Aversion Therapy
Aversion therapy is a behavioral therapy technique that aims to reduce the frequency of undesirable behaviors by associating them with unpleasant stimuli. This form of therapy is based on the principles of classical conditioning, where the individual learns to associate the behavior with negative consequences, leading to a decrease in the behavior over time.
7 Key excerpts on "Aversion Therapy"
- Amy E. Wenzel(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Séamus Mac Suibhne Séamus Mac Suibhne Suibhne, Séamus Mac Aversion Therapy Aversion Therapy 402 403 Aversion Therapy Aversion Therapy is a form of behavioral modification therapy that involves pairing a stimulus causing a strong negative reaction (pain, disgust, nausea) with a behavior to eliminate or reduce that behavior. It has been one of the most controversial forms of psychological interventions since the mid-1960s. After reviewing the theoretical background of Aversion Therapy, this entry discusses the controversy surrounding this form of therapy as well as its current clinical use. Theoretical Background Aversion Therapy as a form of behavioral therapy is related to conditioning theory—both classical and operant forms—although there are important distinctions. Classical conditioning is based on the link between a stimulus and a response (the classic example being the association between ringing a bell and food for dogs: in response to the stimulus, the bell, the dogs will salivate, anticipating food). In classical conditioning, the response follows the stimulus. Operant conditioning focuses on reinforcement—rather than the automatic response of classical conditioning, in operant conditioning rewards create positive reinforcement and punishments create negative reinforcement. Similarly, the reinforcement follows the behavior. However, Aversion Therapy differs from both classical and operant conditioning in that in Aversion Therapy the negative stimulus is simultaneous with the positive one, rather than the response or reinforcement following the behavior. Previous forms of Aversion Therapy included the use of electrical shocks and chemicals. Now, in most circumstances, these forms of Aversion Therapy have been replaced with covert sensitization methods. Covert sensitization, developed by Joseph Cautela, is based on Joseph Wolpe’s systematic desensitization approach...
- Jessica Kuper, Jessica Kuper(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Aversion Therapy DOI: 10.4324/9781315677101-20 Aversion Therapy is an attempt by a clinician to suppress undesirable behaviour by punishing it with unpleasant (aversive) stimulation. Punishment, of course, is also delivered by the natural environment (as in the painful consequences of falling or touching hot objects) and in other social contexts (as in a schoolmaster's use of caning or a mother's painting a bitter substance on her child's hands to inhibit nail-biting or thumb-sucking). But random and arbitrary punishments are not Aversion Therapy, and the result of such punishments is often paradoxical. In Aversion Therapy, a trained clinician designs a treatment protocol based on the needs and particular behavioural problem of an individual patient. Like other behaviour therapy techniques, Aversion Therapy has ancient antecedents but derives its scientific rationale and some of its technical principles from the experimental psychology of learning. Nonetheless, leading authorities on learning (notably E. L. Thorndike, J. B. Watson and B. F. Skinner) have thought that positive reinforcement would be more effective, and that aversive techniques would have only temporary effects that would not generalize beyond the treatment setting. Subsequent research has shown that the duration of effect can be increased by simultaneously rewarding desired behaviours and through ‘booster sessions’, and that generalization can be increased by having multiple therapists deliver the aversive stimulation in multiple settings. The delivery of unpleasant stimulation distinguishes Aversion Therapy from those punishment techniques that remove a reward, such as ‘timeout’ (removal to a less rewarding setting) or ‘response cost’ (removal of money, tokens, points or other sources of pleasure)...
eBook - ePubThe Causes and Cures of Neurosis (Psychology Revivals)
An introduction to modern behaviour therapy based on learning theory and the principles of conditioning
- H. J. Eysenck, S Rachman(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 11 AVOIDANCE CONDITIONING AND AVERSION TREATMENT IN recent years aversion treatment has been used predominantly in the management of sexual disorders. Formerly, however, these forms of treatment were used almost exclusively in an attempt to cure alcoholics. For various reasons, the interest in aversion treatment was relatively short-lived. Aversion treatment, particularly chemical aversion, can be an unpleasant and arduous form of therapy and this fact, coupled with the often equivocal results obtain in the treatment of alcoholics, probably contributed to its decline in popularity. Franks (1960, 1963) has drawn attention to the poor quality of much of the early work on aversion treatment for alcoholics.‘Unfortunately, not all modern practice is sound … For example, some clinicians advocate giving the alcohol after the patient reaches the height of nausea. This, of course, is backward conditioning (since the unconditioned stimulus of the apomorphine or the emetine is preceding the conditioned stimulus of the alcohol) and backward conditioning, if it occurs at all, is at best very tenuous.’ (Franks, 1963.) In any conditioning situation, the time-intervals which elapse between the presentation of the various stimuli and the response are of considerable importance and, as Franks has pointed out, aversion therapists were either ignorant of this fact, or tended to ignore it. He says that‘Under such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that reports of evaluation studies range from virtually zero success to virtually one hundred per cent success.’ Furthermore, some of the drugs which have been used to induce nausea also act as central depressants. The effect of this type of drug would be to interfere with the acquisition of the conditioned response. An additional difficulty of some importance is the confusion regarding the nature of the unpleasant response which one is attempting to attach to the sight, smell, and taste of the alcohol...
