Psychological behaviourism

1. Introduction

Version followed: Arthur W. Staats's psychological behaviourism (PB). Earlier names were social behaviourism (1960s–70s) and paradigmatic behaviourism (1980s; the Staats–Heiby–Eifert–Evans line). The clinical procedures come from Staats's 1969 ONR technical report Social Behaviorism, Human Motivation, and the Conditioning Therapies and his published reading, token and time-out work. His capstone treatment chapter is "Psychological Behavior Therapy/Analysis", chapter 8 of Behavior and Personality (1996). Procedural detail attributed to this chapter is marked [uncertain].

What it is. PB is a unified learning theory of human behaviour and personality, not a single branded therapy. It has no treatment manual and no formal practitioner training [source: Wikipedia, Psychological behaviorism]. It is a framework from which clinical procedures are derived, so this guide gives the procedures Staats and his collaborators described and marks derived applications [synthesis].

Core idea of change.

• Personality consists of learned basic behavioural repertoires (BBRs): language-cognitive, emotional-motivational and sensory-motor.
• Problems are either deficits (a needed repertoire was never learned) or inappropriate repertoires (a learned repertoire interferes) [source: Wikipedia; Psicothema 1995 depression paper].
• Classical and operant learning work as one system. A stimulus that elicits a positive or negative emotion also acts as a reinforcer or punisher, and as a discriminative stimulus for approach or avoidance. This is the attitude–reinforcer–discriminative (A-R-D) system [source: Staats 1969 ONR report; Wikipedia].
• Words acquire emotional value, so language can condition emotion [source: Wikipedia; Staats 1972].
• Learning is cumulative-hierarchical: new repertoires build on old ones.
• Change therefore means: (a) re-conditioning what the client finds positive or aversive, (b) training missing repertoires, and (c) rearranging the environment that maintains the problem.

2. Framework

PB specifies no fixed phases, session counts or progression criteria; none were found in primary sources [uncertain]. The working sequence below is assembled from Staats's 1969 analysis and the paradigmatic-behaviourism assessment literature [source: Staats 1969 ONR report; Psicothema 1995; synthesis for ordering].

• Dose example from source: a token-reinforced remedial reading programme for 32 children ran 4–5 months, about 40 hours of training. The authors judged this too short for long-standing failure [source: Staats, Minke & Butts 1970 abstract].
• Format: home, school or clinic. Child work is often parent-delivered or technician-delivered under supervision [source: Atlas; Wikipedia].
• Monitoring: Staats's group used single-subject reversal designs and continuous behavioural recording (responses, reinforcers given, items learned and retained) [source: Staats 1969; Minke abstract]. Use the same records to judge progress.

3. Guiding principles

• Unify, don't sect. Integrate useful knowledge from other approaches (tests, cognitive findings, verbal therapy) by translating it into learning terms. Practical meaning: you may use standard measures and talk therapy, but formulate them as repertoire change [source: Wikipedia; Staats 1994].
• Classical and operant learning interact. Practical meaning: for any target, ask both what the stimulus makes the client feel and what the behaviour earns [source: Staats 1969].
• Emotion has three functions (A-R-D). Practical meaning: changing what the client likes or dislikes changes what reinforces them and what they approach or avoid, so emotional work often comes before skill work [source: Staats 1969].
• Behaviour problems are learned repertoires, not illnesses. Practical meaning: describe problems as specific deficits or inappropriate repertoires; use DSM labels descriptively [source: Wikipedia].
• Deficit vs inappropriate. Practical meaning: a deficit needs training; an inappropriate repertoire needs extinction or counterconditioning plus a replacement [source: Psicothema 1995].
• Cumulative-hierarchical learning. Practical meaning: check prerequisites (attention, imitation, basic language) before teaching complex skills; build from the client's current level [source: Wikipedia].
• Multilevel causation. Biology, learning history, current repertoires and the situation all contribute. Practical meaning: rule out medical or organic contributors and assess the situation, not only the person [source: Psicothema 1995; Wikipedia].
• Language carries emotion. Practical meaning: your words, praise and the client's self-talk are conditioning tools; use them deliberately [source: Wikipedia; Staats 1972].
• Avoid atomistic treatment. Staats criticised therapy that targets one stimulus and one response. Practical meaning: plan long-term training programmes for broad problems such as motivation, school failure or delinquency [source: Staats 1969].
• Change the system as well as the person. Practical meaning: train the parents, teachers or staff who control reinforcers [source: Staats 1969].
• Parent as "companion, helper or trainer", not ruler. Practical meaning: discipline techniques such as time-out sit inside a warm, rewarding relationship [source: Boston Globe obituary paraphrasing Staats].
• Prefer positive methods to harsh punishment. Staats opposed spanking and used time-out as the gentler alternative. Practical meaning: pair any reductive procedure with reinforcement of a replacement behaviour [source: Boston Globe; Wikipedia, Time-out].
• Measure continuously. Practical meaning: record responses and reinforcers each session and let the data decide changes [source: Staats 1969; Minke abstract].
• Use paraprofessionals with supervision. Practical meaning: parents and technicians can deliver well-specified training if you supervise [source: Wikipedia; Minke abstract].

