Scope of Psychology in performing art therapy

Dr. D. Dutta Roy, Ph.D.(Psy.) LECTURE NOTES ON SCOPE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN PERFORMING ART THERAPY PERFORMING ART THERAPY CENTRE RABINDRABHARATI UNIVERSITY KOLKATA

Performing art therapy is the set of therapeautic procedures where in music, songs and drama are systematically applied to achieve therapeautic goals of symptom relief, emotional and physical integration and personal growth. It helps the client tell his or her story to solve a problem, achieve a cathersis, extend the depth and breadth of inner experience, understand the meaning of images, and strengthen the ability to observe personal roles while increasing flexibility between roles. Performing art therapy includes improvisation, role playing, pantomime, puppetry, mask work, and theatrical production. It would be misnomer to assume that specific drama or music or songs are appropriate for specific type of complaints.

Knowledge about principles of Psychology helps therapist to understand individual differences in effectiveness of therapy. Effectiveness means improvement in the general functioning of patients, amelioration of disorders and relief of specific presenting symptoms.

Psychology

In earlier times, Psychology refers to science of psyche or of mind. Later it is called as a science of behaviour. Former concept fails to prove empirical existence. Later focuses on relationship between physiological(cortical and endocrinal) and psychological functions through empirical researches. Behaviour is the interaction of two things as P (individual characteristics) and Environment (the surroundings). The formula is B=f(P X E). Individual characteristics include three broad functions as cognitive, affective and conative.

Cognitive funtions include sensation, perception, attention, memory, thinking, learning;

Affective functions include feeling and emotion;

Conative functions include Psycho-motor coordination.

Another complex characteristic is personality. Psychologists are analyzing elements of each function along with it's changes across stages of development or in different environmental conditions. Their main aim is to find out pattern of individual differences in behavior so that change in behaviour can be predicted and controlled. To study individual differences in behaviour, three methods are followed as introspective,observation and experimental methods. It provides sets of theories and assessment techniques which are important to Performing art therapist for eliciting desired and controling undesired behaviour . For example, principles of classical and operant conditioning help performing art therapist to control behaviour by manipulation of conditioned stimulus. The areas on which performing art therapist should be concerned with are:

1. Sensation: Awareness of stimulus is called sensation. Theories of sensation include attributes and measurement of sensations, determining threshold and functions of sensory organs.
   
2. Perception: The meaning of sensation is perception. Theories of perception include perceptual organization or laws of perception, principles of distance and depth perception, illusion and hallucination.
   
3. Attention: Focus of awareness is attention. Theories of attention are factors influencing attention, fluctuation and distraction.
   
4. Memory: It is the process of remembering. Theories are short and long term memory, working memory etc.
   
5. Learning: It is the modification of behaviour through practice and experiences. Theories are classical and operant conditioning, trial and error, gestalt learning.
   
6. Thinking: Theories are related to concept formation, imagery etc.
   
7. Child development: Characteristics and determinants of development - Heredity and Environment, Brain localization and behaviour, Physical development, Language development, Emotional development, Intellectual development, Social development, Personality development.
   
8. Personality: It is the dynamic organization of those psychophysical systems that determine one's unique adjustment with environment. Theories of personality include Characteristics of personality, Psychodynamic theories of personality, Adler and Bandura’s model of personality.
   
9. Mental health: Principles of mental health. Models of adjustment and maladjustment, Characteristics of positive mental health, Frustration and types of conflict.
   
10. Psychotherapy: The intervention process to control psychological abnormalities using theories of Psychology. It includes psychoanalytic therapy, Behaviour modification, cognitive behaviour therapy, existential therapy.

Gestalt Learning

Gestalt means whole. We perceive everything as whole not as sum of parts.
The three main Gestalt theorists were Wertheimer, Kohler, and Koffka.

Kohler's experiment

Wertheimer'PHI phenomenon


he phi phenomenon is a perceptual illusion described by Max Wertheimer in his 1912 Experimental Studies on the Seeing of Motion, in which a disembodied perception of motion is produced by a succession of still images. In discussions of the perception of film and video it is often confused with beta movement, but it is a distinct phenomenon not directly involved in the perception of motion pictures.
The classic phi phenomenon experiment involves a viewer or audience watching a screen, upon which the experimenter projects two images in succession. The first image depicts a line on the left side of the frame. The second image depicts a line on the right side of the frame. The images may be shown quickly, in rapid succession, or each frame may be given several seconds of viewing time. Once both images have been projected, the experimenter asks the viewer or audience to describe what they saw.
At certain combinations of spacing and timing of the two images, a viewer will report a sensation of motion in the space between and around the two lines, even though the viewer also perceives two distinct lines and not the continuous motion of objects referred to as Beta movement. The phi phenomenon looks like a moving zone or cloud of background color surrounding the flashing objects. The discovery of the phi phenomenon was a significant milestone in Gestalt psychology.


