Building on the assignment from last Thursday. If you listed a behavior that you are trying to reduce how might you use differential reinforcement to avoid having to punish that behavior?
Based on what we covered in class on Tuesday, please revise your behavior (think differential reinforcement rather than punishment) and the steps used to modify that behavior so you can use reinforcement. Make sure you have a reasonable goal, a specific target behavior, and a realistic way to record and graph you data. Make sure that your reinforcers will be effective.
We would like you to begin collecting baseline data beginning on Thursday so you can report it next Thursday. Continue recording the behavior until you are notified to do else wise.
Please just write a brief entry on what your behavior is, how you are going to record that data for the behaviors and maybe what your x and y axis measurements are going to be for your graph.
--Dr. M
1. The target behavior for my behavioral change project is brushing my teeth. I would like to increase the target behavior to 3 times per day. My dad always says that he was lucky and had perfect teeth when he was younger too, but it catches up to you with age. I have never had a cavity or any problems with my teeth, but I need to start taking better care of them as a preventative measure! However, I don’t think that I will have to use differential reinforcement to avoid having to punish the behavior. It will be easy for me to reinforce myself when I brush my teeth. I would like to reinforce myself once per week because I feel like reinforcing myself 3 times per day would be too much! As stated in my previous blog, my reinforcer will be buying something small off of eBay (limit $10). If I want to save up for two weeks and buy something for $20, that’s fine. There is no reason to punish myself if I fail to brush my teeth because it is aversive and less effective than reinforcement.
2. I think that my behavior is properly defined for the project. I will be using a reinforcement procedure. I have a reasonable goal, Dr. MacLin said so himself in class last Thursday! I wanted to stick with something simple and very attainable to start this process. I might later try something more complicated than brushing my teeth. I also have a specific target behavior (brushing my teeth – this is pretty clear cut!), and a realistic way to record when I emit this behavior (I will be using my phone, I have an app where I can save lists, so I will use that!). I believe that my reinforcers (eBay purchase once per week) will be effective. However, if they don’t increase the frequency of my teeth brushing behavior, I will modify my plan. I might have to reinforce daily instead of weakly if my reinforcers fail. I might also keep the weekly reinforcer and also come up with a daily reinforcer.
1. SET A GOAL. The goal that I have chosen is to brush and floss my teeth more often.
2. DEFINE THE GOAL AS SPECIFIC TARGET BEHAVIORS. I would like to brush my teeth three times per day (after each meal), and floss at least once per day.
3. KEEP A RECORD. I will keep track of my teeth-brushing/flossing behaviors in a lists app on my phone.
4. GRAPH THE BASELINE. I laid out the process for this in my topical blog from last week. I can’t actually graph it until I gather the baseline data!
5. DETERMINE THE CONTINGENCIES. I will reinforce my teeth brushing behaviors by allowing myself to purchase an item on eBay once per week (with a limit of $10).
6. DETERMINE THE ANTECEDENTS. I will record antecedents while collecting baseline data, those which elicit the target behavior as well as those that inhibit it. Once I have this information, I can implement it into my behavior change plan.
7. IMPLEMENT & ADJUST THE CONTINGENCIES. I will start with my weekly reinforcer. If this doesn’t work, I’ll try a daily reinforcer as well as the weekly reinforcer. I can also pay attention to antecedents as mentioned earlier, like placing my toothbrush where I will notice it before bed, etc.
3. I will be collecting data to determine my baseline for teeth-brushing starting on Thursday (with my phone app!). I believe that this will be much more effective than my last attempt, because I always have my phone with me, even when I go home (where I don’t always have paper and a pen handy). I also know that determining an accurate baseline and paying attention to the antecedents in which I emit or fail to emit the target behavior will have a big part in determining my success with the behavior change.
TERMS:
Target behavior, differential reinforcement, reinforce, reinforcer, aversive, punishment, emit, antecedents, elicit
The behavior I listed was making the dean’s list for the fall semester of 2013. In order to achieve this goal, I will receive at least three A- to A’s in three classes and a B+ or higher for my other two classes. I will use reinforcement to help achieve my goal. After every 10 A’s I receive in all classes for homework only, I will reward myself with cold stone ice cream. After every B+ to A I receive on tests and projects I will reward myself by buying an article of clothing or jewelry. At mid semester, if I have perfect attendance in all my classes I will reward myself with my favorite pizza from Pizzeria Uno. Finally at the end of the semester when I achieve my goal and make it on the dean’s list, I will reward myself by going on a trip (to the dells, Vegas, not sure where) sometime over winter or spring break.
Reviewing my behavior I think that making the dean’s list for fall 2013 is realistic. Last semester my gpa was 3.47 and I need a gpa of 3.5 of higher. In order to achieve my goal of a gpa 3.5 or higher I will divide my behavior into sub goals. These sub goals are for the most part already divided which include doing well in individual aspects of a class such as homework, tests, projects/papers, and attendance. Within each sub goal I will use an intermittent schedule of reinforcement by rewarding myself after a number of emitted behaviors as listed in the previous paragraph. Currently I believe my reinforcers will be effective however I will change them accordingly. My behavior is achievable because being a full-time student is the main focus of my life at the moment and I know with more effort I can make the dean’s list. I believe I have the ability to make the dean’s list. My gpa has always been fairly close to 3.5 and I think with the proper motivation (my reinforcers) I can do it. This goal is manageable because I am a full-time student, I work only 20 hours a week, and I live fairly close to campus therefore the library. This goal is only disruptive to my time for other activities such as hanging out with friends. The time I spend studying and doing homework to the best of my ability will depend on the difficulty of my classes next semester. Maintenance may become more difficult in maintaining good grades as the class becomes more difficult with time. I think as long as I stay motivated with proper reinforcers I will be able to maintain good grades. Finally I already have a strong base support in my overall goal of receiving a BA degree. My friends, family, and boyfriend are supportive of my academic goals and achievements. Looking back my mother use to use reinforcement for my brother and I if we received good grades. After each parent teacher conference (which were good) we received ice cream or toys, sometimes we went on trips, and when we reached high school she scheduled us for a hour long professional massage. These were great reinforcers to motivate us to receive good grades as will my reinforcers will motivate me.
My plan of action to record and graph my data is to follow scores on blackboard and/or record my own scores, all in a notebook. Along with scores I will keep track of my attendance and write notes with each assignment. The notes will describe problems I may have experienced with certain material which may help me determine the antecedents that led to the issues (ex: procrastination). Then each Monday I will graph my scores from the previous week. My graphs will be line graphs of scores (different color line for each class). I will have multiple graphs, one for homework scores, one for test scores, one for additional assignments/projects, and one for attendance. The X value will be the days they were due throughout the semester and the Y value will be the grade (A- F). With the graphs I will then be able to view my academic weakness, when they occur, and how I might alter my behavior in which compliments my desired function of receiving a good grade.