4. Intervention inventory

PB borrows many procedures from behaviour therapy and behaviour modification and re-explains them in its own terms. Its original contributions are the token reinforcer system (1958), time-out, token-motivated reading and cognitive training, and language behaviour therapy [source: Wikipedia; Staats 1969]. Staats's own step-by-step wording is not reproduced here. All steps are written in my own words, and parameters he did not specify are marked [synthesis] or [uncertain].

4.1 Multilevel behavioural assessment of basic repertoires

• Purpose / when: Use at intake for every case, and again when progress stalls. It identifies which repertoires are deficient or inappropriate, which emotional stimuli drive approach and avoidance, and which situational or biological factors contribute [source: Psicothema 1995; Wikipedia].
• Steps:
  1. Define the presenting problem as observable behaviour in situations.
  2. Language-cognitive repertoire: check comprehension, expressive language, reading, number skills, problem-solving, and self-talk about self and others.
  3. Emotional-motivational repertoire: list what the client finds strongly positive or aversive (people, activities, places, words, ideas), and what they approach and avoid.
  4. Sensory-motor repertoire: check attention, motor and self-care skills, and social skills.
  5. Classify each problem as a deficit or an inappropriate repertoire.
  6. Situation: identify current contingencies, including who reinforces the problem behaviour, often inadvertently through attention.
  7. Biological factors: screen for medical, developmental or neurological contributors and refer as needed.
  8. Use standard questionnaires as repertoire measures, interpreted in learning terms. The 1995 Spanish depression study measured assertiveness, attributional style, self-reinforcement, pleasant and unpleasant events, negative thoughts and self-efficacy.
  9. Write a formulation linking repertoires and situation to the problem, and choose targets. [source: Psicothema 1995; Staats 1969; ordering is synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's work out three things: what you've had the chance to learn, what feels good or bad to you, and what around you keeps this going."
• Watch for: Formulations that name only one level. Treating a missing skill as "lack of motivation", or the reverse.

4.2 A-R-D (emotional-motivational) analysis and reinforcer identification

• Purpose / when: Find what actually functions as a reinforcer, incentive or punisher for this client before any operant programme, and find stimuli whose emotional value must change [source: Staats 1969].
• Steps:
  1. From interview, observation and preference checks, list candidate positive stimuli (activities, items, people, praise words) and aversive ones.
  2. Test candidates: does contingent delivery increase a behaviour?
  3. Note deprivation and satiation states, which raise or lower a reinforcer's strength.
  4. Note stimuli whose value is itself the problem: positive value attached to harmful stimuli, or aversive value attached to needed ones (school, social contact, work).
  5. Mark these for emotional re-conditioning (4.3–4.6). [source: Staats 1969; steps 1–2 synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "When you think about going back to class, what happens in your body? And what's the thing you'd most look forward to this week?"
• Watch for: Assumed reinforcers that do not work, and praise that has no positive value for this client. Staats's theory predicts praise must first be paired with established positive stimuli [synthesis from A-R-D theory].

