A Conditioning Theory of the Etiology and Maintenance of Deviant Sexual Preference and Behavior

Abstract

presents a theoretical model which describes how a person could develop deviant sexual preferences / adopts the position of Sidman (1960) that "maladaptive behavior can result from quantitative and qualitative combinations of processes which are themselves intrinsically orderly, strictly determined, and normal in origin" / thus, this conditioning and social learning model states that deviant sexual preferences and cognitions are acquired by the same mechanisms by which other persons learn more conventionally accepted modes of sexual expression the theoretical model is divided into two parts: (1) acquisition processes and (2) maintenance processes basic conditioning processes / Pavlovian conditioning / operant conditioning / extinction / punishment / differential consequences / chaining of behavior / social learning process / treatment applications (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)