ABSTRACT
This chapter describes aversive control or the control or influence on behavior by aversive stimuli. The basic aversive contingencies include positive and negative punishment and negative reinforcement. Punishment, an unfortunate but natural part of life experience, refers to a decrease in an operant behavior’s frequency through the addition (positive punishment) or subtraction (negative punishment) of a stimulus. Punishment is most effective at controlling behavior when it is immediate, intense, and continuous. The availability of response alternatives that enhance contact with reinforcement also enhance the regulation of behavior by punishment contingencies. Negative reinforcement refers to termination of an aversive stimulus that results in an increase in the frequency of a response. Two kinds of negative reinforcement were identified as escape and avoidance, with the only difference being the presence of the aversive in the former. The section on avoidance introduced the molecular and molar accounts of schedule performance in terms of analysis, the conditioned-suppression paradigm, and the disruption of ongoing operant behavior by periods of scheduled avoidance. Control of behavior by aversive stimuli is not a preferred treatment due to the side effects of aversive control. Some of these include: avoidance behavior, learned helplessness, displaced aggression, countercontrol aggression, social disruption or withrawal.
