Key Takeaways
- Tabula rasa is the theory that people are born as blank slates, and their behavior is shaped by experiences.
- Behavior therapy techniques like systematic desensitization and exposure therapy help people unlearn fears and phobias.
- Some therapists use aversion therapy to help people avoid bad habits by associating them with unpleasant feelings.
Tabula rasa translates to “blank slate.” In therapy, it refers to either the idea that we are solely the product of our upbringing and experiences or to the technique therapists use when they themselves become “blank” and allow the recipient to project their own needs, desires, and beliefs onto them.
In psychology, the term “blank slate,” or tabula rasa, actually has two meanings. The first refers to the belief that all humans are born with the ability to become literally anything or anyone. This belief downplays the effects of genetics and biology on the development of the human personality.
The second definition of “blank slate” refers to a technique that was once heavily used in psychoanalysis and is still employed by some therapists today. When using this technique, the therapist is careful not to reveal any personal information about themselves.
Tabula Rasa in Behaviorism
Behaviorists believe you are born with your mind as a blank slate and you learn all your behavior from your environment. Therefore, therapy focuses on unlearning unproductive behaviors. Behaviorists posit any symptoms of a psychological disorder are the result of classical and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning is also known as learning by association and causes most phobias. Meanwhile, operant conditioning refers to learning by positive or negative reinforcement and, for example, causes problematic habits, behavior addictions, and eating disorders. Modes of behavior therapy commonly used to treat phobia include:
- Systematic desensitization
- Aversion therapy
- Flooding
- Exposure therapy and virtual reality exposure therapy
- Behavioral rehearsal
- Skills training
Tabula Rasa in Therapy
Tabula rasa is also a principle that underlies several different therapeutic techniques. Such techniques suggest that people are born with a blank slate that is then changed through learning experiences. Therapy then focuses on changing these learned beliefs or behaviors.
For example, tabula rasa suggests that people are blank slates, but a terrifying experience as a child may lead to developing a specific phobia. Therapy would then focus on changing these associations and developing new coping strategies, beliefs, and behaviors.
Exposure Therapy
Systematic Desensitization
Systematic desensitization is a type of exposure therapy that is an effective treatment for specific phobia (a fear of a specific object or situation) and social phobia (social anxiety disorder). The tabula rasa theory suggests that phobia is a learned behavior you impose on your blank slate. Therefore, you can unlearn your feelings of anxiety.
The therapist helps you learn to relax in what is referred to as your “target situation.” After reaching a state of deep relaxation, you vividly imagine or interact with your target situation repeatedly over time.
Since it is systematic, you don’t jump right into the deep end. You create a hierarchy of fears related to the target situation, from least to most fear-invoking. For example, you may start by simply imagining the target and work your way towards looking at pictures, watching a film, and eventually engaging more directly with your feared target.
Eventually, you learn not to react, which allows you to feel more comfortable and confident the next time you face your fear.
So, if you’re afraid of spiders, for example, your therapist might start by showing you a picture of one. Later in the process, you might look at a live spider or even hold one. With each step, the “power” of spiders to scare you diminishes until the phobia is gone. A newer form of this is virtual reality exposure, which allows you to accomplish the same goals via virtual reality technology, thereby avoiding the need to, for example, find real spiders.
A 2019 review in Frontiers in Psychology found that virtual reality exposure therapy is as effective as the non-virtual kind and anticipates that it might one day be considered more effective with further advances in technology.
Behavioral Rehearsal
For patients who fear situations rather than things, a therapist might help them imagine a difficult situation. For example, if they fear a large party, the therapist might guide them through the process of facing and successfully dealing with it, step-by-step.
Flooding
Proponents of flooding believe in confronting fears head-on. The goal is to ameliorate a phobia by flooding the environment with the situation or object a person fears—sort of like teaching someone how to swim by throwing them into the deep end of a pool.
The idea behind this treatment is that fear is a response with limited time and the body will exhaust itself by going through the stages of extreme anxiety.
For example, therapy might involve sitting in a closet for several hours if you are claustrophobic. Once you calm down, you’ve changed your negative association with your fear into a positive one. Behaviorists also believe flooding prevents avoidance behaviors, which reinforce your maladaptive condition.
Aversion Therapy
Aversion therapy is helpful in cases where you have an attraction to bad habits and behaviors, and despite the pleasure it brings you, both you and your therapist acknowledge it’s an undesirable trait.
Tabula rasa suggests that you were born with a blank slate but learned a destructive behavior. Aversion therapy may help change your associations and avoid these maladaptive behaviors.
For example, aversion therapy may help a person with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) overcome their addiction. The therapist helps them associate their undesirable behavior with a highly unpleasant stimulus. The therapist might ask the individual to sip an alcoholic drink after they have taken a medication to induce nausea. After vomiting, the hope is the smell of alcohol will trigger this new and unpleasant memory, causing them to skip the alcohol next time.
Skills Training
For some people, phobias develop as a result of not having the appropriate skills to handle certain situations. Cognitive behavioral therapy skills training can take the form of direct instruction or role-playing.
For instance, the therapist might pretend to be an interviewer for a job, and you would pretend to be interviewing for the job. The idea is that you’d have learned some skills to implement during a real job interview.
Criticisms of Tabula Rasa
Not everyone agrees that people are born with a completely blank slate. While behaviorism suggests that learning and experience play a primary role in learning, other theories have stressed the contribution of genetic and biological factors.
For example, while learning may play an important role in developing phobias, other factors, including inherited genes, temperament/personality traits, and brain differences, can create a predisposition for the development of phobias. Research has shown that people who have relatives with phobias or other types of anxiety disorders are at a higher risk of developing similar conditions.
People with anxious personality traits may also be more likely to form fear generalizations, increasing their vulnerability to anxiety disorders.
Recap
As the idea of tabula rasa suggests, experience does play an important part in the development of mental disorders. However, factors such as genetics, brain chemistry, brain structure, and temperament also influence behavior and mental health.
