This assignment can be a little late since it is shorter notice.
Please read section 4.1 - Need for Self-Directed Behavior
After reading the section, think of all the terms and concepts used in all of sections we have overed so far. Please respond to the following questions and try to use these terms and concepts as you respond to the following questions.
What are three things you will remember about self-directed behavior? If you were to use self-directed behavior what behavior would you change? Would this behavior change by using reinforcement or punishment? If punishment is required can you think of a good DRO to use instead?
Do you think self-direct behavior techniques can be readily applied to the real world today? How so or Why not?
What if anything would you like me to be sure and go over in class when we meet?
Include a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post. (example - Terms: positive reinforcer, extinction, reinforcer, discriminative stimulus...)
I enjoyed this section. As I read through it, I realized how easy it is to administer punishers and reinforcers on other people in order to manipulate their behavior. However, I bet most of us think about our own behavior more than others. Why should we perfect others' behavior when we havn't perfected our own?
There were a few sections that stood out to me in 4.1. The first was that the target behavior should be very specific. This is why most New Years resolutions fail. It's difficult to measure 'getting fit' in order to analyze the effectiveness of self-drected behavior modification. By stating a specific goal, one will be more likely to achive this. The second thing I will remember was actually brought up in a previous section. Instead of punishing behavior, try to reverse the target behavior so it can be reinforced. This is known as the differential reinforcement of other (DRO). Let's face it, it's easier to reinforce ourselves than it is to punish ourselves.
The third thing I learned from this section is that I am not so good at administering self-directed behavior on myself. I believe everyone has something they want to change about themselves. One thing I have found myself doing this semester is procrastinating my homework until the day before its due, and studying minimally or tests. This is something that can be reinforced. Using DRO, I could reinforce myself for studying a few hours each night and doing homework the day I get it.
Self-directed behavior can be applied to the real world in many ways. All around us, we see plenty of self-help organizations making millions off of our incompentce to help ourselves. How many people make a profession of helping others because the others can't help themselves? I believe that if people had more control over their life, they would be happier and more confident. Instead, many of us lack discipline over ourselves and let our addictions take the wheel. Perhaps a few simple lessons in self-directed behavior modification could change this?
Terms: punishment, reinforcement, self-directed behavior, DRO, target behavior
A large part of this section was about New Year’s resolutions and how to achieve them. A resolution is a good example of a self directed behavior, which is when we exert our free will to choose a behavior that we want to increase or decrease. In order to achieve a resolution, you either have to use punishment or reinforcement; depending on the resolution. Some resolutions are more effective if we were to use punishment, such as getting fit. Resolutions that are more effective by reinforcement may be quitting smoking, or spending time with family and friends.
Also, I will remember how important it is to use target behaviors. Even though setting resolutions are a good example of self-directing behaviors, it is more important to use target behaviors when setting these resolutions as well. Resolutions may be too broad; therefore using target behaviors will help us achieve our resolutions easier. After establishing the target behavior, it is also important to redefine other behaviors that can still be reinforced. These behaviors will still function to reduce the original target behavior, but will over all help you achieve your goal. This is called differential reinforcement of other, or DRO’s.
Another thing I will remember is to decide on if I should use punishment or reinforcement to achieve my desired behavior. This is important because in self-directed behavior we set our own goals and administer our own reinforcers or punishers. From personal experience, I achieve my goals better when I reinforce myself rather than punish myself, which explains why some resolutions fail more if the person were to use punishment rather than reinforcement. Maybe this is because punishing yourself seems more aversive rather than pleasurable when trying to make yourself better.
If I were to use self-directed behavior, (which I already do), I would set a goal to lose weight, or just tone up. From personal experience, I find myself losing more weight if I were to reinforce myself rather than punish myself. Using reinforcement with self-directed behavior would also be an example of self-reinforcement, which is when you reward yourself for achieving a certain goal. That being said, I would use reinforcement while trying to lose weight because I think that punishing yourself will just bring you down rather than help keep you motivated.
