Behavior therapy is a form of psychotherapy that draws on the principles of behaviorism to inform treatment and modify behaviors. The term behaviortherapy was coined in the 1950s and has been traced to Arnold Lazarus and other important figures in the field, including B. F. Skinner, Ogden Lindsley, and Henry Solomon. Behavior therapy encompasses both a theory and a philosophy on how human behavior works, as well as an application of these to the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of psychopathology and related clinical concerns.

In its application, behavior therapy refers broadly to a therapeutic practice in which the focus is less medical in nature (i.e., does not follow a disease model of conceptualization; does not subscribe to the biomedical model) and less developmental (i.e., does ...

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