Please read section 2.1 for this week.
After reading the section, think of all the terms and concepts used in all of section 1 (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 2.1) please respond to the following questions and try to use these terms and concepts as you respond to the following questions.
What did you like about this section? How does it relate to the sections you have covered so far? What are three things you will remember from this section? What if anything would you like me to be sure and go over in class when we meet?
How do you think knowing behavior modification techniques will change the way you do things in the future?
Perhaps the most pleasurable concept of this section was the emphasis on using reinforcement whenever possible. The examples that we had to give elicited me to emit a new way of punishing my undesirable behavior. For instance, one of my undesirable behaviors was procrastination of homework. Instead of punishing myself for not doing it the night before, I should reinforce myself for doing it early. Let's face it, reinforcers are easier to administer to ourselves than punishers.
This section related to the past in that it contained all of the vocabulary, and began to integrate these terms into fully loaded behavioral sentences. This behavioral lingo is becoming almost second nature to me in my everyday life.
Another part of this section that will stick with me is the list of reasons for behavior modification. Most of us can sense when a behavior needs to change but to having a solid list like this puts things into perspective. I also liked the establishing operation and discriminatve stimuli descriptions. Prior to reading this, I was a bit confused but Maclin gave many good examples and diagrams to illustrate these concepts.
After reading this chapter, I don't feel confused about anything in particular. It wouldn't hurt to go over the difference between establishing operations and discriminative stimuli. Like the other concepts we have learned so far, I find that the examples you give in class reinforce my understanding.
Knowing what I do about behavior modification thus far, I can identify my undesirable behaviors and not be naive about them. When I behave in a way that is aversive to myself or others, I can be mad at myself all I want but it's hard to force a punishment on myself. When something has to be changed, it is clear now that reinforcement is a more effective technique.
As I have said in posts earlier this semester, I believe that reinforcement is the best way of effectively modifying behavior. I liked this chapter because it basically agrees with me (or I agree with it) and it taught us how to change punishments into reinforcements.
I really liked the overview and examples of establishing operations, satiation, discriminative stimuli, and deprivation in this chapter because I thought that it was too briefly touched in the last sections. I also felt like this chapter really tied up the last several sections which has made me more comfortable with the material.
After reading this section, I now fully understand and will remember the correct way to use establishing operations when speaking behaviorally. I will also remember the reasons we use behavior modification because it is a new concept introduced to us. I also agree that these categories engulf a lot of behaviors. I will also remember in more detail how to correctly identify and use discriminate stimuli!
I would probably benefit from going over examples in class as to how to translate punishment into reinforcement.
Knowing behavior modification is a great skill. Not only will it help me modify unwanted behaviors of my own, it will help me modify unwanted behaviors in other people.
I liked that this section combined several things we have been learning in the examples. It wasn’t just reinforcement or just target behavior it incorporated two or three things in each example and that made it easier for me to apply what we had been learning to the examples.
It related to the sections we have covered so far by repeating the material and continuing with the examples in the same format we have been doing. I like consistency when it comes to learning, so I am enjoying the similar format and knowing what to expect.
The first thing I’ll remember from this section is that reinforcement seems to be the best approach most of the time when modifying behavior. This leads into the second thing I’ll remember being that you can turn almost anything around into a reinforcing behavior or procedure rather than focusing on the mostly negative effects of punishing (in my opinion). I agree with Skinner in the fact that punishment can usually on discriminate a behavior in a particular situation and not eliminate the behavior all together. The third thing I’ll remember from this section is the four reasons to modify behavior. I think those reasons make perfect sense as to why behavior is modified; If it isn’t one than it’s probably another in most cases I’ve come across.
If we were to go over anything in class I would like to make sure that I am doing two things correctly. The first being I translate ‘normal speak’ into ‘behavioral speak’ when I am taking my examples and applying behavioral terms to them. The second is that I am converting the punishment oriented things I want to modify properly into reinforcement oriented things. Just as reinforcement that I am doing it correctly.
