3. From your knowledge of operant conditioning, write a behavioural analysis of two of the problems noted
in 2. Make a special note of the events that act as antecedents for your problem behaviour, i.e., trigger
it off, and the consequences that follow. As a result of this analysis, you should be able to specify and
measure your problem behaviour in terms of its frequency and/or duration. For example, the
antecedent to my coffee drinking is someone asking me if I would like a cup. The consequence is the
pleasant conversation that occurs while we are drinking the coffee. Alternatively, the antecedent to my
lack of study is sitting in the TV chair watching TV. The consequence of TV watching is the relaxation
and enjoyment that is associated with it.
4. At this point, you should be able to specify your problem behaviour as some behaviour-in-a-situation
that you either wish to increase or decrease. This will be your target behaviour.
5. Your first response might be that giving up coffee drinking will interfere with your social life. Clearly, if
that is the case, you will not stop drinking coffee. In such cases, it is a good idea to employ an
acceptable substitute and focus upon that, e.g., join your friend but drink tea or hot water. In the
example based upon study, it would be better to deal directly with increasing study hours rather than
decreasing TV-watching hours. There is no guarantee that if you give up TV watching, you will spend
the extra time studying (is there!?)
6. A couple of procedural points. First, because this exercise has to be completed in a relatively short
period of time, you should choose something that occurs several times each day (or that you wish
would occur several times each day.) Coffee drinking is a good example. If it tends to only occur once
each day, it should be something that fluctuates in duration, e.g., practicing the piano. Second, choose
something that is not central to your life and likely to be modified in a relatively short period of time. Do
not choose smoking. .
7. Now start taking an actual count of the frequency and/or duration of your target behaviour, its
antecedents, and its consequences. Do not try any intervention at this point. Observing your behaviour
can be reactive. That is, you may observe some change in your usual pattern of behaving. However,
such a change will typically be temporary unless some intervention takes place.
This baseline serves three purposes:
a. It helps you to determine if you have a problem.
b. It enables you to ultimately determine the success of your programme by providing at
least, a before/after comparison.
c. It allows you to set appropriate goals. To do this, you find the average rate or duration of
response during the baseline period. Next, determine the largest number of responses/
longest duration for any given day during the baseline period. The appropriate goal is a
response rate/ duration higher than the former and equal to or less than the latter.
At the same time begin a graph of your data. Time on the horizontal axis (days is the most appropriate
unit) and frequency/ duration of occurrence on the vertical axis. Using the baseline data in the graphs
below determine appropriate goals for decreasing the number of cups of coffee consumed each day
and increasing the number of hours of study engaged in each day.
8. At this point we need to start thinking about environmental planning and behavioural programming.
Let’s begin with environmental planning.
9. A simple application of environmental programming to our study example might go as follows. Think
about your study situation. What do you do there? Do you study? Do you read the
newspaper/books/magazines? Do you daydream? If you have a phone on or near your desk, do you
chat to acquaintances? If you do anything at your desk other than study, you should stop doing it. By
all means, daydream, but do it somewhere else. Make your desk a pure study situation. The idea is that
if study is all you do at your desk, once you sit down at it, it will cue study behaviour. Try to think about
how you would apply environmental programming to our coffee-drinking example.
10. To employ behavioural programming, you have to choose a positive reinforcer. If you make this
consequent upon the occurrence of your target behaviour, it will increase the rate of your target
behaviour. Having selected a suitable reinforcer, ask yourself the following questions:
a. Is it really a positive reinforcer for you?
b. Do you have control over its occurrence?
c. Is it potent, the bigger, the better!
d. What type of reinforcement schedule should you employ?
11. It is also a good idea to choose both a daily (or even more frequent reinforcer) and a weekly one.
12. Now you can draw up a Contingency Contract – a written agreement with yourself that states what the
target behaviour is, and what positive reinforcer you will gain for performing it (or not, as the case may
be.)
For example, you might reinforce yourself for each extra half an hour of study by buying a lottery ticket.
Be creative.
13. Some of you will have arrived at this point wondering why punishment has not been discussed. In most
behaviour management programs, it is wise to avoid punishers. After all, if the programme is more
aversive than the status quo, one can predict from behaviour theory that the programme will be
dropped.
14. When your programme has been in operation for some time, you should evaluate it by looking at the
rate of the target behaviour. Is it changing as it should? If not, look to see of other consequences
might be affecting your target behaviour.
For example, when you to switch to drinking tea or hot water, your friends might make disparaging
remarks about your being on a health kick. This may well punish the behaviour of asking for either of punisher. (By the way, how do we define a negative punisher?) We could do this by increasing our positive reinforcer.
15. Once your programme has been in operation for some time and is working successfully, you may wish
to maintain your new-found “will-power” without employing the elaborate programme that you used to
achieve it. You can do this in a number of ways:
a. Use delayed reinforcement, e.g., on a weekly basis when the desired response has been
maintained for that period. This is called “thinning”.
b. Use graphing the rate of response as the only consequence.
c. Check the response intermittently to see if the behaviour is being maintained.
Following our first meeting, I would like you to put your programme into action. The baseline should be
a minimum of seven days. The actual intervention should last at least two weeks. Then spend a week
employing delayed reinforcement. Graph the rate of response for a further week.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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