Chapter 16 – Establishing Behavior by Escape and Avoidance Conditioning

Joanne, an attendant at the Anna State Hospital, was a model employee. She was hardworking, punctual, and well-liked by the patients. Unfortunately, Joanne constantly slouched while she worked. While slouching might not be a serious problem, slouching by staff at the hospital presented an inappropriate role model for the psychiatric patients whose poor posture frequently discouraged social acceptability when they returned to the community. The principle of escape conditioning states that the removal of an aversive stimulus immediately after the occurrence of a behavior will increase the likelihood of that behavior. Escape conditioning is like punishment in that both involve the use of an aversive stimulus. While escape conditioning and punishment are therefore similar, they differ procedurally in terms of both the antecedents and the consequences of the behavior. Regarding punishment, as illustrated by the first component of the treatment procedure with Joanne, the aversive stimulus is not present before the response; rather punishment is presented after the response.