ABSTRACT
A number of developments beginning in the 1970s coalesced in the 1980s to elevate concerns about the treatment of serious problem behaviors in people with developmental disabilities to a high level of visibility and, inevitably controversy. Concern focused on the use of aversive procedures, primarily punishment procedures. This chapter begins with the trends leading to the “nonaversive movement,” the attempt to eliminate the use of aversive procedures (also ref erred to as “aversives”) with this population. Then the major events of the movement at its height in the 1980s are described, followed by a discussion of its continuing legacy and some implications of adopting a totally nonaversive approach to treatment.