I think that instead of using punishment techniques I’ll try to use reinforcement rather than punishment when I am trying to modify things in my behavior or in others. With my cousins we tend to use a lot of punishment rather than reinforcement and after reading some of these sections I think they would benefit more from reinforcement rather than being punished all the time.
I liked this section because it summed up the other sections we’ve already read but presented new concepts at the same time without being too lengthy and boring. The section didn’t take very long to read because it was broken up by fill-in boxes and pictures relevant to the information presented. I liked that it didn’t give us too many new terms because that might have been too much in addition to all the terms pulled in from the past 5 sections. My favorite part of the section was when it talked about why we want to change certain behaviors. Up until this point, we have been talking about the behaviors and the different methods you can use to change them but not why we would need to change them in the first place.
I will have no problem remembering the 4 different reasons listed that we would change a behavior. The reading gave examples of each of them and then listed them again afterwards. I also won’t forget the section about eating hamburgers everyday and how that can make something go from a reinforcer to a punishment. I won’t have a hard time remembering the section on discriminative stimuli either because of the pictures they corresponded with, particularly the one of the girl putting money in the vending machine even though there is an “out of order” sign clearly taped on it.
From the readings, I have come to the conclusion that reinforcement is more effective than punishment in changing a certain behavior. Also, because of this section I will now be thinking more about the reason for changing a behavior and not just that it needs to be changed.
One thing I really liked about this section was how straight forward it was. It went back and related with the ABC’s to make sure it was clear. I also liked how you can take a negative behavior and figure out a way to make it so it can be reinforced. A lot of people when they have something that is an adversive behavior we usually just think of ways to punish that behavior. Like said in the reading, reinforcement is usually a more productive way of controlling or changing a behavior over punishment.
Everything in behavior modification relates to each other. Taking everything back to the ABC’s and to the understanding of punishment and reinforcement. This section just added the subjects of the antecedents being the trigger of behaviors, and how different behaviors can be taken in different contexts.
The first thing I will remember from this section is knowing that signs are a way of eliciting a behavior. They tell us what or how to do things and we emit the correct behavior. The second thing I will remember is different techniques to make sure that a stimulus will be reinforcing. One way of doing this is through deprivation. By not over using a reinforcing stimulus, the desire and anticipation will stay high. The last thing I will remember from this section are the four categories of behaviors and why we would want to change them. From behaviors that bother yourself to behaviors that are illegal.
Everything in the section was very straight forward. Nothing in particular stand out that need to be gone over. Just a general review in class will help to clarify what we have gone over.
I liked this section a lot because when writing our own examples, it related to our lives directly. When asking what things one would like to increase/decrease about ones behavior I felt that it was very interesting as well as helpful to us. I really like when we use real life examples to understand this material and I like it even more when we can start using reinforcement and punishment procedures in our own lives. This makes the class far more than just a memorization course when it relates so much to our lives.
As many of the sections do, this one keeps building well on what we have already learned. It again goes over the ABC’s but this time focuses a lot on the A (antecedent) portion of the formula. It breaks down many things that the context can do to the behavior. Learning more and more about the ABC’s, in my opinion, will make us so much better at recognizing behaviors and the structure that they are in.
I will first remember the use of our own personal goals to relate to what we have learned. Not many classes do this and I found it very interesting as well as helpful. It made me question what types of behaviors I would indeed like to reduce in my life, as well as how I would go about doing that. Second, I will remember the power of the context of a situation. Just because singing behavior is reinforced at my church, this doesn’t mean that singing behavior is ALWAYS reinforced. My father actually used to punish me when I would sing at the dinner table. Thirdly, I really liked listing our own examples, like the one I just mentioned for the power of the context section. I like the interactive examples a lot.
I am starting to understand everything a lot more in depth. One thing I don’t understand completely (or as well as I think I should) is establishing operations. Otherwise I think class time really helps when we practice examples like properly filling out the ABC structures.
I don’t think of myself as an overly positive person. When getting someone to do something I think my mind immediately resorts to punishment. After reading about reinforcement, I now realize how much better it is to manipulate behavior if you can reinforce someone, instead of punishing them. This is a very valuable thing to have learned from this section of reading.
