Please read the chapter assigned for this week.
(Reading Schedule: http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/hybrid/bm_book_s11.pdf)
After reading the chapter, please respond to the following questions:
Of the various aspects of Behavior Modification presented in the chapter, which did you find the most interesting? Why? Which did you find least interesting? Why? What are three things you read about in the chapter that you think will be the most useful for you in understanding Behavior Modification? Why? What are some topics in earlier chapters that relate or fit in with this chapter? How so?
Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in psychology.
Make a list of key terms and concepts you used in your post.
Let me know if you have any questions.
--Dr. M
The aspects of Behavior Modification presented in the reading that I found the most interesting would be the goal setting guidelines that were mentioned in section 4.3. The reading addressed the problem that many time people’s goals are too broad, poorly defined, unrealistic, and not achievable. People should focus on their starting behavior so they can use reinforcement and should use DRO when trying to decrease a behavior. The first guideline presented was to be realistic. If your goal is unrealistic then you most likely won’t achieve the goal, making the goal pointless. For example, I would love to have a body that looks like Marissa Miller, the famous swimsuit model. However, this is a very unrealistic goal to start with. A more realistic end goal would be to lose 20 lbs. The second guideline is to have a realistic timeframe. For example, I cannot expect to lose 20 lbs in a week or even a month. A more realistic timeframe for me would be to lose 20 lbs in six months. The third guideline is to break a goal into sub-goals. People can reach larger goals by breaking them down into a series of sub-goals. If we break our goal into smaller sub-goal we will get more support from family and friends. If I told my mom that I was going to lose 20 lbs in a week, my mom wouldn’t take me seriously. However, if I told my mom that I was planning on cutting out sweets from my diet to start with, my mom would believe me and support my sub-goal. Some sub-goals for reaching my end goal of losing 20 lbs in six months would be to first cut sweets from my diet. My next sub-goal could be to start a structured diet. The next sub-goal would be to start exercising at least three times a week for a half hour. My sub-goals from there could be increasing the amount of time I exercise for or the amount of days I exercise for. The fourth guideline is to make sure your goal is achievable. My goal of losing 20 lbs is achievable, but if I made my goal to lose 100 lbs. then my goal would be unachievable and unhealthy. The fifth guideline is to make sure that you have the ability to reach your goal. In other words make sure you have the tools and equipment that you need to reach your goal. For example, I currently have a membership to a fitness center which would allow me to have access to the equipment that I need to reach my goal of losing 20 lbs. However, just because I have the equipment to reach my goal doesn’t guarantee that I will use it. So, people need to make sure that they have access to the tools/equipment that they need to reach their goal, but also need to make sure that they are going to use the tools/equipment. The sixth guideline is to make sure that your goal is manageable. In other words, do you have the time to work towards accomplishing your goal? Regarding my goal of losing 20 lbs, I might not have time to fit in three days of exercise each week when I work full time and drive an hour and a half to college twice a week. So, I might need to adjust my sub-goal from exercising three times per week to twice a week during my break between classes on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. The seventh guideline is to determine if your goal will be disruptive, because some goals can be life changing. The only disruption that I can think of regarding my goal would be that I would have to spend more money on purchasing new clothing and wouldn’t spend as much time studying for college. The eighth guideline is determining how you will maintain your goal. The environment can change which can affect your goal. For example, if the fitness center I attend closes or I have to move to another location then my goal can be affected. The ninth guideline is to have a support base. If people don’t support or believe in you, then your goal is going to be harder to achieve. Many times people seek support from people who have the same goals (joint goals), the problem is that many times one person often breaks the routine and impacts the other person. There wasn’t anything that I didn’t find useful from the reading. The things that I will remember from the reading are the nine guidelines from the reading: Be realistic, timeframe, sub goals, achievable, ability, manageable, disruptive, maintenance, and support base. Some topics from earlier chapters that relate to chapter 4.3 are reinforcement because it’s one of the main tools to use when trying to increase a behavior when trying to reach a goal. Another topic that relates to the reading is DRO because you would use DRO when trying to decrease an aversive behavior when trying to accomplish a goal. I would also say that the topic of self directed behavior ties into the chapter because we would be using behavior modification on ourselves to accomplish our goal. The concept of target behavior would also tie into the chapter, because in order for our goal to be attainable, we need to determine the specific target behaviors we need to increase or decrease. Also the six steps to change behavior come into play: Set a goal, define goals as a set of specific target behaviors, keep a record, graph a baseline, determine the contingencies, determine antecedents, and implement and adjust contingencies.
