Covert Conditioning

Covert Conditioning deals with covert conditioning procedures, the rationale underlying their use, and their potential application (either singly or in combination) to a variety of clinical problems. Each procedure's most representative use in clinical practice is described, and results of experimental analogue studies as well as reports of promising breakthroughs in the application of covert conditioning techniques to new clinical problems are discussed. A broad range of target behaviors, clinical settings, and client populations is also examined. This book is comprised of 36 chapters and opens with an overview of the theoretical background of covert conditioning and evidence to support its basic underlying assumptions. Each of the next six chapters introduces one of the major covert conditioning techniques (covert sensitization, covert reinforcement, covert negative reinforcement, covert extinction, covert modeling, and covert response cost) and presents experimental analogue evidence (if available) of its efficacy. The use of each procedure in treating a number of clinical target behaviors is also discussed. The final section describes the clinical application of combinations of covert conditioning techniques to a variety of problems. This monograph will be a useful resource for psychologists and behavioral therapists.