Terms: emit, function, reinforcement, sub goals, realistic, achievable, ability, manageable, disruptive, maintenance, base support, antecedents, intermittent schedule of reinforcement, reinforcers
1. The target behavior for my behavioral change project is eating healthier making my target behavior eating six small meals a day. Within those six small meals I must not eat fast food and each meal is limited to 266 calories to retain a 1,600 calorie per day diet. Using differential reinforcement which is discriminating when reinforcement will be achieved and when reinforcement will not be achieved is a good way to reinforce myself. Since punishment is aversive, differential reinforcement is much more desirable and will allow me to identify good and bad eating habits. Ways in which to use differential reinforcement would be to reward my-self on Sunday with a free day if I achieve 5 out 6 “good” eating days. If I do not achieve this goal then I will simply do nothing and continue on the routine I was on.
2. SET A GOAL: The goal that I have chosen is eat healthier
DEFINE THE GOAL AS SPECIFIC TARGET BEHAVIORS: I am going to eat healthier by eating six small meals a day, by small I mean meals that do not exceed 266 calories, to retain a 1,600 calorie per day diet.
KEEP A RECORD. I will keep track of eating behaviors in a behavioral diary listing 6 spots in which to record each meal and the caloric intake.
GRAPH THE BASELINE. I developed a graph in last week’s blog on word showing what I ate that week without changing my diet.
DETERMINE THE CONTINGENCIES. I will differentially reinforce myself by allowing a free day on Sunday to eat whatever I want if I follow through during the week. If I do not follow through with the eating plan at least 5 out of 6 of the days then I will simply do nothing.
DETERMINE THE ANTECEDENTS. The antecedents were recorded when I gathered the baseline data. I controlled my environment and got rid of all junk food in my house and went out and bought small meal items such as fruits, veggies and quick clif bars that I could throw in my bag for a meal while I am out and about.
IMPLEMENT & ADJUST THE CONTINGENCIES. I started this the week before last and found out that my original plan of eating 5-6 servings of vegetables didn’t work. I had to change up my plan a little bit to make my goal more attainable. I changed the target behavior to just eating six small meals a day and limiting myself to no fast food and intaking only 266 calories per meal that way I could attain a 1,600 calorie day.
TERMS:
Target behavior, differential reinforcement, reinforce, reinforcer, aversive, punishment, antecedents, elicit.
The behavior I wanted to change/decrease was watching TV. My target behavior is reducing the amount of TV I watch everyday to 3 hours only. I will reinforce myself by purchasing one item of clothing at the end of every two weeks if I reach my goal at the end of each day.
I believe that my goal of watching less TV is realistic because there are plenty of other things I can busy myself with besides sitting in front of the television such as; working out, getting more homework done, hanging out with friends and family, working, and having more time to cook healthier meals. The time frame of my goal can begin and be achieved immediately. It shouldn't be difficult to not sit in front of the television when I have so many other things to occupy myself with. I don't believe I will need to use subgoals to achieve changing this behavior since it isn't a large goal. It is, however, something that I will have to challenge myself everyday to not do, but can be accomplished just having the one goal. Again. this goal is definitely achievable because I have come up with so many positive reinforcers to occupy my time. I definitely have the ability to accomplish this goal. I love taking everything on as a challenge because I know I will do everything in my power to accomplish it. This goal should be pretty manageable unless friends want to go see a movie or I am required to watch a video for class. In that case, I will have to plan ahead and make sure I don't go over my limit of 3 hours. This goal will probably not be disruptive to my life, in fact, it will be beneficial. It will also be easy to maintain as long as I stick to my plan. To record my data I will write down how long I watched TV in a notebook right after I shut the TV off and what behaviors led to watching TV (antecedents) so if I go over my limit I will know what behaviors to avoid so I don't exceed 3 hours.
Terms:target behavior, reinforcers, subgoals, antecedents
For this assignment I set my target bhavior as eating healthier in the dinning centers on campus. I decided to go about this by setting subgoals of not eating fried food, limiting deserts, and avoiding drinking chocolate milk and soda, along with adding more fruits and vegetables to my diet. I decided to use reinforcement in my goal setting by allowing myself to have a so called ‘cheat day’ on Fridays based on the condition that I have met my sub goals during the week. By having this set reinforcement in the dinning centers, I hope that it will encourage a change in healthier eating behaviors while I am eating in the dinning centers on campus.
When looking back at my original plan I had made for last week’s assignment, I really feel that it will be something that is accomplishable for me to obtain. I set clear, specific goals, not eat fried food from ‘Sparks’ the fried food station in Rialto, eat one fruit or vegetable at every meal in the dinning center, do not drink soda or chocolate milk while in the dinning center, and only allowing myself 3 deserts throughout the week. In revising my goals one thing I would like to add is drinking one glass of water at every meal.
In my original plan, I had set up the goals so that I would be able to use reinforcement. For instance, when I meet each of my goal at every meal, I reward myself with a ‘cheat day’ on Fridays when I can eat whatever I please in the dinning center. By having this one day reinforcement, I am motivated throughout the week to achieve my goals. I have also set a goal in which I feel is reasonable and something that I can accomplish doing. I also think that my way of recording my behavior (taking photos on my cell phone of the items I eat at each meal, then recording the behavior on my computer) and my baseline behavior is also realistic because it fits perfectly with my lifestyle.
Terms: reinforce, reinforcement, motivation, behavior, baseline, subgoals
As stated last Thursday I’m going to reduce the amount of unhealthy food I’m consuming. Instead of punishing myself when I don’t eat health, I’m going to reward myself. Defining the behavior I’m going to change so that I will be able to use differential reinforcement will be to eat healthier choices of food, which will ultimately lead to a healthier lifestyle. First I will need to set specific target behaviors to help me to get there.
1. Eating at least 3 servings of fruits or vegetables every day. According to the US Department of Agriculture it’s important to be getting these in your diet. One way I can make sure this is happening by making them more accessible. Cutting them up ahead of time make them easy to snack on or take on the go reducing the need for less healthier prepackaged snacks.
Positive Reinforcement: If I get in at least 3 servings by the end of the day I will allow myself a piece of Dove chocolate. It’s my favorite and I’m a sucker for chocolate after a meal.
2. Stocking my cabinets with healthier options than my current ones. (This means no ramen, mac ‘n cheese or chips) This has proven to be easier this week because my roommate went out of town and was on a health kick before she left, leaving behind tons of fresh fruits and vegetables up for grabs! If I’m craving pasta (which is usually always) I should be stocking up on whole-wheat noodles.
Positive Reinforcement: When at the store if my cart is full of healthy options, I will allow myself one thing I want, no matter what it is. Typically I’m a sucker for Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.
3. Eating protein in at least one meal a day that’s not fried. I’m really bad at eating meat unless someone else prepares it for me. I need to stock up on lean chicken and fish as well. If I don’t feel like preparing protein that day, almonds are a great source that I don’t need to prepare.
Positive Reinforcement: This will be one of the more difficult things for me to accomplish, therefore I’m making the reward very desirable. On Tuesdays and Friday I will look back at the previous days to see if I met my goal of once a day. If I have I’m allowed to watch one episode of prison break. (My new addiction) If not I’ll have to wait another week to see Michael Scofield.