Terms: reinforcement, DRO, target behavior, aversive, self directed behavior, six steps to change behavior, and goal setting guidelines.
Section 4.3 was very interesting. I never before read anything about goals or goal making. Goal setting guidelines I found to be the most interesting part of the section. I tend to have a problem myself in making goals that are unrealistic. I have a goal of becoming a psychiatrist someday, but I should probably start with getting my bachelors first. I do make a daily list of goals I make every day on my phone and when they are all completed I let myself do whatever I want (positive reinforcement). It does get difficult sometimes thought and I tend to get distracted especially on weekends. People should focus on their starting behavior so they can use reinforcement and should use DRO when trying to decrease a behavior. Another guidelines for setting goals is to have a realistic timeframe to get the desired goal done. I can possible set a goal to become a psychiatrist in the next 10 months, but I can make a goal to be a licensed psychiatrist in the next 10 years. I tend not to tell anyone about my goals because a lot of people just think I am insane to have such high ambitions and do not think I am smart enough which in turn a reinforcement to keep striving for the goal is. Therefore social support is not something I really need to help me with my goals. I think social support really depends on the person. Another guideline is to make sure the goal is achievable. My goal is achievable as long as I don’t go off course. It is not like my goal is to become the next Britney Spears. My goal is highly achievable with hard work and determination. The fifth guidelines for goal setting is the make sure you have the ability to reach the goal. I have questioned this a few times on whether or not I am smart enough to be able to reach my goal. I do not think I am super smart, but I know people who had a 33 on their ACT’s but I am doing a lot better than them in college because I actually apply myself. It is all about applying yourself and I have that ability. The sixth guideline for goal setting is to make sure the goal in manageable. Do you have the time for the goal? If someone is serious about their goal they will make time. The seventh guideline is to make sure the goal doesn’t cause disruption. My goal is not disrupting. I was always planning on going to college and I knew I was going to be in debt. I don’t have a family to provide for and I do not plan on having one in the near future. The eighth guideline for setting goals is maintenance. My goal will require maintenance once it is reached and it requires maintenance before it is even reached. I will always be studying and learning new things about psychiatry for the rest of my career once my goal is reached. The ninth guideline for setting is a goal is to have a support system which I mentioned earlier. People overall are more likely to achieve their goal if they having family and friends supporting them and their goal. I know whenever I have a weight loss or a work out goal I always enlist a friend for help. This is a joint goal. I think joint goals are most common in goals centering on the weight loss.
Topics from previously chapters that related to this chapter are reinforcement obviously and maybe punishment. I know whenever I fail to reach a goal or get a horrible grade on a test I punish myself. I do not let myself get on Facebook or I do not go out on weekends, but when I do fabulous on a test I splurge on myself like get my nails done or buy some new jeans. Another topic that related to goals and goal setting is differential reinforcement, which is different than reinforcement. There are many types of differential reinforcement but what it is designed to do is to reinforce one’s behavior over another behavior, to essentially replace a behavior. For example if someone wants to lose weight, this type of reinforcement would be great for them. They would need to be reinforced to eat healthy instead of eating unhealthy and to work out instead of being lazy and watching TV instead.
Overall goals need to be specific and not broad. Goal is a target behavior and if someone’s target behavior is to lose weight that is way too vague. For example if someone’s goal is to lose weight there are many different ways someone could achieve those goals. They should narrow there target behavior to eating more fruits and veggies or working out thirty minutes a day, both of these goals would help someone lose weight.
