Program stream: This program applies to the anxiety and depression programs.
The Behavioural Experiments module teaches the client about how to apply the behavioural experiment approach to their automatic thoughts to help change them.
The first section introduces the client to the idea of behavioural experiments as a tool to test their thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations. The section outlines two different experiment types for the client to try:
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Gathering data - The client is encouraged to gather opinions from others in their social circle about a specific thought, belief, interpretation, or situation either in person, by email, or using a survey.
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Hypothesis testing - The client is encouraged to test directly what happens in a specific situation or activity. They are asked to do something they would normally avoid to test whether things actually happen the way they think they will.
The hope is that the client can use the experiment to help create more balanced thought based on actual evidence from real life. A short quiz follows this section to test client retention of information.
This section outlines seven steps to conducting behavioural experiments:
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Identify the thought, belief, or interpretation to be test.
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Rate how strongly the client believes the prediction will come true.
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Plan the experiment by answering the following questions: "What type of experiment is it?", "How will you complete the experiment?", "Where will you complete the experiment?", "When will you complete the experiment?", and "What obstacles might get in the way, and how will you work around them?"
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Do the experiment.
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Record the outcome: What happened and what was the result?
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Re-rate how strongly the client believes in the original thought, belief or interpretation.
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Write down a new, more balanced thought, belief, or interpretation based on the results.
Examples are provided based on different personas to help the client connect with the content.
The creating experiments section asks the client to create their own experiment to test. They are asked to name it and identify the thought, belief, or interpretation that will be tested by the experiment. They are then asked to rate how strongly they believe the prediction will come true.
The exercise for this module asks the client to create and complete a behavioural experiment that they design for themselves. They are asked to reflect on how Behavioural Experiments can help them, select an importance rating for the task, reflect on potential barriers to the exercise and how they can stay on track despite them, and rank their confidence on a scale of 1-10.