The thing I enjoyed most when reading this section was how we were forced to look back on the things we had already read and just add new information to the section we had already read. We had to take old concepts such as punishment and reinforcement and just add a few deeper ideas to them. An example of this is how something that we would have before just thought of as a punisher, when we reconsider this punisher we can actually change it into a reinforcement by just thinking about it in a new way.
Three things I will remember most from reading this section 2.1 all go back to the basic idea of the ABC’s. We don’t always thing about things in life and whether or not we should or should not do them. Most things we do actually occur naturally in the ABC format. If we get really cold outside because we don’t wear a jacket, we are likely to wear a jacket outside the next time. We don’t sit around and think about if this is a reinforcement or punishment it just occurs naturally without much consideration. Another thing that stuck out in this chapter was the thoughts on why we would want to change behaviors in the first place. The four main factors involved in the changes are ourselves, others, trouble, and the law. We are constantly doing things to better our lives or gain pleasure so learning from past behaviors and changing them are necessary in life. The final part of the chapter that I will remember is as I mentioned before, how concept can greatly affect how a behavior is either punished or reinforced.
In class I would like to further discuss establishing operations and go over examples of how they are worked into the ABC model. Knowing behavior modification techniques can really help me out in the future and I plan on apply them while I am at work. I work in youth programs and knowing ways to alter a child’s behavior in a simple manner is crucial to the structure of everyday life when it comes to children, especially when I have my own someday.
My favorite part of this section was changing punishment into reinforcement. This is a behavior I already emit (most of the time), although I don't think I knew I was doing it at the time. For example, I wanted to stop eating so much junk food. Instead of not eating certain items (chips, ice cream, candy), I focus on eating more healthy items (fruit, veggies). I have found that as I eat more healthy items, the healthy foods elicit me to eat less junk food (even though I wasn't focusing on that). Because I have experienced this myself, I know that it works and it makes me more confident in behavior modification. As I continue to modify more of my behaviors, I will try to use reinforcement instead of punishment.
I also liked how this section summed up the previous sections in a very straight-forward way. I was able to take previous ideas and incorporate them with the new material. Reviewing the term "establishing operation" was helpful, because I had a difficult time remembering it. I will also remember the four reasons we change behavior:
1. It bothers us.
2. It bothers others.
3. It could get us into trouble.
4. It is illegal.
Before this class, I thought that reinforcement was more effective, but I didn't really know for sure. Now I am much more confident in the use of reinforcement over punishment. I think that the examples we create in class elicit better understanding, so it would be helpful to continue using them.
I like how this chapter talks about when and why behavior modification is used. I think it is important to note that not every single behavior should be modified, and I agree that reinforcement is the optimal way to do so.
This chapter very much was building on things we learned in previous chapters, it took a lot of old concepts, reinforcement, punishment, elicit and emit, satiation and deprivation, and reviewed and built upon what we’d already learned. This chapter was a nice review, and even better it helped me reassure myself that I am catching on and getting most of the concepts.
I think after this chapter I have a good grasp on the concepts, and while further review is welcome for even more reassurance, I am confident that I understand everything so far.
I actually work part time at a daycare, and teach swimming lessons’ at the YMCA, so in class I have been thinking a lot about what I am learning and trying to relate it to my job. I have actually been able to use it to help me know when and how to deal with misbehaviors at work, in a way that makes things better for the kids. This is a relief to me because I have struggled with how to discipline, and even how to discipline with my pre-school aged children who sometimes just don’t grasp directions, and rules.
This chapter clarified that a discriminative stimulus is an antecedent. It is something that determines what the next step will be.
It was also more in depth about the difference between satiation and deprivation, which are both establishing operations because they alter the effectiveness of the reinforcer or punishment.
Lastly, this chapter discussed reinforcement again, explaining that in the right context, a target behavior makes it possible to be reinforced.