Terms Used: Reinforcement, punishment, differential reinforcement, goal setting guidelines, target behavior
I don't think your goal of being a psychiatrist is unrealistic. You just need to achieve the sub goals first. What you need to think about is the other guidelines. Do you have the resources and ability to get your PH.D? I also do the goal list everyday. usually small ones, such as doing laundry or homework before you go to the bar. It is effective for the most part.
I really enjoyed reading section 4.3. It really stressed the need for specific goals and the importance of having well defined target behaviors in order to obtain and maintain your goals. The most important topic I took away from this weeks reading was the guidelines for setting goals. It is important to follow these guidelines to insure that your goals are achieveable, realistic, maintainable, and that you have the proper support system in place to achieve your goals and ultimatley change your behavior. There was absolutely nothing from this weeks reading that I found less interesting than any other piece of information, it was all very useful and will come in handy when considering behavior modification any time in the near or distant future.
The three things that stood out to me the most from the readings was the idea of sub-goals. If you are attempting to achieve a goal that may be very large and time consuming it may be better to simply break down the goal and try to accomplish it one step at a time. You're not going to lose 100lbs right away but if you attempt to lose 10lbs every 2 weeks before you know it you will be just pounds away from your ultimate goal, due to the creation of sub-goals. I also realized the importance of a solid support system. It is good to use joint goals inorder to set up a sort of accountability partnership or to make a game out of your goals and also to have a plan "B". When I started my P90X workouts I was lucky to have the support and encouragement of my family and friends who would sometimes join me in my workouts to make them more enjoyable and more competitive. The presence of someone else being with me while I was working out insured that I was pushing myself to my limits and I was being as successful as possible. I ultimately finished the 90 days of workouts and achieved my goals, this wouldn't have been possible without a proper support base. The third thing that stood out was the importance of setting realistic goals that are within my ability level and are actually achieveable. It makes no sense to set goals that are unachieveable because that only leads to heartbreak and disappointment and will perhaps prevent you from attempting to set and reach your goals in the future.
I like how previous concepts and topics always seem to find their way into the readings week after week. It serves as a great review and allows us to continously apply what we have learned to the information we are currently learning. Some topics that were covered was the idea of reinforcement, we must feel as though we are being reinforced to help us achieve our goals or there is no point in changing our behaviors. Antecedents were also covered, it is important to change our environment in order to achieve our goals whether that is eliminating fattening foods from your fridge or getting a new group of friends. Target behaviors are also mentioned because it is important to have a well defined target behavior you are seeking to change a behavior, target behaviors go hand in hand with creating specific goals.
Terms: reinforcement, antecedent, target behaviors, specific goals, goal setting guidelines, sub-goals, joint goals
The most interesting information I found from this section were all the guidelines it actually takes in setting a behavioral goal. You need to take important consideration on many things when setting up a goal that is wanted to be achieved. The guidelines are the following: be realistic, timeframe, sub goals, achievable, ability, manageable, disruptive, and maintenance. All these guidelines are important to consider. I felt the least interesting part of the chapter was the information of the guideline of being realistic in making the goal. I know this information may be important to someone just beginning to study behavior modification; however, people like my classmates and I should know this information. We should know, not to set goals that are completely unrealistic and unachievable.
The 3 concepts I believe are the most important information are the guidelines of sub goals, disruptive, and maintenance. I feel that the guideline of sub goals is the most important piece of information. I feel that its important to know that breaking down the main big goal into smaller goals can improve achievement status. Also when you focus on sub goals you can get more buy in from friends and family and we can reinforce the smaller successes as they occur. Its also important to consider if a goal will be disruptive to life. Some goals are life changing and can be very disruptive. You may have to change friends or move to achieve some goals. It is also important to understand if you can maintain a particular goal. Things like changes in the environment can cause problems with a behavioral change if they are not anticipated or planned in advance. These guidelines are associated with the previous section on self-directed behavior. We need to consider these guidelines to goals, to help us decide what behavior we want to change in the self-directed process.