4. Exercising for an hour at least 3 times a week. When I’m exercising I tend to eat healthier. With all the other target behaviors being put into place I will be able to really be healthier. With the weather getting nicer it also is more motivation to get outside and run.
Positive reinforcement: If I workout for an hour at least 3 times a week I get to go out to lunch or dinner on the weekend. My friends and I enjoy going out to eat on the weekends, especially Saturday afternoons to Pepper’s so this will be my reward. If I don’t get in my workouts I will have to eat at home instead.
An overall positive reinforcement is allowing myself to cheat a little. This is very important. If you restrict yourself completely from something you really enjoy it will just cause complications. My nutritionist said it typically goes in one of two ways. One, eat everything else because you’re not satisfied or two, once you finally allow yourself what you want after awhile, you’ll eat it in excess. Little cheats here and there will help to keep a healthier diet overall. Sometimes you just can’t quit cold turkey.
The best way for me to keep track of my progress is on my phone. Each day I can start a note in my phone, which in turn creates a note my computer. At the end of the day I will be able to write down which targets I hit, and which ones I didn’t. I can track my progress in an excel document. Starting Thursday I will track my first week to get a baseline. Just noting what I’m eating, this way I can see how I improve.
For my behavior change last week I used very little punishment for my steps. The one form of punishment I did use was step 5 which I modified accordingly. The steps 1-7 will still be fairly similar to last weeks steps but with minor modifications along the way. I will subtract my over spending each week and remove it from the following weeks budget. This isn’t a form of punishment because im able to go over my budget but also am able to curve it to what I want in the future. I feel this is a form of positive reinforcement because its giving me some leeway yet still working on the desired behavior I want changed.
#1 Set your goal: My goal is to increase my savings and decrease the amount I spend each week.
#2 Define target behavior: My target behavior would be to set an amount each week as my budget for spending and in return this will increase my savings. My specific goal is to only spend $100 or less a week on all extra expenses (not including bills or gas), such as, groceries, dining out, clothing, household items, nights out, vacation or any other thing that isn’t my main set budget
#3 Keep records of behavior: First, I will track the amount I will establish a baseline a week prior to implementing my behavioral contingencies. I will do this by tracking my purchases on my phone and then adding them at the end of the night and putting it in my planner. I will use this method throughout my self-directed behavioral change.
4 Graph a baseline: Using Excel, my y-axis will be the amount I spend each day. I will measure this by increments of $10. The x-axis are the days of the week.
5. Determine contigencies: Instead of punishing myself when I go over my budget. I will reward myself with whatever I overspend on and just take that off of next weeks budget. This wont cause me to be punished but to adjust my spending habits and each week work towards balancing them better.
#6 Determine antecedent: First, I will be buying groceries at the beginning of every week, this will cut back on eating out. Secondly, I will pack a lunch for every shift I work. Third, I won't go to the store without a list and I will follow that list. I will only pay with cash and if I don't have enough I will put the items back.
#7 Implement and adjust contingencies: I will reevaluate at the end of four weeks to determine if my goal is working. If not, I will take the appropriate steps to adjust. Also, I will decrease my budget according to the amount of shifts I have. For example, typically I have 4 shifts a week but I give away a shift I will deduct $25 from my budget, but I won't increase my budget if I pick up a shift.
Terms: behavior modification, punishment, reinforcement, differential reinforcement, target behavior
The target behavior for my behavioral modification assignment is watching less TV. At this point in time I don’t think that I necessarily watch too much TV, rather I think that it is something that can hold my grades back if it is a behavior that I emit too frequently. I have decided that a maximum of 2 hours of TV watching a day is appropriate, and that it gives me enough time to unwind and relax before going to bed or doing more homework/studying. As far as a reward system, I decided that it would be TOO reinforcing to reward myself after getting a good grade on every homework assignment (Good grade is anything from B+ to A). So I have decided that only on papers, quizzes, and tests that I would reward myself. Initially I thought I reward myself with food, but I decided to change the reward. A B+ or A- will result in an additional 30 minutes of TV watching for one day, and an A will result in renting a movie and watching it. It doesn’t seem like a very big reward, but to me I feel like this is pretty significant and enough to motivate me and keep me focused. As I stated in the previous assignment, I will have a daily planner that I will schedule out any activities outside of class, including homework and studying time, and a general time as to when I will watch TV. I will record the times that I watch in this planner (or just a sheet of paper depending on if I just use that each day), and then record this on a computer graph. When watching TV, I will set a TV timer so that the TV turns off after the particular show I am watching is over. Often times I like to watch NFL or NBA games, so if I go over the 2 hour mark I will try to decrease the time from the 2 hours I have the next day, even though I am going to try not to do this to stay consistent. This would be a good example of something that would be disruptive behavior. Also my roommates inviting me to watch the game longer would also be disruptive to my plan. When going through section 4.3, I went through the various goal-setting guidelines to make sure that my idea meets the required guidelines. It is realistic, meets a realistic timeframe, and very achievable. I think that this also consists of subgoals, because each day will consist of different activities to keep myself occupied and not watching TV. As far as an antecedent that I will establish, it will be having a schedule ready when I wake up in the morning so I know when I can get all my work done before I relax. The more I become adjusted to this new schedule, I can adjust my TV watching accordingly. For example, if the first few weeks are successful, I can gradually add 10 or 15 minutes of watching.
Terms: Target Behavior, Emit, Subgoals, Antecedent, Disruptive,
The behavior I’m trying to increase is the amount of water I drink throughout the day.
The steps I will used to modify this behavior is as follows: I will record the amount of ounces I drink of water each day, including both water bottles and cups from the dining centers. I will do this as soon as I get back to my dorm room so I don’t forget. If I am able to reach this goal at the end of the week I will reward myself with a candy bar, and slowly increase the amount of ounces until I have reached my goal of drinking at least two bottles of water per day. I will most likely have to change the candy bar to a different food so I don’t get tired of it, but I believe this should work! After my data has been collected I will make a graph of my progress.
This is reasonable because I have the resources and the appropriate time frame during the day to drink at least a bottle of water (16 0z). It is manageable because I could drink water anytime during the day- whether it is after or during a workout, at lunch or dinner or just during the day when I’m snacking and relaxing. The modification of this behavior wouldn’t be disruptive or be affected by other activities in my life. One thing that may be concerning is the use of the reinforcement. I may have to change it more frequently so I won’t get tired from getting the same one.
1. SET A GOAL. The goal that I have chosen is to drink more water.
2. DEFINE THE GOAL AS SPECIFIC TARGET BEHAVIORS. I would like to drink at least a bottle of water per day (16 oz)
3. KEEP A RECORD. I will keep track of the number of ounces on a notepad in my dorm room.
4. GRAPH THE BASELINE. Baseline= less than a bottle per day. Approx. a bottle per week.
5. DETERMINE THE CONTINGENCIES. I will reinforce drinking at least a bottle of water a day by allowing myself to purchase a candy bar at the end of the week.
