Please go to the following blog page:
http://www.psychologicalscience.com/bmod/abcs.html
Please read sections 1.1 (ABC's of Behavior Modification) and 1.2 (Contingencies: Reinforcement & Punishment)
After reading section 1.1, please respond to the following questions.
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
After reading section 1.2, please respond to the following questions.
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
Prior to reading these sections, what did you think about behavior modification? Why? How has reading these sections changed what you originally thought about behavior modification? How so?
Please fill out the boxes in the readings you may be quizzed on them in class.
Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Let us know if you have any questions,
--Dr. M
M.A.N.
Section 1.1
I liked learning the ABC’s of behavior modification. I wasn’t expecting it to be such a simple process. I appreciate this because I cannot utilize what I don’t understand. However, if I can understand the ABC’s of behavior, I can use them. I understand that the antecedent sets the occasion for the behavior that is emitted, which brings about a consequence. Different antecedents before the same behavior can bring about very different consequences. The example in the book was telling a joke at a funeral vs. telling a joke at a party. Obviously, you won’t be too popular at the funeral. There is also a sort of feedback loop that links the consequence with the antecedent. The example in the book was someone at a party telling a joke to make people laugh. This behavior is likely to be repeated in that context, so that’s where the feedback loop comes in. In the diagrams where the antecedents and consequences were filled in, the behavior was relatively obvious. This allowed me to see that if we are able to control the antecedent and consequence, we can virtually control the behavior. My question is: how is this done? Perhaps section two will enlighten me. The text also encouraged us to use the terms aversive (unpleasant) or pleasant instead of positive or negative. I enjoyed this because I want to use the appropriate language for what we are studying.
I didn’t like the final diagram. I was somewhat lost in trying to think of the antecedent and consequences of the behaviors I have done today. I wasn’t sure if the antecedent has to be a place, as in all of the examples. Could the antecedent be something like needing money? The behavior I did today was going to work. Getting paid was my consequence (today was payday!). I am a bit weary of this and my other answers, but I am sure I will get it when we go over our answers in class!
I think I will remember everything I mentioned above. Who could forget the ABC’s of behavior modification?! I took notes as well; writing things down helps me to commit them to memory. The information I read was rehearsed a second time in writing this blog. The textbook is written very well. I love that it is interactive, and I believe this helps to make it more memorable as well. I will definitely remember that if you can control the antecedent and consequence, you can control the behavior. I will also do my best to remember to use aversive or pleasant in place of positive or negative. I also will remember the terms (elicit, emit, set the occasion, aversive, salient).
Section 1.2
I liked learning about reinforcement and punishment in relation to the ABC’s of behavior modification. This helped me understand the feedback loop (the relationship between the consequence and the antecedent). If the consequence functions as a reinforcer, it increases the likelihood of the behavior reoccurring after the antecedent. If the consequence functions as a punisher, it decreases the likelihood of the behavior reoccurring after the antecedent. I also learned that there are naturally occurring punishers and reinforcers. The example in the book for a naturally occurring reinforcer was a smile. It also gave an example of a naturally occurring punisher: walking outside in extremely cold weather. I liked the way that negative punishment and negative reinforcement were explained. Negative punishment is taking away something pleasurable, whereas negative reinforcement is removing something aversive. In my future behavior modification project, I will use self-reinforcement to increase the likelihood of my desired behavior being repeated. Now I know that in order to control a behavior, I need to control the antecedent and the consequence. I also know that a reinforcement procedure could help me manipulate a person’s behavior, increasing the likelihood that the behavior would be repeated. I am one step closer to utilizing my knowledge of behavior modification to change my own behaviors and the behaviors of those around me.
In this section, I didn’t love the way that valence was introduced. The book introduced positive and negative valence, and then told us not to use the words positive and negative. I could see that it may be useful to introduce it that way because we all have a universal understand of “positive” and “negative.” I guess it sort of just messed with my brain because I had put in the terms “negative valence” and “positive valence” before reading that I shouldn’t use those words. However, I will try to use the terms appropriately. I had a bowl of ice cream, which I love. This would be pleasurable valence. I’m not sure if that is the correct way to word it. Pleasant valence, maybe? Hmm.
I will remember to not say positive or negative valence, since I made a complaint about it. I will remember that negative reinforcement occurs when one removes something aversive, and negative punishment occurs when something pleasurable is removed. The Xbox example from the book stuck with me because I play Black Ops II nearly every day, too many hours per week. When I think of negative punishment, I think of Dr. Maclin snatching away my game (it’s a pretty memorable picture in my head!). I will also remember that there are naturally occurring punishers and reinforcers because I found it to be interesting. Although, it makes perfect sense since the first section talked about how the ABC’s are always in action, even when we are oblivious to them.
Prior to reading these sections, I thought of behavior modification as a complicated, tedious process. I’m not sure why I thought this way; it certainly wasn’t based on knowledge. I think the words “behavior modification” just sound fancy, like they’re supposed to be complicated or something. Reading these sections has made me realize how simple and achievable it will be to implicate behavior modification into my life. The text is written so that anyone can understand it, and understand it well. The writer doesn’t try to be wordy and use unnecessary “big words” to sound “intelligent” like most textbooks. Like Dr. Maclin said, there are some grammatical errors in the book, but I’ll take that any day over any of the other textbooks I have. I can tell that the writer of the book really wants the reader to LEARN from it!
Terms
emit, set the occasion, aversive, salient, elicit, antecedent, behavior, consequence, reinforcement, punishment, reinforcer, punisher, valence, positive valence, negative valence, negative reinforcement, negative punishment, self-reinforcement
Section 1.1
One thing I really liked in the section was the explanation of the italicized words in layperson's terms such as salient(strong), emit (do), ante (before), aversive (unpleasant), etc...because it made for easy reading. I can usually pick up jargon within the context of the sentence but this took out the guess work and possibly having to look words up for clarification. Then every time I saw the italicized word used again I thought of the alternate word and was able to understand each concept with ease. I also liked the looped picture boxes, along with examples. Pictures definitely help me visualize the text and actively apply new concepts. So the three things I will remember are
1. Antecedents are important in determining the consequence. The example in the book was a joke told at a funeral vs a joke told at a party. The consequence in one may be laughter, while the same behavior of telling a joke may have a consequence of sour looks in another scenario.
2. I will remember all of the new terminology for the above stated reasons.
3. When you know the antecedent and the consequence the behaviors are more predictable.
There wasn't anything I disliked, however, I wish the ABC's went more in to depth about predicting behavior. I am aware that when the antecedent is at the store, and the consequence is having food, that the behavior probably had to do with spending currency. But it also said that the behavior could have been stealing, or dumpster diving, so forth. So why do we automatically think of a common action before a less typical one? What about us makes it harder to think about "out of the box" responses?
Section 1.2
For the same reasons in 1.1, I liked the boxes after each concept because it helps me visualize and put in to practice what I just read. Otherwise I would just be passively reading for the sake of getting an assignment finished which usually defeats the purpose of reading assignments altogether.
I actually disliked the explanation of reinforcers and punishers. I think this is because I learned about this already from Dr. Wind Goodfriend in a Learning and Memory class and spent a good amount of time determining whether something is a negative or positive reinforcer or punisher. I think simply because I have learned the concept in another way that when I went back and tried to re-learn it with these explanations all it did was confuse myself. So in all honesty I skimmed over that part as to not completely confuse myself, if it's not broke don't fix it so I've been told.
The three things I remember most are
1. Reinforcers are pleasurable where Punishers are aversive.
2. Reinforcing a behavior increases the likelihood that the behavior will occur more in the future as Punishing a behavior decreases the likelihood of that behavior occuring in the future.
3. Self Reinforcement doesn't always follow normal social standards because if the person is determining their own behavior they are the one reinforcing the behavior and not anyone else. For example the bad joke teller laughs at their own jokes, self-reinforcing the behavior, even though the others listening to the joke are frowning or are unenthusiastic.
Prior to reading these sections I didn't think much differently because of a class I have previously taken, but before that class I probably just had the general notion that you could get someones behavior to change somehow, and I probably thought more negatively about it like punishment to change behaviors, or manipulating someone to get your way other than thinking about the other aspects of changing behavior.
Terms:
salient, emit, ante, aversive, antecedent, consequence, behavior, reinforcer, punisher, negative, positive, self-reinforcement
M.L.B.
One thing I really liked about the first section was how obvious the behavior was when taken away from the context of the antecedent and the consequence. I don’t know if it was just the way the example was set up or what, but I felt like I got it. A = Reading Textbook B = Understanding the Concepts Put Forth C = Better Grade?
I disliked the double blank example, because it wasn’t so clear.
I guess I will remember what A, B, and C stand for, the difference between ‘emit’ – to do – and ‘elicit’ – to make someone do –, and the difference between ‘pleasurable’ – something one seeks – and ‘aversive’ – something one avoids.
One thing I really liked about the second section was the small differences that make up a negative reinforcement and a punishment, because it may be a nuance, but it can change a future behavior.
I disliked up to the point where I actually understood the difference, because I had to go back and reword some of my answers.
I guess I will remember the difference between a naturally occurring punisher and a manmade one, the idea of self-reinforcing being a motivating factor, and the idea of comparing punishments to reinforcements.
Prior to reading these sections, I thought behavior modification was a long and complicated list of actions associated with a desired outcome, because that’s the way it’s portrayed on the television shows – Super Nanny and all that. Now I know there is a formula, and the application is simple once spelled out so simply, as long as you know what you want and what to do about it, because of the ABCs format.
Terms: Behavior, Antecedent, Consequence, Emit, Elicit, Pleasurable, Aversive, Negative Reinforcement, Punishment, Naturally Occurring Punisher, Self-Reinforcing, Reinforcement, Behavior Modification, Desired Outcome
B.E.
Section 1.1
I liked the fact that the simplicity of the writing style makes this section very easy to read and follow. By making a complicated theory easy to follow sets the occasion for the learning process to take hold. Following each set of explanations with interactive examples that elicit thinking by the reader can also facilitate a salient productive learning environment where the ABC’s could be applied to one’s own behaviors. Examples that showed a both pleasurable and aversive consequence for the same behavior illustrate that by controlling the antecedent; one can get a completely opposite reaction from those around the individual. How I looked at those examples, was as a sort of operant conditioning if you do this because of this then this action will ultimately happen as a result of the first two. The arrows in the diagram, I noticed, also leave room for the interpretation that the terms could be cyclical.
I didn’t like how unclear they were about how to control the behavior by controlling the consequence and the antecedent. I would think that one could not always control where they are or what they are doing as far as social, economical, or political constraints. I also was unclear about whether the antecedent was supposed to be a noun (location) or if it could also be a verb.
I will remember that ‘manipulation’ is necessary in almost all points in life and that this term has a negative connotation although this practice could be useful in the future and in potentially helping others. Similar behaviors may be acceptable at one event or area and not at another—unless the individual feels like making an ass out of himself or herself on purpose (his behavior deemed inappropriate by social constraints). Terms and specific language used can change the meaning or context of the literature and in general effect how others would respond.
Section 1.2
I liked the fact that just as section 1.1, section 1.2 had a plethora of interactive examples to help with the learning and understanding of the new terms and ideals. These examples were particularly helpful when discussing the negative and positive valences.
I didn’t like however how vague they were in some of the further explanations and differences of terms; ex. Reinforcement, reinforcer, reinforcing. I did find myself having to go back and reread some sections so as to make sure I had the terms all straight. I also have taken other psychology classes and had there learned about reinforcement and punishment related topics and I would agree with another student that this explanation just made me a bit more confused then anything.
I will remember that valence is the psychological value that people place on nouns, places, or things. Self-reinforcement can be both constructive and destructive depending on the antecedent and the consequences of the self reinforced behavior.
Because I have taken other courses in psychology, I had a general idea of what behavior modification would entail however I still pictured it as a long complicated chart with big words that no one knows what the real definition is—mostly do to societies portrayal of what psychology actually entails. These articles literally made behavior modification as easy as ABC and I can’t wait to see what we will learn throughout this semester.
Terms: self-reinforcement, valence, reinforcement, punishment, reinforcer, reinforcing, negative and positive valence, sets, the occasion, elicit, salient, pleasurable, aversive consequences, behavior, antecedent
The introduction to the ABCs of behavior modification is mind blowing. I have always thought of behavior modification as Skinner's operant conditioning. Although conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment are all included in behavior modification, it is clear that it doesn't end there. I liked the part where the book said to think about the consequences of raising one's hand in three different scenarios, and I think that it very well illustrated how important context is even on the most basic level of raising one's hand. Based on this simple structure, one could predict a person's behavior in virtually any context. This also shows that by manipulating the antecedent and/or consequences, one could manipulate a person's behavior. A question came up in this section as to the morals or ethics of manipulating a person's behavior. I believe that we all manipulate people's behavior, whether consciously or unconsciously. There is no way to avoid manipulating another person's behavior, unless you locked yourself in a room for your whole life and nobody knew that you were there. The question should not be about whether or not it is okay, but how can we do it in a way that is not damaging to people. One of my biggest morals comes the Spider-Man comic books, where Uncle Ben said "with great power comes great responsibility." There is no clear answer as to when it is appropriate to manipulate another person's behavior, or how to go about it. It takes great wisdom to know how to use these techniques without being harmful to others.