Terms: Self-directed behavior, behavioral goals, sub goals, maintenance, reinforce
I thought this section to be very interesting—there are many parts that we must consider about our goals to effectively accomplish them and this section did a very good job of explaining exactly how to do so and why. Things like making sure our goals are achievable, not disruptive, having a good support base, and knowing that we have the ability to actually obtain the goal are important things to remember.
I thought one of the parts of the section that was least interesting was how the goals must be realistic. I think it was just a little too obvious, not that it wasn’t true. I just think that since we’ve been learning about behavior modification all semester something like that just comes second-nature to us students as we have built on our previous knowledge from the last few weeks. Time frame may have been another obvious one.
The three things I found most interesting were sub-goals, manageability, and maintenance.
sub-goals are made when we break down are initial goal—for instance if we are planning on going to college when we are in kindergarten, we may want to make separate goals, like graduating junior high and high school first. This makes achieving the target goal much more reasonable.
Making our goals manageable is very important as well—we must be able to integrate this goal into our every day life and make sure that we can persist with the sub-goals or actions that relate to our goal. Maintenance is basically the work that we put into achieving our goals. For instance if we want to lose weight, it is something that is going to be a life-time change and probably something that we’ll have to think about for the rest of our lives, dieting, keeping the weight off, and such.
terms: subgoals, manageability, support group, disruptiveness, achievable.
The most important aspects of Behavior Modification that I found most interesting in Section 4.3 was the information about manageability. It was interesting because it gave a solution to following through with a goal by implementing it into your daily life so that it is not disruptive to your normal routine, that is what makes it a probably goal to accomplish. I do not think that there was a uninteresting part in Section 4.3 because it all related well with each other and stayed in line with the main idea of the section.
Three things that I will remember in helping me aid my understanding of Behavior Modification is to remember that when you are thinking of setting a goal it is important to keep in mind that the goal you want to achieve is realistic, sometimes we have to face the fact that there are some things that we just cannot do or do not have the time, money, or energy to achieve. Secondly, it is important to break your large goal into smaller goals. A great example of this is my current situation with what I want to do with my life. My first goal is to graduate from UNI with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Criminology. My second goal is to do well on the GRE and attend Graduate School in Chicago where I will pursue a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and then hopefully go on to pursue a Psy.D in Clinical Psychology. I broke my future ambitions up into smaller goals such as graduating from UNI, going to grad school, getting a masters, then getting my Psy.D. Thirdly, it is important to maintain your goals by keeping up with the changing environments. You may have to lean towards a different support group to achieve your goals rather than looking to someone who has never done it before.
I think Schedules of Reinforcement fit really well into this chapter because by choosing your schedule of reinforcement you are setting up a time frame and maintenance system to achieve your goal.
Terms: maintenance, support group, schedules of reinforcement, time frame, sub goals, manageability,
What I thought was most interesting from the section 4.3 was the section about having a support base. Especially about the joint goals! Joint goals are when people will seek support from friends with the same goal. They will work out together or go on diets together. It was fascinating how people will have the goal to go on a diet with someone else and then when some breaks the routine the other will end up breaking their routine as well. This is all too familiar. Also, there is the idea of having a reinforcement at the end to keep up with the routine. The example used is a bet of who could lose the most weight wins something. I thought this was really interesting. Overall, I thought the entire section was very informative and interesting. There wasn’t really something I thought was least interesting from this section.