I liked that this section touched on the naturally occurring reinforcements and punishments that happen everyday. This subject is highly relatable and allows us to gain a better understanding of these terms because of it. I now know that my ears and head hurting are punishers to not wearing ear plugs to a very loud rock concert, and that wearing them and not feeling crappy afterward is reinforcement.
Section 2.1 added to all of chapter one. It took the concepts covered in the first chapter and brought them a little further. As mentioned above, everyday reinforcements and punishments were covered. It also brought back establishing operation and discriminant stimuli. An establishing operation makes a consequence more effective, and this can be in an aversive or positive way. A discriminant stimulus is an antecedent, except that it will more likely bring out certain behaviors than others.
I remember the animal example of an establishing operation. The bird was deprived of food so that it would not become satiated and not want to eat it. Or, the food remained more reinforcing because the bird was deprived of it. Another thing that I recall from the reading is that you can be reinforced or punished for the same behavior. Speeding can be punished by a ticket and fine or it can be reinforced by making it to work on time. I also remember that there are four main reasons that are used as a tool for changing behavior. They are: the behavior bother us, the individual; the behavior bothers others; the behavior may lead to trouble; and the behavior is illegal.
Knowing behavior modification techniques will change the way I do things in the future. I will be able to break my behaviors into the ABC's and determine why I emitted a behavior, or what elicited it. This not only works for myself, but for others too. When I have kids these concepts will definitely come in handy!
What I liked about section 2.1 is explanation of how reinforcer can diminish overtime.
In this section the eating a hamburger was used as an example, talking about if you really like hamburgers and you get excited eating them, but then if you eat them everyday, it becomes less and less exciting and becomes unpleasant. Another great thing that was talked about in this section was deprivation and how it reinforces an individual behavior. In the book they use the example of starving the bird and then use small amount of grain, which became very reinforcing technique.
This section relates to the other sections by talking about the ABC’s and how are they written and what they mean. I gained more understanding when to use reinforcement and punishment. Now I look at every situation trying to figure out if punishment or reinforcement technique is being used.
By knowing behavior modification techniques, I try to see how I reinforce myself doing a certain behavior. This section talked about the reasons we want to change our behavior, there are four: they bother us, they bother other people, they may lead to problems, and they are illegal. When reading this I realized that I wanted to change few of my own behaviors, and I was brainstorming ideas of reinforcement I could use on myself. On of the behavior that I would like to change is not to eat late at night, but if I must, then I can eat fruit to fill me up, so I am going to keep a little journal and put a sticker for each day I complete and when I collect 6 stickers I can go shopping and buy one item I really love.
I am doing very good so far with this reinforcement idea!
I would have to say one thing that I did really like about this section was when they emphasized that reinforcement was much more important than punishment in developing a new behavior, because that's something that I've always believed in, and it's nice to see it stated. I also liked the activities pointing towards turning things that I didn't like into unattached behaviors that I wanted to reinforce.
That really helped me to apply previous knowledge of reinforcement to my own life and feel out personal scenarios of what I would find to be non aversive in building better behaviors and changing unpleasant ones. Also, the emphasizing of reinforcement in this chapter related to previous chapters in that in doing so, it took a look back on what we already knew and helped us to apply it to more current knowledge.
Three things that I will remember from this section are:
1. Reinforcement is more crucial to new learned behavior than punishment
2. The four reasons why we look to behavior modification to begin with
3. Reinforcement and punishment occur naturally within our lives every day, we just overlook it
These three things were very well covered within the reading, and also made a lot of sense to me, so I'm sure they will stick with me for a long time to come.
From this chapter I would really say there wasn't anything that I felt I needed external work on. In class it's always good to cover the more important topics just to get a general feel for it, but as far as this chapter goes, I didn't have much difficulty with any of the concepts or terms.
In the future, I don't know if this class will openly change the way I do things (because I already seemed to be following it well without the class) but I do believe it will give me more of an open mind to what I may have already considered to be true, but just didn't know for fact til I took this class. I hope to use a lot of the techniques learned in this class within not only my career path, but my life as well, in raising however many children I end up having. These are valuable skills to know and grow within, especially when you want to have the best family life possible.