6. DETERMINE THE ANTECEDENTS. Working out, snacking, eating at the dining center
7. IMPLEMENT & ADJUST THE CONTINGENCIES. I will start with my weekly reinforcer. If this doesn’t work, I’ll try a different food as a reinforce or possibly even shopping at a store and allowing myself to buy one item. Also I will facilitate drinking more water by carrying around a water bottle.
Terms Used: timeframe, manageable, disruptive, reinforcement, reinforcer, target behavior, contingencies, baseline
1) The target behavior for my behavior change project is to complete my last step of my behavioral change that I have been working on since January and that is to completely quit smoking. I used simple reinforcements such as verbal praise from friends and giving myself $10 ( about the amount of money I would have spent on a box of cigarettes) to spend on something I want (not a need) every two weeks I kept up with my weekly limit. Now that I am completely going to stop smoking cigarettes, I might try to come up with a weekly or daily reinforcement or DOR.
2) set and defined target behaviors goal: completely stop smoking by the time I walk stage this coming May.
3) Keep a record and graph baseline- At the beginning of my behavior intervention I took the whole month of January to get my baseline before decreasing my cigarette consumption. my baseline was 6-9 cigarettes weekly, my first decrease was to 4/ weekly for two week and then 3/weekly for two week and now down to 2/weekly. I am ready to take the next step of completely stopping. I have continued to keep record of how many cigarettes I consume weekly. So I know as of now that my baseline is 2 a week.
4) Determine the contingencies- I will reinforce myself every other week (2weeks) for maintaining my weekly limit of cigarettes by allowing myself 10$ to spend on something i want such as clothes or jewelry. Now that I am on my last step I might increase my reinforcement to 20$ or start to apply a DRO, I am still unsure what kind of DRO I can or should use.
5) Determine the antecedents- As you know already I have collected quite the amount of data, and I have seen a correlation between the urge to want to smoke more when I am out drinking with friends in a social setting. I believe this will be my biggest obstacle, when I start my last phase of my intervention.
6) I have been collecting data on a small notebook that i kept on my at all times while i was collecting my baseline. I then uploaded it to an excel spreadsheet to graph I will continue to do so.
Terms: DRO, target behavior, reinforce, goal, baseline, contingencies, antecedent, data, behavior intervention
The behavior I listed last Thursday was increasing the amount I wrote in a diary on a daily basis. I didn’t list specific punishments if I didn’t emit the behavior, rather I used the contingency of sleep as a motivator to complete the task daily. If I didn’t complete the task one day but did the next, I still felt as thought the task was accomplished. As such, I have had to revise my goals as entries each day is an unrealistic starting point. I should aim to increase the behavior incrementally.
As there is no real punishment for not writing in the diary (besides the loss of memory 50 years from now) there are no punishments I could revise, but there are possibilities for differential reinforcement. Firstly, I could encourage writing behaviors in general, such as jotting down notes on my school books when a thought comes to mind. I could transfer these entries to my dairy. Reinforcement would come in the form of what I had entered by the end of the week-which would take away the pressure of entering into a single diary, allowing more opportunity to successfully increase the desired behavior.
Collecting data for this behavior needs to be revised. Initially I aimed to analyze the success rate of the behavior change at the end of each week. I would do so by counting the number of sentences I had written in the diary. My x-axis was time-days of the week, and my y-axis was sentences. I will keep time the same but will revise the y-axis. To create a more realistic measurement and collection of data, I will simply tick a yes or no box. Yes I did write in the diary Monday, or no I did not write in the diary Tuesday. This is much a much simpler method for recording and measuring the data.
As of today (April 4th) I will measure my baseline following this first week of data collection and proceed to change the behavior as the data suggests. Now that I have revised how I will enter the data, I will touch on how I plan to record data. I plan to write down the days of the week on a post it and stick that on my mirror. It will prompt me at night as I get ready for bed, to jot down some things in my diary. Similarly, it will remind me in the mornings whether I completed the task the previous night or still need to. Having this reminder in such a convenient spot will act as a constant reminder and should be much more effective in eliciting writing in my diary then analyzing what was entered in the diary at the end of each week.
After this revision, I can see that the probability of changing my chosen behavior is much higher. I have revised my initial plans and created steps that are easier to measure, graph and are more realistic which goes to show the importance of revision and also, simplicity (KISS)!
TERMS: punishments, contingency, motivator, differential reinforcement, reinforcement, desired, measure, graph, baseline, behavior, realistic, manageable, record, eliciting, KISS
My target behavior is to lose weight and to eat healthier at the same time. I want to lose the weight that I have gained over the winter so that I can fit into my summer clothes from last year. I think that this is a reasonable goal and I think it could even help me live longer. To accomplish this goal I have been trying to go for a walk or bike ride every other day, I try to go a little farther than the day before each time I go out. I am also dieting. I am not counting calories, but I am eating healthier foods and I am eating smaller portions. I have cut fast food completely out of my diet and I am trying to stick to fresher food options. I am also limiting weighing myself to once a week or less. I tend to get discouraged when I see that number come up on the scale so I am trying to avoid that. I am keeping a weight chart though so that I can track my progress. I don't think that I will have to use differential reinforcement though to avoid punishing myself for a behavior. I am not using punishment as a reinforcer. For example I will not be forcing myself to eat foods that I hate just because they are good for me. Instead I am eating foods that I like that are also healthy. I think that this is working well for me. I do occasionally have a moment of weakness and eat chocolate or something like that, but other than that I am sticking my diet quite well.
I think that my goal for this project is well defined. I will be using reinforcement to achieve my goal and not punishment. I think that this is going to work well for me. Like a stated before I am hoping to lose the weight that I gained over winter so that I can fit into my summer clothes from last year. Maybe even some new smaller clothes?!?! Starting Friday I will begin measuring my baseline The only change that I will be making to my goal is making my goal to fit into last years summer clothes instead of just eating healthy or exercising, although that will be what I am going to do to accomplish the goal. It seems a little less daunting when I put it that way.
One last thing that I am doing to help myself accomplish my goal is that I have little reminders posted on my mirror so that when I am feeling discoraged I can just look at them to remind myself of why I am trying to achieve my goal. They say things like "youre beautiful", or "eating healthier not just to lose weight but to live longer, feel better." I find small reminders like this helpful and they help me stick to what I am trying to accomplish.
Terms: reinforcement, punishment, differential reinforcement, baseline, behavior.
Building on the assignment from last Thursday. If you listed a behavior that you are trying to reduce how you might use differential reinforcement to avoid having to punish that behavior? Differential reinforcement is the ability to reduce a behavior without punishment but instead using reinforcement. For example I talked about how I wanted to reduce the amount of curse words I said in one day. So it would be a possible to instead of using curse words I could become more creative vocabulary and replace my favorable “F” word with something less offensive or social unacceptable like “freakin” or “friggin”. This would be an example of differential reinforcement if I were to reward myself with a piece of chocolate after I said “freakin” or “friggin” instead of the “F” word. Maybe another reinforcement method I could use would be if I got my friends involved so if I were to say a fake curse word during a conversation if they were to snap their fingers. That would signal to me that I just did something right, and it would hopefully reinforce me to continue to say the fake curse words instead of the actual “F” word.