4.3 Counterconditioning by pairing with positive stimuli

• Purpose / when: Use when a stimulus elicits a negative emotion that drives avoidance, especially with children and with fears that cannot be talked through. Staats analysed Lazarus's (1960) treatment of a child's vehicle phobia this way: vehicle stimuli were paired with candy, avoidance fell, and only after approach occurred was response-contingent reinforcement added [source: Staats 1969].
• Steps:
  1. Obtain informed consent (from parent and child, as appropriate).
  2. Identify the feared stimulus and a strong positive stimulus, such as a favourite food, play or a trusted adult's attention.
  3. Present weak versions of the feared stimulus (distant, pictures, talk about it) together with the positive stimulus, keeping distress low.
  4. Move gradually closer or more intense as distress drops.
  5. Once the client approaches spontaneously, reinforce the approach behaviour itself (operant phase).
  6. Then train any missing skills the situation requires. [source: Staats 1969; grading and consent are synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "We'll look at the car picture while you have your snack. You tell me when you want it a bit closer."
• Watch for: The positive stimulus losing value through satiation. Distress spiking, which means the step was too big; go back a step. Working well looks like spontaneous approach and less physiological arousal.
• Safety: Same contraindications and consent steps as exposure (see 4.4).

4.4 Systematic desensitisation (PB-interpreted)

• Purpose / when: Phobic and anxiety-based avoidance where the needed behaviour is already in the repertoire. Staats interprets desensitisation as counterconditioning. Relaxation instructions act as a learned (higher-order) stimulus, and success is shown when the stimuli stop controlling escape. His example was agoraphobia: outdoor stimuli no longer elicit negative emotion, so the person leaves home [source: Staats 1969].
• Steps:
  1. Screen for contraindications: uncontrolled medical conditions aggravated by arousal (for example cardiac or respiratory conditions; seek medical clearance), active psychosis or acute crisis, current substance intoxication, and unaddressed real danger in the feared situation.
  2. Explain the rationale and obtain informed consent, including the right to stop at any point.
  3. Teach relaxation until the client can produce it on cue.
  4. Build a hierarchy of situations ranked from least to most distressing.
  5. Present the lowest item, in imagination or in vivo, while the client is relaxed.
  6. Repeat until it no longer elicits distress, then move up one item.
  7. Transfer to real-life approach and reinforce approach behaviour.
  8. If the client lacks the skills the situation demands (for example social or academic skills in school refusal), train them (4.13). Staats stressed that emotional change alone fails when the target behaviour is absent. [source: Staats 1969 for the hierarchy, relaxation, least-intense start, repetition and the skill-training caveat; safety and consent steps are synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Picture the doorway with the street beyond it. Let yourself stay relaxed. Raise a finger if you feel any tension."
• Watch for: Imagery that is too vivid or too vague. Staats noted imagery needed more analysis [source: Staats 1969]. Also watch for distress that does not decline across repetitions; go back to a lower item. Working well looks like falling distress ratings and increased real-world approach.

4.5 Aversive counterconditioning (historical; not recommended as routine)

• Description: Staats analysed aversion therapy (for example, pairing alcohol cues with an aversive stimulus, or Raymond's 1960 fetish case) as making a stimulus negative so that it controls avoidance. He judged it an adjunct at most and called such treatments "symptomatic" when they do not build alternative repertoires [source: Staats 1969].
• Current stance [synthesis]: Do not use it as a standalone or first-line method. Aversive procedures used to change sexual orientation are rejected by professional bodies and must never be used; the 1969 report's framing of homosexuality as a problem reflects its era. If aversion is ever considered for addictive behaviour, it belongs only within specialist, ethically reviewed protocols with full consent. Prefer building positive alternatives.
• Watch for: Any pull toward punishment-led plans. Re-centre on reinforcing alternatives.

4.6 Language conditioning of emotion (language behaviour therapy)

• Purpose / when: Words elicit emotional responses and transfer them to whatever they are paired with. Language can therefore be used to shift the A-R-D value of stimuli, including through the client's own self-talk. Staats (1972) presented this as language behaviour therapy, a learning account of verbal and cognitive therapy [source: Wikipedia; Staats 1969 on verbal conditioning; the Staats 1972 paper itself is not drawn on, so details are uncertain].
• Steps [synthesis from the stated mechanism; procedural detail not stated in the sources]:
  1. Identify the target stimulus (for example, "school", "asking for help", "my body") and the client's current emotional words about it.
  2. Identify words and images that carry strong positive (or, for harmful stimuli, negative) emotion for this client.
  3. In session, repeatedly pair descriptions of the target with those emotion-laden words and images, in concrete, vivid statements.
  4. Have the client generate and rehearse such pairings aloud, then covertly.
  5. Set homework to say these statements in or before the real situation.
  6. Reinforce the client's spontaneous use of new evaluative language.
  7. Conversely, teach the client to attach danger or loss words to genuinely risky stimuli, which Staats proposed is deficient in some antisocial patterns [source: Staats 1969 for this rationale].
• Example language (illustrative): "Each time you picture walking into the meeting, link it with what you told me matters most: being someone your colleagues trust."
• Watch for: The client's words lacking emotional value for them (choose their own words, not yours). Mechanical repetition without felt emotion. Working well looks like the client describing the target in more positive terms spontaneously and approaching it more.

4.7 Extinction of inadvertently reinforced behaviour plus reinforcement of alternatives

• Purpose / when: Problem behaviour maintained by social attention or other reinforcers in the setting. Staats's 1957 analysis of psychotic symptoms as instrumentally conditioned, and Ayllon and Michael's ward work (reducing nurse-office visits and psychotic talk by withdrawing attention while reinforcing sensible talk), are his model cases [source: Staats 1969].
• Steps:
  1. Observe and record who responds to the behaviour and how.
  2. Hypothesise the maintaining reinforcer.
  3. Agree with caregivers or staff to stop delivering it contingent on the problem behaviour, consistently.
  4. Specify an alternative behaviour and deliver the same reinforcer generously when it occurs.
  5. Warn caregivers that the behaviour may briefly worsen before it falls.
  6. Record daily and check the trend. [source: Staats 1969; steps 5–6 synthesis]
• Example language to parent (illustrative): "When he shouts for you, stay calm and busy. The moment he asks in a normal voice, go to him straight away and be warm."
• Watch for: Inconsistent extinction (intermittent attention strengthens the behaviour), and behaviours that are dangerous and cannot be ignored (use 4.11 or safety plans instead). Working well looks like a downward frequency trend and a rising alternative.

4.8 Deprivation–satiation management

• Purpose / when: Adjust reinforcer strength. A reinforcer is more effective after mild deprivation and weaker after satiation. Satiation can also reduce a problem behaviour; in Ayllon's ward example, hoarding of magazines fell when the ward was flooded with them [source: Staats 1969].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Schedule training sessions when the backup reinforcer has not been freely available just before (for example, keep a special toy only for sessions).
  2. Rotate reinforcers to prevent satiation.
  3. For object-centred problem behaviour, consider free access to that item to reduce its value.
  4. Never deprive basic needs (food, sleep, contact, safety) or anything the client is entitled to.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's keep the building blocks just for reading time, so they stay special."
• Watch for: Rights and ethics. Use only items that are extra and freely chosen. Declining engagement means satiation, so rotate.

4.9 Token reinforcer system

• Purpose / when: Staats introduced a token reinforcer system in 1958 for analysing and treating reading problems; it was later called the token economy. Use it when a client's natural reinforcers for a task are weak (school work, practice of new skills), and to maintain long training sessions [source: Wikipedia; Staats et al. 1962 cited in Staats 1969].
• Steps:
  1. Choose backup reinforcers from the A-R-D analysis (4.2), such as small toys, activities or privileges.
  2. Choose tokens. Staats's laboratory used marbles or similar countables; tokens of different values have been described [uncertain: exact values not verified].
  3. Deliver a token immediately after each correct response, with brief praise so praise acquires value.
  4. Let the client exchange tokens for backup items at set times or when a target count is reached.
  5. As skill grows, require more responses per token and lengthen exchange intervals.
  6. Fade to praise and natural consequences. [source: Wikipedia; Staats 1969; steps 5–6 synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Every word you read right gets a token. When the jar reaches this line, you pick from the prize box."
• Watch for: Tokens losing value (refresh backups), arguments over tokens (keep rules simple and non-negotiable during sessions), and dependence (plan fading from the start). Working well looks like longer attention to task and more correct responses per minute.

4.10 Token-motivated reading and cognitive training ("motivated learning")

• Purpose / when: Remediation of non-reading, dyslexia and learning disability, and early teaching of reading and number. Staats used it with preschoolers, with dyslexic and non-reading adolescents (including a 1965 case of a non-reading juvenile delinquent), and in a 1970 programme for 32 problem learners. That programme was delivered by subprofessional therapy technicians supervised by a behaviourally trained teacher [source: Wikipedia; Minke abstract].
• Steps (general structure; Staats's exact materials and phase rules are not drawn on) [uncertain]:
  1. Assess the current reading level and pick graded reading material.
  2. Present new words singly (for example on cards). Reinforce a correct reading with a token; if incorrect, the trainer models the word and the learner repeats it until correct.
  3. Have the learner read the learned words in sentences and passages aloud, with a token for each correctly read unit.
  4. For more advanced learners, add silent reading followed by comprehension questions, with tokens for correct answers.
  5. Periodically test retention of previously learned words.
  6. Record responses, tokens and words learned and retained every session. [source: Minke abstract describes the "stimulus-response presentation procedure" and the recording; the step sequence is my reconstruction, uncertain]
• Example language (illustrative): "This word is 'river'. Say it with me. Now you read it. Great, that's a token."
• Watch for: Error rates above about 20% (material too hard; drop a level) [synthesis]. Fatigue: end before attention fails. Gains in attention and work behaviour usually come before gains on standardised tests [source: Minke abstract]. Short programmes (about 40 hours) may be insufficient for long-standing failure [source: Minke abstract].

4.11 Time-out

• Purpose / when: Reduce disruptive behaviour (tantrums, aggression, defiance) by briefly removing the child from attention and play. Staats invented and named it in his 1958-onward programme with his own children. In 1962 he described putting his two-year-old in her crib until she stopped crying, and carrying her outside when in public. Montrose Wolf extended it, including in a 1964 study with an autistic child [source: Wikipedia, Time-out; Boston Globe].
• Steps:
  1. Use it only within a warm, rewarding relationship and alongside reinforcement of good behaviour.
  2. Check for unmet needs first (hunger, tiredness, frustration).
  3. Pick a quiet, safe place with no toys or attention, never locked and never frightening.
  4. When the target behaviour occurs, calmly give a one-line reason and move the child there.
  5. Do not talk, argue or give attention during time-out.
  6. End it. Staats's version: end once the unwanted behaviour has stopped, not after a fixed age-based duration [source: Boston Globe]. Later common variants: about 5–15 minutes maximum, or one minute per year of age; a fixed short time-out may work as well as a quiet-to-release rule [source: Wikipedia, Time-out]. [uncertain: versions differ; I follow Staats's release-when-calm rule with a short ceiling as a safety margin, synthesis.]
  7. Afterwards, re-engage warmly and praise the next appropriate behaviour.
• Example language to child (illustrative): "Hitting means time-out. You can come back when you're calm." And after: "You're calm now. Let's finish the puzzle together."
• Watch for: Time-out that is not truly less reinforcing than the activity (if the activity was aversive, time-out rewards escape). Long lectures, which give attention. Use with very young children: the Australian Association for Infant Mental Health advises against it under three and suggests "time-in", although Staats used it at two [uncertain: sources conflict]. Children with attachment difficulties or trauma histories may respond poorly [source: Wikipedia, Time-out]. Working well looks like fewer episodes and shorter time-outs over two to three weeks [synthesis].

4.12 Parent-delivered training of basic repertoires (language-cognitive, sensory-motor, emotional-motivational)

• Purpose / when: For language or cognitive delay, school-readiness deficits and autism-spectrum language deficits, and as prevention. Staats held that parents' early training of language and cognitive repertoires underlies later intelligence and school success. He trained his own children from birth in language, emotional, sensory-motor and number repertoires. A group of 11 delayed children who took part voluntarily gained an average of 11 IQ points. The named techniques are verbal association, verbal imitation and verbal-writing for language-cognitive repertoires, classical sensorimotor techniques for sensory-motor repertoires, and time-out within emotional-motivational training [source: Wikipedia]. Detailed protocols are in Staats 1971 Child Learning, Intelligence, and Personality, which is not drawn on [uncertain].
• Steps [synthesis, structured on the named techniques]:
  1. Assess which prerequisite repertoires are present: attending, imitation, receptive words, expressive words, counting.
  2. Teach the parent to run short, playful sessions, stopping while the child is still engaged, with participation voluntary.
  3. Verbal imitation: the parent says a sound or word, the child repeats it, and the parent reinforces close approximations and then exact ones.
  4. Verbal association / labelling: the parent presents an object or picture with its name and reinforces the child naming it; then builds word-to-word associations (categories, opposites, number words to quantities).
  5. Verbal-writing: link spoken words to printed and written words (the start of reading and writing), using tokens as in 4.9–4.10.
  6. Sensory-motor: reinforce attending, looking, following, and fine and gross motor steps.
  7. Emotional-motivational: pair learning activities with affection and fun so that learning itself becomes positive; use time-out for disruptive behaviour.
  8. Review a home log or video of sessions with the parent weekly.
• Example language, parent coaching (illustrative): "Hold up the cup and say 'cup'. If she says 'cuh', smile and give a token. Next time, wait for a bit closer."
• Watch for: Sessions that become aversive (child avoids, parent pressures); make them shorter and more rewarding. Parental over-correction. Missing prerequisites: back up a level, per cumulative-hierarchical learning. Working well looks like the child seeking sessions out and growing counts of words or items mastered.

4.13 Training missing instrumental repertoires (skills training after emotional change)

• Purpose / when: Staats warned that changing emotional responses works only if the target behaviour already exists. Otherwise a training programme must teach it, for example social, cognitive and athletic skills for a school-phobic child [source: Staats 1969].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Task-analyse the skill into components.
  2. Model each component.
  3. Have the client rehearse it, with prompts.
  4. Reinforce each step immediately (praise, tokens).
  5. Shape toward fluency.
  6. Practise in increasingly real settings.
  7. Arrange natural reinforcement in those settings (peers, teachers).
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's practise how you'd join the game at lunch: walk up, wait for a pause, and ask 'Can I play next?' I'll be the other kid."
• Watch for: Anxiety returning when the skill is tried for real; revisit 4.3–4.4. Skill performed in the clinic only; programme generalisation.

4.14 Delivery through trained paraprofessionals and caregivers

• Purpose / when: When intensive, long-term training is needed beyond clinic hours. Staats used subprofessional therapy technicians and graduate assistants under supervision [source: Wikipedia; Minke abstract].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Write a one-page procedure covering stimuli, the correct response, reinforcement and correction.
  2. Model it.
  3. Watch the trainer deliver it and give feedback.
  4. Have the trainer record responses and tokens every session.
  5. Review the data and spot-check fidelity weekly.
• Example language (illustrative): "Give the token within a second of the right answer, and keep your voice friendly even after errors."
• Watch for: Drift in the reinforcement rules, and trainer burnout. Working well looks like stable fidelity and rising learner data.

4.15 Pleasant-events and self-reinforcement work for depression (paradigmatic behaviourism)

• Purpose / when: The Staats–Heiby paradigmatic account of depression distinguishes two cases. In one, pleasant events are infrequent because of sensory-motor and language-cognitive deficits. In the other, events have low emotional strength, an emotional-motivational deficit. Treatment is matched to the specific deficit: self-reinforcement training, increasing pleasant activities, cognitive work on negative thoughts, or skills training [source: Rose 1988 thesis abstract; Psicothema 1995].
• Steps [synthesis from these sources]:
  1. Assess the frequency and the felt pleasantness of activities.
  2. If events are infrequent but enjoyed: schedule pleasant activities and train the skills that give access to them (social, problem-solving).
  3. If events are not enjoyed: emotional re-conditioning (pair activities with existing positives, language conditioning as in 4.6) and gradual re-engagement.
  4. Where self-reinforcement is low: teach the client to set small goals and reward themselves verbally and materially on meeting them.
  5. Address negative self-statements as conditioned emotional language.
• Example language (illustrative): "When you finish the walk, stop and tell yourself specifically what you did well, then have the coffee you enjoy."
• Watch for: Activity scheduling without enjoyment, which signals an emotional-motivational deficit, so shift to 3. Assess suicide risk with standard risk assessment and safety planning; refer if acute.

4.16 Continuous recording and single-subject evaluation

• Purpose / when: In every case, to test whether a procedure is working. Staats et al. (1962) used reversal designs, and the 1970 programme recorded responses, reinforcers, and words learned and retained [source: Staats 1969; Minke abstract].
• Steps:
  1. Define the response.
  2. Record a baseline.
  3. Introduce the procedure.
  4. Graph session by session.
  5. Where ethical and safe, briefly withdraw or alternate components to confirm control.
  6. Adjust from the data. [steps 2–6 synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's count how many times this happens each day this week before we change anything."
• Watch for: Reversals that would risk harm; skip them. Weak baselines.

5. Handling problems

The primary sources give little explicit troubleshooting. Staats's 1969 report diagnoses why conditioning therapies fail, and that analysis is used below where cited. Everything else is [synthesis].

• Stuck client: emotion changed, behaviour didn't. This is Staats's main failure analysis: the needed instrumental repertoire is missing. Respond by assessing the skill and moving to training (4.13) [source: Staats 1969].
• Stuck client: skill trained, not used. The emotional-motivational repertoire still makes the situation aversive, or the setting does not reinforce the skill. Return to 4.3–4.6, and engage the people who control reinforcement in that setting (4.7, 4.14) [source: Staats 1969 on system change; synthesis].
• Stuck client: "atomistic" gains only. One fear or one behaviour improves but the broad problem (school failure, low motivation) persists. Staats called for long-term, multi-repertoire training programmes. Re-run the assessment (4.1), list all deficient repertoires, and plan a months-long programme with caregivers [source: Staats 1969].
• Low motivation or non-adherence. In PB terms, the task lacks positive emotional value and the available reinforcers are weak. Responses: redo the reinforcer analysis (4.2); add tokens with valued backups (4.9); shorten tasks; make early success near-certain; pair the task with liked people and activities; check for satiation (4.8) [synthesis grounded in A-R-D theory].
• Resistance or arguing (adults). Treat it as an aversive conditioned response to the therapy situation or to the therapist's words. Reduce aversive elements (criticism, pressure), increase positive pairing (warmth, praise for engagement), and choose words with positive value for this client (4.6) [synthesis].
• Child refuses sessions or tantrums in sessions. Shorten sessions and end on success. Raise token density. Check that material is not too hard (error rate). Use time-out only for disruption, not for refusal to work, since removal from an aversive task rewards escape [synthesis; time-out escape caveat follows Wikipedia, Time-out guidance].
• Overwhelm during counterconditioning or desensitisation. Stop the step. Restore relaxation or the positive stimulus. Go back down the hierarchy. Use smaller steps. Reassess whether exposure is appropriate now (crisis, medical, dissociation) [synthesis; graded approach per Staats 1969].
• Parents inconsistent with extinction or time-out. Expect a short-term increase in the behaviour before it falls when attention is withdrawn. Rehearse the plan in session. Simplify to one or two target behaviours. Use daily logs and brief check-in calls. Teach parents to deliver more positive attention at other times [synthesis].
• Time-out misuse or escalation. Stop if the child is frightened, if it lasts long, if it involves locking or isolation, or if it is used instead of positive teaching. Schools have misused it, including confinement in closets [source: Wikipedia, Time-out]. Rebuild on Staats's model: warm relationship, brief removal, release when calm, praise afterwards [source: Boston Globe].
• Rupture in the alliance. In PB terms, the therapist has become a conditioned aversive stimulus. Acknowledge it plainly, reduce demands, and re-pair yourself with positive experiences: collaborative choice of goals, early wins, and genuine praise. Note that Staats did not write about alliance ruptures in the sources [synthesis].
• Token system problems: tokens hoarded, traded or stolen, or the client "works only for tokens". Use individualised tokens. Keep the exchange schedule fixed. Pair tokens with praise consistently. Plan systematic fading toward praise and natural results as competence grows [synthesis].
• Learner plateaus in reading or cognitive training. Check the prerequisite repertoire (cumulative-hierarchical learning). Drop to an easier level, retest retention, and increase review [source: Wikipedia on cumulative learning; synthesis].
• Short programme, little standardised gain. The 1970 programme found clear gains in attention and work behaviour, but judged about 40 hours insufficient for long-standing failure. Plan longer, more intensive programmes and set realistic expectations with schools and families [source: Minke abstract].
• Ethical boundaries. Do not use aversive conditioning for sexual orientation or identity; the 1969 framing reflects its era and is rejected today. Do not use deprivation of basic needs. Obtain consent and assent, especially with children, institutionalised clients and young offenders [synthesis].
• Suicide or self-harm risk (any client). Follow standard risk assessment and safety planning. This includes lethal-means counselling (safe storage or removal), crisis contacts, and referral or escalation of care when risk is acute. Do not run behavioural experiments that raise risk [synthesis; standard practice].
• Mismatch with the client's goals. Adult clients may dislike learning-theory language. Describe procedures in everyday terms ("practise", "build", "make it easier to face"). The mechanism does not require the client to adopt the theory [synthesis].