I liked this section since I can grasp why behavior modification is need to people. In the part that is ‘what is the behavior modification’, there are four reasons why change behaviors. These means and examples are clear so, it helpful to understand. Also, using image and writing something are helpful to understand than just reading.
This section related to the past because this section include basic concept such as reinforcement, punishment, ABC’s behavior. Especially, some concepts re-explain as using more detail examples. Through reading the section, I had an opportunity which can repeat some concepts in behavior modification.
Three things I will remember most from this section 2.1 first, the principle of ABC’s procedure. Most of behavior happen naturally in the ABC’s procedure. I believe that basic is very important principle when we learn new something. Second, I would like to remember the four reasons to change behavior. Lastly, the third thing is differential reinforcement of other. It is not explain fully and I will learn more in later section. So I look forward to learning about that.
If I can go over anything in class I would like to understand more precisely about target behavior. Actually, this concept is so tough to me so understanding that was difficult problem.
Knowing behavior modification techniques will can help me for my future. I would like to work related to youth field so, I should meet many teenagers. Therefore, through learning behavior modification skills I will understand and educate them more rightfully.
Cumulative is normally a word that most students, including myself, dread hearing, but i can see why in the case of this class it is absolutely necessary. It is as you say, "learning a new language." It is important not only to know the definition of the words, but also how to use them in the correct context. I enjoyed this chapter. It was an easy read and for the most part an overview of the other chapters. The thing to key on, was understanding the subtle variations to each word, and that was probably my favorite part.
The three things that stuck out the most for me were 1.DRO- I thought it was pretty cool to take something you would normally punish, alter the how approach the desired target behavior and then all of a sudden now you can reinforce the behavior and get a better outcome.
2.Discriminative stimuli- I had already suspected it to be an antecedent, but was pleased to have confirmation.
3.Establishing operation- I wouldn't have thought a commercial was one, i would like to go over this in class, just to hear it rather than read it. I understand that it increases our likelihood of going there. I think maybe that is the point to it "increases the action."
Every time i think about this stuff, it makes me think of ways to use these tools in everyday life, and i like that.
One thing that I really enjoyed about this chapter is the review portion of it going over previous sections, terms, and providing new examples. Now that I'm starting to further understand and better differentiate terms in examples and situations, this section relates to others by putting them into practice. We are now asked to start thinking of our own behaviors to apply behavior modification to which we then need to appropriately use terms learned thus far. One thing that I will remember from this chapter are the four reasons to change behavior: 1- for us, 2- for others, 3- they may lead to trouble, and 4- they're illegal. Another thing I will remember is behaviors are better learned and changed with reinforcement rather than punishment. A third example of something I will remember is DRO, of differential reinforcement of other. I remember this by relating it to Newton's law (not sure which one exactly), but for every action there is a reaction; DRO makes me think of for every undesirable [behavior] there is a desirable one. One of the things I'm not 100% positive on understanding yet is correctly using and differentiating discriminative stimuli and establishing operations. I feel like I'm close to having it all "click" but a few more examples just to be sure would be helpful.
Knowing behavior modification techniques have already began to change the way I do things. If it isn't having a strong impact yet, I do find myself defining the ABCs in everyday tasks or situations I observe. I tend to laugh at myself because the conversation will continue and I'll be thinking about the antecedent, behavior and consequence and what would happen if the antecedent was different or the consequence was affected (effected?). I believe since now I am more aware of what I can do to effectively change behavior, I will start to put these techniques into practice.
What I liked about this section was how it was much easier for me to understand I think because a lot of it was review and then slightly building on it. Plus I like reviewing the information because the more often it is used in conjuction with newer material the easier it becomes to comprehend for me. I really liked the first page where you are suppose to test yourself about what you remember , this helped point out what information I had a good grasp of and what areas I needed improvement on and it only took a small amount of time to acess this. The things that I will remember from this section is that reinfrocemtn is almost always a better way to go, there are four different reasons to modify behavior, and that by switching the terms of a target behavior around you can turn it into a reinforcement procedure.
