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From: Woody
Date: 10/16/00
Time: 9:43:42 AM
Remote Name: 155.247.229.128
Tse-Chuan:
I may be wrong, but I still see this problem as one of stimulus generalization. That is, the client learns new responses -- either behaviors or thoughts or feelings -- in a particular setting, namely, the clinic or therapy room. Then, when they are in a different setting, the new stimuli either do not evoke the new response or they re-evoke the old response because it was learned in those external settings.
The behavior modification literature offers several suggestions for increasing stimulus generalization. First, vary the setting in which therapy takes place, making it as much like the outside world as possible. This can be done partially through role playing and other ways of making the therapy more closely resemble the real world. Second, you can, as Walt has suggested, do some therapy IN the real world. I have found this to be very helpful, when it can be done, but it is often quite time-consuming and awkward to accomplish. Third, and this is the solution that is often overlooked, if you keep on working IN the clinical setting, and by doing this strengthen the strength of the response in the clinical setting, the range of stimulus situations in which the response will occur broadens to include situations that are more and more different from the one in which the learning has taken place. The stimulus generalization gradient is like a bell curve with habit strength on the vertical axis and difference from the clinical setting on the horizontal axis. The positive and negative tails of the distribution can be considered identical in this application. As the central habit strength increases and the curve gets higher in the middle, the two tails spread out, and the gradient becomes broader, thus including situations that are more and more different from the setting in which the learning takes place. So one solution, is just to keep developing the strength of the new response, overlearning it in the clinical setting, and you will find that it is easier and easier for the client to use the new response in external situations.
Sorry for the length.