Henrietta's 11-year old son sucks his thumb. He has gotten teased for it, and even gotten sick once because there was bacteria-laden dirt underneath his thumbnail. She asks for advice on how to help him stop. A friend suggests using a cream she saw online that has a bitter taste to it. Henrietta simply rubs the cream on his thumb before he watches TV at night or goes to bed. What type of conditioning treatment is Henrietta employing?

Aversive conditioning.

Explanation:

Aversive conditioning is when something unpleasant action is given to someone for unwanted behavior. In other words, aversive conditioning is the conditioning of behavior by using 'punishments' or 'negative' approach to make the person give up or deflect from that particular behavior.

Henrietta's approach of following her friend's suggestion to use a bitter-tasting cream to make her son stop sucking his thumb is an example of aversion conditioning. The use of the bitter cream allows the son to stop his bad or unwanted behavior of sucking his thumb.