Response-Disequilibrium Therapy: Clinical Case Studies

Abstract

Basic learning theorists developed the response-disequilibrium model to resolve the long-standing psychological puzzle of how to specify in advance the circumstances that will yield reinforcement effects. The model explains the behavioral changes in reinforcement effects as predictable adaptations to external constraints on the free-baseline levels of those behaviors. Here we introduce response-disequilibrium therapy (RDx), a clinical intervention based on this model. We present a series of clinical case studies using RDx to treat obsessive-compulsive disorders, report highly favorable results in comparison with the standard therapy, and discuss the implications.

Disequilibrium as Determinant of Reinforcement and Punishment Effects: A Replication

“…One of the features of behavior analysis that makes it unique, compared to other areas of psychology, is its intensive analysis of single cases. Rather than specify a contingency ratio a priori-without any measure of an individual's baseline ratio-researchers should consider how to tailor the I/C ratio to the participant's Oi/Oc ratio (see, Jacobs et al, 2017;McFall et al, 2019). The downside of making this sort of data-based decision about I/C values is the degree to which experimental control is sacrificed (Edgington, 1984).…”

“…Elevated to the level of theory by Timberlake (1980), the response deprivation hypothesis has become known as Response Disequilibrium Theory (McFall et al, 2019). Behavior analytic textbooks continue to refer to it as response deprivation (e.g., Cooper et al, 2020), or subsume it under the heading of motivating operations (e.g., Madden et al, 2021), but we believe its rightful place is among the theories of reinforcement that account for behavior change in general (Jacobs et al, 2019).…”

“…Recent research on RDT has shown it to be effective in predicting the effects of interventions in practice (Dowdy & Jacobs, 2019;Jacobs et al, 2017;McFall et al, 2019).…”

Disequilibrium as Determinant of Reinforcement and Punishment Effects: A Replication

“…Timberlake (1980) referred to this approach as a Molar Equilibrium Theory of Learned Performance, while Timberlake and Farmer-Dougan (1991) referred to it as the disequilibrium approach for short. More recently, this approach has been referred to as response disequilibrium theory (McFall et al, 2019). In its simplest form, response disequilibrium theory assumes that behavior will increase (reinforcement effect) or decrease (punishment effect) due to a disruption in one's baseline levels of responding (see Jacobs et al, 2019, for disequilibrium theory assumptions).…”