Behavioral Therapy - Response Cost involves which of the following?

• A. Giving a negative consequence for a behavior that is not wanted.
• B. Providing a positive reinforcement for a desired behavior.
• C. Modeling the desired behavior.
• D. Withholding a privilege after an unwanted behavior.

Answer: (D)

Response cost is a form of negative punishment in operant conditioning: after an unwanted behavior, a valued reinforcer is taken away to reduce the likelihood of that behavior occurring again. Withholding a privilege after an unwanted behavior fits this exactly because the consequence is the loss of something desirable contingent on the behavior, which tends to decrease the behavior over time.

Why the other ideas don’t fit as neatly: providing a positive reinforcement for a desired behavior would increase that behavior, not reduce the unwanted one; modeling the desired behavior is about demonstrating how to behave rather than removing a privilege; giving a negative consequence without removing a reinforcer doesn’t capture the essential aspect of response cost, which is the loss of something valuable to shape future behavior.