I think the three most important things would have to be out of the goal setting guidelines are being realistic. In this you need to consider many things or factors. They have to be things that you can actually achieve. Another important thing was about timeframe. I thought this was important because some people (including myself on some things) don’t really understand how long it will actually take to complete a goal. You should try and have a realistic goal in mind and know how long it will approximately take to achieve that. Another part of the timeframe which I thought was important was the sub goals. You have to take steps to ultimately reach your goal. The little goals that don’t take as long to achieve can be reached before reaching your final goal. I thought it was really important part of the goal setting guidelines. The third important aspect that I thought was important was how manageable the goal is. If you want to go back to school when you have a couple of children and a husband, what will work for you? On-line college? When can you fit it into your already busy schedule? Is the goal that you have in mind manageable to your lifestyle? I think target behavior have a lot to go into this for past topics. This is because we are targeting a goal that we want to achieve and working our way up to that goal. I think it fits into this chapter nicely.
Terms: support base/joint goals/reinforcement/goal setting guidelines/realistic/timeframe/sub goals/ manageable/target goals
I thought this entire chapter was extremely helpful, particularly because right now is a time in the semester where there are so many large projects and things to accomplish in a shorter and shorter time frame.
The part I found the most interesting was the manageability section. Any more it seems as though the all-important question of "can this realistically fit into my schedule as it is now?" isn't asked very much. There usually has to be some sort of change made to the current schedule to fit in a new behavior, like waking up a little early to get a workout in before class. Adding a new behavior without making sure it is manageable can be disruptive to all the other good behaviors that go on during any given time frame. One of my newest behavior additions was fitting rock climbing into my schedule at the start of the semester. It started as a general "work out more" behavioral goal, which was far too broad to do me any good. Working out, at least for me, is a punishment most of the time, so I had to pick a method that wasn't disruptive to my schedule, find something reinforcing enough to maintain, and something I would physically have the ability to. As I slowly chipped away at my broad behavior, it turned into the target behavior of rock climbing. I also had a support group of two friends who already went every day, so having that already there made the maintenance even easier. By now it's become habitual and simply being there is reinforcing to me.
There really wasn't anything I found to be uninteresting, mostly because everything in here is advice that I need to utilize more often for self-directed behavior modification. Schedules of reinforcement fit into this section as well at the rest of the self-directed behavior sections. In order to change our own behaviors, we have to put ourselves on the same reinforcement schedules as we would put others on. Sub goals help us avoid ratio strain by rewarding ourselves more frequently with smaller goals instead of waiting for long-term goals before getting any sort of reinforcement.
Terms: ratio strain, sub-goals, reinforcement, self-directed behavior, target behavior, schedules of reinforcement, maintenance, manageability
I agree it was very interesting but at the same time very helpful for those who did not already know about the importance of goals!
While reading 4.3 I found myself thinking about to Aplington Parkersburg track team of 2007-2008. This is because this was my senior year. Every track season our coach would tell us that he wants to see goal achievers and not goal setters. He would always tell us to set goals that we could actually achieve and not a goal that was not reachable. Many people would put things about going to state or drake that was if they had already been there once. But coach wanted us to write goals about how we will perform at meets or what our goal times are. When we reached our goals we got praised and personally it felt great! But when you get beat out by a freshmen your senior year to go to state it is a heart break. It was not because I was not good enough it was because I did not perform how I did normally. It was practice and coach never told us what we were running for. I felt like I tried but I look back on it and I could of set better goals and would have achieved my bigger goals if I only made sub goals. Which are goals that allow you to reach you bigger goal. I had been to state two years and wanted it to be a third but I never achieved my goal. So when it came to who ran at Drake Relays I made sure that I was pushing myself that way I achieved my other goal. In the end I reached my goal but the point is if you do not use the guidelines that are provided in the reading you truly will not achieve anything. Setting goals is a life thing that happens all the time.
I found this material to be nothing but a memory jogger. This is because coach went over all this stuff with us. Everything but the sub goals. I found that if you do not follow the guidelines you’re going to be everywhere with your goals. You definitally need to have solid goal date as well. One thing that I have always struggled with in doing my own goals is finding the time. That is why this is a little late. I work all the time and plus school plus homework. I know that it’s a lot to do but sometimes there is nothing you can do when the time part is not flexible.
