Learning to stand tall: Idiopathic scoliosis, behavioral electronics, and technologically-assisted patient participation in treatment
Details
State: Public
Version: author
License: All rights reserved
Serval ID
serval:BIB_A4FCDAE28FFC
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Learning to stand tall: Idiopathic scoliosis, behavioral electronics, and technologically-assisted patient participation in treatment
Journal
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Publication state
Published
Issued date
23/04/2020
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Pages
237-257
Language
english
Abstract
Drawing on the archives of American learning psychologist Neal E. Miller, this article investigates the role of instrumentation in the expansion and diversification of the behavior therapy domain from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. Through the case of Miller's research on the use of biofeedback to treat idiopathic scoliosis, it argues that the post‐World War II adoption of electronic technology by behavioral psychologists contributed to extending their subject matter to include physiological processes and somatic conditions. It also enabled a technologically‐instrumented move outside the laboratory through the development of portable ambulatory treatment devices. Using the example of the Posture‐Training Device that Miller and his collaborators invented for the behavioral treatment of idiopathic scoliosis, this paper considers how electromechanical psychological instrumentation illustrated a larger and ambiguous strategic shift in behavior therapy from an orientation toward external control to one of self‐control.
Keywords
behavior therapy behavioral treatment of idiopathic scoliosis biofeedback electromechanical psychological instrumentation portable training device
Publisher's website
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / 10001C_179201
Other / Franco-American Fulbright Commission. Grant Number: Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program 2016-2017
Create date
30/01/2020 12:18
Last modification date
21/11/2022 9:07