I will remember that the ABCs of behavior modification are the Antecedent (the environment/surroundings that elicit a behavior) the Behavior, and the Consequence (result of the behavior that can potentially reinforce or discourage the behavior in that specific antecedent). I liked the examples of how manipulation can be a good thing!
I did not like having to come up with three ABCs that I did today, because I did almost nothing all day and it was hard to think about three things I did, but it did help to demonstrate how the ABCs are present all of the time, and it was also interesting to think about what would have happened if the antecedent or consequence were different.
Section 1.2 was very interesting! I feel like I really understand positive/negative reinforcement and positive/negative punishment. Last semester while I was in Scotland, I had a psychology professor who was absolutely brilliant, except he misunderstood one small aspect of reinforcement/punishment. He used the term "reward" interchangeably with "positive reinforcement," and used "punishment" interchangeably with "negative reinforcement." The thing that he did get right was that there are positive rewards (giving something nice), negative rewards (removing something unpleasant), positive punishments (giving something unpleasant), and negative punishments (removing something pleasant).
I did not like the grammar lesson on using the verb, noun, and adjective forms of words, because I already know English, and it just brings me back to the days of the HBJ Language textbooks in middle school...not a fun experience. However, I understand how people can get confused with these terms, and using the wrong version could seriously mislead somebody.
Prior to reading these sections, I thought behavior modification was nothing but Pavlov and Skinner...just classical and operant conditioning. I have learned that there is more to it than that.
The question in 1.1 about whether or not I think that complex behaviors can be controlled simply by the ABCs, I believe that our behaviors are the result of an infinite amount of these simple processes. Therefore, if the conditions were just right, we could hypothetically tap into and control just about any behavior of a human, like in the movie Inception. However, that is not the way that the real world works. In a scientific lab, you can control just about any aspect of the environment, but the real world is polluted by so many situations and experiences that others have, of which we cannot even conceive. On a small scale, behaviors are able to be manipulated, but in the grand scheme, there is no way to completely control a person.
Terms: Operant Conditioning, reinforcement, punishment, consequences, behavior, antecedent, manipulate, positive, negative, pleasant, unpleasant, complex behaviors, environment,
There was a lot of key information in section 1 that will carry over throughout the rest of this course. The first thing that I really liked in the section was the discussion of the ABC’s of Behavior Modification. The ABC’s stand for antecedent, what happens before a behavior, the behavior itself, and the consequence, what happens after the behavior occurs. I liked how there were multiple diagrams that showed how antecedent leads to behavior which then leads to a consequence. The diagrams really made it easy to grasp onto the concept trying to be explained. When looking at the section there was very little I didn’t like. I found it very helpful and allowed us to put what we were reading about into action through the exercise diagrams.
Three things that I will remember from this section are for one the ABC’s of Behavior Modification that I mention above. The second thing I will remember from this section is how consequences can be either pleasurable, a positive consequence, or aversive, a negative consequence. The third thing I will remember is how behaviors can have multiple different functions based on what types of behaviors people and the environment elicit from us, and that knowing the antecedent as well as knowing the consequence you can predict what the behavior will be. I feel that these concepts will stick with me as a foundation to behavior modification.
One thing that I really liked when reading section 1:2 was the breakdown of reinforcement and punishment. The reading really broke it down in separate segments to really allow for understanding of the material. The thing I didn’t like was all the different ways in which punishment and reinforcement can be used. It will defiantly take me some time to get it all down!
The first thing I will remember, or work on remembering, is the specific terminology used such as the different use of the word reinforcement. The second is the discussion of reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement is a either naturally or deliberate procedure used to increase the frequency and likelihood of a behavior occurring. Reinforcement can be either negative, the removal of something that is aversive, or positive, adding something pleasurable. Punishment is a procedure used to decrease the likelihood and frequency of a behavior re-occurring. Punishment can also be positive or negative. The third thing I will remember from this section is self-reinforcement, something I hadn’t hear of before. Self-reinforcement is when a person delivers to themselves a consequence to their own behavior. An example to this given in the reading was when telling a joke at a party and people laugh in response to your joke. You have positive reinforcement of others laughing so you confirm to yourself that telling jokes at a part is acceptable and you are funny. I feel that these three items will be memorable because they are important to behavior modification as well as because they were new concepts to myself.
Before reading these sections, I didn’t know all that much about behavior modification. I was just hoping the course would be like what the title sounded like, changing behaviors, and after reading these two sections I think it will be and I will really enjoy the course content. I am very excited to learn more about behavior modification.
Terms: antecedent, behavior, consequences, reinforcement, positive and negative reinforcement, pleasurable, punishments, self-reinforcement, pleasurable, aversive, elicit
The one thing that I really like in section 1.1 was the fact that the ABC's were explained in a simple, understandable way and that there were several examples given in order to help me further understand. I feel like just explaining material isn't ever really enough, so providing examples is very helpful. The one thing that I disliked from this section was that it didn't give examples of possible answers for the parts that you can fill in yourself. I think it could be given at the bottom of the page just so we can check and make sure that we are really understanding the material completely. I think without a doubt I will remember what A (Antecedent), B (Behavior) and C (Consequence) all stand for because they are the bulk of the section, and going over the exercises will help me remember.
The one thing that I really like about section 1.2 were that there were a bit more of the boxes where we were able to work through some examples that we could think of. I felt that it was more helpful to have these in this section because of the simple fact that section 1.2 covered much more material than section 1.1. I also think that the sample sentences used to describe the material were good and helped me understand further after reading. One thing that I didn't like about this section was the fact that when using Negative and Positive Valence it stresses that we use words such as "Pleasurable/desirable" or "Aversive/undesirable", but then in the example it uses the word "bad". This may seem like something that is "nitpicky" but it is just odd that it stressed using these more advanced vocabulary but than used a more simple vocabulary set for that sample sentence.
The three things I will remember from this section after reading are:
1. Positive/negative valence (simply because it is something that is easy to remember after reading)
2. Punishers and reinforcers, because it was described well in good detail and I practiced it a few times.
3. Positive and Negative reinforcement, because I have learned about this concept once before in a past class.
Prior to reading both these sections, I don't recall having much though or opinion regarding behavior modification. I believe this is because a lot of the things that I do on a daily basis just come naturally, and I don't stop and think of them as an actual process. I feel like in the back of my mind I know that everything that is done is a process in one way or another, but I never really stop and think about it when I am going through a process as simple as starting a car when i'm cold or cooking something when i'm hungry. I feel like this really changes how I think about behavior modification, because it changes the way I think about day-to-day processes, and the fact that manipulation sounds worse than it is (the fact that manipulation can be done for the better).
Terms used in my post: Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence, Aversive, Punisher, Reinforcer, Valence, Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement
The section was very clear and interesting in its explanation of the ABC’s of behavior modification. My favorite part of the section was the examples it gave of antecedents, behaviors, and consequences and an explanation of their relationships. These examples were easy to follow and understand and I was even able to practice forming different parts of the ABC’s. There was really nothing that I disliked about the section. I am very interested in learning more about the ABC’s of behavior modification and I would like to know more in depth on how my understanding of them can help alter behavior. This of course will be revealed later on throughout the semester.
From this section, I have learned what the ABC’s of behavioral modification are (antecedents, behaviors, and consequences) and how to apply them to behavioral situations. I will remember these terms based on the abbreviations “ABC’s”. The antecedent occurs first with ante means before and it sets the occasion for the behavior. The behavior comes next in which an action takes place. Finally the consequence occurs from the behavior which either reinforces that behavior or decreases its likely hood to reoccur.
This section was helpful in describing the difference between reinforcement and punishment and how they are used to either increase or decrease the frequency of a behavior. I thought the section did an excellent job in distinguishing the two and providing examples of each. What I disliked about this section was the amount of practice sections it had. I appreciate the practice in helping my understanding of reinforcement and punishment however I thought there was too much practice. I think a few practice examples are helpful but too many is busy work.
The main terms I will remember from this section are reinforcement, punishment, and valance. I will remember reinforcement because it increases the frequency of a behavior. This is one of the major building blocks in behavior modification. To teach my cat to learn his name, I will reinforce his behavior by praising him or giving him a treat whenever he looks after I have called his name. Punishment is another major part of behavior modification and is used to decrease the frequency of a behavior. I will remember this in order to decrease behavior such as my cat knocking over water glasses. Finally there is valance which is described in our reading as a psychological value placed on a person, place, or thing. This is a term that I will use in future assignment to refer to as either pleasurable or undesirable.
Prior to reading these sections, I inferred the steps involved in behavior modification would be more confusing and explained less in detail. My reasoning was that many text books have so much information in them that they only briefly explain content such as the ABC’s of behavior modification before moving on. It was nice to have the terms and steps broken down with many examples to emphasize its meaning and how to apply them to real situations. The readings have provided me with security in knowing that the content is well explained with examples to help my understanding. Now that I have read more about behavior modification, I have gotten a taste of what the class entails and I am more confident in my abilities to learn the material.
Terms: antecedents, behaviors, consequences, reinforces, reinforcement, punishment, valance, psychological value, pleasurable, undesirable
While reading Section 1.1 I found out that the ABC's broke down the parts very simply and I feel they will be used very frequently during this semester. The content was very easy to relate to. I really enjoyed the fill in the blank boxes because it helps me understand the concept better and visual aids are very helpful in that way. The one thing that I didn't particularly dislike, but made it slightly difficult for me was the vocabulary that I wasn't as familiar with. Three things I will remember in this section will be: Once you know the antecedent and the consequence you can easily predict the behavior. And that controlling the antecedents can set the occasion for a behavior to happen. The most important thing is the ABC's!
While reading Section 1.2 I enjoyed the boxes once again that helped me visualize the ideas. However, when it got to the valence part I didn't quite understand how that connected to the punishment/reinforcement ideas we were talking about. That was really the only part I struggled with. Three things I remembered from this section: The difference between negative and positive reinforcement, self-reinforcement, and valences.
Terms I used: Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence, Punisher, Reinforcer, Valence, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Reinforcement, Self-Reinforcement
The one thing I liked about section 1.1 was how well explained the ABC’s of behavior modification was. It explained how the before=antecedent, behavior=behavior, after=consequence. After learning what antecedent and consequences had to do with behavior I learned how simple the ABC’s of behavior modification was. It showed several examples of a particular behavior and its antecedent and consequence.
One thing that I disliked about section 1.1 was how short it was, I thought it could’ve been longer and provided more examples. The length bothered me because I thought if it would have been longer there could have been more examples of reinforcement and punishment. Although, it might have been redundant I would think redundancy works when trying to learn something new.
Three things I will remember from section 1.1 will be the ABC’s of behavior modification, which are: before is antecedent, behavior is behavior, and after is the consequence. 2) I also will remember that emit means do. 3) I also will remember that the term elicit that is used means make.
The one thing I really liked about section 1.2 was how the section covered reinforcement and punishment thoroughly and gave several examples. I really enjoyed the examples because it helped me when it came to doing the practice problems underneath the explanations. Having examples of how reinforcements and punishments are used helped me better understand the ABC’s of behavior modification.
One thing that I disliked about section 1.2 was the area that was covered about self-reinforcement involving myself, or someone I know. I thought this section didn’t explain in enough detail about what it wanted. I felt as though it wanted two different examples. I think in the end I figured it out, but I thought it could have been a little clearer.
Three things I will remember from section 1.2 will be that 1) reinforcement is to increase the likelihood of the behavior occurring again. 2) Punishment is to decrease the likelihood of the behavior happening again. 3) I will remember that positive valence refers to a pleasurable or desirable value placed on a person, place, or thing. Also, that negative valence refers to undesirable or aversive value placed on a place, person, or thing.
Before reading sections 1.1 and 1.2 I believed behavior modification was merely changing a behavior in some way. I hadn’t thought about what causes a behavior or the consequences of that behavior. After reading sections 1.1 and 1.2 I have found that behavior modification is changing a behavior but it also has antecedents and consequences that factor into the behavior modification. Also, after reading these two sections I became aware of behavior reinforcement and behavior punishment. After reading these sections I realized that behavior modification is not only increasing or decreasing a certain behavior but that there are different ways to increase or decrease a behavior by using behavior modification.