In the phi phenomenon, a succession of still images with an omission gives the illusion of movement. The phi phenomenon always takes the background color.[1] In this Lilac chaser illusion, the omitted space appears to be filled with a green circle when viewed long enough.

Koffka's ideation learning


A "Gestalt" is an integrated whole system with it's parts enmeshed. The whole is greater than just the sum of the parts.

The "PHI" phenomenon described a characteristic of things wherein they have a recognizability inherent in their nature. Examples include the recognizability of a melody, no matter how it is arranged or what instrument plays it, or the recognizability of a letter rendered in a wide variety of different fonts or type styles. Other examples include the apparent motion created by a rapid sequence of stills in motion pictures, and the sequences of illminating elements in neon signs which give the illusion of movement. Visual and auditory examples are numerous. This phenomenon leads to the conclusion that elements sensed are not the only reality.

"Phenomenology" is the acceptance of first hand experience as it is found in human consciousness.

Gestalt Learning Theory proposed several laws of organization, which are innate ways that human beings organized perceptions. A gestalt factor is a condition that aids in perceiving situations as a whole or totality. Isomorphism refers to the Doctrine of Psychophysical parallelism and depicts the cerebral cortex as "mapping these gestalt fields of stimuli.

The Factor of Closure suggests that perception tends to complete incomplete objects. When only part of an image, sound, thought or feeling is presented as a stimulus, the brain attempts to complete it to generate the whole.

The Factor of Proximity suggests that when elements are grouped closely together, they are percieved as wholes. This has relevance in reading, visual arts, and music.

The Factor of Similarity proposes that like parts tend to be grouped together in cognition. This has implications for instruction, suggesting that learning is facilitated if similar ideas are treated and linked together and then contrasted with opposing or complementary sets of ideas.

The Figure-Ground Effect suggests that the eye tends to see the objects, rather than the spaces or holes between them.

E.L.Thorndike's LAWS OF LEARNING

TRIAL AND ERROR THEORY OF LEARNING
LECTURE NOTE
PERFORMING ART THERAPY CENTRE
RABINDRABHARATI UNIVERSITY
KOLKATA




Psychologist Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949) proposed this theory through his experiment on animal in the wooden box.

EXPERIMENT


The animal (often a cat) is put into a box and tries to find its way out.
o The box consists of ropes, levers, and latches that the animal could use as a means of escape.
o Once the cat escapes, a reward is given.
o Thorndike through his observation realized that after time, the cat would use a trial and error technique.
o Thorndike also realized that with more trials the less time it took the cat to escape.
o Thorndike concluded that the cat learned through trial and error as do humans in similar circumstances.

LAWS OF LEARNING

Based on above experiment,Thorndike suggested three laws of learning:

1. Law of effect: It states that responses which occur just
prior to a satisfying state of affairs are more likely to be repeated, and responses just prior to an annoying state of affairs are more likely not to be repeated.

2. Law of Exercise - connections become strengthened with practice, and weaken when practice is discontinued.

3. Law of Exercise - connections become strengthened with practice, and weaken when practice is discontinued.

4. Law of Exercise - connections become strengthened with practice, and weaken when practice is discontinued.

5. Other laws:

5.1. Multiple Response: in any given situation, the organism will respond in a variety of ways if the first response does not immediately lead to a more satisfying state of affairs. Problem solving is through trial and error.
5.2. Set or Attitude: there are predisposition's to behave or react in a particular way. These are unique for species or groups of related species, and may be culturally determined in humans.
5.3. Prepotency of Elements- Thorndike observed that a learner could filter out irrelevant aspects of a situation and respond only to significant (proponent) elements in a problem situation.
5.4. Response by Analogy -In a new context, responses from related or similar contexts may be transferred to the new context. This is sometimes referred to as the theory of identical elements.
5.5. Associative shifting - It is possible to shift any response from one stimulus to another.
5.6. Law of Readiness- a series of responses can be chained together to satisfy some goal which will result in annoyance if blocked.

