BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does behavior modification mean? 

• BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION (noun)
  The noun BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION has 1 sense:

1. psychotherapy that seeks to extinguish or inhibit abnormal or maladaptive behavior by reinforcing desired behavior and extinguishing undesired behavior

  Familiarity information: BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Psychotherapy that seeks to extinguish or inhibit abnormal or maladaptive behavior by reinforcing desired behavior and extinguishing undesired behavior

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

behavior modification; behavior therapy

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)

 Context examples 

Evaluates new pharmacologic agents and methods of behavior modification.

(Pharmacobehavioral Research, NCI Thesaurus)

Other treatments include psychotherapy, relaxation and meditation therapy, biofeedback, and behavior modification.

(Chronic Pain, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

In cancer treatment, behavior modification may be used to help patients who have become nauseous during previous cancer treatments cope with nausea they feel when they enter the therapy room to begin a new round of treatment.

(Behavior modification, NCI Dictionary)