The part I found most interesting in section 4.3 is the information about manageability. This is interesting to me because when I was growing up I found it really hard to set my priorities and figure out what I need to be doing here and now. New behaviors require time and management in order to make those behaviors fit into your lifestyle. A perfect example I have for this section is the fact that at the beginning of this semester I was taking 27 credits and full time at two colleges. I did this so that I could graduate in May and accomplish my four-year degree in just two years. Taking this many credits requires discipline that many college students do not have because they don’t have their priorities in line. Like I said I started out taking 27 credits, but because some of my classes were online, I am down to just 18 credits because I managed my time.
My new behavior here was disciplining myself to get my school work done before I do anything extracurricular activities. My goals, although very realistic, were very far from being easy and in my case, survivable. This behavior was hard for me at first because I love just sitting around doing nothing and hanging out with friends, but with this much homework that is nearly impossible. To make this new behavior work I told myself I had to do homework in between classes instead of taking 3 hour naps or watching tv. This new behavior of mine doesn’t require only an extra hour every day. It requires every spare minute I have on the table and I have no choice but to use that time if I want to get it done.
What started this new behavior was the fact that I would be graduating in the summer which didn’t seem official to me, so this unaccomplished thought of mine elicited a risky feeling I wanted to take on. This risky feeling soon had me signing up for more courses and emitting the satisfied behavior knowing that I was going to graduate soon. I am going to be positively reinforced when this is all said and done because I have worked so hard and I will get to walk across the stage at the age of 20 which is something most people do not do.
Thanks to being manageable, I will reach my goal and end up one happy college graduate ☺
Terms: reinforcement, elicited, emitted, goals
Section 4.3 was interesting. The guidelines to help one obtain their goals was very straight forward and easy to understand.
The three things I will probably remember the most is that if you have a joint goal to have a plan b in case the other person drops out, or to include more people in the joint goal that are like minded, so if one drops out you still have the support of others. That is a useful idea since most of the time joint goals I've been involoved with have failed because one of us quit, and eventually the other person did too. Also the idea of subgoals. Obviously this is a good idea. But many times I am looking at the bigger picture and that can make my goals overwhelming and seem impossible to reach because they are far off. So breaking them into smaller goals and focusing on them one at a time is an excellent idea. Especially since I'll be reinforced more for working towards the bigger goal. Also, the idea of maintenance is important because too often we don't think about what in our environments will have to change in order for us to be sucessful. We need to be prepared to make appropriate changes to those and understand the effect a change in our antecedents will have.
I'm not sure any part of this was less interesting than another. Some parts were more common knowledge when setting goals.
You really see how the abc's will be effected by these different guidelines. Goals are the first step, but actually learning to behave differently is harder and it will be important to utilize different concepts we have learned about in class to self-direct our behavior.
Terms: antecedents, reinforced, self-directing behavior,
Section 4.3 was a great section because it was easy to understand:) The thing I found most interesting was that goals should be easy enough to fit into your daily life, and if it's not then it's more than likely not obtainable. I also liked the fact that if you surround yourself with more supportive people, you're goals will be easier to reach. I also liked the information about joint goals and to always have a second option if one person decided to drop out of the goal. This is important because sometimes we go into a goal with a friend, only to have that friend not want to obtain that goal anymore. Many times you just want to give up, however if you have a 'plan b' you'd be more likely to achieve your goal!
