clinical guide (pp. 92–151). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J. (1985). Implosive therapy: A comprehensive extension of conditioning theory of fear/anxiety to psychopathology. In Reiss, S. & Bootzen, R.R. (Eds.), Theoretical issues in behavior therapy (pp. 49–82). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J. (1988). Observation and experience from clinical practice: A critical ingredient for advancing behavioral theory and therapy. The Behavior Therapist, 11, 95–99.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J. (1989). The case for a return to a two-factor theory of avoidance: The failure of non-fear interpretations. In Klein, S.B. & Mowrer, R.R. (Eds.), Contemporary learning theories, Pavlovian conditioning and the status of traditional learning theory (pp. 227–277). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J. (1990). The recovery of traumatic memories: Reetiological source of psychopathology. In Kunzendorf, R.G. (Ed.), Mental imagery (pp. 233–240). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J. (1991). A clinician's plea for a return to the development of nonhuman models of psychopathology: New clinical observations in need of laboratory study. In Denny, M.R. (Ed.), Fear, avoidance, and phobias: A fundamental analysis (pp. 395–427). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J., Bouska, S., Eron, J., & Mcllhon, M. (1970). Serial CS presentations and one-way avoidance conditioning: A noticeable lack of delayed responding. Psychonomic Science, 20, 147–149.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J., & Boyd, T.L. (1979). Symptoms maintenance: An infrahuman analysis and extension of the conservation of anxiety principle. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 107–120.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J., & Boyd, T.L. (1985). The CS exposure approach of implosive therapy. In McMillian Turner, R. & Ascher, L.M. (Eds.), Evaluation of behavior therapy outcome (pp. 56–94). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J., & Hare, N. (1977). A review of the theoretical rationale and empirical support for the extinction approach of implosive (flooding) therapy. In Hersen, M., Eisler, R.M., & Miller, P.M. (Eds.), Progress in behavior modification, IV (pp. 300–376). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Levis, D.J., & Malloy, P.F. (1982). Research in infrahumans and human conditioning. In Franks, C.M. & Wilson, E.T. (Eds.), Contemporary behavior therapy: Conceptual & empirical foundations (pp. 65–118). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Liddell, H.D. (1965). The challenge of Pavlovian conditioning and experimental neuroses in animals. In Wolpe, J., Salter, A., & Reyna, L.J. (Eds.), The conditioning therapies (pp. 127–148). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Logan, F.A. (1971). Dominance and aggression. In Kimmel, H.D. (Ed.), Experimental psychopathology (pp. 185–202). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Maier, N.R.F., & Ellen, (1952). Studies of abnormal behavior in the rat. XXIII. The prophylactic effects of guidance in reducing risked behavior. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47, 109–116.Google Scholar
Malloy, P., & Levis, D.J. (1988). A laboratory demonstration of persistent human avoidance. Behavior Therapy, 19, 229–241.Google Scholar
Masserman, J.H. (1946). Principles of dynamic psychiatry. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders.Google Scholar
Masserman, J.H. (1971). The principle of uncertainty in neurotigenesis. In Kimmel, H.D. (Ed.), Experimental psychopathology: Recent research and theory (pp. 13–32). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Miller, N.E. (1951). Learnable drives and rewards. In Stevens, S.S. (Ed.), Handbook of experimental psychology (pp. 435–472). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Mowrer, O.H. (1947). On the dual nature of learning — A re-interpretation of “conditioning” and “problem-solving”. Harvard Educational Review, 17, 102–148.Google Scholar
Mowrer, O.H. (1960a). Learning theory and behavior. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Mowrer, O.H. (1960b). Learning theory and the symbolic processes. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Mowrer, O.H. (1977). Mental imagery: An indispensable psychological concept. Journal of Mental Imagery, 2, 303–326.Google Scholar
Paul, S.M. (1977). Movement, mood and madness: A biological model of schizophrenia. In Maser, J.D. & Seligman, M.E.P. (Eds.), Psychopathology: Experimental models (pp. 358–386). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Pavlov, I.P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pavlov, I.P. (1928). Lectures on conditioned reflexes. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Rodin, J. (1977). Bidirectional influences of emotionality, stimulus responsivity, and metabolic events in obesity. In Maser, J.D. & Seligman, M.E.P. (Eds.), Psychopathology: Experimental Models (pp. 27–65). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Sechzer, I.A. (1977). The neonatal split-brain kitten: A laboratory analogue of minimal brain dysfunction. In Maser, J.D. & Seligman, M.E.P. (Eds.), Psychopathology: Experimental Models (pp. 308–333). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Shipley, R.H., & Boudewyns, P.A. (1980). Flooding and implosive therapy: Are they harmful. Behavior Therapy, 11, 503–508.Google Scholar
Skinner, B.F. (1950). Are theories of learning necessary? Psychological Review, 57, 193–216.Google Scholar
Skinner, B.F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Smith, J.E., & Levis, D.J. (1991). Is fear present following sustained asymptotic avoidance responding? Behavioural Processes, 24, 37–41.Google Scholar
Solomon, R.L., & Wynne, L.C. (1954). Traumatic avoidance learning: The principle of anxiety conservation and partial irreversibility. Psychological Review, 61, 353–385.Google Scholar
Spear, N.E. (1978). The processing of memories: Forgetting and retention. New Jersey: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Spence, K.W. (1966). Cognitive and drive factors in the extinction of the conditioned eye-blink in human subjects. Psychological Review, 73, 445–458.Google Scholar
Stampfl, T.G. (1970). Implosive therapy: An emphasis on covert stimulation. In Levis, D.J. (Ed.), Learning approaches to therapeutic behavior change (pp. 182–204). Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Stampfl, T.G. (1983). Exposure treatment for psychiatrists? [Review of Learning approaches to psychiatry]. Contemporary Psychology, 28, 527–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stampfl, T.G. (1987). Theoretical implications of the neurotic paradox as a problem in behavior therapy: An experimental resolution. The Behavior Analyst, 10, 161–173.Google Scholar
Stampfl, T.G. (1991). Analysis of aversive events in human psychopathology: Fear and avoidance. In Denny, M.R. (Ed.), Fear, avoidance and phobias (pp. 363–393). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Stampfl, T.G., & Levis, D.J. (1967). The essentials of implosive therapy: A learning-theory based on psychodynamic behavioral therapy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 72, 496–503.Google Scholar
Stampfl, T.G., & Levis, D.J. (1969). Learning theory: An end to dynamic therapeutic practice. In Eron, L.D. & Callahan, R. (Eds.), Relationship of theory to practice in psychotherapy (pp. 166–172). Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Stampfl, T.G., & Levis, D.J. (1973). Implosive therapy. In Jurjevich, R.M. (Ed.), The international handbook of direct psychotherapy: Vol. 1. Twenty-eight American originals (pp. 83–105). Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press.Google Scholar
Stampfl, T.G, & Levis, D.J. (1976). Implosive therapy: A behavioral therapy. In Spence, J.T., Carson, R.C., & Thibaut's, J.W. (Eds.), Behavioral approaches to therapy (pp. 86–110). Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.Google Scholar
Weiss, J. (1977). Ulcers. In Maser, J.D. & Seligman, M.E.P. (Eds.), Psychopathology: Experimental models (pp. 232–269). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Wolpe, J. (1958). Psychotherapy and reciprocal inhibition. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar