How is positive reinforcement used in psychotherapy?

Positive reinforcement is one of the most valuable resources in the field of psychotherapy, and many of the strategies used by psychologists have it at their core, as a fundamental part of their way of helping patients. patients.

But... How exactly is this type of psychological phenomenon used when a person goes to a psychologist to overcome a mental disorder or to manage something that causes discomfort? In this article we will see how positive reinforcement is used in psychotherapy.

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What is positive reinforcement?

Positive reinforcement is a type of experience that occurs when a type of behavior pattern is internalized and repeated over and over again because the individual associates it with a desirable situation that occurs as a consequence of this.

As such, it is a process that is very much taken into account in psychology within the framework of operant conditioning, What is it the set of strategies used to modify the behavior of humans or animals

making them tend to perform certain behaviors and tend not to perform others.

For example, we are dealing with a case of positive reinforcement when, due to the fact of having helped his brother, the parents of a child praise his behavior and comment that they are proud of him; This experience is not only pleasant, but it will also help that child to give more value to her role as "support" for her loved ones and continue behaving that way.

Of course, a single positive reinforcement experience is seldom enough to "lock in" a pattern of behavior, and that is why psychologists design behavior modification programs to help people adequately manage their routines and their ways of managing the emotions and thoughts they experience daily.

Of course, any psychological intervention program based on positive reinforcement should aim that little by little the reinforcing element that is gives the patient to overcome her problem (for example, symbolic rewards after spending a certain number of days without taking drugs) should aspire to that at a certain moment these reinforcing “prizes” can be withdrawn without the person returning to suffer the problem for which he sought help professional.

Thus, positive reinforcement gives rise to a type of learning, but its use It is not limited only to the world of upbringing and education, but it is also very relevant in the context of psychotherapy. Let's see how.

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How do we use positive reinforcement in psychological therapy?

Now that we have seen the main characteristics of positive reinforcement, let's go to its most important facet. practice in the field of psychotherapy: how is it used by psychologists when helping their patients? patients?

1. It is the core of therapy for boys and girls with behavioral disorders

We start this list with a clear example of the use of positive reinforcement in psychological therapy, which is none other than the intervention in children and adolescents who have developed disorders of conduct. This type of psychological disturbance are characterized by impulsiveness, the tendency to almost never respect the rules of coexistence, and the predisposition to drug use and violent behavior (physically and verbally).

In most cases, these young people have only experienced hostility and punishment in their social interactions, something that makes them feel even more disconnected from other people. But through positive reinforcement, they are able to sense for the first time that there are certain patterns of behavior capable of providing well-being not only in the short term, but also in the medium and long term term. In this way, little by little they reconcile with the world and learn ways to mitigate the symptoms of this disorder linked to antisocial behavior.

Now, as we will see, positive reinforcement is not only used as a "reward" for "children who behave well", as is usually understood in the context of parenting. In most cases, it is used in more subtle ways.

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2. Helps to put into practice techniques learned in sessions with the psychologist

Psychotherapy is not only meetings between patient and therapist; it also takes place in the time between sessions. But if the person does not apply to his day to day what he learns in the consultation, he will hardly experience progress.

Therefore, positive reinforcement is used to make the person internalize a dynamic of incentives that is going on every day, making him associate the key moments of his daily life with the problem for which he has gone to the psychologist, and know what to do to deal adequately with this kind of experience.

For example, in the treatment of a phobia, this procedure helps the person to always be aware of the situations in which he should use a controlled breathing technique that allows her to “resist” the experience without fleeing or avoiding it, and that she is motivated by that goal, both because in her memory she associates this with obtaining a reinforcer, such as the fact that in specific situations she can self-administer “the reward".

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3. Allows the patient's environment to provide this reinforcement

What happens when the professional is not around and there is no one ready to give the reinforcer to the patient? This may seem like a problem, but it really isn't, because the raison d'être of this kind of psychological intervention is that “the reward” becomes more and more abstract until there comes a point where the person detects it in the very consequences of her appropriate behavior.

But to achieve this, psychologists often try to get the relatives of the person they work with to collaborate in the process, or give the patient a series of guidelines so that their loved ones begin to participate in this process of positive reinforcement that is spreading and distributing in the social environment of the person. For example, they are asked to inform others of the goal they have set by going to therapy, to keep them updated on their progress, etc. In this way, the positive reactions of these people and their interest in the process will generate a series of expectations that will surround the patient and make him feel especially good as he improves.

4. Helps get patients into healthy lifestyle routines

On the other hand, we must not forget that a good part of psychotherapy is focused on helping the person to break the vicious circle of self-induced discomfort from an inappropriate lifestyle (caused in part by poor management of their emotions in the face of the problem that it affects). Therefore, it prepares you to adopt healthy habits: eat better, sleep enough hours, avoid harmful forms of leisure, etc.

The reinforcement applied in the framework of psychotherapy is part of that incentive system that “puts the patient on track” on that path of good habits. And once you have been living that way for a few weeks, you will surely have more energy and a greater ability to concentrate to continue achieving the goals set in psychotherapy.

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Are you looking for psychological assistance services?

If in your day to day you are facing some kind of psychological problem and you are considering attending psychotherapy, we invite you to contact our team of professionals.

In Advance Psychologists you will find the possibility of being attended by expert psychologists in all areas of mental health; we have more than two decades of experience and serve adults, children and adolescents. We can help you in the areas of psychotherapy for individual patients, couples therapy, family therapy, neuropsychology, speech therapy and psychiatry. In addition, the sessions can be done in person at our center located in Madrid, or through video call sessions in the online mode.