Contingent Aversive Control

The use of contingent punishment is the most common aversive technique employed in
naturalistic socialization and is often incorrectly viewed as the essential, or only, method of
aversive control. There are several ways in which punishment may be employed. First of all,
punishment may be administered immediately following the occurrence of a problem behavior.
This procedure typically produces rapid suppression of the punished behavior, although the
behavior may begin to recur if there is no alternative behavior that the individual may perform
successfully in situations that usually elicit the problem behavior.

It is also possible that punishment may be applied while the behavior is actually occurring. If this
is done, it is equally important that the punishment be terminated as soon as the behavior
terminates. Reference to the theoretical analysis of punishment and aversive experiences
presented earlier will reveal that this timing is important since the negative reinforcement
inherent in the termination o f a punishment will reinforce the act of terminating the problem
behavior. It is also likely in this procedure that since the aversive event and the problem behavior
overlap in time, the problem behavior will acquire some aversive valence by virtue of having
been paired with the aversive event. A caution so obvious it hardly bears mentioning: some
problem behaviors may well be exacerbated by the use of punishment. Obviously, in such cases,
punishment should not be employed. Examples of such behaviors might include certain
aggressive responses for which punishment might well be seen as counter aggression and serve
as an inappropriate model, thus increasing subsequent aggression or tantrum behavior. For
greatest effectiveness, a contingent aversive stimulus should be of maximal appropriate intensity
from the start, should be of the greatest intensity possible (but not so intense as to inflict physical
damage, totally disrupt behavior, or produce a conditioned emotional response), should follow a
problem behavior immediately, and should follow every occurrence of a problem behavior.

Generally, there are four procedures related to the use of punishment for the suppression of
problem behavior;

I. Manner of introduction of punishment.

II. Intensity of punishment
III. Immediacy of punishment
IV. Scheduling of punishment
 Implosive Therapy: How To Deal With Client Defenses

Implosive therapy is a technique designed to eliminate avoidance behaviors by the

process of extinction. In implosive theory, the avoidance of anxiety-generating
situations and behaviors is the object o f treatment. It is assumed that such avoidance
behaviors are learned because they keep a person from experiencing anxiety. Such
defensive avoidance behavior is usually learned in childhood, from situations in
which an individual was punished, rejected, or deprived in some manner. Although
these assumptions, are reasonably similar to those held by more psycho dynamically
oriented theorists, learning principles are invoked to account for the initial acquisition
of such anxieties and to justify the various procedural details of implosive theory.
Following the two-factor theory of learning from aversive consequences it is
proposed that various behaviors, feared situations, or phobic objects are persistently
avoided and that such avoidance behaviors are consistently covertly reinforced by the
termination of anxiety each time these behaviors, situations, and objects or people are
avoided.
In order for extinction of avoidance responses to occur, the patient must be prevented
from performing the avoidance behavior, if only in his imagination, and be forced to
experience the intense anxiety in the absence of any real aversive consequences.
When such anxiety is experienced without the occurrence of actual aversive
consequences, such consequences will cease to be anticipated, and the anxiety will
dissipate. The avoided behaviors and stimuli will now be perceived without any
attendant anxiety, and the tendency for these behaviors and stimuli to evoke anxiety
will undergo extinction. In the practice of implosive therapy, it is important to prevent
the patient from engaging in any avoidance behavior or otherwise limiting the
effectiveness of the reinstitution and magnification of the anxiety associated with the
imagined scenes.
Stampfl and Levis (1967) have outlined in detail the areas of conflict that generally
comprise the domain for implosive treatment, “. . . usual conflict areas which [the
therapist] knows, from experience, concern most individuals .” The eight primary
areas o f concern and the elements of relevant implosive scenes are:

Orality: Many scenes will be destructive (see “Aggression,” below), involving the
eating, biting, spitting, sucking of various objects, including other human beings
(cannibalism). Anality: General anal scenes involving anal retention and expulsion
(see Erikson, 1950), often in social situations.
Sexual Concerns: In addition to dynamically oriented oedipal and primal scene
depictions, this area includes scenes of castration, cunnilingus, fellatio,
homosexuality, bestiality, etc.

Aggression: Scenes include interactions with others in which the patient expresses
anger, hostility, and aggression. The target is usually a parent, sibling, spouse, or
other significant figure. It is usual to include body mutilation, including the death of
the patient himself.

Rejection: In this area, scenes depict the patient being deprived, abandoned, rejected,
shamed or left helpless.

Loss o f Impulse Control: These scenes are centered about problems of impulse
control. Patients are to imagine scenes in which they clearly lose control and act out
sexual or aggressive impulses. Incorporated also are scenes of the consequences of
such impulsive acting out, such as being relegated to the back ward of a mental
hospital for life.

Guilt: These scenes generally depict the patient confessing his responsibility for a
variety of wrongdoings that may have been described in other implosive sessions. He
may imagine himself in a court room with his parents and loved ones present, or in
front of God. God or the court may then condemn him to eternal hell, or sentence him
to death, and the attendant execution is then visualized. Thematically the punishment
is generally related to the un pardonable sins confessed by the patient.

Central or Autonomic Nervous System Reactivity: The patient may be required to

imagine aspects of his own responsively that may themselves heighten his anxiety.
Thus, scenes may depict his own heart racing, perspiration pouring forth from his
body, muscular tension, or involuntary incontinence