Terms: ABC’s, behavior modification, behavior, antecedent, consequence, punishment, reinforcement, emit, elicit, self-reinforcement, positive valence, negative valence, aversive, desirable, undesirable, pleasurable, unpleasurable, valence, increasing, and decreasing
EMM
MLR
One thing that I really liked about this section was how the ABC's were broken down into different sections to make them easier to understand. Although it seems like a simple topic, it definitely takes some thinking. I think that this is an interesting topic and it makes me think about the ABC's of my own behaviors and how different antecedents can determine my behavior and the consequences of my behavior. I think that this is a great start to understanding the study of behavior modification. I felt that this section really helped to break it down and make it easy to understand. I also really liked that the section asked us to write in our own responses. This forced me to stop and think about what I had just read about the ABC's of behavior modification. For example when the section asked us to fill in different consequences of raising your hand in different situations or with a different antecedent following the behavior it forced me to think about how different the consequences of that action can be. It also showed just how important the antecedent is when it comes to modifying someones behavior. There was nothing that I really disliked about the section. I think that it was all valuable and useful information. Although it may seem a little straight foreward and bland, I know that it is an extremely important factor when it comes to behavior modification. I would not change anything about this section. It was clear and easily understandable. The three things that I will remember most about this section are, how important the antecedent is, that the ABC's are the basis of behavior modification, and that manipultion is not necessarily a bad thing. I think that this last point is a very important thing to rememeber. Most people think that manipulation is a bad thing, or that if we manipulate someone we are taking advantage of them. This section makes a good point about how manipulation is not necessarily bad. For example we can manipulate someones behavior simply by putting up a "wet paint" sign so that people don't touch something that has recently been painted. This is a good manipulation because 1, the painted object doesn't get ruined, and 2, it saves people from getting paint on them. I thought that this was a great example of how behavior modification can be a good thing.
I found section 1.2 a little more difficult to understand. I think that it made some very good points thought. One thing that I liked about this section was that like the previous one, it broke the different topics down and gave many good examples of the different subjects. For example I like that it expained how reinforcement, reinforcer,and reinforcing are similar, but also completely different. One is a verb that involoves a procedure and the others are a noun and an adjective. I also liked that it forced me to stop and think about how to use all the terms correctly. I found that this made it much easier to understand. I also found it interesting that when when the consequence of a behavior is reinforcing, the future probability
of the behavior occurring under the same circumstances will increase, and when the consequence of a behavior is punishing, the future probability
of the behavior occurring under the same circumstances will decrease. I know that this is something that has been discussed in many different psychology classes that I have taken, but I feel that this section really helped solidify the information in my mind. I also found it the explanation of how punishment can involve something pleasurable, and reinforcement can involve something aversive. There was nothing that I disliked or would change about this section, alothough, I feel that I may need to go over it again to make sure that I completely understand the material covered.
Reading these sections has changed what I thought about behavior modification because like most people I kind of saw it as a type of negative manipulation. My ideas about this have completely changed though. I now realize that there is much more to modifying someones or your own behavior. I think that this class will really help me understand all the differnt things that go into modifying byhavior.
Terms: behavior modification, antecedent, behavior, consequence, reinforcement, punisher, pleasurable, aversive,
Sect 1.1
After reading section 1.1 there were a few things that stood out to me. The thing I liked the most was all the examples which included our own person examples. After reading the section and viewing the examples it made it more understandable when you put your own A,B,C’s in the boxes. It also helped me realize that almost all of my behaviors can be put in the category of the a,b,c’s. There is almost always an action which to me is the antecedent. After that occurs the behavior of that action takes place which is the B. And following both of these is C which is the consequence of the previous two. The one thing I enjoyed the most was reading and understanding the a,b,c’s. At first I was wondering how difficult and complex these terms would be. Once reading them and viewing the examples its more clear to me what they mean and how they do effect each other. Now I have an understanding of some important basic behavior modification concepts. Just reading the 3 definitions made me more self-aware of my own A, B, and C’s. This will help me control my own actions, behaviors which in turn help shape the consequences either positive or negatively. The 3 most obvious things I will remember is within the section 1.1 title. The A,B,C’s. Ill remember these because they are important obviously but they also serve as a base to understanding behavior modification. These examples express different situations and all the possible interchangeable ideas you can use within them. The one thing I didn’t really like was the question on if behavior can be manipulated. I do feel you can manipulate behavior for certain reasons such as research. If someone used it to enhance their life it seems like a negative meaning. I guess that when I hear the term manipulation it just has a negative meaning attached to it in my eyes. It doesn’t always have to be that way but the majority of the time it seems to be in a negative context.
Before reading these sections I looked at behavior modification as a fairly broad term. I didn’t know exactly what it entailed. I had some ideas of what could be included but not the processes to get to that point. I figured it was a topic on ways that behavior could be changed and the different ideas on how to do it. I have always been interested in the topic even before reading the 2 sections. We deal with our own behaviors and other people’s behaviors on a daily basis so it’s a valuable tool to know and at least understand what and why certain things happen based on certain behaviors. It was interesting because a lot has to do with cause and effect. After reading the a,b,c’s I realized that its much deeper of a subject than just say it, attempt to do it and get results whether they were good or bad. Like most things in science/psychology there is a process and how you approach this process determines the outcome. The sections really opened my eyes on the small details of behavior modification. I gained more knowledge after these sections which will help build toward a better understanding after each section of the book and class. It also made me more interested in the processes behind behavior modification.
Sect 1.2
After reading section 1.2 I found that the more work boxes which allowed for examples was something I enjoyed. It helped me work through the process until I feel that I understood the topic 100%. When I had to come up with my own examples it made the information stick much more than I f they were provided for me. Separating the different ideas of punishment vs. reinforcement helped me to clarify the difference and how one thing can be reinforcement yet be looked at as negative valence depending on the person receiving it. I like how these examples were interchangeable but they all had a procedure to them. Most would prefer to get positive valence but that isn’t always the best way to approach the process. Three things that I will remember will be 1. Positive/negative valence these are the psychological values placed by the person 2. Punishers and reinforcer, because it was described well in good detail and I practiced it a few times with the boxes provided.
3. Positive and Negative reinforcement, because I have learned about this concept before in a past classes and also experienced it in life as a child growing up. The one thing I didn’t really enjoy was the section on verb, noun, adjectives at the beginning. I didn’t think we needed a lesson on that. I felt that examples would be of much better benefit rather than grammar lessons. If it is needed I understand but in my opinion I didn’t feel it did me much good compared to the rest of the section.
Terms: behavior modification, antedent, behavior, consequence, emit, elicit, pleasurable outcome, undesired outcome, positive valence, negative valence, valence, procedure, punishment, reinforcement, desirable, aversive, verb, noun, adjective.
E.M.G.
Section 1.1
I really enjoyed how simple and straightforward the explanations of the ABC's were. The text gave multiple examples that helped me apply them to everyday life. Seeing how they could be used in different situations really helped me understand how the ABC's really work in real life scenarios. Having to come up with several of our own examples, and repeating the information throughout the text made the information stick.
I didn't really dislike anything in this section. I thought that everything was very well explained and easy to grasp. Having so many examples to complete made it extrememly easy to understand the concept.
Three things that I will remember from this reading would be how the antecedent brings about a behavior which results in a consequence, sometimes the consequence can be either pleasureable or aversive depending on the antecedent and the behavior, and lastly, for every behavior we emit, there will be an antecedent and a consequence.
Section 1.2
As with section 1.1, I really liked that everything was in such simple detail. It was extremely easy to comprehend and the examples were super helpful. I learned that there are naturally occuring reinforcers and punishers. An example was you smile at someone, they smile back, so the frequency of the bahavior is more likely to increase rather than decrease. I didn't realize that simple things such as that are included in behavior modification.
I disliked how negative punishment and negative reinforcement was explained. I had difficulty coming up with examples for them. I wish the text went into more depth about this subject so it was more clear and easy to understand.
Three things I learned in this section would be; reinforcers, in most circumstances, usually increase the behavior and punishers, in most circumstances, usually decrease the behavior, lastly I learned what positive and negatvie valences are and how to apply them to everyday life.
Before reading these sections I thought that behavior modification was a complex study of human behaviors. I didn't really research the class so I guess the name "Behavior Modification" made it sound more complex than it really is. After reading the text I found that everyday behavior is evaluated and it really isn't that complex at all (as long as you read and do the examples).
Terms: Antecedent, behavior, consequence, pleasureable, aversive, emit, reinforcers, punishers, negative punishment, negative reinforcement,
I.A.
Section 1.1
The formate of the web based textbook is great. I really like how everything is laid out in a simple to read, simple to understand way. It is neat how the boxes are right there under what we have just learned and provide us a way to put the knowledge learned from the text into our own words. One point that really stood out to me was how almost every behavior has the key components of the ABC's of Behavior Modification. This isn't something that I would think of on a daily basis but seeing it in the context of this course as well as the reading assignment for the week made it pop out at me. The one thing I disliked was how manipulating someone was metioned but than it was not expounded upon. Maybe it will be talked about later on. As for this section, it seemed that if we were to write our thought about it, maybe there would be a little follow up to go with it. The reason I feel so strongly about this point is that manipulating someone can in certain circumstances have either a positive or negative affect on the individual who is emitting a certain type of behavior. The three things I will remember from section 1.1 are,
1)We can control the
consequences of an adversive behavior and later determine if the same antecedents elicit same type of behavior. Basically, if an action takes place in a certain enviornement, we can test to see if the same actions will occur within the same enviornement at a different time.
2)The relationship between a certain type of behavior and the consequence that follow are usually very clear. I would apply this to many situations where someone has been arrested for a crime. The criminal act is usually, when discovered, associated with picking up the offender in a police car. People do not have to ask why the person is being hauled away in the squad car because there is already that relationship that has been associated between criminal behavior and consequences.
3)The consequence of a behavior are related to the antecedent by way of salient social cues. I strongly believe that social cues are the reason most of us act the way we do. There are certain that the majority of the population sees as unacceptable. We follow the cues set by the majority of the population and make it a point to not partcipate in behaviors that society deems unacceptable.
Section 1.2
I like how this section goes into a very detailed looked at the different ways to get someone to behave in a certain way. I believe it is important to know the differences between reinforcement and punishment. Both procedures are used to either increase or decrease a behavior. These terms I'm sure have been confused by many in the past. I feel like this section of the text does an outstanding job of clearly defining which procedure does what in the behavioral modification process. I didn't care for the section about positive or negative valence vs. desirable or undesirable valence. I guess I'm not understanding what difference it makes on which term is used to describe the level of valence we are talking about in a given situation. This however, is a small dislike of mine and really isn't that big of an issue in the scope of the class. I just didn't understand what impact the difference of terminology really has on defining valence.
The three things I will take away from section 1.2 are,
1) Reinforcement is the procedure used to increase
the frequency or amount of a certain behavior.
2)Punishment is the procedure used to decrease the frequency or amount of a certain behavior.
3)The consequence of our behavior can have either desirable or undesirable outcomes.
The neat thing about the ABC's of behavior modification is that it relates to so many different areas of life. I will be able to take the knowledge, even from this section alone and apply it to the areas of interest I have. This course is set up so that we can learn about the different components of the ABC's and then apply them to our everyday lives, or at least see how they influence the behaviors we emit and the consequences the come as a result of our actions.
Terms
Emit, antecedents, aversive, pleasurable, salient, positive, negative, elicit, reinforcement, punishment, procedure, valence, desirable, undesirable, consequence
C.H.
Section 1.1
This section was a good way to start the chapter. It gave a good understanding of exactly what the ABC's of behavior are and why they make sense. One thing I really liked in the section was how it discussed if manipulating people was a good or bad thing. This exercise really made me think because I believe people manipulate each other all the time without even knowing it. As a marketing with an emphasis in sales major, it is all about understanding the buyer and what they truly need. Part of this sales process is "getting on their side of the table" which relates to manipulating someone. If you can understand the way a buyer thinks and behaves, you will certainly be able to influence/them manipulate them into building that relationship with you and investing in your company and not making them aversive. The consequence is that they will emit a willing attitude and behavior because they can trust you.
For the most part, I liked the entire section. However, I did not understand how you can control a consequence because it comes after the behavior. Maybe I read it wrong. My understanding is that if you can predict what the consequence is in a specific environment(antecedent), then you can control/change a behavior.
1. I will remember that an antecedent involves the environment you are in because of the joke example used in the text.
2. If you can understand the ABC's, you will be able to control many of the situations you come in contact with. This will stick with me because I will be more aware of my surroundings/behaviors from now on.
3. I will remember to use the words pleasurable and aversive because of the comparison to positive and negative.
Section 1.2
I enjoyed reading this section because it was very easy to understand. Something that I realized is that many of the terms discussed were used in my consumer behavior class I took last year. Much of it overlaps because personal behavior and consumer behavior go hand in hand. I really liked the explanation of a consequence as a punisher and a reinforcer because I personally think this strategy works. If you punish a child or reinforce them, it will likely change their behavior. Something I noticed is that as people grow older, it may not matter how much you punish or reinforce them because they become stuck in their ways. They may not want to change or they actually enjoy how they act.
I am kind of confused on the positive and negative aspect when speaking of valence and that is the only thing I disliked. I am unsure if you are supposed to use the words positive or negative or if you should use desirable or aversive when speaking of valence.
