In a therapeutic setting, a client who wants to lose weight eats some favorite foods laced with a nausea-producing drug. Yet, outside the therapist's office the client knows he or she can eat those foods without fear of nausea. This awareness contributes to the limited effectiveness of

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This scenario describes aversive conditioning, which involves pairing an unpleasant stimulus (the nausea-producing drug) with a previously desirable behavior (eating favorite foods) in order to decrease the likelihood of that behavior occurring in the future. However, the limited effectiveness of this technique in this scenario is due to the fact that the client knows they can still engage in the behavior without the unpleasant consequence outside of therapy, undermining the conditioning process.

In a Therapeutic Setting, a Client Who Wants to Lose