CRITICISM
The major criticism of Thorndike’s behaviorist theories may be summarized in two points. First, Thorndike’s approach restricted psychology by limiting behavior solely to the peripheral events of stimulus and response elements. In dismissing mental events, Thorndike also ignored the central mediation of stimulus and response bonds.

The second problem with Thorndike’s behaviorist theories concerns the issue of reductionism. In fact, for Thorndike, mind was reduced to behavior, and behavior, in turn, was reduced to environmental stimuli and observable responses.

APPLICATION IN PERFORMING ART THERAPY

In performaing art therapy for child having low intelligence, therapist can apply above four laws in systematic intervention like Applied Behaviour Analysis. Besides, above laws can be applied in therapeautic intervention of severe psychiatric disorders.

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INTELLIGENCE

To him, intelligence is a function of the number of connections made.Thorndike characterized the two most basic intelligences as Trial-and-Error and Stimulus-Response Association.

Thorndike and his students used objective measurements of intelligence on human subjects as early as 1903. By the time the United States entered WWI, Thorndike had developed methods for measuring a wide variety of abilities and achievements.

During the 1920's he developed a test of intelligence that consisted of completion, arithmetic, vocabulary, and directions test, known as the CAVD. This instrument was intended to measure intellectual level on an absolute scale. The logic underlying the test predicted elements of test design that eventually became the foundation of modern intelligence tests.

Thorndike drew an important distinction among three broad classes of intellectual functioning. Standard intelligence tests measured only "abstract intelligence". Also important were "mechanical intelligence - the ability to visualize relationships among objects and understand how the physical world worked", and social intelligence - the ability to function successfully in interpersonal situations". Thorndike called for instruments to develop measures for these other types of intellect.

Thorndike developed psychological connectionism. He believed that through experience neural bonds or connections were formed between perceived stimuli and emitted responses; therefore, intellect facilitated the formation of the neural bonds. People of higher intellect could form more bonds and form them more easily than people of lower ability. The ability to form bonds was rooted in genetic potential through the genes' influence on the structure of the brain, but the content of intellect was a function of experience. Thorndike rejected the idea that a measure of intelligence independent of cultural background was possible.

Thorndike proposed that there were four general dimensions of abstract intelligence:

Altitude: the complexity or difficulty of tasks one can perform (most important)
Width: the variety of tasks of a give difficulty
Area: a function of width and altitude
Speed: the number of tasks one can complete in a given time .
His intellectual development of this multi-factored approach to intelligence contributed to a great debate with Charles Spearman (Spearman proposed a single, general intelligence factor 'g') that encompassed twenty five years.

Publications

Educational Psychology (1903)
Introduction to the Theory of Mental and Social Measurements (1904)
The Elements of Psychology (1905)
Animal Intelligence (1911)
The Measurement of Intelligence (1927)
The Fundamentals of Learning (1932)
The Psychology of Wants, Interests, and Attitudes (1935)
References: 5, 8, 14, 21, 28, 17

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Pavlov's classical conditioning

Pavlov's classical conditioning theory:

Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.
Originators and Key Contributors: First described by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian physiologist, in 1903, and studied in infants by John B. Watson (1878-1958).

Pavlov's experiment
















Summary

• Classical conditioning occurs when a previously neutral stimulus causes a reflex.

• Ivan Pavlov is most famous for his work on dogs and classical conditioning.

• The unconditioned stimulus causes an automatic reflex response without prior learning (e.g. food in mouth causes salivation).

• The conditioned stimulus is created by learning, whereby a stimulus becomes associated with something else (e.g. dog associates bell with food, and ringing bell causes dog to salivate).

• The unconditioned reflex is a reflex that happens automatically (e.g. salivation is an unconditioned reflex, because it happens automatically when you put food in your mouth).

• The conditioned reflex is a learnt response pattern (e.g. dog salivating to sound of bell).

• Conditioning takes place automatically and without you having to think about it, and the conditioned reflexes are involuntary.

• Extinction occurs when you unlearn something, such as unlearning that the bell means food and no longer salivating in response to it.

• Stimulus Generalisation occurs when a new but similar stimulus to your original conditioned stimulus, still results in the conditioned reflex (e.g. similar sounding bell still makes dogs salivate).

• Discrimination occurs when a new stimulus is too dissimilar from your original conditioned stimulus to cause the conditioned reflex (e.g. different sounding bell no longer makes dogs salivate).

