What is the term for providing a negative sanction to reduce undesired behavior?

The correct term for providing a negative sanction to reduce undesired behavior is operant conditioning. This concept revolves around the idea that the consequences of a behavior influence the likelihood of that behavior being repeated in the future.

In operant conditioning, a negative sanction, or negative reinforcement, involves the removal of an undesirable stimulus after a desired behavior occurs, which in turn increases the likelihood of that behavior being repeated. For example, if a student is given a warning (a negative sanction) for talking in class, the intention is to discourage that behavior.

Instructional conditioning refers more to the process of learning through association and does not specifically address the use of negative sanctions. Extinction pertains to the weakening of a conditioned response when the reinforcement is no longer presented. Stimulus generalization involves responding similarly to similar stimuli, which doesn’t relate directly to the concept of applying negative sanctions to reduce behavior. Thus, operant conditioning is the appropriate term that encompasses the idea of using negative consequences to modify behavior.