Three things I'll remember is: sub goals- because sometimes your goal is just too broad and huge so you must define specific individual target behaviors to achieve that goal. Another bonus to breaking down goals into steps is that you'll feel more accomplished getting the individual steps done, and hey who doesn't like positive reinforcement! Another thing I'll remember is the importance that environment plays and that if you maintain the antecedent behaviors to your goals you're more likely to achieve them! The last thing I'll remember is to be realistic. However, it's slightly sad because there goes most kinds childhood dream of becoming famous! :)
I didn't really find any part to not be interesting or have to be further explained because it was all pretty common:)
terms: antecendent, postive reinforcement, target behavior, sub goals,
I thought all of section 4.3 was interesting. All of the information went hand in hand, there wasn't anything I read that I thought wasn't interesting. The goal guidelines were very useful and relatable to everyone. This section is all about goal guidelines which means the information provided is associated with self directed behavior. Being realistic, is sort of common sense but you would be surprised at how many people have goals that are unrealistic. The time frame set for a goal could have any baseline. It could be one week or one year, 10 pounds or 100 pounds. Also, the time frame is set by schedules of reinforcement. Some examples could include when someone is dieting and they get one free day a week to cheat on their diet. This would be a fixed interval. It is fixed because the person is consistently eating junk food one day a week, and it is an interval because there is not a consistency with how many calories are eaten on that cheat day.
All goal can also have sub goals: break larger goal into series of smaller goals. Sub goals for this particular goal (dieting to lose weight) could include: no more sweets, or pop, then decrease amount of alcohol etc. Is this goal acheivable? Losing weight and dieting is one of the most common goals in America, so I would like to say it is achievable, however we still have the highest obesity rate in the world. I think everyone has the ability to achieve this goal. Whether they need to eat healthier, some helathy foods are the same price as junk food, they just need to search for the deals. Also, our society has provided us with hundreds of thousands of workout videos available at home, over the internet or training. For instance, it is easy to manage working out into your busy schedule because of these workout videos. There are classes at all hours of the day, 24 hour fitness clubs and 10 minute abs that you can do at home. The great thing about this is that it can be disruptive but it doesn't have to be. Losing weight is one of the hardest things to do for many people because it is easy to de-motivate yourself. If you weigh yourself everyday, the scale is not motivating, you may not lose weight at all, you may lose inches, which is even better. This is why it is so important to have a support base to keep you motivated. Joint goals are even better than having a support base. One or more people with the same goal is the best motivator.
Self directed behavior, baseline, time frame, schedules of reinforcement, fixed interval, sub goals, achievable,manageable, disruptive, Support base, joint goal.
I think the most interesting part about section 4.3 was the parts about how you’re goals should be. You have to have realistic goals which are goals that you can actually achieve. A time frame for your goal is important because some goals will take longer than others. Breaking goals in sub goals can help make the goal easier to complete. Achievable goals are dependent are dependent on the resources you are able to commit to them. Ability to do the goal is important, not everyone can be a body builder. Goals should be manageable so that you can fit them in your everyday life and they won’t disrupt you. Maintenance of your goals is important because you need to keep up with your goal like keeping off the weight. If you don’t maintain the goal your target behavior will go into extinction. Having a good support group will help make the goal easier. These explanations can help a person complete the goal they intend to achieve.
If there’s one thing that I didn’t like about this chapter was that it didn’t really explain what to do if you fail at achieving your goal. I think it should have steps that explain what to do in case you cave in. You want to avoid extinction of the behavior completely so knowing what to do if you succumb to your target behavior might help.
Three things that I took away from this chapter would be the parts about how to maintain your behavior, the time frame to keep your behavior in, and attempting realistic behaviors. Maintaining your behavior is important because most people just give up when they get to a goal and then they just end up in the same place they started from. An example would be losing weight. If you lose all the weight through dieting and exercise and then just quit, you’ll gain all of the weight back. So it’s important to keep up with the goal if you once you have obtained it. It’s also important to have a good time frame. This will help you keep up with your goal because you should have a certain amount of progress made at certain time periods of the goal. So if you aren’t where you want to be you can work harder to keep on track with the time frame. Realistic behaviors are important because people always try to tackle too much of their problems at once. Thinking that you’re going to be an astronaut when you’re 60 probably isn’t a very realistic goal.
I think the 6 steps (set a goal, define the goal, keep a record, graph a baseline, determine the contingencies, determine the antecedents, and implement and adjust the contingencies) really apply to this chapter as well. When you’re attempting to follow these steps you must account for all the things we learned about in this chapter too.