I believe that self-directed behavior is used all the time. People are always reading self-help books, or are always looking to change their behavior, whether they think they are perfect or not. I think that self-directed behavior is used in our personal lives, but may be used more in the workplace, in order to earn more money or be respected more on the job.
This section was really interesting to me and I understood most of it, so in that case I can’t think of anything as of right now to go over, but I do think that touching on DRO’s would be helpful.
Terms Used: self-directed behavior, punishment, reinforcement, target behaviors, aversive, pleasurable, differential reinforcement of other (DRO’s)
I like this section because it gives hope to people who want to change something about them. It’s giving the individual the ultimate control of their own behavior.
3 things I learned
1. Self-directed behavior- we rely on ourselves to manage the behavior and in most cases administer the consequences. We chose if we want to increase or decrease the behavior. The goal is to acquire better, more adaptive patterns of behaviors that will eventually occur automatically and routinely as part of daily life.
a. Ex: Giving yourself a present at the end of the month for flossing two times a day, every day. You want this behavior to become automatic at some point.
2. If you want to change a certain behavior, do it NOW, and not wait until New Year’s or the beginning of the month or beginning of the summer break.
3. When thinking about what you want to change about yourself, it’s important not to be broad, vague; you need to be very specific about the behavior you want to emit and the consequences that are associated with that particular behavior.
a. Ex: You may put down, my goal is to get organized- this is a great example of being vague. A better thing to say is I want to keep my bills in one drawer and my magazines and other mail in the other drawer.
A behavior that I want to change is going to the gym 3 or more times a week and getting my planned out workout complete before I leave the gym. I would like to increase the behavior so I would definitely use reinforcement, positive reinforcement (to increase the behavior by adding something pleasant). I would reward myself every two weeks on Sunday by allowing myself to rent two movies and go buy a piece of clothing or an accessory. Thinking about my rewards elicits the behavior to go to the gym, and by emitting the right behavior I will get rewarded.
Self-direct behavior techniques can be applied to the real world today. Most people want to be the best they can be and live up to their full potential and be happy. To be happy you have to be pleased about your actions. Some of the reasons that we do want to change our actions are: they bother us, they bother other people, they might lead to trouble later on, and they may be illegal. People that work in juvenile type settings are exposed to a lot of situations that they need to come up with solutions of how to make a person motivated to change their own behavior. Wanting to increase or decrease a behavior, starts with an individual who is motivated enough to want to do something about it.
Terms Used: self-directed behavior, positive reinforcement, elicits, emit
Three things I’ll remember about self directed behavior is that defining the target behavior is very important, it’s more pleasurable to use reinforcement rather than punishment, and DRO. As said in the section, it’s very important to point out the target behavior. Once you define the target behavior, it’s much easier to figure out how to modify it and then emit a different behavior. It’s much better to use reinforcement rather than punishment because punishment can create an aversive outcome while reinforcement is pleasurable. When trying to modify a target behavior, it can be helpful to look at other behaviors that can be reinforced rather than one broad behavior. For example, if someone wants to be a cleaner person, they can reinforce themselves for emitting behaviors such as putting clothes away, making the bed, or vacuuming. It’s easier to do this than to reinforce for the broad behavior of being clean. This is known as differential reinforcement of others (DRO). You’re being reinforced for doing other simpler behaviors rather than a broader one.
If I were to change a behavior, I would change my money habits. I would try to use reinforcement by saving up money and buying myself a little gift when I’ve reached a certain amount.
I think that this technique can be applied to the real world in several ways. I feel like that although people don’t realize they’re using some sort of technique, people change behaviors all the time. I used to never clean my room but as the years went on, I realized that having a clean room made me happy so I continued to clean my room. I was internally reinforced for cleaning my room and so that behavior was changed.
Terms: self directed behavior, target behavior, reinforcement, punishment, DRO, aversive, pleasurable, emit
I liked this section because it made behavior modification more personal and seemingly more beneficial. Behavior modification can be used for personal reasons other than monitoring your own behavior (i.e. using techniques to change aversive behaviors in others), but it seems more readily reinforcing to use self-directed behavior modification.
