Week #16 Final Assignment

My behavioral goal was to increase the amount of time I emit studying in each subject. The target behaviors of increasing my time studying were specific, I needed to spend at least an hour on each subject that required that amount of time, not using social media until the first hour is done, and not having the tv on while I study. The target behaviors allowed me to elicit the behavior change I wanted. One other thing that I thought would be helpful to this change was setting up a reward system. I used positive and negative reinforcement. If I would abid by the target behaviors set, at the end of each day I could reward myself with the relaxation of lounging and watching tv. If these target behaviors were not followed I would "fine" myself, taking away my relaxation lounging time. I also set up a reinforcer at the end of every week. I reinforced myself if I completed four hours in each subject by the end of the week. The reinforcer had to be something I really enjoy which is my "down time", where I do absolutely nothing. These contingencies definitely help me elicit my behavior change.

Recording my behavior was not easy, I would forget sometimes or I would be to busy. But since studying is apart of my daily routine, I began to make it a ha bit to record. I recorded how much time I would spend studying in each subject. Another thing I did separately was record how many times I would study with the tv on or if I let social medias distract me. I did not add these recodings into the graph, I simply marked hem off to the side. After a whole week went by I would simply add the times together for each class and get a total.

In order to show my results on the graph I used a one graph with the y-axis labled time spent studying and the x-axis labeled with the four subjects. Since the time is in hours I started from 0 to 8 for y-axis. The graph was a great was to show the data from the baseline to the pervious weeks.

The results from my data show that the behavioral change did not work to its fullest in just four weeks. Which means I will continue this for next semester as well. However, I seen a pattern in the data that shows me I my need to modify my behavioral change a little. I noticed that in biopsych I studied four hours or more each week. This makes since because this is my most challenging course. I spent the least amount of time in this class studying because it didn't require much. I know that in order to see change I will need to modify the behavioal change.

I wanted to add that this has been one of the most enjoyable classes I have taken yet. I feel everything is taught well and taught where we'll remember the material. I appreciate everything you've taught me from this class.

Behavioral Intervention

For my big behavior modification I set a goal to stop the behavioral class of procrastinating. More specifically I wanted to apply this to studying for tests. This was the first step in the steps for self-directed behavior. I then defined the goal as a target behavior of studying for an hour per test every day starting one week before the test. I decided I would keep a record by recording how many hours I studied for each test per day and also record what day it was on.

I then wanted to be able to graph my progress for a visual so I decided I would graph using percentages. The percentage would be arrived at by dividing the total number of minutes I studied that day by the number of minutes I was supposed to study. This percentage was the dependent variable and was located on the y-axis. The independent variable was the day of the week and that was located on the x-axis.

I also needed to graph or collect a baseline before I implemented my behavioral intervention. I did this by simply recording my studying habits for a week without changing anything in my behavior.

The next step I took was determining my contingencies. I knew that I did not want to punish myself. So instead I used differential reinforcement. I decided to reinforce myself with a chocolate chip cookie every day I studied for an hour per test. I also decided to give myself a big reward (a bowl of ice cream) if I managed to study for an hour per test every day of the week.

I also took advantage of antecedents because they can help elicit behavior success. When I studied I chose to be all by myself in a completely silent room.

Lastly, I had to adjust my contingencies to whether or not they worked. This was not put to the test until after break. Over Thanksgiving break I ate so much that even the thought of eating one more cookie was aversive. So instead of rewarding myself with a cookie, I allowed myself to relax and read my book for an hour.

Terms: behavior modification, set a goal, behavioral class, steps for self-directed behavior, target behavior, keep a record, graph, dependent variable, y-axis, independent variable, x-axis, baseline, behavioral intervention, behavior, contingencies, punish, differential reinforcement, reinforce, reward, antecedents, aversive

In the class behavior modification we are actually putting the ABC’s to test. We as a class are using punishment and reinforcement to try to change an existing behavior or to pick up a new behavior. There are four reasons for changing an existing behavior. Those four things are because the behavior bothers us, the behavior bothers others, the behaviors may lead to trouble, or the behaviors are illegal. I chose to adopt a new behavior for the purpose of the amount I ate bothered me.

The behavior that I chose to adopt is counting calories and trying to stay under 1800 calories a day on week days. I am just trying to have an average of under 1800 calories a week and also daily, but if I do bad one day of the week I am just going to try to do a lot better the next day. If I am able to stay under an average of 1800 calories then on the weekends I don’t have to keep track of what I am eating. I am only rewarding myself on the weekends because I do not want to be succumbed to satiation, which is when you reward an organism with the same thing over and over again until the organism doesn’t want anything to do with the reward anymore. By only rewarding myself on the weekends I am exhibiting a fixed interval because the time in which I am rewarded is set to a specific time during the week, and the amount of time between the intervals is the same every week.

I am using negative reinforcement because if I am successful during the week than I allow myself to eat and drink what I want on the weekend. It is negative because it was the subtraction of counting calories, but it is reinforcing because I get to consume what I want and not care about how many calories are in it. I will be manipulating my environment during the week so that I have meals that are low in calories in my apartment.