Sources

Sources:

• Psychological behaviorism – Wikipedia
• Staats, A. W. (1969). Social Behaviorism, Human Motivation, and the Conditioning Therapies (ONR Technical Report No. 2) – DTIC
• Time-out (parenting) – Wikipedia
• Arthur Staats, child psychologist and father of timeout, dies at 97 – Boston Globe (2021)
• Staats, Minke & Butts (1970), token-reinforcement remedial reading programme – abstract via K. Minke, Academia.edu
• Multiple correlates of unipolar depression: contributions from the paradigmatic behavioral theory – Psicothema (1995)
• Rose, G. D. (1988). Associated features of depression subtypes… Staats-Heiby paradigmatic behaviorism theory (PhD thesis) – ScholarSpace
• Distinctions between psychological and radical behaviorism on verbal behavior: An interview with Arthur W. Staats – Acta Comportamentalia
• Staats (1994) Psychological behaviorism and behaviorizing psychology – summary page
• Behavior and Personality: Psychological Behaviorism – Springer Publishing (contents page)

Further reading (not drawn on unless listed above):

• Staats, A. W. (1968). Learning, Language, and Cognition. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Staats, A. W. (1971). Child Learning, Intelligence, and Personality. Harper & Row.
• Staats, A. W. (1972). Language behavior therapy: A derivative of social behaviorism. Behavior Therapy.
• Staats, A. W. (1975). Social Behaviorism. Dorsey Press.
• Staats, A. W. (1996). Behavior and Personality: Psychological Behaviorism. Springer (ch. 7–8, abnormal behaviour and psychological behaviour therapy).
• Staats, A. W. (2012). The Marvelous Learning Animal. Prometheus.
• Staats, A. W., Minke, K. A., & Butts, P. (1970). A token-reinforcement remedial reading program administered by black therapy-technicians to problem black children. Behavior Therapy.
• Eifert, G. H., & Evans, I. M. (Eds.) (1990). Unifying Behavior Therapy: Contributions of Paradigmatic Behaviorism. Springer.

Further reading (not drawn on): the Europe PMC full text of PMC1311076.