The Art of Conducting Behavioral Experiments
Behavioral experiments are often recommended by psychotherapists as a technique within cognitive behavioral therapy to challenge a client’s beliefs and test their validity. This approach can be effective in helping individuals recognize that their assumptions and thoughts may not always be accurate or realistic.
Believing in something doesn’t necessarily make it true, and sometimes holding onto certain beliefs can lead to suffering.
An individual who has a belief that they are incapable of getting good sleep, known as an “insomniac,” can try various behavioral experiments to determine if certain methods can help improve their sleep quality. For instance, they could try morning exercise and avoiding electronic devices one hour before bedtime to see if these strategies have any positive effects.
How It Works
Cognitive behavioral therapists assist individuals in recognizing their problems as well as their thoughts, emotions, and beliefs about those problems. They identify inaccurate thoughts and patterns of thinking that contribute to the problem.
After identifying inaccurate thoughts and thought patterns, cognitive behavioral therapists encourage individuals to challenge their irrational or unproductive thoughts. This is done by asking questions and prompting them to consider alternative perspectives on the issue at hand.
Therapists frequently use questioning techniques to guide clients in identifying exceptions to their beliefs and assumptions. For instance, a therapist working with someone who holds the belief that “nobody likes them” might ask about a specific occasion when someone did like them.
Reframing thought patterns may not always be successful in altering deeply ingrained core beliefs, as individuals often seek out evidence that reinforces their existing beliefs.
A person who has the belief that no one likes them may interpret not receiving a response to a text message as confirmation of their belief. Similarly, they may perceive an invitation to a party as a gesture of sympathy, rather than an indication of genuine liking or interest. These interpretations reflect a cognitive bias known as confirmation bias, which can reinforce unhelpful beliefs and patterns of thinking.
If changing thought patterns does not effectively change a person’s beliefs, changing their behavior can be a more effective option.
By accomplishing something they thought was impossible, an individual may begin to see themselves in a new light. Alternatively, if they see that people do not respond in the way they expected, they may let go of their negative beliefs about others.
Behavioral experiments can be an effective way to challenge and change self-limiting beliefs. By gathering evidence through experience, individuals may begin to see themselves, others, or the world differently.
Research has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in treating a range of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, substance abuse, and PTSD.
The Process
There are various forms of behavioral experiments that can be used to gather evidence. For instance, one person might participate in a survey to gather evidence about whether their beliefs are common, while another person might confront their fears directly.
In conducting any kind of behavioral experiment, the therapist and client typically collaborate on the following steps:
- Identifying the specific belief, thought or process that the experiment will focus on
- Collaborating with the therapist to generate ideas for the experiment
- Predicting the potential outcome and creating a way to document the results
- Anticipating any challenges that might arise and developing strategies to overcome them
- Carrying out the experiment
- Analyzing the results and drawing conclusions
- Identifying additional experiments that may be necessary to further challenge or support the belief, thought or process.
The therapist collaborates with the client to create the experiment, which the client then executes and tracks the results. The therapist and client typically review the experiment together and analyze how the outcomes influence the client’s beliefs.
In some cases, the therapist may recommend additional experiments or ongoing experiments to keep assessing the client’s unproductive beliefs.
Examples
Psychotherapists can help individuals design behavioral experiments to challenge various distorted thought patterns. Here are some examples of behavioral experiments:
- A behavioral experiment is designed for a woman who thinks that people will only like her if she is perfect, causing her to experience a great deal of stress and anxiety due to her perfectionist tendencies. The experiment involves deliberately making a few mistakes and then observing how people respond to them. To do this, she sends an email with a few typos and a birthday card with a grammatical error to see how people react.
- A man who thinks he’s socially awkward tends to avoid social events, and if he attends one, he isolates himself. To challenge his belief, he conducts a behavioral experiment where he goes to at least one social event per week and initiates conversations with five people. He observes how people react to him when he presents himself as outgoing and friendly.
- A woman who’s concerned her boyfriend is cheating on her frequently checks his social media accounts to keep tabs on him. She agrees to conduct a behavioral experiment, which involves refraining from using social media for two weeks, to see if her anxiety improves or worsens.
- A man has difficulty staying asleep at night and usually turns on the TV when he wakes up, which makes it hard for him to fall asleep again. His behavioral experiment involves trying to read a book when he wakes up to see if it helps him fall back to sleep faster.
- A woman who suffers from depression tends to avoid going to work on days when she’s not feeling well. Instead, she spends the day in bed watching TV. To test whether getting out of the house improves her mood, she decides to push herself to go to work on days when she feels tempted to stay in bed. This is her behavioral experiment.
- A man who suffers from social anxiety deliberately avoids socializing because he fears he won’t have anything valuable to contribute to conversations. To test his assumptions, he decides to participate in small social events and observe how his interactions with others unfold.
Let’s Recap
If you want to challenge any self-limiting beliefs you may have, you can create your own behavioral experiment.
If you need assistance with the design or identifying irrational beliefs, consider reaching out to a cognitive behavioral therapist.
If you’re not sure how to find a therapist, speak with your doctor as they may be able to refer you to one.
Sources
- David D, Cristea I, Hofmann SG. Why Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Is the Current Gold Standard of Psychotherapy. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2018;9. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00004.
- Hofmann SG, Asnaani A, Vonk IJJ, Sawyer AT, Fang A. The Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review of Meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research. 2013;36(5):427-440. doi:10.1007/s10608-012-9476-1.