How to Use Vicarious Learning to Shape Behavior

From early childhood, people learn how to behave by watching other people. The principle of social learning, also called vicarious learning, uses this method to treat behavioral disorders, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. Therapists use different modeling techniques to demonstrate how their clients ought to behave or respond in trigger situations. In the same way that schoolchildren learn how to behave by watching others get rewarded for good behavior and punished for bad, therapy patients learn what is safe and appropriate by observation.

Instructions

• 1

  Identify the client's triggers, behavioral problems and objectives. Plan together what changes you will work to create, and explain the concept of vicarious learning and modeling to the patient.

• 2

  Model the desired behavior yourself for the patient. For example, if the patient has obsessive-compulsive disorder and wants to become willing to touch other people's things, you touch something that belongs to the patient. Demonstrate that you are not frightened or hurt.

• 3

  Show the patient videos, pictures or other visual representations of the behavior as symbolic modeling. For the patient with OCD, show him a video clip in which people handle each other's belongings without harm. You can also record the patient touching something that is not his and replay the video for him, letting him observe his own reactions and note what he would like to change.

• 4

  Describe the behavior your patient wants to develop while she closes her eyes and envisions what you describe. For example, have the patient visualize a friend offering to loan her a book she wants to read, the friend holding the book out to her, and her own hand taking the book. Have the patient imagine herself feeling comfortable and calm, and walking home with the book in hand, excited to read it.

• 5

  Encourage the patient to imitate the behavior you have modeled. Touch something of his, then support him as he touches something of yours. Let him start with a symbol representing your item, for instance a photograph of it, and gradually build up to touching the item itself with one finger, then his whole hand, and finally holding it against his body.

• 6

  Have the patient role-play stressful situations and demonstrate desired behavior. Reinforce progress with praise, and give specific adjustments and critiques when necessary. With young children, reinforce progress with candy or small prizes.