| Library / English Dictionary |
BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Psychotherapy that seeks to extinguish or inhibit abnormal or maladaptive behavior by reinforcing desired behavior and extinguishing undesired behavior
Synonyms:
behavior modification; behavior therapy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("behavior modification" is a kind of...):
psychotherapy (the treatment of mental or emotional problems by psychological means)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "behavior modification"):
assertiveness training (a method of psychotherapy that reinforces you for stating negative and positive feelings directly)
aversion therapy (any technique of behavior modification that uses unpleasant stimuli in a controlled fashion to alter behavior in a therapeutic way; primarily used for alcoholism or drug abuse (but with little success))
desensitisation procedure; desensitisation technique; desensitization procedure; desensitization technique; systematic desensitisation; systematic desensitization (a technique used in behavior therapy to treat phobias and other behavior problems involving anxiety; client is exposed to the threatening situation under relaxed conditions until the anxiety reaction is extinguished)
flooding; implosion therapy (a technique used in behavior therapy; client is flooded with experiences of a particular kind until becoming either averse to them or numbed to them)
reciprocal-inhibition therapy; reciprocal inhibition (a method of behavior therapy based on the inhibition of one response by the occurrence of another response that is mutually incompatible with it; a relaxation response might be conditioned to a stimulus that previously evoked anxiety)
token economy (a form of behavior therapy that has been used in some mental institutions; patients are rewarded with tokens for appropriate behavior and the tokens may be cashed in for valued rewards)