1. I will remember that reinforcement can involve something aversive because of the splinter example.
2. I will remember that punishment can involve something desirable because of plane example and the thrill of it.
3. Self-reinforcement can be used even if undesirable consequences occur because the person may think they are funny.
Prior to reading these sections, I thought that behavior modification dealt with simply choosing something that you wanted to change that wasn't desirable and taking the proper steps to get there. I did think that it was not an easy task and it would take much time and patience. My perspective has changed somewhat because of all the terms that have been described. However, I have encountered some of these terms in my other classes so it is not all new.
Terms: aversive, reinforcement, punishment, consequence, antecedent, pleasurable, desirable, manipulating, self-reinforcement, valence.
In the first section I liked how the ABC's were made to be understood very simply. I thought that the examples were very good and how they used the ABC's in many different situations. When reading these I thought of many different situations in which I was able to identify what those ABC's were and how throughout the day they had occurred. With examples and having to make your own examples also helped me out a lot to remember the ABC's.
I would have liked more examples and detail on the examples.
From this section I have have learned about the different types of consequences. The ABC's and what they stand for and how to use them in everyday life. Also that when you know about the antecedent and the consequence you can then be able to predict behaviors
For this section I still liked how they had examples and then blanks so that you can write out your own. But I would have liked more examples for me this section. There were some parts that I was able to understand fine but others that I wish had more detail. I liked how the examples kept on building on each other. I disliked how many examples there were for this section though it just got repetitive and I couldn't keep thinking of new examples.
I will remember positive and negative reinforcement and how they work. Another thing I will remember is the different types of punishments. And also valence and how they can positive or negative.
Before reading these sections I really didn't know much about behavior modification and thought that it was much more confusing then what it seems to be. After looking through the sections and how they break down each part it really helps for me to start to get an understanding of how behavior modification works and how I can use it in my own life.
Terms:reinforcement, punishments,behavior,modification, antecedent, valence
MKH
1.1
In this section, I really enjoyed reading the ABCs of behavior and found that for some behavior, it is easy to map out using the A-->B-->C method. I didn't find anything I disliked about the section. The ABCs of behavior are easy to remember, manipulation of behavior, and using the ABCs of behavior to map out behavior and consequences. I really enjoyed the question about manipulating someone's behavior. Manipulating behavior is not a bad thing when it comes to training someone in the workplace, or conditioning a child's behavior. However, if the manipulation is for someone else's personal or monetary gain, then it becomes a problem. The best example I can think of is on an episode of the Big Bang Theory where Sheldon attempts to manipulate Penny's behavior to his liking. Anytime she does something he deems as appropriate behavior, he rewards her using pieces of chocolate. However, Leonard does not find what Sheldon is doing as right, but it does show how someone can be manipulated.
1.2
I appreciated this section for explaining the differences between positive and negative reinforcement and valence. I often had trouble differentiating the two. I also appreciated the examples and having to write my own sentences using positive or negative reinforcement. I didn't dislike anything in the section. Three things I remember from the section are the examples of reinforcement, punishment, and describing the differences.
I didn't understand much about behavior modification other than what it entails with operant and classical conditioning because of previous class experiences. I now understand a bit better than I did before, and I have even applied some of the ideas and definitions to my own life. For example, I am trying to lose weight and get more physically fit using exercises and yoga. I use the positive reinforcement procedure by rewarding my weight loss and exercise with a healthy snack or a "good job. Keep at it" from my fiance.
Terms Used in Post: punishment, manipulation, valence, reinforcement
CRP
In section 1.1 I liked the use of charts to explain how the ABC's work and how different anteceedents elicit different consequences when using the same behavior. I like the charts because it allows and easy transition into what we will be learing this semseter. I also liked the questions they ask and allow us to transfer what we learned in the text and see what we ahve learned. Then it would explain what could happen if one of the ABC boxes was blank and the many options it could offer. I didnt dislike anything in this section. It was easy to understand and didn't offer any material that went over my head which allowed me to start my learning on the right foot and with optomismn. The three things I am going to remember are the charts just because of the visual aid and sticks in my brain when I think of the ABC's; the way the anticeedent can affect the consequence if the behavior is the same because I found it very interesting; and i will rememebr the way environment has a big impact on behavior. I will rememebr this because even though we might not notice it, it affects us everyday.
In section 1.2 I really liked the way it describes the use of reinforcment and punishment. Using these to modify someones behavior catches my interest and reading this reinforced my interest in this topic. Even though it is simple it can be a very powerful modifier of ones behavior. I did not like how wordy this section was. To me I felt a lot of reptition and I feel as if this could confuse a reader and to other seem very redundant. Three things I will remember from this section is the use of the terms reinforcement and punishment, which ones are nouns, verbs and adjectives, and self reinforcement. I will rememebr the first one because of all the repition of the words. They became ironed in my mind and I probably won't forget it. The second one i will rememeber because I think it will be imoportant when writing and talking about reinforcements and punishments. The third one I will rememeber because I found it very interesting and after reading it made me realize how often it happens with people around me and with myself.
Since i took intro to psychlogy I knew of these types of behavior modification so it was a detailed review of what i already knew. The things i did learn though were more vocab words to explain what types of modification there are. So far behavior modification is exactly what i thought it would be but with more vocab i can use when talking or writing about it.
Terms used: anteceedent, elicit, consequence, reinforcement, punishment, self reinforcemnt
I.B
As this is the first part that we've read it is my first exposure to the book. I really like the writing style of the book. Nothing is over-complicated, and everything is laid out in a nice manner that is conductive to my learning of the material. I liked all the examples, especially the one with three different antecedents that led to the same consequence. I also really liked how the basics of behavior modification can be expressed as easy as ABC. Having to come up with my own examples as I went along made the information more applicable and therefore more easy to remember. Normally when reading along textbooks the goal is to just get the pages read, and I retain little knowledge having had been absent minded while my eyes followed lines of text. In this book, the breaks for examples keep me on check to make sure I am legitimately reading and understanding the material instead of just skimming and reading the summary. I also thought the summary at the end was helpful to emphasize the more important aspects of the section. One thing I didn't really like was the amount of do it yourself examples. Say there were three lines and I could only think of two without repeating the example given. Also, with it being online, if I come up with my own examples there is no way of knowing if they are good examples until we have class next time. From this section I will remember the Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence model and the fact that it is not a direct linear model.
In the second reading I once again liked the simple laid out way the information was presented. I liked the use of all the examples and liked how with the use of reinforcement and punishment we are actually getting into the behavior modification part of bmod. I look forward to being able to use my knowledge to elicit desirable behaviors. Surprisingly, I am thinking most of when I will be using this as a parent instead of using it to get my roommate to clean more or a waiter to bring me free food or whatever. I disliked all the differentiation between such similar things, like the different parts of speech for reinforcement. From this I will remember the basics of reinforcement and punishment (having something good introduced as a behavior modifier versus having something negatived added). I will remember that the valence can be either positive or negative (desirable or aversive). I will also remember that reinforcement can persist as self reinforcement which explains why that unfunny guy in my biopsych class continues to make jokes everyday without any outside reinforcement.
Before reading these sections, everything I learned on behavior modification was either in Intro to Psych or I found it on stumble upon. I would say as of right now I haven't learned anything surprisingly new, I have just looked more in depth on what I've already known. My view on behavior psych stays the same for right now.
Terms: Antecedent, behavior, consequence, elicit, desirable, aversive, punishment, reinforcement, valence.
P.C.L.
After reading section 1.1, I really enjoyed how I realized that every single behavior we do will always have a consequence to the behavior emitted. It was neat having that put into words, because that process isn’t something people think about with every behavior they do. I did not find anything in this section that I disliked. The first thing that I will remember is the ABC’s of behavior because without knowing this, each behavior cannot be explained or potentially modified. The second thing is how the antecedent, or the place where a behavior is emitted, can result in a completely different consequence. For example, when the chart had us fill out about raising your hand in different antecedents, each consequence would differ. The third thing I will remember from this section is that if the antecedent and consequence are given, the behavior is usually predictable, however, there are so many other behaviors that may be one to result in the same way.
Terms: Consequence, emitted, behavior, modified, antecedent
One thing I really liked from this section was learning about punishment and reinforcement. I enjoyed this because I realized how often I do this daily. For example, I am often the one to clean my apartment and so when another roommate is cleaning the dishes or counters, or takes out the trash I make sure to thank them to reinforce the behavior in the future. One thing I disliked about the section is trying to get all the different ways of punishment and reinforcement figured out and separated in an attempt to understand them because it is confusing reading sometimes. One thing I will remember from this section is the different examples that were given for reinforcement and punishment because I often emit these behaviors when I am babysitting. The second thing I will remember is the term, “aversive.” Since that term was often displayed in the reading, I made sure to relate it to negativity. The third thing I will remember is self-reinforcement because I really had to think about that term in order to understand the meaning and examples of it.
Terms: Punishment, reinforcement, behavior, emit, aversive, self-reinforcement
--Prior to reading these sections, what did you think about behavior modification? Why? How has reading these sections changed what you originally thought about behavior modification? How so?
Prior to reading these sections, I thought behavior modification would include ways to alter behavior and why or why not behaviors should be altered. After reading these sections, my thinking of behavior modification has changed by realizing there is many terms to describe behaviors and that being able to understand the language of behavior modification will help me to truly understand the course.
Section 1.1
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why?
I liked reading about the feedback loop and the important relationship between the antecedent and the consequence. Setting the antecedent “consequently” influences the consequence, thus behavior change can be controlled. Understanding this information made it easier to understand how behavior modification is possible and how I could use it to benefit my life and those of others; especially as I look to work in public health and influence public policy.
What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why?
Really, there was nothing I disliked about this section. It was a clear and concise introduction of what to expect from the course this semester, and frankly it confirms this class was the right choice and is going to be damn interesting!
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
1.Firstly I recall the importance of describing consequences as pleasurable or aversive rather than positive or negative. The terms positive and negative can’t be used to describe behavior because they are opposites and behavior cannot be completely positive or negative due to the infinite circumstances in which it develops. For example, the environment of an individual can set the occasion for certain behaviors: a joke at a party creates mostly pleasurable responses but at a funeral, a mix of aversive responses and pleasurable.
2.The suggestion that environment will control behavior was most memorable! This chapter justifies that a behavior exists within an environment, thus it is the environment that must be manipulated to manipulate and elicit a particular behavior. Thus, the manipulation of the environment to manipulate behavior suggests, and confirms what is later exclaimed, that most behavior can be explained by the ABC’s! It seems fascinating that the ability to control our behavior and therefor the behavior of others, is an almost simple equation.
3.A final point I recall is the question of whether or not it is right or wrong to manipulate and control someone else’s behavior.I feel as though this question has much to do with respecting humanity and doing what’s best for the human race. It is not something the selfish, greedy individual should have control over; of which many of us are, so begs the question: what gives someone the right to exert such control over a fellow?
Section 1.2
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why?
Positive valance vs. negative valance. It was interesting putting my head around the psychological term used to describe the psychological value of liking something or disliking something. Understanding positive value is associated with pleasant, desirable or attractive options and negative valence is associated with unpleasant, undesirable and aversive options allows for an easier understanding of why thoughts and behaviors cannot be described as either negative or positive; there are always shades of grey.
What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why?
Again, I didn’t dislike anything in this section.
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
1.Negative punishment and negative reinforcement illustrate how aversive reinforcers modify behavior. Negative punishment reinforces specific behavior when a pleasure is removed. Negative reinforcement inflicts punishment until behavior is modified, presenting a pleasurable outcome for the individual
2.As discussed in Section 1.1, the antecedent and often the environment directly influences behavior. In this section the Reinforcement is used a procedure to modify behavior, and it is reinforcement that is the antecedent to the reinforcer and what is reinforcing, confirming the importance of the antecedent.
3. An important section of 1.2 seems to be understanding the difference between the reinforcer and the punisher. The reinforcer is intended to increase the behavior whilst the punisher intends to decrease the behavior.
Prior to reading these sections, what did you think about behavior modification? Why?
Prior to analyzing these sections I assumed behavior modification would be a complex process, involving much behavioral analysis of the individual and a complex procedure. I believe I thought along these lines because I connect behavior modification with modify the behavior of a group or community rather than a single individual due to my interest in public health.
How has reading these sections changed what you originally thought about behavior modification? How so?
My new understanding of behavior modification is that individually, behavior modification is not difficult. It will be interesting to read whether this changes in a group situation, specifically in a public health setting.
Terms: antecedent, consequence, feedback loop, pleasurable, aversive, behavior, elicit, emitted, set the occasion, negative punishment, negative reinforcement, aversive, reinforcer, punisher, reinforcement, positive valance, negative valance, undesirable, desirable, pleasant, unpleasant
Section 1.1
One thing that I really enjoyed from this section was how well it explained the ABC's of behavior modification. The specific examples given clearly lay out the A-antecedent, the B-behavior, and the C-consequence for each example which helped to clarify exactly what each letter represents. These examples made it easy to understand what seemed like a complicated method.
