ASWB Clinical Practice Exam 2025 – Complete Study Resource

The strategy being used when advising a bullied client to walk away from teasing incidents is rooted in the concept of extinction. Extinction in behavioral therapy refers to the process of reducing or eliminating a behavior by no longer reinforcing it. When the client chooses to walk away from teasing, they are not responding to the bullying, which decreases the likelihood of the behavior being reinforced.

In this context, by not engaging with the teasing behavior, the social worker is helping the client to avoid providing the bullies with the attention or emotional response that often encourages further bullying. Over time, as the teasing behavior goes unacknowledged, it may decrease because the bullies are no longer receiving the reaction they desire.

This approach differs significantly from other strategies. Systematic desensitization typically involves gradual exposure to a feared stimulus while practicing relaxation techniques. Aversion therapy involves pairing an undesirable behavior with an unpleasant stimulus, which is not applied in this situation. The concept of a time-out usually refers to removing an individual from a situation temporarily to decrease undesired behaviors, but it doesn’t capture the proactive disengagement being suggested in this scenario. Walking away emphasizes the cessation of engagement rather than simply removing the individual from the context.