Self-instructional training was developed by psychologist Donald Meichenbaum
in the early 1970’s. In contrast to Ellis and Beck, whose prior training
was in psychoanalysis, Meichenbaum’s roots are in behaviorism and the behavioral
therapies. Thus Meichenbaum’s approach is heavily couched in behavioral
terminology and procedures. Meichenbaum’s work stems from his
earlier research in training schizophrenic patients to emit “healthy speech.”
By chance, Meichenbaum observed that patients who engaged in spontaneous
self-instruction were less distracted and demonstrated superior task performance
on a variety of tasks. As a result, Meichenbaum emphasizes the
critical role of “self-instructions”—simple instructions such as “Relax. . . Just
attend to the task”—and their noticeable effect on subsequent behavior.
Meichenbaum developed self-instructional training to treat the deficits in
self-instructions manifested in impulsive children. The ultimate goal of this
program was to decrease impulsive behavior. The way to accomplish this goal,
as hypothesized by Meichenbaum, was to train impulsive children to generate
verbal self-commands, to respond to their verbal self-commands, and to
encourage the children to self-reinforce their behavior appropriately.
The specific procedures employed in self-instructional training involve
having the child observe a model performing a task. While the model is performing
the task, he or she is talking aloud. The child then performs the
same task while the model gives verbal instructions. Subsequently, the child
performs the task while instructing himself or herself aloud, then while whispering
the instructions. Finally, the child performs the task covertly. The
self-instructions employed in the program included questions about the nature
and demands of the task, answers to these questions in the formof cognitive
rehearsal, self-instructions in the form of self-guidance while performing
the task, and self-reinforcement. Meichenbaum and his associates have
found that this self-instructional training program significantly improves
the task performance of impulsive children across a number of measures.
critical role of “self-instructions”—simple instructions such as “Relax. . . Just
attend to the task”—and their noticeable effect on subsequent behavior.
Meichenbaum developed self-instructional training to treat the deficits in
self-instructions manifested in impulsive children. The ultimate goal of this
program was to decrease impulsive behavior. The way to accomplish this goal,
as hypothesized by Meichenbaum, was to train impulsive children to generate
verbal self-commands, to respond to their verbal self-commands, and to
encourage the children to self-reinforce their behavior appropriately.
The specific procedures employed in self-instructional training involve
having the child observe a model performing a task. While the model is performing
the task, he or she is talking aloud. The child then performs the
same task while the model gives verbal instructions. Subsequently, the child
performs the task while instructing himself or herself aloud, then while whispering
the instructions. Finally, the child performs the task covertly. The
self-instructions employed in the program included questions about the nature
and demands of the task, answers to these questions in the formof cognitive
rehearsal, self-instructions in the form of self-guidance while performing
the task, and self-reinforcement. Meichenbaum and his associates have
found that this self-instructional training program significantly improves
the task performance of impulsive children across a number of measures.
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