One that that I did not enjoy from this section was the fact that it used the words positive and negative and then were told not to use those words because pleasurable and aversive are the correct terms to use when desrcribing types of consequences. I feel that it would be less confusing to not put the words positive and negative in there at all and simply use the desired terms. This way I feel like there is less of a chance for me to mistake the words and use them incorrectly.
The first thing that I will definatly remember from this section are the basic ABC's of behavior modification and what each building block represents. The examples given made it easy to grasp the concept in a way that can easily be used and related to real world situations which makes it easier to remember. The next thing that I will remember from this section is that the relationship of antecedent, behavior, and consequence is not one that is linear but rather one that is a continuous loop. It is important to remember that each part effects the other and it is not simply under the control of one factor. The third thing that I will remember from this section is that the same behavior can have completely different functions which provide different consequences depending on the antecedent. This is important to remember when trying to modify a specific behavior because you will get different results for that desired behavior depending on the antecedent of the situation.
Section 1.2
One thing that I really enjoyed about this section was the thorough descriptions of the difference between reinforcer/punisher (the noun), reinforcement/punishment (the verb), and reinforcing/punishing (the adjective). The fact that the reading gave multiple examples of each destinct word made it easier to grasp the differences between these very similar workds. I particularly liked this beacuse it is so easy to use these words interchangeably which can lead to confusion and error if not corrected.
One thing that I did not enjoy about this section is that I did not feel that it had a very good flow to the material. I feel like it would have been easier to understand if all three variations of each words were described and dsicussed in the same section. I felt like I had to go back multiple times in the reading to make sure I had the terms straight. I especially feel the section about valence interupted the explanation of the differences between the three vartiations of the words.
One thing that I will remember from this section is that punishment/reinforcement refers to the procedure of changing a behavior, punisher/reinforcer refers to refers to what is being implaced, and punishing/reinforcing refers to the outcome of the procedure. I will remember this because it was a main emphasis throughout the entire reading and the activities gave enough practice for each so that the distinction was clear. The second thing that I will remember from this section is that punishment is used when one wants to lessen the frequency of a behavior and reinforcement is used when one wants to increase the frequency of a behvaior. These distinctions are important characteristics of each method of behvaior modification that are essential for understanding how to succesfful modify behavior. The third thing that I will remember from this section is that the psychological value that we place on things which allows us to decide whether something is desirable or undesirbale is called valence. It is important to remember that this factor has influence in how we percieve aspects of behavior modification.
Behavioral psychology is one of my major interests and so I have looked into it prior to this class. Before these readings I knew that manipulation of behavior does not have to be a negative thing and can be extrememly beneficial to all involved though there is a moral and ethical line to where, when, and how manipulation takes place. I also felt that environment is an extremely important part or behavior modification because of how it effects the function of the emitted behavior. The readings allowed me to see the importance of the ABC's as buliding blocks to behavior modification and how this organization method makes the process more organized and simpler to understand. The readings helped to show that there are specific terms in behavior modification that should be used to clarify aspects of the process and that they should not be used interchangeably.
Terms used-antecedent, behavior, consequence, pleasurable, aversive, functions, reinforcing, reinforcement, reiforcer, punishment, punisher, punishing, valence, emit
ECS
I found the ABC’s of behavioral modification interesting. Using the ABC’s is an easy way to break down different behaviors. Every behavior has to have an antecedent, behavior and consequence. It would be easy to modify behaviors if their were only three simple steps unfortunately it is more complex than that. Each behavior that we emit has an antecedent or an occasion and the consequence that is surprising or aversive. Although is seems like A leads to B which leads to C but it is actually a circular. Once a behavior is done and the consequence happens the person is more likely to increase or decrease this behavior again in this antecedent if the consequence is desirable. The ABC’s can be used in everyday activities, which make it very useful, and something I can apply to my life.
One thing I found confusing for me to grasp is that instead of positive and negative we should think about things as pleasurable and aversive. I’ve always been taught to think of things in that way which has made it hard to alter how I think about it.
Three things that I will remember are the ABC’s, examples of them and that things are pleasurable and aversive. I will remember the ABC’s because they are the building blocks to behavioral modification. The examples that I will remember are the different situations that one can tell jokes in and the different consequences that can come from that behavior. The final thing I’ll remember from this chapter that consequences are pleasurable and aversive not just positive and negative. I need to remember to use these terms or it will make it more difficult for me as the class continues.
In chapter 1.2 I found reinforcement procedure very interesting. Reinforcement I feel is a better was to increase or decrease a behavior of someone. It is a less aversive way to change a behavior and I think more behaviors would increase with this type of procedure. An example of this is smiling at someone and them smiling back at you. This will increase the behavior because the consequence was pleasurable. Reinforcement is a essential part of behavior modification.
One thing I didn’t like about this section was the punishment and reinforcement using the ABC’s. Some situations are a lot easier to figure out than the other. The hardest part is figuring out the antecedent for the condition and the appropriate reinforcement or punishment.
The first thing I will remember from this chapter is that there are different types of outcomes for a behavior. A desirable outcome is referred reinforcer and an aversive outcome is referred as punishers. I will remember this because it will help to think about what type of outcome is happening in the behavior. The second thing I will remember is negative punishment. This is when you are removing something creating an unpleasant experience. This will be easy to remember because negative means taking something away and is frequently used in everyday life. The final thing I will take away from this section is self-reinforcement. Self-reinforcement is important because it will help oneself change their behavior. Being able to change our own behavior is just as important as being able to help change other’s behaviors.
I knew behavior modification was about changing the behavior of others but I didn’t know the specifics of the basic I do now from just reading the first two sections. From taking Learning Psychology while I was abroad I learned the basic of changing and studying basic behaviors. I now think that it will be a lot easier to understand how to modify behavior because we will know specifics and details of modification.
Terms: Antecedent, behavior, consequence, emit, aversive, reinforcing, punishment, behavior modification, punishers, reinforcers, self-reinforcement
1.1) I really liked learning about the ABC's of behavior modification, this section did make it feel as easy as ABC...1,2,3...you and me! But I digress, I feel like the examples really helped me get a grasp of the antecedent, behavior, and consequence. The examples helped me relate those terms into before, during and after. I disliked thinking about my daily actions today because my days are usually the same day in and day out, so I usually don't think about what led up to my behavior. However, the most common antecedent I have is ignoring my alarm clock, and my behavior is waking up late, with the consequence of being late the rest of the day. I will remember that every behavior has an antecedent. I think this is important because even though there is a consequence for behavior, there is always a situation that leads to the behavior. I will remember that manipulation is not always a bad thing,I think it is interesting to take into consideration all the manipulation we have around us to make our lives easier, or safer. I will also remember the emit means to "do" and elicit means to "make." I foresee these meanings a bit tricky because instantly emit makes me think omit, which is not the case.
1.2) I thought it was interesting learning about reinforcement involving something aversive and punishment involving something pleasurable. There reason I enjoyed reading about this was because I found it a little difficult to apply these situations in my life. I may be totally wrong, but it got me thinking that in our own lives, it might be harder for us to see pleasurable punishments as punishments because they are pleasurable. I disliked all the terminology, but I feel that is to be expected with psychology. I am the type of person that needs to study my terms, and apply them repeatedly even if wrongly to correct myself. So when going over the terms, I felt a little peeved knowing that I am going to have to put in a lot of time remembering that positive and negative have reverse meanings (which I am still unsure what this really means.) I am going to remember that self-reinforcement does not actually make you funny because I am 100% guilty of thinking my jokes are hilarious, no one laughs, but I proceed to tell them anyways. I think the same also applies to smoking. Smokers hear/know how bad smoking is but they continue to smoke because of self-reinforcement saying that the punishments won't apply to them. I am going to remember that many words in behavior modification mean the opposite of day to day language, like negative and positive valence. Also I will remember to study my terminologies to I can remember that words in behavior modification mean the opposite of day to day language.
Prior to reading these sections, but after having our first two classes, I thought behavior modification was going to be really cool and I still think that. However, I am starting to become a little more weary of the terminology (which I have mentioned before in this post.) But I am attempting to keep my worries at easy because this book has provided a pretty easy understanding and flow of the main idea. I like the reviews at the end of the sections because sometimes I feel overwhelmed reading my psychology books. these review sections allow me to categorize what I just read. These sections have also made me realize that even though reading about behavior modification has been simple so far, I doubt applying it will be as simple. Example like having to change your natural reaction to a situation, seems like it takes a lot of attention and effort for people to make changes.
Vocabulary:
Antecedent Behavior Consequence Manipulation Emit Elicit Reinforcement Punishment Pleasurable Self-reinforcement Negative and Positive Valence
1.1
I really liked all of the examples provided in section 1.1. I had a pretty clear idea of what was being said about the ABC’s, and what the ABC’s were, but the examples really helped to clarify everything for me.
The only thing I did not really like about the section was that we cannot use the terms positive and negative. I’m sure it will make sense later on in the book, but for right now I think it might be difficult trying to use pleasurable and aversive, rather than positive and negative.
I will definitely retain the three ABC’s of behavior modification—antecedent, behavior, and consequence. They were mentioned so many times, and explained so well, that it would be difficult to forget them. I will remember that the antecedent is what occurs before the behavior, the behavior is whatever it is you’re doing, and the consequence is a result of what happens because of the antecedent and behavior.
1.2
I really liked how the book was interactive throughout the section. Instead of just reading, reading, reading, there are pauses, and time to really think about what you just read. These examples help me to organize my thoughts and put to use what I just read, rather than going on without really giving a thought about it. I also really liked the summary of key points at the end of the section. It helped me to remember everything I had read, and will be a good spot to look should I ever need to refer back to something from the section that I did not fully understand.
I didn’t really like how valence was first introduced as positive and negative valence, but then we were told not to call them that. It only added to my confusion of the terms positive and negative from earlier. Hopefully I can keep these terms straight when it comes down to understanding and using them.
I will remember that when the consequences of a behavior are reinforcing, the probability of that behavior reoccurring increase. The same is true when consequences of a behavior are punishing, except the probability will decrease. I will also remember not to use the terms positive and negative when referring to valence, but to replace it with pleasurable or aversive valence instead. The third thing I will take away from this section and remember is that there is such a thing as negative punishment and negative reinforcement. Negative just simply means taking something away from the equation. I will remember this because I never really thought reinforcement could be negative, but in this case negative does not mean bad, just subtracting something aversive.
Prior to reading the sections my thoughts on behavior modification were not very substantial. I did not really know what all behavior modification involved. I just simply knew that there were behaviors, that you could potentially modify, but had no idea how or why you would want to. After reading just the first two sections it is clearer to me that behavior modification involves a lot of different factors, not just behaviors and changing them. I also have a better idea of why you would want to modify your behavior—so you aren’t telling jokes at funerals, or maybe to manipulate positive (oops not positive, PLEASURABLE) things to happen. It is honestly all very interesting to learn about and I genuinely look forward to expanding my knowledge on the subject.
Terms
Aversive, antecedent, behavior, consequence, valence, positive valence, negative valence, reinforcing, punishing, negative punishment, negative reinforcement
C.L.C.
After reading section 1.1 I already learned more about what behavior modification was before I took this class. While reading I couldn’t believe how easy it was to remember the ABC’s or behavior modification. I enjoyed how the text was extremely easy to follow and comprehend. The examples made the readings become reality. They put the antecedent (before), behavior, consequence (after) into real life examples and really made it straight forward for me to learn. I really liked the examples that had the antecedent and the consequence already filled it. Because like the text said, it was much easier to predict a behavior that would fit. However, the part of the text that I disliked the most was the examples that only filled in the antecedent. The behavior and the consequence boxes were available for me to fill in, which made me think about what kind of consequence I wanted in order to pick the type of behavior I wanted to use. The three things I want to remember from this section are preferably the ABC’s of behavior modification. The antecedent, behavior and consequences are important to remember from the beginning because I feel like they are the structure of what we’re going to be learning about in this class. So it would be easier to pick up the foundation at the beginning. The second thing I want to take from this section is not to use the words positive and negative anymore. Instead use the two words pleasurable and aversive to replace them. I do believe that will be the hardest for me to remember. However, by telling myself I will remember that from this section I am holding myself accountable to do so. The final thing I learned from this section would be when the antecedent and consequences are controllable; it makes it much easier to find the behavior that is desirable. That way you can start to control the behavior you want.
In section 1.2, I liked how I could do the example on the paper itself. It helps with understand what I’m learning and if I need a refresher it has examples given as well. Hopefully with the little box example I can commit it to my memory better and remember it for future help. One thing I didn’t like about this section was the thinking of three examples for each scenario. It was been a long time since I’ve taken intro to psychology so I was a little rusty on my reinforcement and punishment skills. I had to think hard for a few of them. It was nice to have examples there for me to look at as well. I remember having trouble with positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment in intro to psych also so hopefully I can remember the differences between all of them this time through! Three things that I will remember about this section are how reinforcement is to done to increase the desired behavior and punishment is done to decrease the behavior. I can see how both of these things are important in trying to modify behavior so that’s why I will remember them. The second thing I will remember what self –reinforcement is. That will be simple to remember because reinforcement is an action you want to increase and you are just working on it on yourself. The third thing I will remember from section 1.2 is that reinforcement can involvement something undesirable and punishment can involve something pleasurable. I will remember that because they are total opposites of what the definition or each is.
