Drama therapy and behavioral approach

Drama therapy and behavioral approach

A note from Dr. Majid Amraei , author , tutor , dramatherapist , member of international drama therapy association

The approach , tells us which direction to move to in arranging our plans .

Behaviorism is a school in psychology that believes in order to understand a living being , it is not necessary to analyze it’s internal states such as thinking , and only examination of its external motivations and behaviors such as crying is sufficient .

This school, in the first half of the 20th century, was one of the most influential domain in the world of psychology, and in addition, it had a profound a effect on the philosophy of mind, linguistics, and the philosophy of science of that era.

Dramatherapy with behavioral approach is a type of psychological intervention with goal of adjusting and strengthening human behaviors based on external motivators . ( Amraei 2001)

Behavioral approach in dramatherapy is backed by research and experimentation in patients behaviors (Amraei 2001 ) , in addition the sense and rationalities of the behavior are not important but only the maer and state of the behavior needs to be taken into consideration . In this context behavioral psychologists emphasize mainly on environmental factors in shaping human behavior, and they do not focus on internal human phenomenons , and consider an insignificant role for such factors . In this approach behavioral dramatherapists focus on observing the person’s behavioral during the psychological role-play exercises and interactions. ( Amraei and colleagues 2002 )

Behavioral dramatherapy believes that behavior could be controlled and shaped through the external triggers ( Amraei 2001 ) so it tries to affect the patients behavior with role-playing and mutual effect methods .