Behaviorism began when Ivan Pavlov's dogs began to salivate upon hearing the sounds of food being prepared. Unfortunately this phenomenon ruined his saliva measuring experiment but it contributed the theory of classical conditioning.

The theory is that when an unconditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus many times a conditioned stimulus and conditioned response will result. The unconditioned stimulus (US) in Pavlov's exper

Sonderegger, Theo. Psychology. Nebraska: Cliffs Notes, 1998.

Skinner's theory was highly criticized because it attacks our illusion that we are in full control of our behaviors. His theory does not explain a child's ability to come up with a new sentence, never heard before. It also does not explain meaningful errors that a child makes when learning how to speak such as "branged" which show the knowledge of the suffix -ed as past tense.

Cognitive therapy teaches client to do five things. The first is to monitor their negative thoughts. The second is to recognize the connections between cognitions, affect, and behavior. The third is to examine the evidence for these biased cognitions. The fifth is to learn to identify and alter the beliefs that predispose them to distort their experiences. There are several ways that this is achieved. Decatastrophizing or the "what if" technique asks clients to imagine the consequences of an action or the worst possible scenario. They can mentally prepare and often realize that the worst is not so bad. Role-playing is another technique derived from this theory. Rehearsing situations they will later find themselves in, they can gain confidence and become aware of set behaviors that work well.

Perhaps the reason a New Yorker, Albert Ellis (1913- ) took a different stance on why we do things is because of his childhood. His mother was ill prepared to raise Ellis, his younger brother and sister when his father's constant travels and eventual divorce took him away from the family. Ellis also suffered from nephritis, a chronic illness that caused severe headaches and kept him in the hospital and kept him from playing like other children. He was shy and introverted and often outdone by his brave extraverted brother. The Great Depression made his life even more of a struggle as the family barely made it without going on welfare. Despite these disappointments and hardships, Ellis refused to be miserable. He majored in English at City College and wrote six novels, none of which were published. His fascination for sex led him to pursue psychology in his graduate work. At Teacher College of Columbia University he had hoped to do his dissertation on love but his idea was censored. Finally he opted for a safe topic, "A Comparison of the Use of Direct and Indirect Phrasing with Personality Questionnaires" (Englar 420). An analyst associated with the Horney Institute for psychoanalysis unofficially trained Ellis. Hw discovered himself to be an effective analyst but he gave it up to find a more efficient way of helping clients. The New Jersey state system objected to his research on sex despite his noted authority in the state. He moved to New York and became a well-know practicing psychologist. Ellis has written many books including Sex Without Guilt, the Civilized Couple's Guide to Extramarital Adventure and Why Some Therapies Don't Work - The Dangers of Transpersonal Psychology (Behavenet 10/20/99). He is currently doing workshops with topics such as "Better, Deeper and More Enduring Brief Therapy" and "Treating Anxiety Disorders Effectively: Therapeutic Methods that Work!" in Kansas, Iceland, and Okalahoma (Lima 10/01/99).

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