Prior to taking this course, I thought behavior modification is exactly what the course title entails, modifying of a behavior. I am excited to learn how to do self-reinforcement and how to modify my own behavior. These readings have changed my perspective on this class because I didn’t even know what the ABC’s of behavior modification was until reading the first couple paragraphs of this book. Now I know that the antecedent, behavior and consequence are all very important in the behavior modification process. I enjoy learning about behavior and why people do the things they do and also how you can alter it.
Terms: antecedent, behavior, consequences, pleasurable, aversive, behavior modification, reinforcement, punishment, positive reinforcement, self-reinforcement
C.L.C.
After reading section 1.1 I already learned more about what behavior modification was before I took this class. While reading I couldn’t believe how easy it was to remember the ABC’s or behavior modification. I enjoyed how the text was extremely easy to follow and comprehend. The examples made the readings become reality. They put the antecedent (before), behavior, consequence (after) into real life examples and really made it straight forward for me to learn. I really liked the examples that had the antecedent and the consequence already filled it. Because like the text said, it was much easier to predict a behavior that would fit. However, the part of the text that I disliked the most was the examples that only filled in the antecedent. The behavior and the consequence boxes were available for me to fill in, which made me think about what kind of consequence I wanted in order to pick the type of behavior I wanted to use. The three things I want to remember from this section are preferably the ABC’s of behavior modification. The antecedent, behavior and consequences are important to remember from the beginning because I feel like they are the structure of what we’re going to be learning about in this class. So it would be easier to pick up the foundation at the beginning. The second thing I want to take from this section is not to use the words positive and negative anymore. Instead use the two words pleasurable and aversive to replace them. I do believe that will be the hardest for me to remember. However, by telling myself I will remember that from this section I am holding myself accountable to do so. The final thing I learned from this section would be when the antecedent and consequences are controllable; it makes it much easier to find the behavior that is desirable. That way you can start to control the behavior you want.
In section 1.2, I liked how I could do the example on the paper itself. It helps with understand what I’m learning and if I need a refresher it has examples given as well. Hopefully with the little box example I can commit it to my memory better and remember it for future help. One thing I didn’t like about this section was the thinking of three examples for each scenario. It was been a long time since I’ve taken intro to psychology so I was a little rusty on my reinforcement and punishment skills. I had to think hard for a few of them. It was nice to have examples there for me to look at as well. I remember having trouble with positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment in intro to psych also so hopefully I can remember the differences between all of them this time through! Three things that I will remember about this section are how reinforcement is to done to increase the desired behavior and punishment is done to decrease the behavior. I can see how both of these things are important in trying to modify behavior so that’s why I will remember them. The second thing I will remember what self –reinforcement is. That will be simple to remember because reinforcement is an action you want to increase and you are just working on it on yourself. The third thing I will remember from section 1.2 is that reinforcement can involvement something undesirable and punishment can involve something pleasurable. I will remember that because they are total opposites of what the definition or each is.
Prior to taking this course, I thought behavior modification is exactly what the course title entails, modifying of a behavior. I am excited to learn how to do self-reinforcement and how to modify my own behavior. These readings have changed my perspective on this class because I didn’t even know what the ABC’s of behavior modification was until reading the first couple paragraphs of this book. Now I know that the antecedent, behavior and consequence are all very important in the behavior modification process. I enjoy learning about behavior and why people do the things they do and also how you can alter it.
Terms: antecedent, behavior, consequences, pleasurable, aversive, behavior modification, reinforcement, punishment, positive reinforcement, self-reinforcement,
Section 1.1
I really liked how easy this book is to follow along with. Sometimes I read textbooks for class and I feel like they jump around a lot. This flows smoothly including sections in between the readings to “practice”. I am a hands on learner versus a visual learner so I find it very helpful to be able to practice what you have just read.
Three things I will remember from section 1.1:
1. When you already know what the antecedent and the consequences are, the behaviors are more predictable.
2. The environment in which we do a behavior (antecedent) can greatly impact the consequence of the behavior.
3. ABC’s: A=Antecedent, B=Behavior, C=Consequence
I liked how simple the examples in this section were but I also disliked them. I know that it is better to keep things simple for the purpose of learning it, but I think it is also important to see how more complex behaviors would play out. Sometimes I can feel like I understand something when it is broken down into simple steps and then I have a hard time relating it to other problems.
Section 1.2
Once again, I liked how you could interact with the reading. It helps me get a better understanding for the information. I thought the last section did a better job of explaining the ABC’s versus this section when discussing reinforcement and punishment. I thought this section didn’t flow as nicely as section 1.1.
Three things I will remember from section 1.2:
1. The chances of a behavior occurring in a similar circumstance will increase when that behavior is reinforcing.
2. The chances of a behavior occurring in a similar circumstance will decrease when that behavior is punishing.
3. Reinforcement can be aversive, just as punishment can be desirable.
Terms:
antecedent, behavior, consequence, reinforcing, punishing, aversive, desirable
M.S.
1.1) While reading this section, I really appreciated the flow charts and the fill in the blanks. It gave me a chance to test whether I understood what I was reading. I liked the flow charts because, for the most part, it reassured me that I was learning the material correctly. I also liked how the key terms were reworded so they were more easily understood after being used. For example, “emit (do)” and “pleasurable (People laugh) or aversive (People make a sour face and turn away).” I can usually get the gist of what the author means if I’m not sure of the true mean but I had no question of was meant. I liked that the terms were rephrased in parenthesis because I knew exactly what the terms meant.
There wasn't really anything that I disliked, but I didn't understand the arrows. I didn't understand why the consequences had an arrow that directed back to the antecedent. While writing this, I think it means that you will get different consequences from the same behavior if there is a different antecedent? I think that makes sense but I am still not a 100% sure.
The first thing I remember from reading the section was the first flow chart example. The antecedent was “???” the behavior was “telling a joke” and the consequence was “people laugh.” This sticks out so much to me because my first answer foe the antecedent was an awkward situation not “at a party.” That doesn't have much relevance to actually learning the information, but it’s what I remember. I also remember it that it wasn't exactly easy to come up with my own examples. I had no problem filling in the blanks but when I had to come up with my own A,B,C’s, nothing seemed right. I’ll have to work on that. The last and probably the most important thing I remember from the reading is what A,B,C stands for. I thought this was a great way to explain the material and it really helped me remember and understand antecedent, behavior and consequence.
1.2) One thing I really liked about this section was that it really broke everything down. I liked that there were a lot of examples and that the reader was given the opportunity to come up with their own examples. I also liked how the words, “reinforce” and “punish” were explained verbs, nouns and adjectives. This helped me better understand the material.
Though everything was broken down (which did help!), this material might be better retained, in my opinion, if it was taught in the classroom. I feel like I understand what I just read but I would like more reassurance and I’ll probably only get that by asking questions. This isn't exactly something I disliked about the section but in class learning would be better than reading.
One thing that I’ll remember is that punishment decreases behavior and reinforcement increases behavior. Another thing I’ll remember is that a smile is a natural reinforce. I smile at him, he smiles at me and the behavior increases. The third thing that I’ll remember is valence. Positive valence is a quality that is pleasurable and negative valence is a quality that is aversive.
Prior to reading these sections, I thought behavior modification would be interesting and I still do. I am slightly worrisome about knowing the terms, primarily in section 1.2 but I assume if I ask questions I’ll catch on. Though I realized that a class called behavior modifications would be about modifying behavior but I didn't realize it would also be about manipulating behavior and I thought that will be interesting!
Terms: emit, pleasurable, aversive, antecedent, behavior, consequences, reinforce, punishment, positive and negative valence.
Section 1.1
From this section I really liked the fact that behavior modification is broken down into the ABC’s because it is much easier to understand it that way. One thing I didn't like were all of the charts, I felt like some of them kind of repeated themselves. I will remember the ABC’s of behavior modification, them being a=antecedent, b=behavior, and c=consequence. Another part I will remember is that by controlling the consequences, we can determine if a behavior is more likely to happen in the future under the same antecedent. A third thing I will remember is antecedents refer to or relate a lot to the environment. I will remember these because there were a lot of good examples that went a long with them and made them very easy to understand and some were easy to relate to.
Section 1.2
From this section I really liked how everything was easy to understand and explained very well. I liked that part that said behaviors have consequences. While it may seem rather simplistic, when we do something, something else usually happens as a result-which is described as the consequence for example. Once again I didn't really care for the charts that we were to fill out because there were a lot of them and they were pretty repetitive to the examples given already. Three things I will remember are a reinforcement procedure is intentionally designed to increase the frequency of a specified behavior, I will remember the difference between valence and that we have both positive and negative valence which is the psychological value placed on a person, place, or thing, and the third thing I will remember is that when we talk about reinforcement we are referring to how the world and others respond to our behaviors and actions but we can also reinforce ourselves using self-reinforcement. I will remember all of these because they had good examples to explain them and also I have been introduced to them already so I know what they mean.
Before the class I guess I didn't really think about behavior modification but I had an idea that it had to do with reinforcing certain behaviors and how we may alter/change someone’s behavior. After reading these section’s I feel like I am starting to better understand the different idea’s used in behavior modification. I don’t think that it has really changed my idea of behavior modification but is giving me a better idea of what it is and is making me really enjoy the topic of behavior modification.
Terms: reinforcing, self-reinforcement, consequence, behavior modification, valence, negative valence, positive valence, and antecedent.
Section 1.1
I liked learning about the ABC's and how we are usually unaware of them everyday. When I was reading through the section, it really made a lot of sense to me. Everything affects your behavior. And I also found it interesting just how many things we do without really knowing why or for what reason we are doing them. I also like the clarification that manipulation and modification of behavior is not always a bad thing. Because it's not; not always. As stated towards the end of the section, some become uncomfortable when thinking about controlling/manipulating someone else. However I don't think that is the case. Everything we emit has been taught to us. Behaviors are usually taught or seen or at least heard of. Parents tend to modify their childrens behavior to their liking. As for what I didn't like about this section; filling out those diagrams. I'm sure they aren't supposed to be hard, but it was difficult actually thinking about why I do such behaviors and what are the consequences. Because generally we are unaware of the ABCs, it really made me think about the cause and effect; antecedent and the consequence.
Three things I will remember from this section is 1) controlling the antecedents and consequences make it easier to control the behavior, 2)setting the occasion (antecedent) can create different consequences even if the behavior is the same, and 3) the ABCs are all connected and affect each other.
Section 1.2
I liked reading about valence. In other psychology classes and a few education classes I've learned more about Reinforcement and Punishment, but I don't recall learning about valence. The psychological value of a person, place, or thing is interesting to me, because again it isn't something you really notice until it is pointed out to you. Such as "the ice cream is good"; I like ice cream and without really knowing I put a positive valence on ice cream. Now knowing about it, it sounds like people try to change the valence when they want to change a behavior. They try to trick themselves into thinking that cookies are unpleasant, becasue they want to lose weight. Therefore I understand how valence relates to Reinforcement and Punishment, and how it affects behaviors. One thing I didn't like, or had a hard time with, was coming up with Punishments for the examples in the reading. Reinforcements came to me easier.
Three things from this section I will remember is 1) there is a big difference between the verb, noun, and adjective forms for Punishment and Reinforcement, 2) Valence is a psychological value that can be desireable and undesirable, and 3) reinforcement can be aversive just as punishment can be pleasant.
Prior to the reading, behavior modification was something I was hoping to be able to use as a future teacher. In many education classes, we are told classroom management is the key to having a successful classroom. Being able to set up an environment and making it clear what kind of behavior is acceptable will make for a happy classroom (in theory). I still think all of this is true and learning more about behavior modification can only help me in the long run.
Terms: consequences, antecedent, behavior, setting the occasion, ABCs, valence, Reinforcement, Punishment, psychologiacl value, aversive, behavior modification
Section 1.1
What I liked about this section was the ABC's of Behavior Modification. It was simple and easy to comprehend. I think having a way to Remember Antecedent, Behavior and Consequence will make it easier in the long run. The book said almost all behaviors can be broken down using this method. That makes understanding behavior easier to tackle I think. One thing I disliked and found confusing was that we will be avoiding using specific terms like positive and negative. Pleasurable and adversive are the terms we are to use. At first I think I will have a hard time remembering to use these terms instead of just positive and negative. It's nothing I can't get used to though. The three things I will remember from this section are the ABC's of Behavior Modification, which will be the building block that I will add more knowledge to as I go. The other two things I will remember, or work on remembering is to use the words pleasurable and adversive. I need to remember that positive and negative have other meanings in behavior modification.