Currently I can not think of anything in particular that needs to be gone over in class but ocassionally i do have questions that arise after we go over the material and have to correct myself. I think behavior modification will really help in the future because it gives a more analytical approach to understanding why things happen and if you know that then you can make vital changes in yourself and situations around you.
I really enjoyed section 2.1 in general, it was easy to read, and a lot easier for me to understand what was going on compared to previous chapters. It was really helpful how it went back and associated the section to the previous chapters and kind of tied it all together thus far. It was really helpful for me to turn what we had previously learned about punishments into a reinforcement. This section also really helped to understand better what an establishing operation is. In the previous section I was still confused and didn't quite get what it was supposed to do, but after reading this section I have a better understanding of it.
Three things that I will remember (or four things actually) are the reasons why it is necessary to change behavior.
1. It bothers us
2. It bothers others
3. It is illegal
4. It can cause trouble
Something that I would like you to go over more in depth in class is target behaviors. I get that it's supposed to let someone know what the behavior is exactly, but I'm not sure if when I define target behaviors if they're descriptive enough, or vis versa they're too descriptive.
Knowing about behavior modification has already changed how I look at things, and think about doing things. Especially when it comes to animals, I find myself thinking about what exactly I could do to reinforce a behavior that I want and how long to do it for until it is emitted regularly. I also find myself using the terms from class more often which helps me to understand them better, and helps to identify which ones I need to review more.
I appreciate the fluidity in which the language of behavior modification allows the interchangeability of terms to occur. For instance, the Antecedent is the context, and can be referred to as the context that elicits a behavior. I like this because the idea of Antecedent and the term elicit are being used as a foundation to build from. Understanding the idea of an Antecedent allows me to understand how the idea of context eliciting behavior works.
I will absolutely remember that almost all behavior can be reinforced. This is preferable because punishment is usually seen as a negative thing. I get excited when I think about raising kids within the context of a reinforcing environment. Another important thing that I learned was how the establishing operation is the consequence of the behavior emitted. The establishing operation impacts how effective the consequence truly is. For instance, like the example of a stop sign, the likelihood of getting a large fine increases the likelihood of an individual to increase the behavior of stopping at a sign. The establishing operation is the increased value of stopping, being that avoiding a fine is desirable. A third thing that I learned is that behaviors have classes. I prefer this because it allows me to compartmentalize different behaviors based on context. The categories are individual, about others, behaviors that lead to trouble, and illegal behaviors. This is helpful in effectively looking at behaviors within a more specific light.
Because of my newfound knowledge of behavior modification techniques, I feel that I can really address the issues I have with my own laziness towards life. Rather than feeling defeated by the seemingly overwhelming desire to feel bored with life, I am excited to reinforce the behaviors I emit that encourage me to be more involved in my own life. I also enjoy thinking about the kind of environment with which I can raise my children, should I be lucky enough to have them.
Correction to my example of an establishing operation:
Because I (hypothetically) lost my job, the fine for blowing through a stop sign increases the likelihood that I will stop. The establishing operation is that the fine is much more undesirable due to my lack of money.
What I enjoyed most about this section were first, the examples, because they always seem to help me understand the terms more. I also liked the deprivation and satiation examples. Using hamburgers as an example helps me understand that when you add too much of a certain stimulus it can become unpleasant or aversive.
The three things I will remember from this section are signs being a discriminative stimuli, new behaviors being seldom learned by punishment, and the four reasons to change a behavior. Using signs as an example of discriminative stimuli helps me understand how to use to terms emit and elicit more. I will remember that behaviors are seldom learned by punishment, mainly from life experiences. If I was punished after learning a new behavior I would not want to do that certain behavior again, for the punishment would seem negative. I will also remember the four reasons to change behavior because it seemed that with our previous sections, we were not told why we should change a certain behavior other than to get a desired response or to decrease a certain behavior.
If anything, I would like it if you were to touch on the DRO (differential reinforcement of other), and also I would like it if we also went over the ABC’s again. Since the last class period I understand the ABC’s more, but I think it would be helpful if we were reintroduced in the beginning of the class.
