What is necessary to promote positive behavior change alongside extinction?

To promote positive behavior change alongside extinction, introducing positive reinforcement is highly effective. Positive reinforcement involves providing a reward or positive consequence following a desired behavior, which encourages that behavior to occur more frequently in the future. This method helps to create a supportive environment for behavior change, especially when trying to reduce or eliminate undesired behaviors through extinction.

When using extinction, the objective is to withhold reinforcement for a specific behavior that you want to diminish. However, without a strategy to promote alternative positive behaviors, individuals may become frustrated or engage in other maladaptive behaviors. By utilizing positive reinforcement for desirable behaviors, you can redirect the individual's actions in a constructive way, thus supporting an overall beneficial outcome in behavior modification.

In contrast, increased attention, distraction techniques, or ignoring the behavior may not effectively support or reinforce positive behaviors and could inadvertently maintain or escalate undesirable behaviors instead of fostering positive change.