Section 1.2
I liked the idea of reinforcement. I like it because it makes sense to me. In order to get a behavior to continue you would use the procedure of reinforcement. My parents used a lot of reinforcement with me when I was a kid to get me to behave. I think it works well in quite a few cases. One thing I disliked about this section was the concept of negative reinforcement. When I think of reinforcement I have always thought of it was a good. Not that something bad could change a behavior for the better. It was hard for me to come up with examples for negative reinforcement but i'm sure the more book sections I read and examples I come across will help me to eventually grasp the concept. The three things that I will remember from this section are: 1. Self-Reinforcement, which is not something I had thought of before but it is true that we would do to ourselves what we might do to others, which is control behaviors we like and don't. 2. Reinforcers are something that helps to reinforce a behavior. It could be many things from ice cream to a new purse. 3. The third thing I will remember is positive and negative valance. Positive valance are things that are nice and draw you in. While negative valance are bad things that push you away.
Prior to reading these sections I thought of behavior modification as a much more complicated concept. But after learning about the ABC's of behavior modification I'm coming to think of the process as not as complicated and much easier to understand. I think with continuing to read the book and have discussions in class that I will learn about more ways to control mine and others behaviors.
Terms: Antecedent, behavior, consequence, pleasurable, adversive, reinforcement, negative reinforcement, self-reinforcement, positive valance, negative valance, reinforcers
Post #2 22 Jan 2013
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
I really liked how the section broke down the ABC’s of behavior mod and allowed me to fully comprehend what was being spoke about. It helped that they gave settings and used stories to make their point instead of throwing terms and facts at us like most other textbooks. Instead It slipped the terms in the text and is explained at the lowest level (lay-mans-terms). Although I can’t put my finger on anything in particular that I really didn't enjoy or dislike parse. I took several things away from this reading. First, that for every behavior there is an Antecedent, which is mainly the setting or situational modifier which will help determine a chosen behavior and the following consequence. In turn that consequence will determine repeated behavior in the antecedent. Secondly, “consequences” are not only negative as it is normally seen as a negative word; it can be either positive or negative. Lastly, the difference between “Eliciting” (making) a response, or “Emitting” (doing) a response.
After reading section 1.2, please respond to the following questions.
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
I liked that the text is easy to understand and uses simple sentences to describe the idea or lesson at hand. I enjoy it because it is easy to understand. However unlike the last section, I did notice that I didn’t like the text speaking about nouns, verbs, and adjectives and things of that nature. As for some odd reason those seem to confuse me. I was unable to accurately detect and identify the difference even though it has been described to be several times. From this reading there are several points that I have noted to be of importance. First is the distinction from a reinforcer and a reinforcement procedure. A reinforcer is something that naturally happens. The same cannot be said for reinforcement procedure, as it is done intentionally to modify someone’s behavior. Secondly I had no idea what valiance, was. However, I instinctively knew about the idea that there are people, places, things, and actions that were psychologically (or even physiologically) either aversive or desirable, I was unaware there was a word for it. Lastly that from the valiance of a situation can determine how someone might feel about repeating or doing a behavior in the future.
Prior to reading these sections, what did you think about behavior modification? Why? How has reading these sections changed what you originally thought about behavior modification? How so?
Prior to reading these sections I thought that modifying someone’s’ behavior was underhanded and something that dishonest or sneaky people might do. After reading these sections I realize that as a collective whole we modify our behavior and those around us to for a society while also applying those rules to social norms and deciding if that behavior is acceptable, tolerable, or unacceptable. These sections helped me realize that I am studying how individuals act and react within a society (using westernized examples) to better understand the impact words, actions and other forms of communication affect another being’s actions and thoughts.
Terms:
Valiance, aversion, emit, elicit, reinforcer, reinforcing procedure, behavior, consequence, antecedent, Aversive, desirable.
Cheers
-AJB
ACB
1.1
I enjoyed reading about the ABC's and thinking about every behavior has an antecedent and a consequence, whether it is a good or bad consequence. I also learned about controlling the antecedent, behavior, or consequence will have an effect on the other two. I liked how it was very easy to comprehend and very well written. The text made clear points that were easy to understand and was an easy read, which makes it easier to remember the information. I felt that one or two charts would have been enough, but there were so many and almost redundant, but other than that It was good. Three things i will remember are the ABC's, for every behavior we emit there is always an antecedent and a consequence, and controlling an antecedent, behavior or consequence has an effect on the other two.
1.2
I liked reading about using reinforcement to control behavior. For example, If you have a dog and you want to teach it how to sit, you would give it a treat when it sits. one thing i did not like about this section was that again i felt like the charts were redundant. Three things i will remember from this section are punishment decreases behavior, reinforcement increases behavior and the term valence is used to describe the psychological value placed on a person, place or thing.
BNJ
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
I had said previously that I was looking forward to finding out what the ABC’s meant. So I enjoyed having that question answered so simply. It was an easy concept to understand. I disliked that it didn’t explain how consequences could be positive or negative until the end of the passage because I was confused when it explained that the consequence for telling a joke is that people laugh. I was under the assumption that the consequence was negative. The obvious three things I will remember are the ABC’s A for Antecedent, B for Behavior and C for Consequence. I will remember these because it was repeated several times throughout the article and the repetition is helping for memorization.
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
I liked how this section gave example that I could relate to myself. For example the situation about telling a joke and getting laughter is a positive reinforcement. I disliked the examples at the end that just gave you three situations and I had to place them into the ABC’s, I was confused. Three things I will remember is that reinforcement can be obtained with something aversive. While punishment can be obtained with something desirable. Also I will remember the definition of valence. Valence is the psychological significance of a person, place, or thing. I will remember these things because they were new information to me.
Prior to reading these sections, what did you think about behavior modification? Why? How has reading these sections changed what you originally thought about behavior modification? How so?
I think behavior modification is pretty self explanatory. When I first heard it I thought immediately that this class would be about how people alter their behaviors depending on situations. After reading these sections I actually was surprised at how much information I had already known about behavior. If was interesting to learn that consequences can be positive. Also that not reinforcement is done with something positive and not all punishment is negative. The concept of a natural reinforcing was interesting to learn as well. What I originally thought of behavior mod is still the same; I had the right concept but just not as in depth.
BNJ
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
I had said previously that I was looking forward to finding out what the ABC’s meant. So I enjoyed having that question answered so simply. It was an easy concept to understand. I disliked that it didn’t explain how consequences could be positive or negative until the end of the passage because I was confused when it explained that the consequence for telling a joke is that people laugh. I was under the assumption that the consequence was negative. The obvious three things I will remember are the ABC’s A for Antecedent, B for Behavior and C for Consequence. I will remember these because it was repeated several times throughout the article and the repetition is helping for memorization.
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why? What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why? What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
I liked how this section gave example that I could relate to myself. For example the situation about telling a joke and getting laughter is a positive reinforcement. I disliked the examples at the end that just gave you three situations and I had to place them into the ABC’s, I was confused. Three things I will remember is that reinforcement can be obtained with something aversive. While punishment can be obtained with something desirable. Also I will remember the definition of valence. Valence is the psychological significance of a person, place, or thing. I will remember these things because they were new information to me.
Prior to reading these sections, what did you think about behavior modification? Why? How has reading these sections changed what you originally thought about behavior modification? How so?
I think behavior modification is pretty self explanatory. When I first heard it I thought immediately that this class would be about how people alter their behaviors depending on situations. After reading these sections I actually was surprised at how much information I had already known about behavior. If was interesting to learn that consequences can be positive. Also that not reinforcement is done with something positive and not all punishment is negative. The concept of a natural reinforcing was interesting to learn as well. What I originally thought of behavior mod is still the same; I had the right concept but just not as in depth.
Section 1.1
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why?
One thing I really liked were the diagrams illustrating the connection of the ABC's. The diagrams really helped understand how the relationship of the ABC's worked, particularly the feedback loop. I also enjoyed having to fill in the blanks with my own imagination on each of the ABC's. Also, it helped me see how important the antecedent is. The antecedent sets up the behavior, therefore it can influence the consequence.
What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why?
I don't think there was one thing that I disliked about this section. I understood the information that was in the section. It was presented in a easy to follow and understand format. It gave examples and explanations that helped me understand the topic in the section. Also, the section was very interesting to me, so I didn't have a problem following along.
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
One thing that I will remember is what ABC stands for. A is for antecedent, B is for behavior, and C is for consequence. Not only will i remember what they stand for, I will remember how each one is related to each other. The ABC's are not a linear and that they are all related to one another (illustrated by the feedback loop). Another thing I remember from the reading is to try not using "positive" and "negative" because they mean something more specific in behavior modification. The reading emphasized that using "pleasurable" and "aversive" when we are talking about consequences. The third thing I will remember is that one behavior can have numerous different combinations of antecedents and consequences. The example given in reading was raised hand being the behavior. It gave different antecedents with it which would have all different consequences. This also goes along with the same consequences can have different behaviors and antecedents. This example shows how they are all related to one another.
Section 1.2
What was one thing that you really liked that was in the section? Why?
I really liked how this section made sure to know the different between positive and negative valence. In this section, they once again made sure to use different terms for positive and negative valence. Positive valence are qualities that are pleasant, desirable, and attractive. Negative valence are qualities that are unpleasant, undesirable, and aversive.
What was one thing that you disliked that was in the section? Why?
I didn't necessarily dislike trying to understand the verb, noun, and adjective differences of reinforcement and punishment, but rather it took me a bit to fully understand it. After rereading the sections, I understood what each meant and when to use it.
What are three things you will remember from what you read in the section? Why?
I will remember what reinforcement and what punishment do. Reinforcement is a procedure that will increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring after the antecedent. Punishment is a procedure that will decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring after the antecedent. I will also remember negative punishment and negative reinforcement because I had a little trouble trying to grasp the concept of negative reinforcement. I had a little trouble because it was in my head that reinforcement was something "positive" and adding negative to it threw me off a little, but I got it. Negative reinforcement is removing something aversive, while negative punishment is removing something pleasurable. Also, I will remember self-reinforcement because I think this ties in well with motivation. Self-reinforcement is when an individual delivers their own consequence contingent to their behavior. Self-reinforcement is interesting because it can be contrary to the consequence of other people.
Prior to reading these sections, what did you think about behavior modification? Why?
Prior to reading these sections, I thought that behavior modification would have to do with motivation and why people behave the way they do. I thought this because of a previous class I had taken (Motivation and Emotion). There we looked at the reason behind people's behavior.
How has reading these sections changed what you originally thought about behavior modification? How so?
These readings changed the way I looked at behavior. Before, I was thinking of the "why" part of the behavior. I can link this to the antecedent. The antecedent is what sets up a certain behavior. Now I can look at the behavior and consequence of the behavior. By studying those two, I can use techniques (reinforcement, punishment, etc) to alter the behavior.
Terms: antecedent, behavior, consequence, feedback loop, aversive, pleasurable, negative, positive, valence, punishment, reinforcement, self-reinforcement
1.1
After reading through section 1.1, I feel I learned a few important things that have to do with behavior modification. When the book asked how I feel about manipulating people, I felt taken back and didn’t really like it. I’m not sure if it was to make you think hard on the specifics, or if it was just lacking in specifics on purpose. You can manipulate people in helpful ways or in ways that help you get what you want. I think the second example is bad, whereas helping people change their behavior is probably better. I also was afraid of giving a wrong answer to that question, which I know we talked about during class. People are always afraid of giving the wrong answer; especially in school, when they know they are being judged by their peers.
I also felt that an interesting statement from the textbook is that “we are unaware of the behaviors we emit each day.” I feel like this is true for the most part. The book also says that we stay unaware of them until we receive an aversive consequence for our actions. This is what probably initiates a behavior change and leads to behavior modification procedures. Regarding the ABC’s, I caught that the antecedent “sets the occasion” for the behavior. Knowing A can lead you to predict B and C. Doing the activities along with the book, I created my own examples of this. I.e. when you’re at the market, you usually buy food. When you’re hunting, you probably kill an animal. When you’re at the orchard, you are probably picking apples. This is a pretty easy concept to grasp, and I was surprised at how simple it was. Another important point I picked up was that A, B, and C are not in linear order. One thing influences another, yes, but C could also bring you to A and so forth (“loops”). I picked this up by doing the different activities as well. Within the concept of behavior modification, A and C can usually be controlled, so B, the behavior, can be better predicated and controlled as well. Knowing A and C can make B pretty predictable.
I came up with my own examples of A, B, and C for my own activities during the day. At home, I decided to skip my first class in order to prepare more for my second. By doing so, I lost my daily participation points. For lunch, I was at Subway, so I bought a sandwich and then went home to eat it. At nighttime, I went to the WRC and worked out, therefore shed some carbs. I think ABC’s are a good outline for behavior modification, however, I think there are other outside factors that have an influence on behaviors and consequences.