Sources:
Ref: http://www.eruptingmind.com/pavlov-classical-conditioning-theory/
http://www.learning-theories.com/

Operant Conditioning

OPERANT CONDITIONING



B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Operant conditioning follows following principles:

1. The organism is in the process of “operating” on the environment. During this “operating,” the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant -- that is, the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer. This is operant conditioning: “the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behavior in the future.”

2. A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future.

3. A behavior no longer followed by the reinforcing stimulus results in a decreased probability of that behavior occurring in the future.

4. Schedules of reinforcement
Changes in behaviour occur by the different schedules of reinforcement. The two schedules are interval and ratio.

Continuous reinforcement is the original scenario: Every time that the rat does the behavior (such as pedal-pushing), he gets a rat goodie.

The fixed ratio schedule was the first one Skinner discovered: If the rat presses the pedal three times, say, he gets a goodie. Or five times. Or twenty times. Or “x” times. There is a fixed ratio between behaviors and reinforcers: 3 to 1, 5 to 1, 20 to 1, etc. This is a little like “piece rate” in the clothing manufacturing industry: You get paid so much for so many shirts.

The fixed interval schedule uses a timing device of some sort. If the rat presses the bar at least once during a particular stretch of time (say 20 seconds), then he gets a goodie. If he fails to do so, he doesn’t get a goodie. But even if he hits that bar a hundred times during that 20 seconds, he still only gets one goodie! One strange thing that happens is that the rats tend to “pace” themselves: They slow down the rate of their behavior right after the reinforcer, and speed up when the time for it gets close.

Skinner also looked at variable schedules. Variable ratio means you change the “x” each time -- first it takes 3 presses to get a goodie, then 10, then 1, then 7 and so on. Variable interval means you keep changing the time period -- first 20 seconds, then 5, then 35, then 10 and so on.

5. Shaping: It is the method of successive approximations.” Basically, it involves first reinforcing a behavior only vaguely similar to the one desired. Once that is established, you look out for variations that come a little closer to what you want, and so on, until you have the animal performing a behavior that would never show up in ordinary life. Skinner and his students have been quite successful in teaching simple animals to do some quite extraordinary things. My favorite is teaching pigeons to bowl!

6. Aversive stimuli

An aversive stimulus is the opposite of a reinforcing stimulus, something we might find unpleasant or painful.

A behavior followed by an aversive stimulus results in a decreased probability of the behavior occurring in the future.

Behavior followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future.

Behaviour therapy

BEHAVIOUR THERAPY
D. DUTTA ROY
LECTURE NOTE
PERFORMING ART THERAPY CENTER
RABINDRA BHARATI UNIVERSITY, KOLKATA
DATED 21.2.2011

Behavior therapy is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on changing undesirable behaviors. Behavior therapy involves identifying objectionable, maladaptive behaviors and replacing them with healthier types of behavior. This type of therapy is also referred to a behavior modification therapy.This therapy evolves through experiments on learning by Pavlov and B. F. Skinner. Former developed Classical and later developed operant conditioning.
This model does not consider subject's feeling rather it consider's subject's action. It includes the followings:

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION
It was developed by Joseph Wolpe based on counterconditioning behaviour principle.



To begin the process of systematic desensitization, one must first be taught relaxation skills in order to extinguish fear and anxiety responses to specific phobias. Once the individual has been taught these skills, he or she must use them to react towards and overcome situations in an established hierarchy of fears. The goal of this process is that an individual will learn to cope and overcome the fear in each step of the hierarchy, which will lead to overcoming the last step of the fear in the hierarchy. Systematic desensitization is sometimes called graduated exposure therapy. It consists three steps:

Relaxation training
Hierarchy construction
Desensitization of stimulus

slides:
Good article: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/systematic-desensitization.html




GRADED EXPOSURE: It is similar to systematic desensitization except relaxation training.
FLOODING: Encouraging the patient to actually confront the feared situation. No relaxation exercises are used as in systematic desensitization.
A variant of flooding is called implosion, in which the feared object or situation is confronted only in the imagination.
PARTICIPANT MODELLING: It refers to having the patient learn by imitation. The patient learns new behaviour by observation.
ASSERTIVENESS AND SOCIAL SKILL TRAINING: It teaches people how to respond appropriately in social situations to express their opinions in acceptable ways, and to achieve their goals. Food shopping,looking for work, interacting with other people and overcoming shyness.
AVERSION THERAPY: Presentation of noxious stimulus (punishment) immediately after a specific behavioural response.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT: Rewarding desired behaviour using token economy.