Definition of "aversive" []

• Causing avoidance of a thing, situation, or behavior by using an unpleasant or punishing stimulus, as in techniques of behavior modification. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The researchers bred mice without the gene and put them in aversive situations, such as giving them a mild shock at a certain point in their cage."
• "- The U.S. Justice Department has begun a review of whether the use of electric shock therapy by a Massachusetts special needs school violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Canton-based Judge Rotenberg Educational Center uses the treatment, known as aversive therapy, as a way to control aggressive behavior and prevent severely autistic students from injuring themselves or others."
• "But unconscious discrimination - what psychologists call aversive racism - has stayed fairly constant."