eBook - ePubBehavior Analysis
Foundations and Applications to Psychology
- Julian C. Leslie, Mark F. O'Reilly(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...This illustrates the importance of understanding all the effects that aversive stimuli may have. Punishment is a procedure in which aversive stimuli are made contingent upon the operant response and thereby reduce its frequency. This also has reliable effects in experiments with nonhuman animals, provided various methodological concerns are addressed. A small number of experimental studies with humans have also produced consistent effects The general pattern is that punishment has effects that are broadly opposite to those of positive reinforcement, it is important to realize that "punishment" is here used as a technical term that does not have all the meanings it has in everyday language. Classical conditioning has often been demonstrated in experiments with aversive unconditioned stimuli, and the outcome is similar to that when positive, or appetitive, unconditioned stimuli are used. However, the form of the conditioned response often involves behaviors associated with fear and escape when aversive stimuli are used. This means that these behaviors may "interfere" with operant behavior in any procedures where aversive stimuli are being used. These issues are addressed directly with the conditioned suppression procedure, where aversive classical conditioning is superimposed on positively reinforced operant behavior. This procedure has provided a useful baseline for investigation of many variables, including anxiety-reducing drugs. Discussion of aversive contingencies invariably raises ethical issues. It is important to remember that aversive contingencies exist in the physical as well as the social environment of everyone, and we should therefore make efforts to understand their operation. We will see in later chapters that there is good evidence to prefer the use of positive reinforcement contingencies to change behavior wherever possible, but that this is not possible in every case. This further underlines the need to know how aversive contingencies affect behavior...
eBook - ePubBehavior Analysis and Learning
A Biobehavioral Approach, Sixth Edition
- W. David Pierce, Carl D. Cheney(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Aversive Control of Behavior 6 Distinguish between positive and negative punishment. Investigate negative reinforcement as the basis of escape and avoidance. Discover how reduction in shock frequency regulates avoidance. Inquire about learned helplessness induced by inescapable aversive stimuli. Distinguish between respondent and operant aggression. Learn about coercion and its negative side effects in our society. Aversive stimuli are events or happenings that organisms escape from, evade, or avoid. Insect stings, physical attacks, foul odors, bright light, and very loud noises are common events that organisms are prepared to evade on the basis of phylogeny. Escaping or avoiding these primary aversive stimuli was adaptive, presumably because those animals, which acted to remove or prevent contact with these events, more often survived and reproduced. In other words, organisms do not learn how to react to aversive stimuli; they are biologically prepared to avoid or escape such events. Other stimuli acquire aversive properties when associated with primary aversive events during an animal’s lifetime. For people, conditioned aversive stimuli (S ave) include verbal threats, public criticism, a failing grade, a frown, and verbal disapproval. To affect behavior, these events usually depend on a history of punishment. A 1-week-old infant is not affected by a reprimand such as “Don’t do that!” By the time the child is 2 years old, however, the command may stop the toddler from tearing pages out of your favorite book. Animals also learn responses to conditioned stimuli as aversive events...
eBook - ePub- Mark Haselgrove, Lee Hogarth, Mark Haselgrove, Lee Hogarth(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...Van den Hout and Merckelback (1991) have suggested that a series of nonaversive exposures to the clinical setup (perhaps consisting of a number of sham treatments) might serve to protect patients (especially children) against the development of dental anxiety. Similarly, Weinstein (1990) has also proposed that invasive dental techniques should be postponed until as late as possible in life, a strategy that would allow the latent inhibition process to operate for as long as possible. Conclusions The study of classical conditioning and the laws that govern this form of learning is of interest in its own right, and the laboratory study of such learning in animals has generated theories of ever-increasing complexity and sophistication. But the basic principle remains simple. Pairing two events can establish an association between them, and when one of these events is of motivational significance (the US), the other (the CS) will acquire the power to evoke new responses appropriate to the motivational state engendered by the first. This process will operate in the real world as much as in the laboratory. The outcome will often be beneficial – an organism that develops a tendency to approach a previously neutral stimulus that has been associated with food, or to avoid one that has been associated with an aversive event, will be at an advantage. We have focussed here, however, on cases in which this form of learning bestows no advantage – chemotherapy is unpleasant enough in itself, without the added distress produced by ANV. In many medical procedures the pairing of an aversive event with a given set of cues is inevitable (in spite of our best efforts, many medical treatments involve pain or discomfort, and the clinic is the only place in which they can be carried out). But the good news is that experimental work has shown that pairings do not necessarily result in association formation...
eBook - ePubLearning
Principles and Applications
- Stephen B. Klein(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Aversive Conditioning 6.7 Recall an example of the effective use of punishment. In this chapter, we have described the factors that determine whether or not punishment will effectively suppress behavior. The negative consequences of punishment also were discussed in this chapter. We next explore evidence that punishment has been successfully employed to modify undesired behavior and also when it should be used instead of other means of changing behavior. Response Prevention, or Flooding Some psychologists, beginning with Watson (1916), have hypothesized that phobias are learned avoidance behaviors. On the basis of this belief, techniques that are effective in eliminating avoidance behaviors in animals should be effective in eliminating phobic behaviors in humans. The problem with trying to extinguish phobic behavior is that because fear motivates avoidance of the phobic stimulus, the person will not experience the CS long enough to learn to associate the CS with the absence of the UCS. Two treatments of phobic behavior, (1) flooding and (2) systematic desensitization, have been used to overcome this problem. We learned in Chapter 3 that systematic desensitization works by conditioning a relaxation response antagonistic to fear of the phobic object. Flooding forces the person to experience the feared stimulus and associate the CS with the absence of the UCS, thereby eliminating the avoidance behavior. Effectiveness of Flooding Flooding differs from the typical extinction procedure because the feared stimulus cannot be escaped. Otherwise, the two procedures are identical: An animal is exposed to the conditioned fear stimulus without an aversive consequence. Research investigating flooding, also known as response prevention, has demonstrated it to be an effective technique for eliminating avoidance behavior in animals (Baum, 1970). Baum found that the effectiveness of flooding increased with longer exposure to the fear stimulus...
