Escape and avoidance (side effect of punishment)
A secondary effect of punishment in which the person learns to get away from or stay away from the punisher, the person delivering it, or the setting.
Stimuli that function as punishers are often aversive, and aversive stimuli set up escape and avoidance. When punishment is used, the person may learn behaviors that end the punishment or prevent it: hiding, running away, refusing to come to the table, lying, staying away from the adult who delivers punishment, or skipping the activity where it happens. These escape and avoidance behaviors are reinforced by negative reinforcement, and they can become new problem behaviors in their own right.
This side effect matters because it can damage the client's relationship with staff and caregivers and reduce access to learning. If a child learns to avoid the RBT or the therapy room, teaching becomes harder. The punisher can also become paired with the adult or setting, so the adult's presence comes to signal something aversive.
Supervisors reduce this risk by building a rich reinforcing environment, relying on reinforcement-based procedures, and using punishment, if at all, only when written into the plan and carefully monitored. Under the RBT Ethics Code (2.0), RBTs implement punishment-based procedures only when included in a documented plan and after the supervisor has verified competence.
The RBT watches for signs such as the client hesitating to start sessions, moving away or hiding, records them objectively, and reports them to the supervisor.
Example and non-example
| Example | After several weeks of a plan that includes reprimands for leaving the seat, a student starts hiding in the bathroom when the RBT arrives and asks to go to the nurse at the start of each session. |
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| Non-example | A client asks for a break during a long task, and the plan reinforces break requests. Asking for a break is a taught escape response, not a side effect of punishment. |
Don't confuse it with
| Escape function | An escape function describes what maintains a target problem behavior, while escape and avoidance here is a side effect produced by punishment. |
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| Avoidance | Avoidance in general is behavior that prevents an aversive stimulus; this term refers specifically to escape and avoidance that develop as a result of punishment procedures. |
Test yourself
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Question 1An RBT has been implementing response cost with a client for several weeks. The client now hides under the table whenever that RBT arrives. Which side effect of punishment is this?
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B: Avoidance. Punishment can lead clients to escape or avoid the people, places and activities linked to it. Hiding when the RBT arrives is avoidance.
- A: An extinction burst happens when a reinforcer is withheld, not after punishment.
- C: Spontaneous recovery is the return of an extinguished behavior after time away.
- D: Resurgence is the return of an old behavior when an alternative loses reinforcement.
Task D.6 · 40-hour curriculum section E
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Question 2Why might a client start avoiding a staff member who often delivers punishment?
Show answer
D: Through pairing with punishment, the staff member has become aversive. People and places paired with punishment can become conditioned aversive stimuli, so the client escapes or avoids them. This can damage rapport and learning.
- A: An extinction burst is an increase in a behavior on extinction, not avoidance of a person.
- B: If the attention were reinforcing, the client would approach, not avoid.
- C: Avoiding the staff member is not an old behavior returning after an alternative lost reinforcement.
Task D.6 · 40-hour curriculum section E
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Question 3An RBT is implementing overcorrection written in a client's plan. Partway through, the client pulls away and runs from the RBT. Which side effect of punishment is this?
Show answer
A: Escape. Escape means getting away from an aversive situation that is already happening. Running from the overcorrection procedure is escape; avoiding the RBT before it starts would be avoidance.
- B: An extinction burst happens when a reinforcer is withheld, not during punishment.
- C: Resurgence is an old behavior returning when an alternative loses reinforcement.
- D: Spontaneous recovery is an extinguished behavior reappearing after time away.
Task D.6 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Answer every question to see your score.
On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task D.6 Secondary effects of extinction and punishment in content area D, Behavior Reduction, which is 14 of the 75 scored questions.