Although I have already learned about the importance of target behaviors being very specific, this chapter reinforced this importance in the context of self-directed behavior. I think it is safe to say that almost everybody has failed to maintain their new year’s resolution and the likely reason is because they are not effective at setting specific, yet achievable, goals for themselves. For example, the text points out how arbitrary the resolution to “get healthy” is…does get healthy mean implementing an exercise routine, drinking more water, or eating healthier (even these are arbitrary)? Without being specific, resolutions are likely to go by the wayside.
Another thing that stuck out in this chapter is the concept of differential reinforcement of other (DRO). DROs can be used to help reinforce target behaviors by reinforcing other behaviors that are also related to the more general target behavior. In the text, I defined my target behavior for “quit drinking” as quit drinking juice (juice isn’t bad but I rarely drink alcohol and don’t drink pop so it’s all I could think of). I could only think of two DROs at the time which were: drink water instead of juice and drink milk instead of juice. By reinforcing water-drinking, I am also reinforcing my behavior of drinking less juice.
The lasts thing I will remember from this chapter is how easy it really is to change our aversive behaviors that either both us or bother others as long as we know to set specific goals. Self-directed behavior techniques always used in the real world…New Year’s resolutions are a prime example; however, these techniques are often not successful because people do not really know how to make them work effectively. I actually used self-directed behavior techniques last night to get me motivated to finish working on a study guide. I got a huge coloring page of Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story that I really wanted to color but wouldn’t allow myself to color unless I finished my study guide. Because I really wanted to color, I finished my study guide a lot faster than I would have otherwise (if even at all).
Terms used: aversive, target behaviors, self-directed behavior, differential reinforcement of other (DRO), reinforcing, aversive
1. Self-directed behavior is not very effective when the behavior we are trying to modify is vague or has many different target behaviors within one behavior.
2. Other-directed and self-directed behaviors. The difference is that we are either allowed to control our reinforcements (self-directed) or the people around us have the control over the reinforcements (other-directed). I think this concept is an important one to keep in mind because we actually have a lot more control over behaviors and how they are reinforced than some may think.
3. Properly defining a target behavior is the most important step in developing a self-directed behavior system for change.
I would change my tendency to procrastinate on my homework, more specifically I would do homework when it is assigned, rather than waiting until close to the due date. I believe that the behavior would change if I used reinforcement which would most likely be self-directed reinforcement because I would be in control of using reinforcement for my behavior.
I think self-direct behavior techniques can and should be used in the world today, but that a lot of people do not know how to properly identify specific target behaviors to modify. Like the majority of examples in the reading people’s overall goals are usually too broad and not specific enough. When I hear people say they want to lose weight that could include a variety of behaviors such as changing eating habits or going to the gym more often (there are even more specific target behaviors within those two examples).
I would like to go over DRO’s a little more because I am not sure if I quite have the concept fully under wraps.
Terms: self-directed behavior, target behavior, other-directed, reinforcements, behavior, DRO’s
Three things that i will remember from this reading is about how to narrow a self-directed behavior. It is easy to say things like i want to stop bitting my nails, or loose weight but by having such broad topics creates more area for failure. When you choose a behavior you would like to change it is important to ask yourself a bunch of questions to fully understand what you want to change and how you are going to change it.
the second thing that correlates with this is when you have a specific target behavior it is easier to achieve because you have more to work with. One thing that helps someone stay on track is because we are usually harder on ourselves than we are with others. having self will and determination helps when it comes to staying on track. This i dont know if i totally agree with. Because i control what i do sometimes i talk myself out of doing things that would be good for my target behavior. This theory represents why punishment is more the cause of failed resolutions than reinforcement.
This can be seen everyday in the real world. people are always making statements and false desires of achieving something. Which usually fails because of there broad wishes instead of realities. Take for example all of the new years resolutions that usually fail.