My reasonable goal is to reduce the amount of curse words I say in one day. This is realistic because I typically only curse when I am around my closet friends because I feel the most comfortable around them. I am very aware of my social settings, so I do not cuss at my professors or around my co-workers. It depends on context.
My specific target behavior is the reduction of curse words in my everyday language, or more specifically when I’m with my close friends.
A realistic way to record this word is to keep a tally on how many times a cuss, so this would mean I would need to keep a notepad or post it accessible everyday in order to tally. I think knowing that I would have to physically tally and read the tallies daily would be a motivator for me to stop using such offensive language.
I think my reinforcers will be helpful because one I love chocolate and too it would reinforce to have my friends help me because it will be a public reinforcement and having people who care about you helping you will help to encourage the good behavior.
Terms: behavior, reinforcement, punishment, target behavior, differential reinforcement.
Building on the assignment from last Thursday. If you listed a behavior that you are trying to reduce how you might use differential reinforcement to avoid having to punish that behavior? Differential reinforcement is the ability to reduce a behavior without punishment but instead using reinforcement. For example I talked about how I wanted to reduce the amount of curse words I said in one day. So it would be a possible to instead of using curse words I could become more creative vocabulary and replace my favorable “F” word with something less offensive or social unacceptable like “freakin” or “friggin”. This would be an example of differential reinforcement if I were to reward myself with a piece of chocolate after I said “freakin” or “friggin” instead of the “F” word. Maybe another reinforcement method I could use would be if I got my friends involved so if I were to say a fake curse word during a conversation if they were to snap their fingers. That would signal to me that I just did something right, and it would hopefully reinforce me to continue to say the fake curse words instead of the actual “F” word.
My reasonable goal is to reduce the amount of curse words I say in one day. This is realistic because I typically only curse when I am around my closet friends because I feel the most comfortable around them. I am very aware of my social settings, so I do not cuss at my professors or around my co-workers. It depends on context.
My specific target behavior is the reduction of curse words in my everyday language, or more specifically when I’m with my close friends.
A realistic way to record this word is to keep a tally on how many times a cuss, so this would mean I would need to keep a notepad or post it accessible everyday in order to tally. I think knowing that I would have to physically tally and read the tallies daily would be a motivator for me to stop using such offensive language.
I think my reinforcers will be helpful because one I love chocolate and too it would reinforce to have my friends help me because it will be a public reinforcement and having people who care about you helping you will help to encourage the good behavior.
Terms: behavior, reinforcement, punishment, target behavior, differential reinforcement.
I’m very glad we talked about collecting baseline data and target behaviors in terms of how you are going to measure the behavior. This is because my initial goal was to get organized. I tried listing out all the sub goals for how to get organized and how to keep track of it all. I realized it was just too much and if I sit and think about why I can’t keep organized it boils down to the time I spend playing video games. It is the most addicting, distracting, time consuming, and least productive time of each part of my day. So my new goal is to cut back on the amount of time I play video games each day. Cutting it out altogether isn’t realistic for me and it would be EXTREMELY AVERSIVE. Extinguishing certain video games won’t work because if I limit myself to playing only one of the several games I like per day I will end up spending the same amount of time, but on just one game, which solves nothing. So what I will do instead is gradually decrease the amount of time I can play video games per week. Some video games record the amount of time played for me and even have clever little alerts so at like the two hour mark it will say something like: You’ve been playing for two hours, take a break! I will use my phone to record the games that don’t track themselves. This is simple and only takes a minute. Also, I ALWAYS have my phone with me, and if it were to die, well then my computer will certainly suffice. Once I figure out the average number of hours I spend playing video games I will set my first goal of reducing it by a half hour, and then next week by another half hour. So after one month I will spend at minimum two hours less per day on a video game than before, and that’s a start! If I could get down to 3 hours per day maximum on a video game that would sufficient for the level of my addiction. For the hours I am not spending on games I will keep myself busy by doing things I need to do like homework, cleaning, applying for jobs and internships, so on. When I have used up all of my video game allotted time and have no more tasks to complete, or just plain don’t want to and may get discouraged, I can use differential reinforcement. I like spending time with my boyfriend, I enjoy going to bars, and watching TV shows and hanging out with my friends and family back home. I don’t do enough of these things because I spend too much time elsewhere. These things are enjoyable for me and so I will be reinforcing my reduction in video game time by hanging out with my boyfriend, friends, family, and socializing outside of the digital realm. Although the chores and homework may not be all that enjoyable it will not be all punishment, because the stress that is relieved after completing them is slightly reinforcing, and I can reinforce myself by doing the other activities I consider fun that aren’t video games.
Terms: punishment, reinforcement, baseline data, target behavior, aversive, sub goal, extinguish, differential reinforcement.
The behavior I listed last Thursday was not a behavior I wanted to reduce but increase to the differential reinforcement does not apply to my behavior. I want to spend more time on school work than I already do now. The reinforcement for this target behavior is getting better grades but I will also treat myself to an hour or two of playing FIFA at night. I do not want to saturate this reinforcement so I will only play xbox Tuesday and Thursday. The reinforcement might need to change if schedual becomes to busy for me to sit down an relax to I will have to rely on grades as the main reinforcement or come up with another.
My goal works well because it uses reinforcement to increase a behavior.
GOAL: Spend more time on school work.
SPECIFIC: I will do assignments the day they are assigned, study a couple days before a test, and start on projects right away.
KEEP RECORD: I will write down when I start my school work in a notebook then when I finish for each day.
GRAPH BASELINE: I will keep a record of this weeks school work time and use that as my baseline.
CONTINGENCIES: My grades will become better and will allow my self to play FIFA for and hour or two Tuesdays and Thursdays.
ANTECEDENTS: The antecedents that will help this is classes getting over plus I will lay out dicrimulative stimuli such as laying my homework on desk so I can see it and setting an alarm on my phone to remind me to do homework.
IMPLEMENT & ADJUST: I know the better grades will be a great reinforcer but I can see my schedual being to busy come the end of school to have time to play FIFA so I might have to change that to something else such as getting Panda or Pancheros for dinner once or twice a week.
My target goal was already designed to be positively reinforced at the successful completion of each week that I do not exceed 240 minutes of TV, movies, or Netflix. My reinforcement will be to watch 2 hours of featured film of my choice the following week.
1. Set Goal: Watch less TV, movies, and Netflix.
2. Define Goal as Set of Target Behaviors: Watch less than 4 hours of TV, movies, and Netflix over the course of a week. This does not include music videos or other media for school, work, or religious functions.
3. Keep a Record: I will keep track of the amount of time spent watching these various types of media by keeping track of the data in a spreadsheet app that I have on my iPod for recording the time I watch TV etc.
4. Recording the Baseline: I will graph a baseline by recording my results from this week into a line graph. It will be on a daily bases. The unit of time that I will be measuring is the amount of media I watch in a week defined by minutes. The totally number of minutes of media watched cannot exceed 240 minutes or 4 hours in a weeks time to reach my target goal.