1.2
This section dealt with reinforcement and punishment as well as valence and different types of outcomes. I learned that the difference between the first two concepts is that reinforcement attempts to increase the frequency and likelihood of a behavior reoccurring after the antecedent whereas punishment decreases it. I came up with my own examples to practice these concepts with the different activities in the textbook. For reinforcement: “In order to get my dog to go potty outside, we used the reinforcement procedure. In order for me to watch what I eat, I used the reinforcement procedure. In order for me to quit smoking cigarettes, I used a reinforcement procedure.” For punishment: “In order to make myself stop procrastinating, I used the punishment procedure. In order to make my roommate stop using my makeup, I used the punishment procedure. In order to make me stop swearing my mom used a punishment procedure.” It was a pretty repetitive activity, but it helped me understand the concept a bit more. I feel like these procedures could really help me achieve my own goals. I can punish and reinforce myself into working out more, eating better, drinking less, procrastinate less, etc.
I also learned that valence, or the “psychological value” of a human, can be positive or aversive. I made my own examples of positive valence: “The house was beautiful. The dinner was yummy. That boy is good-looking.” In addition, I made some for negative valence: “Those teeth were nasty. The fish tank was dirty. The child was bad.” The outcomes or consequences can also be desirable or negative. The desirable ones, I learned, are the reinforcers, which can ultimately make you continue the behavior. The negatives are called punishers, which are to help you discontinue the behavior. My examples of reinforcers include: “I removed all of the dirty clothes and dishes from my room, so I felt better when my room was clean. I gave my dog a treat when she went potty outside. I paid my friend money to give me a ride to work.” My examples of punishers: “I spanked my dog for going potty inside. I spit in the food and gave it to the lady who complained. I yelled at my roommate for leaving the toilet seat up.” We also learn from the chapter that we can use punishers and reinforcers on ourselves (self-reinforcement). This concept can definitely aid in the process of behavior modification. By rewarding and punishing ourselves, we ultimately take over what our parents did for us as kids. If we want to modify our own behaviors, we kind of have to take ahold of the reins and do it.
Before reading this chapter I thought of behavior modification as a long drawn out process of manipulation. I also assumed that there would be a lot of memorizing of different manipulation process for a specific situation. I never really had a problem with manipulation of a person as long as it was in favor of the individual. The way I view manipulation is that it happened to us all the time in everyday situations. From the placement of keys on the keyboard to the way smartphones are set up even how web designers decided where to place objects on the screen. After reading section 1.1 of our book, I have realized that defining and explaining the process of behavior is easier than I originally thought. Literally as easy as A..B..C , A= Antecedent, B= behavior, C= consequence. Antecedent can be explained as the environment the behavior happens in for example in a classroom. Behavior is the target behavior that is being emitted or the behavior we want to elicit, for example students quietly waiting for the professor to begin class. Consequence is the action or object or feeling that comes directly as a consequence of the behavior for example, students will be able to effectively listen to the professor. From this section I will also remember that if we identify the antecedent and consequence we can then manipulate the behavior. For example, if we meet in Maucker Union during lunch time for class, the likelihood of the class to be able to effectively listen to the professor is decreased (changing the environment A). I really enjoyed the interactive aspect of this section, being able to fill in the graphs and bringing it into class to review over. This gave me a more clear understanding of emitting and elicit, two new vocabulary words I have never used before taking this class. There was not anything in particular that I disliked about this section of the book
1.2
After reading section 1.2, I was a little confused about the difference between negative punishment and negative reinforcements. But after this past class meeting I feel that I have grasped the concept a lot better. Negative punishment is usually something aversive, deals with removing something, and is used to decrease the frequency of a behavior. For example, when I was a teenager and received a bad report from my teacher, my father would take my cell phone privileges away. Negative reinforcement is usually something that is removing something aversive in order to increase the frequency of a desirable behavior. I believe I might have been confused with the fact that both have something to do with an aversive procedure. Another vocabulary word I will remember from this section is positive reinforcement. This is a procedure that involves something that is added or given to the individual with the assumption that it will increase the frequency of a desired behavior. For example, growing up my father would pay be 2 dollars every two weeks for doing my chores on time (of course this was increased as I got older and the chores became more time consuming). Like the other section, I enjoyed being able to come up with my own negative and positive punishments and reinforcements (being able to interact with the text). There was one aspect of the section I did not like so much and that was the section explaining positive and negative valence it was a little confusing as I read through the text. I did however like the ending of section 1.2 allowing us to give more examples of the ABC’s and bringing everything from both chapters together.
behavior, manipulation, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, antecedent, consequence, positive punishment, negative punishment, ABC’s, aversive, desirable behavior, target behavior, emitted, elicit, environment, frequency, behavior modification
After reading section 1.1 I have to admit I really liked the little boxes or diagrams. I don't know if it was just the look or the format. But I am certain it was because of the basic simplicity of the concept. I really liked how it breaks down the Antecedent, the Behavior, and Consequence. The only thing that I did not like about the the section was how it ended with one big empty box and a question that I am still trying to answer, "Do you think behavior can be controlled simply by using the ABC's or is behavior more complex than that?" I know what I put in the box but I don't know the right answer and then I think that I am overthinking the whole thing. So can behavior be controlled simply by using the ABC's; yes, sometimes depending on the behavior and the situation, right? Three things I learned after reading the section. One, antecedent = before, I really didn't know that. I also didn't realize how whether unconcious or not my behavior or actions can ultimately change how someone treats me or how I treat them, which is the consequence.
Section 1.2 was very interesting to me I guess because I have been using positive reinforcement throughout my life. Sometimes I knew I was doing it and other times just out of habit I guess. I also did not even realize that I was using positive punishment or negative reinforcement. Honestly, I really did not realize I was doing those things. Once again I really like the spots that I could write in my own examples and once I did that then I could understand it easier than if I was reading someone else's lame exampes. I can make it interesting for myself and even funny so that I remember better. There was nothing that I disliked in this section. I couldn't stop reading it and actually read it twice taking in again the different concepts that I found very informative and that I could immediately use. I learned a great deal from this section. For one, that sometimes reinforcement can involve something aversive. Also that punishment can involve something desirable or undesirable. I never even realized that self-reinforcement occurs when the reinforcer is self delivered, actually I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that concept. I also learned many new words to add to my vocabulary like valence which refers to the psychological value placed on a person, place or
thing. I also learned that reinforcement, reinforcer, and reinforcing are almost the same. From the breakdown, one is a verb that involves a procedure, the others are a noun and an adjective. I also learned that I can be all three and I have been.
When I decided to take this course, Behavior Modification, I thought it would help me to modify others behavior. I had not realized that in order to change others behaviors especially in my own personal life I have to alter or change my own behavior. At least that is what I took for the first two sections. My whole concept of behavior modification has changed and I am very excited on learning more and the self part of it is even better.
Terms: Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence, controlled, behavior modification, positive, reinforcement, reinforcer, reinforcing, self-reinforcement, punishment, negative reinforcement valence, psychological and aversive.
As I was reading these two sections, my first reaction to how the book was written was surprising. Usually when reading chapters in different books for other classes, the content isn’t laid out so simply. I didn’t need to search for any definitions and I felt myself flying through each section with ease.
1.1 The ABC’s of Behavior Modification
I found it really easy to break down behavior modification into the ABC’s. Going through the text and filling in the example boxes helped me rehearse what I had just read and made it so much easier to understand. I liked knowing each individual building block; Antecedent, Behavior and consequence. After I thought about it for a little while and went through the examples, I really did start to realize that almost everything in this world operates that way. It was kind of eye opening. I also enjoyed understanding that different antecedents, depending on what they were, can change the consequence drastically. This in turn can be said the same about knowing the consequence along with the antecedent; the behaviors can then be predicted much easier. What I didn’t like from the reading was the confusion between the words “positive” and “negative”. Living with the English language, I have learned to associated those words with good or bad things. Behavior Modification now through reading this section will make me re-learn how I view those words and that is frustrating. Having to avoid “positive’’ and “negative” will be a hard habit to break.
Three things I’ll remember are the ABC’s
A= Antecedent, B=behavior, and C=Consequence. When we control the antecedent and the consequence, we then can start manipulating the aversive behaviors in our lives. I will remember these things because I filled out my book and I wrote down a lot of examples from my own life. They are ingrained in my memory!
1.2 Contingencies: Reinforcement and Punishment
I liked this section because we dug deeper into new vocabulary. We now have learned the differences between Reinforcement and Punishment and how to use those words in context and also the differences between positive punishment and negative punishment. Punishment decreases behavior by either taking something away from the situation (negative punishment) or adding something to the situation (positive punishment). Reinforcement is the procedure that increases the likelihood that a certain behavior will happen again. I did not like however the initial confusion I had about positive and negative punishment. It took me awhile to actually get them straightened out in my head. Through the examples provided in the book I was able to distinguish one from the other fairly easily. Another thing I didn’t really like in this section was the fact that I found myself re-reading parts to thoroughly understand what was being said. I don’t know if this was just because we were introduced to more vocabulary or if I was tired but either way this section took me a lot longer to read.
Things I’ll remember from this section are that Reinforcement can involve the removal of something aversive, punishment can involve something desirable, and the definition of Valence. The water boarding example really stuck with me as an example of how reinforcement can involve the removal of something aversive. Looking at reinforcement as aversive is hard but visualizing someone increasing the amount of information they give in order to lower the amount of water being poured over them worked for me.
Punishment isn’t always using aversive things; punishment can involve something desirable too. An example that I thought of would be to take away my ability to go to the gym. I really like to go to the gym so to punish me, you could take that away and I probably wouldn’t do whatever it was that I did again.
Valence was tricky for me. When I read that word originally I freaked out a little bit because it was so foreign to me. But after reading how black and white it really was I’ll never forget it.
W.J.
I found that I enjoyed reading section 1.1 because it set the foundation for learning behavior modification, I have never really thought about my own behavior in a 3-piece sequence, but now that I have learned about the ABC’s there will be a lot more structure in my thinking about what causes a person to emit a particular behavior. Even though it sounds so simple in this section, I feel like its much deeper. I strongly feel that what sets the occasion in a person’s mind goes so much more beyond their setting. Three things that I will remember from this chapter is that the antecedent is what sets the behavior and in turn plays a key role of what types of consequences arise. Also, reading through the section, I realized that social cues are a huge factor in consequences whether they are aversive or reinforcing. And finally ill really remember how positive and negative cannot be used to express good or bad, they are only to be associated with adding or taking away.
1.2 was more of a review than anything, and I like review, it makes sure that the material sticks into my head. Something I didn’t like was the second and third to last page. I know the blank boxes are for us to fill out but I wasn’t quite sure how you wanted me to fill them in. I know I was given three things that fit into the ABC box but where was I supposed to write my example of reinforcement or punishment? Three things that I will remember will be that punishment and reinforcement mean two very specific things, which should make it hard to confuse. I also learned what valence means and how to apply it properly throughout this course. And finally I learned that punishment or reinforcement can occur be getting rid of the opposite.
My prior thoughts on behavior modification have been somewhat minimal. Now that I am in the class, though, it’s all I think or talk about when it comes to behavior. I think these two sections have done a solid job of setting up building blocks for me to comprehend behavior modification and place it into practice.
Terms Used: Emit, Antecedent, Consequences, Social Cues, Aversive, Reinforcing, Set the Occasion, Valence.
1.1
The thing I liked most about this section was the ABC's. The ABC's make it really easy to break down behaviors which in tern makes it easier to change them. At first I found the idea of behavior modification very daunting because human behaviors and their causes are so complex that on would think that changing them would be equally complex. Learning to break behaviors down into their antecedent behavior and consequence makes it far easier to see how to break down these behaviors in real life and then manipulate the antecedent or consequence to alter their behavior in the future.
The three things I will remember from this chapter are antecedents, behaviors and consequence because they are the building blocks of behavior modification and because of the way they interact with each other. I really appreciate these because they make me feel like I have the tools to break down complex behaviors.
The relationship between these three are the things I will remember most from this chapter. When B is what we are trying to change we can alter A OR C which is a way I hadn't thought of before. In thinking of behavior I used to think that changing the consequence of a behavior was the only way to change the behavior, when really having the ability to control the antecedent also gives us control over the behavior.
There really wasn't anything I didn't like from this chapter. if anything there were more spaces for my own examples than I really needed but practice makes perfect so even that wasn't too bad.
1.2
From this chapter I really liked that we started learning about reinforcement and punishment because I have been looking forward to getting into the how's and why's of behavior modification and also because it builds off the ABC's that we learned in the previous chapter. The ABC'c taught us the parts of behavior but reinforcement and punishment provide the mechanism or stylistic for the ABC's and provide the ability to change them.
The three things I will remember from this chapter are reinforcement, punishment, and positive vs negative valence. Reinforcement, whether positive or negative, increases the probability that the behavior will occur again in the future. Punishment, also whether it be positive or negative, means that it decreases the probability that the behavior will happen again in the future. Finally I will remember positive and negative valences because they are used to help describe whether a stimulus is pleasurable or aversive to the organism in question.
The only thing I didn't really care for in this chapter was all the examples we had to fill out, but again I recognize the importance and use of them so I didn't really mind them.
Terms: Antecedent, behavior, consequence, aversive, positive valence, negative valence, ABC's, reinforcement, punishment, stimulus, organism.