Self directed behavior, extinction, achievable, manageable, target behavior, sub-goals, and realistic goals
Section 4.3 is all about goals and how we need to be realistic when setting goals, we need factor in if the goal is achievable, figure out the time frame of your goal, some goals take a week, and some take months to a lifetime. I tried to stop drinking, not that I really wanted to, I realized I would have to change my friends, the places I hangout and such, so I broke my goal down to slow down on my drinking, so I made sub goals as to be able to not drink so much. I didn’t hang out with my drinking my friends as much anymore, it’s down to 3 times a month if that, I don’t take work off to go drink like I used to, I don’t go out every night no matter what, I set certain days to go out or just have casual drinks at home, and if I know I am going to be drinking a lot in one night, I don’t drink up until that day or maybe have a few social drinks during the week, my big goal ended up just being settle down with the drinking, which turned into me forming new positive habits. Having the ability to achieve your goal is important and having a great support system is even more important, if I didn’t have my boyfriend to be there to help me realize I needed the life change, I would have continued on my path of boozing and forgetting what’s important. I liked this whole section because it’s almost a guide to what you need to know, do, and realize when setting goals, and how to achieve them.
I thought this blog was really interesting and helpful. It is very helpful to keep in mind that goals take time and that we need to be realistic about the types of goals that we set. I always struggle with setting goals that are short term. I never look at the micro value, I just look at what I want in the future and try to push myself to get there. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is easy to lose motivation after so long of trying. Three things that I will remember from the reading are:
1. Achieving goals often depends on the people that support you.
2. It is important to focus on starting a behavior that you can use reinforcement with.
3. It is better to break large goals into smaller sub goals.
It is often difficult for me to keep in mind what my target behavior is and how to keep up with a good reinforcement schedule. For example, I have a goal to become healthier and lose weight, but it is difficult to keep track of what behaviors I am emitting and I am unsure of what kind of punishment I could use if I don't stick to it, or if I just shouldn't reinforce myself. It's a slow process, so subgoals are very helpful.
Terms: reinforcement, punishment, target behavior, reinforcement schedule, emit
Of the readings we’ve done this semester, this week’s reading was actually the least interesting for me. If I had to pick something (and I think I do), it would be breaking goals down into subgoals, because that’s something I already do in my everyday life, and it works well for me. The least interesting aspect of this week’s reading was probably the section about setting realistic goals, because it seems fairly common-sense.
Although I don’t think much of this chapter was interesting, I think a lot of it was useful information to consider when picking a goal. Specifically, being realistic (because setting an unrealistic goal is setting yourself up for failure), setting sub goals (because a goal like getting a Ph.D. seems more daunting then it is if you don’t break it up like this), and maintenance (because goals like getting a Ph.D. can’t be achieved by just showing up) will be useful for me in setting and achieving my goals (one of my long-term goals at present is to earn a Ph.D.).
Some topics from other chapters that fit into this reading are the chapters which discussed setting a baseline and measuring a behavior, because you can’t know if your contingencies are effective if you don’t have an accurate way to measure the behavior.
Terms: subgoals, setting a baseline, measuring behaviors, contingencies
I enjoyed reading 4.3 on the importance of goals, because although it may be info we for the most part already know, its important to know the significance. Our goals must be realistic, or others and ourselves wont see us achieving them and without self encouragement and that of others, we probably wont achieve them. There is a girl I work with who is very heavy, probably 75-100 lbs overweight. A few weeks ago she decided she was going to start dieting, working out, and everyone was there to support her, gave her verbal encouragement and noticed she was making some major changes. Then a few days ago she said she is going to train for a marathon this summer. This is not a realistic goal, maybe next summer, but not now, its too much effort, but because of this, she lost a lot of support and has gained a few lbs back already. The goal was not realistic within her timeframe. She should set subgoals and focus on smaller things first like losing 30 lbs, and running a 5k race, rather than a marathon. Her goal is achieveable and she has the ability, but there are other things she needs to focus on first. Her mentioning this goal lost some of her support base.