After several sessions with his client, Dr. Blakely, a behavioral psychologist, ascertained that his client Stephen's compulsive hand washing developed when he was young and watched his mother engage in compulsive rituals surrounding cleaning and washing her hands. Stephen had once mentioned that his mother told him that hand washing was his first type of pretend play as a toddler. Dr. Blakely believes that Stephen modeled his mother's behavior and that his behavior has been reinforced in his current profession, nursing. The process by which Dr. Blakely is putting together a set of integrated factors to explain Stephen's disturbance is:

The best answer to the question: The process by which Dr. Blakely is putting together a set of integrated factors to explain Stephen´s disturbance is:___, would be: he is piecing together a clinical picture of what is happening to Stephen under the framework of Behavioral Psychology and Behavioral Theory.

Explanation:

Behavioral Theory dedicates itself to explain how human behavior is shaped by the experiences and associations that the person lived, and formed, in the past and towards his present. By understanding the experiences, and the associations that came with living those experiences, psychologists can understand why a person acts the way he does. In the case of Stephen, as a child he was exposed to compulsive handwashing on the part of his mother, and furthermore the idea was reinforced through turning that compulsion into a game, as he was a toddler. This past experience in Stephen´s childhood initiated a behavior in him that is also compulsive, and which is being reinforced through the application of his career. Dr. Blakely, through the principles of Behavioral Psychology, can now piece the whole clinical picture together and initiate the proper therapy for Stephen´s compulsion.