If i were to change one thing about myself would be to stop picking. by reinforcing a good behavior on successfull days would help promote the good behavior to change the target behavior.
terms: punish, reinforce, self-directed behavior, target behavior
I will remember that self directed behavior would be better to do it ourselves because then it will be more free will than having to manipulate someone into doing something. It is also better I think to decide what you want to change in yourself then what you want to change in others, simply because if you make up your own mind I think you would be more likely to stick to it as long as you can hold yourself to high standards.
From this chapter I will also remember that target behaviors need to be specific. When self directing behavior it makes it easier to see how much the behavior is changed, or know exactly what to change by being more specific in target behaviors. This was mostly review but a very good and important reminder.
I will also remember that DRO stands for differential reinforcement of other. I learned that differential reinforcement is reinforcing incompatible behaviors. This is a way to reinforce instead of punishing when there is a behavior that we want to reduce. Because reinforcement is more preferable to punishment, reinforcing a behavior that is incompatible with the behavior we want to reduce.
If I were to use self directed behavior on me it would be to stick to my work out routine. I could easily use reinforcement because for starters working out makes me feel good about myself, and then I typically reward myself with a delicious post work out snack of some sort.
I think self-directed behaviors can totally be used today, I have been using them with my work out routine for a while and it works. I could make improvements to it in order to make it work better, but none the less it is absolutely self directed behavior. My brother also used differential reinforcement to quit smoking. Instead he started lifting weights and in the process of getting healthy he really enjoys the results he gets and realized that it was crazy to keep smoking while he was doing all of this work to improve his health. I think in these ways self directed behavior is absolutely used in the world today.
Terms used: Self directed behavior, differential reinforcement, reinforcement, punishment
The three things I will remember about self-directed behavior are:
1. The difference between other-directed behavior and self-directed behavior.
When people elicit some behavior, they are controlled by others and the availability of reinforcers in Other-directed behavior. On the other hand, when people elicit behavior, these are controlled by themselves. We called it Self-directed behavior So if we use this technique, we can choose our behavior that we want to increase or decrease.
2. The target behavior should not to be broad or vague but to be specific.
It is important to use target behavior technique properly when we want to use self-directed behavior. Using appropriate target behavior is effective to increase desirable behavior.
3. Differential Reinforcement of Other (DRO)
Differential Reinforcement of Other means that reinforcement gives to someone if someone will not elicit undesirable behavior within fixed period. It shows that using reinforcement is better than using instead of punishment.
A certain behavior that I want to change is drinking coke almost everyday. Actually I already have this behavior since I was high school student. However, I quit to drink coke while entering the university. At that time I found some solution fitting to me of course, I didn't know that was self-direct behavior technique. I made some steps for stopping to drink coke. First step was 'drinking once a day' and next step was 'bringing water bottle all day'. It made me full and not thirsty without drinking coke, I could decrease my undesirable behavior by using self-direct behavior.
I believe that self-direct behavior method can be applied to the real world. Many people like to set up the goals for themselves. For example, people make a new plan to change their behavior nicely in the new years. It is 'new years resolution' which described in this chapter. I think it means people want to modify their undesirable behavior or habit by oneself.
Terms; other-directed behavior, self-directed behavior, elicit, target behavior, DRO, reinforcement, punishment
Three things that I will remember about section 4 is that self directed behavior is used for one of four reasons and most commonly the first 2 (they bother us/or others). 2)It is essential to concisely define the target behavior so you can know when it occured to either reinforce it or punish. 3)It is better to convert a behavior into something that is reinforcing rather than punishing.
If I were to use self directed behavior on myself I would want to change the smoking behavior. I use to smoke regularly for a couple of months and then was forced to quit when I took a job at a summer camp and if i wanted to smoke I had to walk two miles on my break to do so. Then when I was done working there I began to start smoking when I would drive long distances and I stopped doing that, but over the last two years whenever I drink I absolutely have to have a ciggarette and sometimes it leads to me smoking when im not drinking.Overall I need to stop smoking when I drink because it is unlikely that I could stop drinking for the rest of my life.
This behavior would change possibly with reinforcement, but I think it might work better with punishement, like every time I smoke a ciggarette I have to put 5$in a jar.I think a possible DRO would either be don't drink or chew gum because if I chew gum I don't feel as compeled to smoke.
