Deceleration Therapy

Deceleration behavior therapy and acceleration behavior therapy are to primary methods that behavior therapy uses to affect the frequency of the occurrence of target behaviors. Acceleration behavior therapy increases the frequency of the occurrence of a target behavior, while deceleration behavior therapy decreases the frequency of the occurrence of a target behavior. There are three primary deceleration strategies that are used in behavior therapy; differential reinforcement, punishment, and aversion therapy. Although each of the three methods ultimately serve to decrease the frequency of, and eventually eliminate, a target behavior, they each are carried out by employing different therapeutic tactics. Differential reinforcement is the most
Punishment and aversion therapy address the target behavior directly, and in turn produce faster effects of treatment than differential reinforcement. Punishment, in deceleration behavior therapy, uses two separate processes; positive and negative. Positive punishment is when an undesirable stimulus is added or increased to decrease the occurrence of a target behavior. Negative punishment is when an undesirable stimulus is taken away to decrease the occurrence of a target behavior. To optimize the effect of using punishment in deceleration behavior therapy, there are seven guidelines to follow. First, directly after each time a patient engages in a target behavior, the punisher must occur while being preceded by a warning cue. The patient must be fully aware that the punisher is a result of the target behavior. A competing adaptive behavior should me reinforced, but the reinforcer should not directly follow a punisher. Lastly, efforts should be made to make the negative effects of physically aversive consequences