5. Determine Contingencies: I want to use positive reinforcement of getting to watch a 2 hour movie after successfully achieving the target goal of not watching more than 4 hours of media during the week. I would not be allowed to save my 2 hour movie for another week. I only have one full week after completing the target behavior to accept my positive reinforcement of watching a 2 hour movie. I cannot let them add up over several weeks.
6. Determine Antecedents: Watching TV, movies, or Netflix requires the antecedent of a media player such as a TV or computer. I will limit my time around or near these types of devices unless I need them for school, work, or a religious function. This will help cut down on the amount of media I watch because I won't be tempted to use the computer to watch Netflix or my iPod to watch a TV show etc.
7. Implement and Adjust the Contingencies: After a few weeks, I will need to see if the positive reinforcement is working to help me lower the amount of time spent viewing media. I think it will have the desired affect but I will definitely need to look at the weekly record of how many minutes of media a week I have been viewing to see if I am staying within the target goal. If not I may need to evaluate my strategy and see if I need to change the reinforcer or maybe change the antecedents in which I am functioning during my regular living pattern.
1. Set a goal- My overall goal is to live a healthier lifestyle. This is a very broad goal and therefore I have broken it down into a couple of subgoals that are able to be measured and are able to go through a reinforcement procedure.
2. Define Goals as a set of specific target bhaviors.
My first subgoal is to work out for 45 minutes twice a week. My next subgoal is to eat two servings or fruit each day. My last subgoal is to eat up to 1400 calories a day. These goals are realistic because they are things that I have already attempted to improve upon without using a reinforcement procedure and have seen slight success already.
3.Keep a Record
I plan to keep a record of my calorie count by taking pictures of my meals before and after in the dinning center with my phone. This way I can go back to my dorm and use the dinning center website to determine the number of calories that I had during that meal. If I am not eating in the dinning center I will either look at the package, ask the restraunt for the nutrition facts of their items, or if eating at home looking up the calories online of that meal. I will place a sticky note on my laptop to remind myself to calculate at the end of the day. The pictures will also allow tme to track my fruit servings in a day. To track the number of times I work out I will have a seperate sticky note on my computer to track. These will be put into individual graphs for each day so that I can see progress for each individual target behavior but then I will also keep a graph that combines the three target behaviors to show how many target behaviors that I successfully complete each week.
4. Graph a baseline
This week I will begin to track my behaviors with no reinforcement procedure in place in order to see how I am behaving now in order to see if there is progress down the line.
5. Determine the Contingencies
Due to the fact that I have three different target behaviors I am going to set a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement that includes the completion of all of the goals and one reinfocer for doing so weekly. If all three of my target behaviors are met for a week straight then I will allow myself to have one day that next week where I can have one food item not count towards the calorie count for the day allowing me to have a treat that day without worrying about not completing that target behavior.
6. Determine the Antecedents
During the week of keeping a baseline I will record where I eat. This will show if there is an antecedent to being successful in the calorie count and the amount of servings of fruit eaten by where I am eating. I will also look at my weekly calendar after the week is over and compare it to when I workout to see if there are any antecedents to what days I workout.
7. Implement and adjust contingencies.
After a few weeks into this procedure I will look over the data and see if I am having successful. If not I can look at different antecedents and the reinforcer that I am using and re-evalute if something needs to be changed.
I looked ahead a little bit to this post and have begun graphing baseline data already.
Goal- Cut back on chewing tobacco.
Define goal- I would like to cut back by 50% for now and then hopefully in the future cut back even more. But focusing on cutting back by 50% right now.
Keeping a record- I am going to keep a record of how many times in one day I chew tobacco. I'm also going to keep a record of how many cans i buy and how many i buy at a time. I believe that only buying one can at a time will help me slow down because i find myself not chewing as often when i know i'm low because i dont want to run out and when i have plenty then i chew away. I will
Graph a baseline- I already have a pretty good idea of how many times a day i chew but I am going to use the next week to determine a baseline. I will make a mark every time i chew and give the time. I'm hoping by giving the time I will see a pattern and then when I move on to achieving my goal I can try to disrupt my pattern with something else to eliminate those times that i normally chew.
Determine the contingencies- After making my baseline I will then try to accomplish my goal of cutting back from chewing by 50%. I will use positive reinforcement and if I achieve my goal of cutting back by 50% from Sunday-Friday I will reward myself with as much tobacco as i want on Saturday and not have to feel guilty about it because it is apart of my plan.
Determine the antecedents- The antecedents that I already know of are right after i eat(especially spicy food- dont know why), when i get done working out, while drinking, watching TV, and doing homework. I am hoping to get more information about my antecedents after doing my baseline.
Implement and adjust contingencies- After each week I will see if i have met my goal for the week to get my positive reinforcement of chewing as much as i want on Saturday. If I have not met this goal for the first few weeks i will reconsider my antecedents and look for more. I will also reconsider a new positive reinforcement. Even though chewing as much as I want for a whole day will sound really good during the week when i'm craving but it may not be enough to get me to my goal.
Because I'm not trying to reduce a behavior I don't need to worry about how I could use deferential reinforcement. What I want to do is to start eating healthier. My specific target behavior is to eat at least one serving of fruit and one serving of veggies a day. Right now my baseline is pretty flat a zero servings a day. I want to get into the habit of eating healthy so it just becomes automatic to me. I think this is a reasonable and realistic goal. I know that I can do it if I put my mind to it. It's not that I hate fruits and veggies its just easy to forget about eating them. They are important to your health and since I want to live a long and prosperous life I figure I better treat my body better. How I am going to record my data has changed. I was originally just going to record how many serving i got a day. However now I am going to record my servings for lunch and dinner every day. I'm not going to do breakfast because I rarely eat it, I usually just have a cup of coffee. So after I eat both lunch and dinner I will write down exactly what I ate in my behavior journal. So my x axis will be lunch and dinner Monday to Friday. The y axis will be the number of servings I get for lunch and dinner. I'm not going to record the weekend because those will be my reinforcing days when I can eat whatever I want and don't have to include any fruits or veggies into my meal. If however I don't eat any servings on one day then that means on the weekend I have to make up for that day. I think eating whatever I want on the weekend will be affective reinforcement for me. I usually go out to eat on the weekends so it will be nice to be able to order whatever I want from the menu.
My goal is to work out more as well as save some money. To do this, I have set a work out goal of at least three times a week while in school and at least 5 times a week while not in school. Then every three weeks I would go buy three things as a reinforcement for working hard for those three weeks—I am a spree person and do not do well with just buying one small thing every week. If I do miss my goal for a week, my number of items I can buy goes down—no need to punish myself especially sense I achieved my goal for one or two of the other weeks and if I would like to save my money and do it every six weeks I could do that as well.
1. Set Goal- My goal is to work out more.
2. Define the Goal, as a Specific Target Behavior-My goal is to work out at least three times a week during school and at least five times a week while not in school—while also tricking myself into saving money.
3. Keep a Record- I will do this by keeping a colored star system on my daily calendar.
4. Graph the Baseline-I will create a graph using the days of the week as the horizontal axis and time intervals as the vertical axis.