I believe that self directed behavior is effective in changing peoples behavior in gthe real world because it makes the problem and solution visible.
Terms: DRO, punishment, selfdirected behavior, reinforcement
I really prefer the idea of self directed behavior because it leads to each person actually being accountable for their behaviors. Often people tend to blame anything except themselves for their life circumstances. What I find interesting is even within the context of something rather horrible, it appears that life is whatever you choose to make it. What I mean is that we have control over our own behavior, and therefore control over how we may choose to respond to life. For instance, while this is not horrible, many people find rain to be undesirable. But one could choose to like the rain; simply stating that although it is miserable outside, one can stay in and indulge in a book or a movie without the guilt of not going outside.
Although other-directed behavior exists, I appreciate the context given it. Again I believe that people use others to get off the hook. Other-directed behavior exists within strict contexts, such as in the book: marketing, low functioning adults, and work safety. It excludes the idea that the "devil made me do it". I find it liberating to acknowledge that I can become whoever I want to be. For a maturing adult, that may entail adopting a new lifestyle quite different from one's childhood or high school years. As a child I know that I often would blame my transgressions on my peers. While peer pressure is real, I think that as an adult I should be held accountable for my actions because I am not a low functioning adult.
Another refresher was to examine ways to reinforce self directed behavior, given that punishing yourself is rather bizarre. I find that I seek out a desirable life, and part of that is a life in which my behavior is reinforced and not punished. I also appreciate that resolutions are a cop out of sorts. The future is also often the culprit in cases where behaviors should cease. We always put off the behaviors we desire to emit. We want to lose weight next year, or do our homework tomorrow. It much more exhausting to just do the desired behavior now.
If I were to use self directed behavior, I would change that I struggle to wake up in the morning prior to 9 am. This behavior would change with reinforcement (don't they all?). Being that I am a sucker for a good meal out, one way I could reinforce waking up at 7 am instead of 9 am would be to reward myself with a meal out if I wake up 4 out of 7 days a week for a month. At the end of a three months, I will have treated myself to three expensive meals out, and can adjust the goal. I could make it 6 out of 7 days a week for a month. If one meal out per month is not reinforcing enough, it can be cut to once every two weeks until the behavior is conditioned and the reinforcement is no longer the meal, but rather the fulfilling feeling of being energized at 7 am, allowing for two extra hours in the day. Maybe I would then push the hour back to 6 am as a new goal.
In the real world, I wish more people would utilize self directed behavior. I feel that many people are unwilling to adapt to their work environments, feeling entitled to "buck the system". While I support individual freedoms, it is tiring to work with the dissatisfied employee. The company seems to never be able to satisfy the demands of the employee, and everything seems to always "suck". I think that work environments can be more enjoyable to be in if people chose to self direct their behaviors to get along and enjoy work while employing the company standards.
Terms: self directed behavior, undesirable, other-directed behavior, context, reinforce, punished, emit, conditioned.
I really enjoyed this section, because it focused on changing your own behaviors. I think this is something that interests most people. I have tried to change some of my behaviors in the past; some successfully, some not. For example: I crack my knuckles fairly often. This is something that bothers me, as well as the people around me. I still have not been able to stop, but hope that after learning more from this class, I will be able to. In the past, I have had people around me point out when I crack my knuckles to bring attention to it. This is a punishment method, because it's aversive and tries to reduce the frequency of my knuckle cracking behavior. I might be more successful if I used a DRO (differential reinforcement of other) method. I could start using power-putty to occupy my hands so that I don't start my undesirable behavior. I would then reinforce myself for using the power-putty.
Three things I will remember from this section are:
1. Self-directed behavior occurs when we exert our free will to choose a behavior that we want to increase or decrease. It involves making your own goals and consequences.
2. Other-directed behavior occurs when others control the availability of reinforcers. It's used to manage classroom settings and work safety.
3. Defining a specific target behavior that can be reinforced is the most important step to successfully changing your own behavior.
