COUNTERCONDITIONING: FEATURES AND HOW IT WORKS - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The counterconditioning is a classical conditioning procedure characterized by use as a conditioned stimulus element having an opposite sign motivational. It is a learning technique that focuses on associating two opposing stimuli in order to modify the response to one of them.

At present, counterconditioning is a widely used technique in psychotherapy. Specifically, it is one of the most used therapeutic elements in cognitive behavioral therapy.

This article explains in detail what counterconditioning consists of, its use is exemplified and its therapeutic uses within the field of psychology are reviewed.

Basis of counterconditioning

Counter-conditioning is a specific technique of classical conditioning. This constitutes a learning procedure that is developed through the association of stimuli.

In this sense, classical conditioning is characterized by making associations through neutral stimuli. That is, a stimulus that does not have any motivational meaning for the person is associated with another stimulus in order to generate a response.

For example, both animals and people can develop a classical conditioning process if, before eating, they always listen to the same melody.

As the association between food and sound is repeated, the perception of the melody will generate greater sensations of hunger or eating.

This situation can be generated in many different situations in people's daily lives. You can associate an odor with a special person and think of her every time the smell is perceived.

Contraconditioning, although it uses the learning principles of classical conditioning, presents an important difference.

In this sense, counterconditioning does not focus on associating a neutral stimulus with a motivational stimulus, but is based on associating two opposite motivational stimuli.

characteristics

Counterconditioning constitutes any type of classical conditioning procedure in which an element that has an opposite motivational sign for the subject is used as a conditioned stimulus.

In other words, counterconditioning uses a conditioned stimulus associated with an appetitive response. As well as the use of a conditioned stimulus in a new acquisition in which it is associated with an aversive unconditioned stimulus.

To carry out the counterconditioning, the following actions are carried out:

Conventional aversive conditioning procedure

A tone (conditioned stimulus) is associated with an electric shock (aversive unconditioned stimulus). As a result of this association, a conditioned defense response (fear / pain) is obtained.

Conventional appetitive conditioning procedure

Subsequently, the same tone (conditioned stimulus) is associated with the presentation of food (unconditioned appetitive stimulus).

Aversive counterconditioning

Aversive counterconditioning is one of the most used techniques in the treatment of different psychological disorders. It is primarily used in the treatment of substance abuse and certain sexual disorders.

The efficacy of aversive counterconditioning in mental health lies in its ability to reverse the motivational sign of the person's stimuli.

In this sense, Voegtlin demonstrated that people in the detoxification process could be helped by modifying the motivational sign of stimuli associated with alcohol, such as smell, color or appearance.

Thus, aversive counterconditioning consists of associating a negative stimulus for the person with a previously pleasant stimulus.

Through the continuous association between stimuli, a change in the effects that originates the pleasant stimulus can be generated, since this increasingly adopts more negative properties of the aversive stimulus.

In fact, Voetglin showed that, using this procedure as a psychotherapeutic technique in the treatment of alcoholism, 60% of the subjects eliminated alcohol consumption after one year.

However, this proportion decreased over time. Specifically, after two years, only 40% of the subjects maintained abstinence from the substance and, after two years, the percentage dropped to 20%.

This fact would be explained by the loss of strength of the aversive association effected by the counterconditioning. When the relationship between stimuli stops, the subject can initiate new associations that eliminate the negative properties acquired on alcohol.

Systematic desensitization

The other counterconditioning technique used in clinical practice is routine desensitization.

This technique constitutes a psychotherapeutic method that is included within the theoretical-clinical paradigm of cognitive-behavioral therapies. It is a widely used technique in the treatment of anxiety, especially phobias.

The operation of this procedure is antagonistic to aversive counterconditioning. That is, in this case, it is intended to associate a negative stimulus with a positive stimulus.

In the case of phobias, the negative stimulus that is intended to countercondition is the phobic stimulus itself. Through the association of the phobic element itself with opposite (and pleasant) stimuli, it is possible, in many cases, to eliminate the anxiety disorder.

Systematic desensitization is used through a hierarchy of stressful stimuli that are presented through visual images, imaginative exposure, therapist-assisted evocation of the anxiety situation, virtual reality, or live exposure.

In this way, through any of the previous modalities, the patient is exposed to his phobic stimulus, which is highly aversive. This exposure is carried out in a hierarchical way, so the subject is exposed to increasingly aversive stimuli.

Later, relaxation exercises are applied so that the patient acquires a calm and pleasant state. While the subject is in this state, the hierarchy of aversive stimuli are presented again so that they are associated with relaxing sensations.

The objective of systematic sensitization is therefore that relaxation progressively inhibits the anxiety caused by exposure to the phobic stimulus. In this way, it is intended to break the link between the stressor element and the anxiety response.

Thus the patient learns a new association that is the opposite of the phobic response. What was previously fear-inducing becomes connected to the calm and tranquility induced through deep muscle relaxation.

References

1. Cándido, A. (2000) Introduction to the psychology of associative learning. Madrid: New Library.
2. Domjan, M. (2000) The essentials of conditioning and learning (2nd ed). Translation: Bases of learning and conditioning. Jaén: Del Lunar, 2002.
3. Domjan, M. (2010) The principles of Learning and Behavior (6th ed.). Translation: Principles of learning and behavior. Mexico: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010.
4. Froufe, M. (2004). Associative learning. Principles and applications. Madrid: Thomson.