5. Determine the Contingencies- I will reinforce my working out with a mini-shopping spree every three weeks—buy three items one for every week completed.
6. Determine the Antecedents- I will notice the days that I do not work out and figure out how I can make that more of an option instead of skipping it.
7. Implement and Adjust the Contingencies- If I find myself not working out at least three times a week, I will start to set times and have my boyfriend remind me that I need to work out.
Terms: Goal, Reinforcement, Punish, Target Behavior, Baseline, Contingencies, Antecedents
I decided to chance my target behavior to something more meaningful.
1)For the behavioral change product, I decided that my target behavior is to spend less money. I am going to do this by reducing the amount of times I go out to eat a week instead of eating at home or bringing a sack lunch to school. My goal is to only eat out twice a week max. Since I use eating out as a social activity, this limit gives me one day during the week and one day during the weekend to eat out. I will use differential reinforcement instead of punishment to reward myself for only eating out twice a week. If I succeed in eating out only twice a week, I will reward myself with a small, cheat treat like frozen yogurt, cold stone or Starbucks. If I do not succeed, I will keep working on my goal until I achieve it.
2)SET A GOAL: The goal that I have chosen is to eat out less. To achieve this goal, I will plan to only eat put twice a week, once during the week and once for the weekend. Since I use eating out for social activates, if the situation comes up where it is suggested to eat out with a friend after I have already exceeded my twice a week limit, I will suggest that were cook and home instead and maybe watch a move. I could also suggest eating separately and getting together for another activity.
3)KEEP A RECORD: I will record each time I eat out on a booklet I keep in my wallet. I find this fitting because I will need my wallet to pay for the food to in will be convenient to tally the meal when I go to pay.
4)GRAPH A BASELINE: I will create a base line this week to track how often I eat out regularly.
5)DETERMINE THE CONTINGENCIES: I will use differential reinforcement instead of punishment to reward myself for only eating out twice a week. If I succeed in eating out only twice a week, I will reward myself with a small, cheat treat like frozen yogurt, cold stone or Starbucks. If I do not succeed, I will keep working on my goal until I achieve it.
6)DETERMINE THE ANTECEDENT: I will be ready to suggest non-eating out social activities if the situation calls for it. I will also have sack lunches prepared to store in my bag to take to school so I am not tempted to eat the union.
7)IMPLEMENT AND ADJUSTMENT CONTINGENCIES: I am starting a new target behavior so that is one adjustment. I will be flexible and be sure to track and address all adjustments that might be needed.
1. My goal is to get into better physical shape by exercising on a regular schedule. Some of my "mile markers" which I guess could be considered sub-goals are losing 5 and then 10 pounds. I expect to eventually gain that weight back in muscle, but I think that I will drop at least 10 pounds before gaining that much muscle mass.
2. My target behaviors are to go to the gym three days a week, on a set schedule. This schedule will vary based on the semester, etc. Currently my plan is to go to the WRC from 12 to 1 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My work schedule sometimes gets in the way of this, which is why I will always make sure to designate makeup time if I can't go during my scheduled time. While at the gym, I have to complete several tasks including:
-Running for at least 10 minutes on the elliptical machine
Curling dumbbells that are at least 20 pounds for at least 30 reps
-Pressing dumbbells that are at least 20 pounds for at least 30 reps
-Riding the exercise bike for 20 minutes
3. I downloaded a checklist app on my phone which allows me to check off each individual exercise as I do it. I recorded a baseline of 1 full workout last week, and have so far been able to complete 2 out of 3 workouts this week.
4. My graph will look boring. The X-Axis will show time in weeks. The Y-Axis will show the number of workouts completed, which, other than the baseline week, will always be 3 or more. This is because my punishment for not completing the workout at the end of the week is being required to workout on Saturday.
5. My reinforcer will be having Saturday as my day off. I can go to the gym if I'd like on Saturday, but I won't have to as long as I have satisfied my required target behavior. This works as a reinforcer because whatever exercise I don't complete during the week I have to do double of it on Saturday. That could be considered a punishment, but it's nothing too aversive and it is good for me anyway.
One contingency that I already noticed was that I made the discretionary decision during a recent workout that if I could reach a certain distance and calorie count on the bike by 10 minutes, I could begin the 3 minute cool-down after 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes. This was acceptable because substituted it with a more rigorous workout, and I still made myself reach some goal instead of stopping as soon as I decided to go do something else. I delayed gratification, which showed that it was not an impulsive behavior.
6. One antecedent is that I am willing to drive myself to the gym if for some reason I can't walk all that way. This will not be an issue over the summer because I drive to the YMCA anyway. Another antecedent is that I plan on working out with my girlfriend. I also want to look good this summer.
7. I have already begun implementing these contingencies in my workout plan. The most important part that I need to remember now is to record the behavior immediately after it is elicited. Once I get disciplined enough to do that, I think that my behavior will be easy to modify.
Perhaps if I find myself with more free time in the summer, I will expand the workout schedule to 4 or 5 days a week, or just make the 3 workouts a bit longer.
The behavior that I would like to emit is drinking less soda, especially at work. I found it hard to stop because it is free and I am working next to it all day. It will be important for me to record this at work because there is no way for me to remember exactly how much pop I drank. Every week that I go without drinking pop at work I will reward myself with a smoothie. They are very good and healthy also. I think this will motivate me to hold off on the soda. This way I will not have to punish myself, instead I will use reinforcement to my advantage.
1. My goal is to stop drinking pop completely at work. I think it would be best to go cold turkey on this one because fountain pop can be hard to monitor. If I cut out pop at work I will basically cut it out all together because that is the only time that I drink soda. Realistically though I think I will slip up now and then when I am tired. For this reason, I want to limit it to two cups of soda.
2. My target behaviors are to only drink one cup before and after the lunch rush because this is when I found myself drinking the most soda. If I can limit it to those two cups, it will drastically decrease my soda drinking.
3. It is imperative for me to keep track of this at my work. The busyness of the day kind of clouds the soda that I drink. I will have to keep tally of the soda consumption so that I do not forget if I have taken one of my two cups or not.
4. For my graph, my X-axis will be days (days that I work). I am aiming for only two but I think I will be motivated by the graph to drink less. The y-axis will be cups of soda drank. Hopefully it never goes higher than two.
5. The thing I will use as a reinforcer will be the weekly smoothie. If I go the whole week without going over two cups of soda, then Sunday after work I will get a smoothie. This way I will have to go a whole week hitting a pretty manageable goal in order to receive the smoothie.
6. It will be hard to manipulate antecedents because I cannot really change where I work or where the pop machine sits. I will just have to keep a little notepad to track how much soda I have drank. It will be easy to not do this because sometimes I rush a drink when I am busy. I will keep the notepad and pen in my pocket so that it will be easy to record.
7. I may need to increase the time it will take to get the smoothie because my goal of only two cups is pretty manageable. I will just have to keep in mind that if it gets too easy to either change the amount of time for the reinforcer or decrease the amount of cups a day.