Terms: punishment, aversive, DRO, undesirable, reinforce, self-directed behavior, consequences, other-directed behavior, reinforcers, target behavior
Three things that I will remember about Self-directed behavior are
1: it's different from other-directed behavior in that self-directed behavior is when we use our own free will in order to increase or decrease the behavior desired. other-directed behavior is when other poeple have the control and availability of reinforcers.
2: Many people set self-directed behaviors as goals for a New Year's resolution but fail because they are too braod. A set target behavior that is clearly defined is needed for this to work.
3: Differential reinforecement of other are alternative behaviors that can be reinforced but will still function to reduce the original target behavior.
If I were to use self-directed behavior I would change the behavior of biting my nails. In order to do this I think I would use both punishment and reinforcement. Punishment in that I would need to do something like snapping a rubber band on my wrist every time I catch myself doing it, and reinforcement in that maybe for every 2 weeks I don't bite my nails I could get a manicure. The punishment of snapping the band with immediately elicit the non-biting behavior, while the reinforcement would cause me to emit the non-biting behavior over a longer period of time.
I think that this technique can be applied to the real world whether people realize they're doing it or not. Behaviors change all the time for one reason or another most people just don't realize that there's actually a term for the change. You change your hairstyle, maybe because you've been reinforced by someone on the tv, you buy a specific car because you've been reinforced by the adds etc.
Terms: Behavior, punishment, reinforcement, emit, elicit, self-directed behavior, differential reinforcement, reinforced, target behavior, other-directed behavior,reinforcers
Self-directed behavior is something, I believe, every person should be in tune with in their own life. Having to rely on other people to obtain desirable behavior is something I would hope most people wouldn't ever have to go through. Three things I will remember from this chapter are:
1. Other-directed behavior is when we rely on others for the administering of reinforcement, where as self-directed behavior occurs when we use our own free will to choose a behavior that we want to increase or decrease.
2. A lot of new years resolutions fail because they are too broad and lack a specific target behavior.
3. Always try to redefine alternative behaviors that can be reinforced rather than strictly punishing the target behavior. This is called differential reinforcement of other.
One behavior I would like to reinforce within myself is continuing to lift three times a week for at least an hour in order to get it better shape. This involves reinforcement, because my hope is to increase the behavior of lifting weights, and even running while I'm at the WRC.
Self-directed behavior is definitely used in the world today, I find myself using it a lot as I hope others do as well. If you went through life constantly relying on others for reinforcement that would just be silly. Emitting behavior that I find to be productive and positive is always reinforcing in that I feel better about the life I'm living.
emit, self-directed behavior, reinforcement, behavior, punish, target behavior, differential reinforcement of other, other-directed behavior
First, I will remember that self-directed behavior is defined as using behavior modification to develop positive behaviors in ourselves. I enjoyed this section a lot because it really gets down to how we can help not only others around us, but ourselves through behavior modification. The big difference in the self-directed behavior and the behavior modification we have been focusing on in the past, is that we ourselves regulate this behavior and choose our consequences. Second, I recall the clever list of why people should change their behaviors.
1. The behavior bothers us
2. The behavior bothers others
3. The behaviors might get us in trouble
4. The behaviors are actually illegal
When modifying our own behavior we need to think back to if we would like to increase a positive behavior or decrease a negative behavior? This will then affect if we use punishment, decreasing a behavior, or reinforcement, increasing a behavior. Lastly, I will remember we really need to define our target behavior we want to change and not simply say something vague like "Quit drinking". This makes it difficult for us to break down that behavior, like into the ABCs due to the many different types of contexts, reinforcements and punishments, as well as consequences of this actions. Behaviors appear to be better modified when it is defined well and a very specific target behavior. This will then make it easier for us to change, and the change will then more easily become part of routine behavior so we will need to work less to keep doing it.
