Cautela’s Self-Control Triad: what it is and how it is used in therapy

This psychotherapy technique created by Joseph R. Cautela serves to better control impulses.

The covert conditioning paradigm was developed by Joseph R. Cautela in 1966, and is encompassed within behavioral therapies. In this type of conditioning, stimuli are presented in the imagination.

In this article we will know the self-control triad, a technique of covert behavior modification, also developed by J.R. Cautela also developed by J.R. Cautela, used mainly in addictive, sexual and impulse control disorders, and which attempts to reduce unwanted behaviors.

Self-control triad: what is it?

The self-control triad is a technique derived from Joseph R. Cautela's own self-control technique.. Its objective is to decrease the probability of occurrence of an unwanted response or behavior by using stimuli through imagination. Let us remember that a behavior can also be a thought (in this case, undesired).

Self-control techniques aim at acquiring and exercising the ability to exercise mastery over ourselves, and imply that we learn to control our behaviors in all their aspects (i.e., our thoughts, actions, emotions, etc.).

The Caution triad of self-control aims at altering the frequency of a response by manipulating its consequences.With this technique, the antecedent stimuli, the behavior itself and the consequent stimuli (consequences), are presented to the person in an imaginary form, i.e. in imagination (the person must imagine everything in detail).

Covert conditioning

The triad of self-control belongs to the paradigm called covert conditioning (in imagination), which was also developed by Cautela in 1996. (in imagination), which was also developed by Cautela, in 1996.

Covert conditioning is a type of procedure that includes a series of passes:

• Educational phase.
• Training phase.
• Application phase.
• Consolidation and generalization phase.

Steps

For its part, Cautela's triad of self-control is developed in three steps:

1. First step

The patient, when he/she is about to perform the undesired conduct (or when simply thinking about such behavior, or when an unwanted thought appears to him), says aloud, "Enough!", and stops the unexpressed thought.

That is, this step may include thought stopping, which is another technique of covert conditioning, also characteristic of Cautioning.

2. Second step

After saying "Enough!", the second step involves the patient taking a deep, relaxing breath.and thus relax.

3. Third step

The third and last step of the triad of self-control consists of mentally visualizing a pleasant image or scene.

Origin of covert conditioning

As we have seen, it was Joseph R. Cautela who initiated the studies of covert conditioning. In 1966, Cautela described and employed the so-called covert sensitization technique, whereby an imagined aversive consequence (e.g., a feeling of nausea) was applied contingent on a maladaptive behavior. contingent to a maladaptive or unwanted behavior, which is intended to be eliminated..

Before Cautela, as antecedents of covert conditioning, we find two other authors: Wolpe (1958), who used Systematic Desensitization (SD) and Homme (1965), who carried out an experimental control of symbolic behaviors.

Applications of the technique

The self-control triad of Caution applies to thoughts or behaviors that we want to reduce and/or eliminate.

These thoughts or behaviors may appear in some disorders such as addictive disorders (such as pathological gambling or addictions to some type of drugs), impulse control disorders, some sexual disorders such as paraphilias, etc. In other words, psychological alterations in which the control in the accomplishment of certain actions is lostin a persistent manner.

Another similar technique: thought stopping

The thought stopping technique, also from Cautela, is similar to the self-control triad, although not the same.

This technique focuses, as its name suggests, on thought control. It can be put into practice when we feel nervous or upset with some kind of thought. (or several); to apply it, we will have to focus on them and identify those with negative connotations. At that moment, we will say to ourselves (in a subvocal way): "Enough! We will then replace those thoughts with more positive ones.

For thought stopping to be effective, it will take a lot of practice and consistency, so that we can identify our negative thoughts well, as well as reverse them and turn them into positive ones.

Bibliographical references:

• Cautela, J. (1977). Covert Conditioning. Editorial Descleee DeBrouwer, SA Bilbao, 11-20.
• Cautela, J. (1984). The self-control triad: A procedure for covert conditioning [La tríada del autocontrol: un procedimiento de condicionamiento encubierto]. Avances en Psicologia Clinica Latinoamericana, 3, 17-33.
• López, A., Sueiro, E. and Nóvoa, M.I. (2009). Changes in sexual fantasies. Preliminary study. Proceedings of the X Congresso Internacional Galego-Português de Psicopedagogia. Braga: University of Minho, 2777-2788.
• Vallejo, M. (2012). Manual de Terapia de Conducta. Tomo I. Madrid: Dykinson (Temas 6-12).