ABSTRACT
It has been clear for some time that many of the ills of human behavior come from aversive control. Behavioral scientists have studied it in the laboratory in the hope that technical knowledge of its processes would teach how to ameliorate psychopathology. Psychologists have speculated about a society from which aversive control has been eliminated particularly under the influence of Skinner (1948). Some psychologists, experimental and otherwise, felt so strongly about aversive control that they raised their children as much as possible by positive reinforcement alone. More recently, mostly as a result of the urgency of controlling self-destructive behavior in autistic children and because of the technical difficulties in controlling these children with positive reinforcement, the cycle has gone a full turn. Investigators such as Lovaas et al. (1965) have turned to aversive control, using stimuli such as intense electric shock, slapping, shouting, and isolation in order to suppress self-destructive behavior, reinforce attention and weaken tantrums. Other investigators and therapists have been using electric shock with adults in what is called aversion therapy.