I think that behavior modification will help me change the way I do things in the future because it will help me get a desired response. I do not necessarily want to manipulate people, but I do think it would be useful to know how to get people to see your side of things. Even though my job is only a part time job, I have already moved up and I am now a trainer. I think that these principles will help me get my trainees to understand the way I do things better and help me reinforce their good work.
I liked this section because it made the process of behavior modification more realistic rather than just a bunch of words making up some language. I also liked the examples I had to come up with because they related to me and that makes things easier to understand. It greatly relates to the previous sections because it’s behavior modification. There were several words from the other sections that were in this section that had more detail.
I’ll remember how important the antecedent is. I’ll also remember that the discriminative stimulus and antecedent are very much related. Thirdly, I’ll remember that it’s better to use reinforcement rather than punishment.
Knowing this information about behavior modification will help me in the future because I’ll realize that if I want to change a behavior I’m emitting, I can do it by breaking it down and figuring out the ABCs.
(Sorry I'm late!)
I liked that this section reinforced what we have learned in class so far while introducing some new material. It was done so well though because I almost didn't notice that it was new material! It related well to the other sections because it reviewed what they had talked about. It brought in reinforcement, punishment, the ABC's, and elicit and emitting behaviors.
The three things that I will remember most is the 4 reasons to change behavior: 1) because the behavior bothers us. 2) because the behavior bothers others 3) The behavior may lead to trouble 4) the behavior is illegal. I will remember Target behavior because that was reinforced in this section and I will remember the difference between eliciting and emitting behaviors.
In class on Thrusday I would really like to you to go over discriminative stimulus again because I am still a little confused about what this is and when it occurs.
I know that the behavior modification techniques will deffinately help for me to use on my clients at work. It is not that I want to be able to manipulate them but the main goal of my job is to help them to change thier behavior to do what is acceptable in society. If I can find new ways to help them do this without them necessarily knowing about it it could make me do my job better.
I enjoyed that this section focused on reinforcement and punishment in the real world as it seemed a bit less planned and operational. It explained things such as natural consequences of behavior and the reactive behaviors that the consequences elicit. In the scope of a normal day, we may be reinforced to study more often if we receive a high score on a test. This reinforcement will elicit better study habits from us. On the flip side of the coin, if we do not study for a test and receive a poor score as a result, this will act as a punisher, lessening the lackadaisical attitude that we may have previously had toward study habits.
What I have noticed from my limited experience with behaviorism in other classes is that the material learned or researched never stands on its own. The content of each section that I read this semester will be constantly building on previous sections. I may be wrong, but I feel that many of the behavior modification techniques learned will be utilized in conjunction with other techniques to make them more effective. In other cases, a modification technique will be used because another technique was ineffective to a particular case.
One thing that I will remember about this section is the natural reinforcer/punisher aspect of the section that I discussed above.
Another thing is the reasoning as to why a behavior may be chosen as a target behavior. The four reasons we may decide to target a behavior are, 1) they bother
us, 2) they bother others, 3)
they may lead to problems,
and 4) they are illegal.
A third thing that I will be sure to remember in this section is that context is a powerful antecedent. There are many behaviors that one may look at and feel are aversive behaviors, but when context is added to the discussion, these same behaviors may be entirely acceptable and maybe even expected. During the recent counter protest that I took part in on campus, I was found without a shirt, with a rainbow flag fastened around my neck. The topic of norm violations was brought into a discussion with my friends during the protest and it was brought to my attention that my behavior could be used as material for a norm violation assignment that I am to do this semester for class. I then looked around at the crowd and noticed a number of rainbow flags, colors, shirts, and other accessories. Having pointed all of this out, I responded to my friend that this would not be a violation of any sort of norm in this context. The same can be said about aversive behavior; Context means a great deal.
In regard to knowing techniques for behavior modification and how this knowledge will change how I interact with others, I will utilize these techniques for the rest of my life with anyone whom I have prolonged interaction with. I can't say whether I will do this consciously or not, but I can say with confidence that I will utilized these techniques for a long time to come.