If I wanted to use self-directed behavior I would probably choose to have myself work out more. I would then want to make this more specific by saying, I want to work out more after class on MWF. I would change this by using reinforcement, by adding something pleasureable to increase the behavior again. Perhaps I would then let myself buy a new pair of shoes after working out every MWF for 2 weeks. I believe very strongly that self-directed behavior can change our world today. We are constantly monitoring our behaviors, but we need to learn to break down these behaviors to then change them. I think people who want to lose weight or want to quit smoking could benefit greatly by learning about things as far back as Pavlov. Rarely in my classes do I truly think we can apply the knowledge of topics directly to the real world, but I am very confident that the things I have learned really translate into ways of modifiying my behaviors today as well as the behaviors of those around me.
Terms used: self-directed behavior, reinforcement, punishment, behavior, behavior modification, target behavior, pavlov, pleasurable, regulate, consequences
This section was a good read. It was nice to hear about changing our own individual behaviors (self-directed behavior) as opposed to others (other-directed behavior).
The first thing that I will remember is that to change a behavior, you have to name a specific target behavior. This will increase the likelihood that the intended behavioral change will occur. I will also remember that when dealing with your goal of changing a behavior, you'll have to choose one to decrease or one to increase. This is really up to the individual to decide if he or she likes punishment or reinforcement more. This is called the differential reinforcement of other (DRO). The third thing that I will remember is that the when converting a behavior that gets punished to one that receives reinforcement, the behavior change has a better chance of surviving.
I would change my hair plucking behavior. I do it when I am concentrating, bored, and in class. I pick at my chin and neck and find little hairs to pull. I think I could use reinforcement to change this behavior. For example if I can sit through a class without doing, I get to eat some fruit snacks or something. Perhaps I could aim for behaviors that keep my mind and hands busy when I am bored.
Terms Used: punishment, reinforcement, differential reinforcement of other (DRO), target behavior, self-directed behavior, other-directed behavior
self-directed behavior needs to be the same as if you were modifying someone else's behavior. It needs to be precise and measurable. The target behavior must be one that can be either punished or reinforced. DRO is a good way to work on a target behavior, being that reinforcement is much stronger than punishment. When using DRO your goal is to find a behavior that is contradictory to the target behavior and then reinforce that behavior. I really liked the part on New Year's resolutions and why they dont work.
If i were to use a self-directed behavior modification it would be to stop smoking and drinking all together. Though this sounds kind of broad. I believe that I have it narrowed down. I only smoke and drink when I am at the bar. Specifically I only smoke when i drink. I used to be a smoker, but have eliminated that habit from my life with the one exception. So for me to quit one i would need to quit the other. I could easily choose other places to hang out with my friends. i could stay in. Either would easily be reinforced by a sudden influx in extra money. So i could narrow it down to that. Is there a purchase that i would really enjoy making? If so i could set a goal to be able to afford that purchase and by a certain time.
I think the principles of self-directed behavior should be used all the time by everybody. The only problem would be to educate everyone on how to use these tools properly. People could apply them to any endeavor that they wish, whether it be a fitness goal, job, education. If the behavior is broken down as far as you can, you can see the steps that need to be made to alter it to your liking.
terms- self-directed DRO precise measurable target behavior punishment reinforcement
I liked this section because it was nice to read about something that I felt I could easily apply to myself. The first thing that really stood out to me was that you need to be reallky specific in identifying a target behavior because the more specific you are the better chance you have at chaning that behavior. The second thing is that you will treat your self directed behavior is a regular DRO but just use the techniques of reinforcement and punishment on yourself rather than on others. Thirdly I will remember that using reinforcement on a previous punished situation will give the behavior change a longer life span.
I would like to change my excercise habits. Right now I don't exercise and I would like to start so I would use reinforcement. Every week that I work out for and hour 4 days out of the week or more I get to go have my nails done do something for myself that I would not normally do. I would also need to think about changing my routine so that I could get up early to work out or do some homework so I could work out later at night.
I think that self directed behavior techniques can absolutely be used in the real world! I think that the example of the new year's resolutions is a great one. If people would lay out a plan for themselves and use reinforcement and start slowly they would be able to achieve a lot of thier goals much less stressfully.
Terms: reinforcemnt, self directed behavior, target behavior, DRO