Anxiety: The Psychological Equivalent of Fever becomes clinically important the moment a team has to turn good intentions into reliable action inside clinic sessions and day-to-day service delivery. In The Psychological Equivalent of Fever, for this course, the practical stakes show up in stronger conceptual consistency and better translational decision making, not in abstract discussion alone.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Missouri Association for Behavior Analysis
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Join Free →Anxiety is a term used for the most common group of psychological/behavioral problems affecting humankind. These problems are so prevalent in typically developing people that they appear to be the psychological equivalent of fever. Pertinent to this presentation, these problems are even more prevalent in persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) than in typically developing persons. One obstacle to clinical progress is the term anxiety itself. It is a hypothetical term that lacks a widely accepted operational definition. For example, the most authoritative book on anxiety disorders does not even attempt a definition for the first one hundred pages and the one then offered is a long paragraph that itself includes many undefined terms. Nonetheless, there is effective treatment. Although better understanding of the term, and the phenomena to which it refers, would advance treatment even more, the purpose of this talk is merely to describe what is currently known. For example, most of the problem behaviors associated with anxiety involve either avoidance or escape. And all the effective treatments involve approach or exposure. This talk will discuss anxiety in straightforward terms, illuminate the extent to which it affects most people to some extent, and the considerable extent to which it affects persons with ASD. It will also discuss treatment both in terms of experimental study and clinical application. Finally, because the research on treatment of anxiety in persons with ASD is so limited, the talk will extrapolate from the abundant literature on treatment of anxiety in typically developing persons.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | General |
Dr. Patrick C. Friman received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. He is the current Vice President of Behavioral Health at Boys Town and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska School of Medicine. He was formerly on the faculties of Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, and Creighton University Schools of Medicine. He was also formerly the Director of the Clinical Psychology Program at University of Nevada. He is a Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, in three divisions of the American Psychological Association, and of the American Board of Behavioral Psychology. He is the former Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and former President of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. He has published more than 200 scientific articles and chapters and three books. The majority of his scientific and clinical work is in Behavioral Pediatrics and Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Friman’s work in behavioral pediatrics has concentrated on the gap between primary medical care for children on one side, and referral-based clinical child psychological and psychiatric care, on the other. A secondary focus is on adolescent behavior and development. He also specializes in consultation regarding workplace issues such as motivation, dealing with difficult people, change, happiness and pathways to success.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
280 research articles with practitioner takeaways
279 research articles with practitioner takeaways
258 research articles with practitioner takeaways
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.