AVERSION TECHNIQUES IN BEHAVIOR THERAPY - SOME THEORETICAL AND METATHEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Notes that certain cues may be singularly appropriate as functional conditional stimuli for certain response systems, raising into question the trend in the aversion conditioning literature away from chemically produced aversion and toward fear produced by painful electric shock. Although this shift from the chemical to the electrical is being made on sound functional grounds, the physiological research on appropriateness of cues suggests that, contrary to prevalent assumptions in behavior therapy, one must consider most carefully the topographical nature of stimuli and responses. At the metatheoretical level, the argument that behavior modification as a field be concerned with areas of psychology outside of learning and conditioning is presented. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.