A behavior therapy procedure in which stimuli associated with undesirable behavior are paired with a painful or an unpleasant stimulus, resulting in the suppression of the undesirable behavior.
A form of negative reinforcement.
A treatment by which someone is cured of a type of behaviour by making him or her develop a great dislike for it.
Process in which undesirable behavior is treated by accompanying the behavior with a disagreeable experience, such as extreme nausea (the treatment has been used to help persons stop smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol).
Use of an unpleasant sensation or association to decrease destructive behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse; noxious stimuli may range from mild electrical shock or smells like ammonia.
A technique used to stop or alter an unwanted behavior by coupling that behavior with an unpleasant or painful experience. Aversion therapy has been used, for example, to help a person stop smoking by giving an electrical shock or a nausea-producing drug when the person smokes a cigarette. Repeated over time, the pairing of the desire for tobacco with the shock or nausea produces a disagreeable emotional reaction to cigarettes that eventually leads the person to avoid smoking. Aversion therapy has also been used to eliminate self-mutilation in autistic children, and to reduce or eliminate sexual deviant behavior. Nausea-producing drugs have also been used as aversion therapy to treat alcoholism. These drugs interfere with the metabolism of alcohol and produce extremely unpleasant side effects. Nausea and vomiting, for example, occur if even a small amount of alcohol is ingested within 2 weeks of taking the drugs. (Aversion therapy for alcoholism is often used in conjunction with counseling.)
A form of behavior therapy that is used to reduce the occurrence of undesirable behavior, such as sexual deviations or drug addiction. Conditioning is used, with repeated pairing of some unpleasant stimulus with a stimulus related to the undesirable behavior. An example is pairing the taste of beer with electric shock in the treatment of alcoholism.
A form of psychological treatment in which such an unpleasant response is induced to his or her psychological aberration that the patient decides to give it up. Thus the victim of alcoholism is given a drug that makes the subsequent drinking of alcoholic liquors so unpleasant, by inducing nausea and vomiting, that he or she decides to give up drinking. Aversion therapy may help in the treatment of alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual deviations and compulsive gambling.
A form of behavior therapy designed to reduce or extinguish unwanted or hazardous behaviors. The goal of aversion therapy is to have the patient associate the undesirable behavior with something noxious, such as a foul taste, a headache, a hot flash, nausea or vomiting, or profuse sweating. In chemical aversion therapy, for example, a patient may be treated with a drug that makes the consumption of another substance, such as alcohol, extremely unpleasant. The use of chemical aversion therapy is controversial because in some cases it produces side effects that may themselves be injurious or life-threatening. Aversion therapy also has been used to treat other forms of drug dependence, eating disorders, paraphilias, self-mutilation, and tobacco abuse.
Aversion therapy, an outdated approach to behavior modification, involves the simultaneous administration of unpleasant stimuli, such as electric shocks, alongside an unwanted behavior in an effort to modify behavioral patterns. However, it is worth noting that other forms of therapy are now widely regarded as more suitable and effective in addressing behavioral issues. Aversion therapy has been largely supplanted by alternative therapeutic approaches that focus on positive reinforcement, cognitive-behavioral techniques, and person-centered interventions.