I have decided to change my behavioral goal to working out and eating healthier. For the working out portion I will be working out Monday-Thursday doing weightlifting and then on Sundays I will do a cardio activity outside of the gym such as bike riding or running. I am also going to reduce my caloric intake to 1800 calories a day. I have an app on my phone that everytime I eat I put in my meal and it shows how many calories that meal is and adds it up so I know how much I have eaten that day. If I follow and meet my goals for the week than I earn one free day on the weekend in which I can eat any meal of my choosing. I will be recording each day if I do workout and if I didn't go over my calorie limit for the day. I had been doing this very well before spring break but since coming back haven't stuck to the healthy lifestyle and want to get back into it. I have already seen results from this schedule before spring break and hope to continue it so I can finally reach my goal weight. I will be recording my baseline this week and in a few weeks will look at the data and see if there is anything I can change to have better results in completing my goal.
The overall behavior I want to change is to be healthier. To accomplish this I have decided to have my target behavior be jogging for at least 30 minutes three times a week. I am going to record my data by writing down when I jog and for long I jog for. I am going to be as specific as I can and write down my data as soon as I am finished jogging. I will write down the date, time, and probably were I jogged to. As I continue my behavior project I will challenge myself in certain ways while jogging to push me. I will also reinforce myself with something that will be reinforcing to my behavior of jogging. I am measuring for how long I jog for because it says I have to jog for least 30 minutes. The x- axis will be measured in days. So for example, each day I jog for will show up on the x-axis and the amount of time I spend jogging will show up on the y-axis.
I am trying to be more productive by increasing the frequency of the target behaviors of completing school work, house work, and studio work. I will not punish myself for not completing assignments, rather I shall reward myself solely on the condition of completion.
Goal: 5 tasks per day completed
Target Behavior: Complete required tasks throughout the day
Recording Method: Using an excel document to collect data (which is updated daily from whatever medium of notes was available – meaning, primarily cellular phone, but will take paper notes if necessary, or write it down on my hand using an ink pen I borrow from the theatre office, etc). Using http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/ to graph my results.
Here is the data I have collected so far: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxbDNrq5qf03Q3RZTjdNaWp6UEk/edit?usp=sharing
Differential Reinforcement Plan: Thanks to the advent of Netflix and Hulu, I plan to withhold my television shows and ban YouTube (positively valenced visual and audio stimulation) until after I have completed a task, implementing, initially, continuous reinforcement, so as to not have a repeat of Friday (which is what I have been fearing has been the norm for several weeks before observation began).
Terms: frequency, target behaviors, punish, reward, differential reinforcement, positively valenced, continuous reinforcement, observation
My goal is to stop drinking pop. To decrease the frequency of this behavior I plan to drink one pop a week that being in the middle of the week on Wednesday if I feel like it and have not drank pop all of the other days. Also to reward myself I plan to replace my pop drinking with ice tea. To keep track of my pop drinking behavior I plan to keep track in my phone as well as on a sheet of behavior by just checking yes or no if I drank a pop that day or not. For the graph I plan to have the x-axis be time which will be seven days. The y-axis will be the behavior which is pop drinking and placed by that will be yes or no and I will just check whether or not I have drank a pop.
Terms: reward, frequency, behavior, decrease.
My behavior I wish to change is talking to my sister twice a week (every Wednesday and Sunday). After reading section 4.3 and 5.1, it made me realize that I must be more specific when measuring this goal. I cannot just call her and leave a message or just simply text her. I need to ensure that I get her on the phone and speak with her for more than five minutes. It also got me thinking about what the types of conversations we need to have. I believe they need to be meaningful. Therefore, I will talk to her about the issues going on at home and how to address them and also about her college plans. I may even get more personable about how her relationships are with her friends as well. In order to measure this goal, I will make notes and reminders in my phone and track how long our conversations are. After the conversation, I will take vivid notes about what we discussed that day. In order to motivate me, I will reinforce myself with an ice cream cone every Sunday. I know that there will be times when we will both be very busy on Sundays and Wednesdays. Therefore, I will give myself a backup plan to call her on Thursdays and Mondays if one of those days do not work out. My subgoals for this overall goal may be to establish exactly what I wish to talk to her about each time I call. I will have this planned out before I call her. The X axis will be the days listed and the Y axis will be the amount of time I speak to her.
1)The target behavior for my behavioral change project is flossing my teeth. I want to increase the frequency the behavior of flossing my teeth because I almost never do so. I am a huge teeth person and that’s the first thing I notice on people. My boyfriend has recently started flossing his teeth every night before he goes to bed so I would like to start doing so also. I believe that differential reinforcement will be a good way to measure if I achieve my goal that day or if I didn’t achieve my goal that day. My goal is to floss my teeth every night before I go to bed Sunday- Thursday. I will use positive reinforcement to reward myself for my good behavior if I achieve those specific 5 days of flossing before bedtime. If I do that, I will not floss my teeth over the weekend. If I do not floss my teeth every night before bedtime Sunday- Thursday then I will floss my teeth on the weekend. That way I am making up for the time I did not floss during the week. I will not use punishment because it’s aversive and flossing isn’t that serious of issue to punish myself for not doing so. I would however, love to increase the frequency of flossing because I appreciate getting good results from the dentist every six months. That’s satisfying to me.
2)After reviewing my goal and specific behavior I feel that my target behavior is definitely attainable. It’s very reasonable and easily measureable. I have the ability and materials to reach my target goal. It’s simply just to floss my teeth every night before I go to bed Sunday- Thursday. However, if there is something wrong with my procedure or my reinforcer isn’t intense enough I will not hesitate to make a few changes to my behavioral change project. I feel that my goals are clear and specific enough for me to be able to make an accurate baseline and increase my behavior.
3)My specific target behavior is to floss my teeth every night before bedtime Monday- Thursday. I will record my behavior by using a notepad and pen right next to my sink. There is plenty of space so I won’t have to move my notepad every night. That way just by looking at my notepad I will be reminded to floss my teeth before I brush every night before bed. I will use it as a reminder. The X axis will be my Monday- Thursday and the y will be the days that I achieve my goal.
Terms: DRO, positive reinforcement, punishment, aversive, target behavior, measureable, reasonable, attainable, goal
The behavior I am trying to change is spending so much money on things I don’t need. This would mostly apply to shopping, but I am also talking about spending money on things such as going out to eat at restaurants, drinks at a bar, concert tickets, etc, just anything in general that I can live without and don’t need to buy. Recording my data is going to be simple, because I can save receipts of the things I buy and know exactly how much money I spent. If I forget to save my receipt, I can always look on my bank statements online, assuming I don’t pay in cash. I rarely if ever have cash on me so I don’t think that will be a problem. Those will simply be my back up plans though. If I buy something that I don’t need I plan to record it into my phone. I will write down what it was I bought, how I felt right before I bought it, and how much it cost me. That way I will know what I spend the most on, clothes, food, etc, and if being in a certain mood makes me more or less likely to spend money. My x axis for my graph will be a measure of time. I am thinking either days or weeks. My y axis will be how much money I spend, probably in $25 increments. I might have to alter the amount, depending on how much I actually spend, but that is what I am thinking so far.