Aversion Therapy Lecture Notes

Aversion therapy is a series of different procedures applied to behaviours regarded as undesirable. These applications are based on the apparently simple principle that when a response is followed by an unpleasant consequence,its strength will diminish.

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PSY 4 E 03: THERAPEUTIC
INTERVENTION STRATEGIES - II
UNIT–I: Behaviouristic Perspective
TOPIC: AVERSION THERAPY
AVERSION THERAPY
One of the most controversial of all treatments is aversion therapy.
Actually, this is not a single therapy but a series of different procedures
applied to behaviours regarded as undesirable. These applications are
based on the apparently simple principle that when a response is
followed by an unpleasant consequence (e.g., punishment or Pain), its
strength will diminish. As Wolpe (1973) put it, “Aversion therapy
consists, operationally, of administering an aversive stimulus to inhibit
an unwanted emotional response, thereby diminishing its habit strength”.
An unpleasant stimulus is placed in temporal contiguity with the
undesirable behaviour. The idea is that a permanent association between
the undesirable behaviour and the unpleasant stimulus will be forged,
and conditioning will take place.
Such techniques may appear to be recent additions to scientific
and clinical repertoires. However, a little reflection will remind us that
they have been around for eons, often in the form of such
unsophisticated practices as spanking. “Go to your room,” and “No TV
tonight for you.” Modern aversive therapy techniques differ from these
examples in at least two important ways. First, the presentation of the
aversive agent is done systematically. The temporal contiguity is very
carefully monitored. Second, the punishment is consistently applied. The
punishment applied by parents is often highly inconsistent. Sometimes
the undesirable behaviour of the child is immediately punished. But very
often, the parent forgets or is distracted, too tired, or whatever to
respond. As a result, the child learns that sometimes the behaviour is
ignored, and thus extinction fails to occur. As formal clinical procedures,
these techniques have been applied most often to help patients develop
increased self-control. They have been used to cope with problems of
obesity, smoking, alcoholism, and sexual deviations.
Aversion takes three basic forms: escape training, avoidance training,
and presenting the unpleasant stimulus without permitting either escape
or avoidance. Often escape training is used initially, then modified into
avoidance training. In escape training, the target stimulus is presented,
and then an unpleasant stimulus such as electric shock occurs. After
brief exposure to the two stimuli, the individual escapes from the stimuli
by making some specified response. For example, a transvestite is given
an article of women’s clothing to put on, then administered electric
shock. Once the clothing is removed, shock is terminated. In avoidance
training, the individual is presented with the stimulus that elicits the
problem behaviour. If an avoidance response is made quickly enough,
the aversion stimulus is avoided entirely. Typically, the avoidance
response removes the stimulus for the undesired response. For example,
turning off pictures of women’s clothing quickly enough may avoid
shock for a fetishist. An advantage of the avoidance procedure is that