When I was trying to pick what behavior I wanted to change I just started thinking about knowing what I am eating. The function to emitting the behavior of counting calories was to make me more aware of what I am consuming and how many calories are in what I am consuming. When starting this behavior I first created a place where I could log what I am eating. I made a 2 columned chart on excel that had one column for food and one column for the calories in that food or beverage. But before I could even start using this chart I had to follow the six steps for self-direct behavior modification. The first step was to set a goal: My goal was to stay under an average of 1800 calories a week not including weekend. The second step is to define my goal: I want to keep track of everything that I consume and write it down. If I can get through the week without consuming over 1800 calories then on the weekend I will allow myself to eat what I want. This is my target behavior because it is the behavior that I want to adopt, and is the behavior that this whole thing is centered around. The purpose of my goal is just to become aware of what I am consuming. The third step is to keep a record this is where my chart comes into play. For the first week I wrote down everything that I consumed for the purpose of creating a baseline, but I literally just wrote down the foods and looked up the calories at the end of the week so that I wasn’t affected by how many I was really consuming. After that I created the baseline of my graph, which you can see in my graph as the first five days this is the fourth step. The fifth step is to determine contingencies: I will be using reinforcement in creating my behavior because I want myself to continue to write down what I eat and how many calories are in it even if it can be a pain to keep track of. The fifth step is to determine the antecedents: I will always use my phone to write down what I eat if I am out of the house and when I get back to my house I will log it on the piece of paper that is stuck to my fridge. I will also not let myself go out to eat unless it is planned into my daily count because going out to restaurants can be costly on my calorie count. The sixth step is Implementing and adjusting the contingencies: I will continue keeping a record of the foods I eat for a month and at the end of the month if I am doing well I may go back and change it to 1700 calories and a month later change it to 1600. I want to be able to keep the figure I have now just by controlling what I eat.

In my graph I have four weeks of data with the first week being the baseline data. On my graph I have a dotted line signifying 1800 calories so I can see where I go above and below it. The orange vertical line signifies where I started trying to stay under 1800 calories. After that line it just shows how many calories I have consumed daily. On the x-axis are the days of the week from Monday to Friday, while the y-axis is the amount of calories. The general trend to my graph is that my calories are staying below the line. There was only two days that I went above and it wasn’t by much. My graph is really up and down, but it still has a decreasing look to it, and it also looks like it gets to a low point and will be steady at the point for a couple days.

I was able to find out that the Law of Exercise was happening to me over Thanksgiving break because I forgot to count on Monday and Tuesday and when I thought back and added up the calories I consumed I found out that I was still less than 1800 calories. This is an example of the Law of Exercise because this law states that when a behavior is emitted over and over again then the behavior is strengthened. Since I have been emitting this behavior for so many weeks it has just become strong enough that I am doing it subconsciously. In general I am doing really well with this. I am a little worried that when Christmas break comes around that I might have a problem. I think just being at my home with my parent’s causes me to have more trouble with counting because I am not supported by my mother in this endeavor. I have actually lost 8lbs since I started doing this about a month ago so I am happy. She just doesn’t think that I need to lose any weight so trying to eat healthier and low caloried food is hard when I don’t have the support of the people around me.

Behavior Modification is a type of psychology that can really help people change their lives if they choose to go down that road. I think that this branch or psychology is very important to society and that everyone should learn the basics to it because it can help with changing your behaviors, changing other people’s aversive behaviors, getting you out of illegal situations, or from getting you in trouble. I have benefitted greatly from this class, and have actually helped others try to change their undesirable behaviors.

Terms: Behavior, Four reasons for changing a behavior, emitting, behavior modification, punishment, reinforcement, ABC, function, manipulating, organism, baseline, fixed interval, self-directed behavior modification, contingencies, satiation, antecedents, negative reinforcement, reinforcing, subtracting, eliciting, goals, implementing, target behavior, Keep a record, Graph, x-axis, y-axis, trend, reward , Law of Exercise, aversive, psychology

Behavior Modification

There are four main reasons why people chose to emit to change a behavior. People might want to emit to change a behavior because it bothers us, the individual, bothers others, may lead to trouble, or are illegal. The reason I chose to change a behavior it because it bothers me. The behavioral goal I chose was to exercise more; this is identified as a behavioral class. This is also a self-directed behavior because it was in my free will to want to change this behavior. My target behavior is to emit to workout at the gym every day for 45 minutes doing cardio. This target behavior is realistic because it is manageable and fits within my daily schedule. Since I wanted to increase a behavior instead of decrease a behavior I did not have to deal with extinction or extinction burst. If you want to decrease a behavior it is better to use differential reinforcement.

For my behavioral goal I decided to use reinforcement. Reinforcement is a procedure used in behavior modification to increase the frequency of a behavior. There are two different types of reinforcement; positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. The first reinforcer I used dealt with positive reinforcement, which introduces a desirable stimulus depending on emitting the target behavior. The reinforcer was treating me to frozen yogurt with as many added toppings as I wanted on Sundays. The second reinforcer I used dealt with negative punishment, which is the removal on an aversive stimulus depending on emitting the target behavior. The reinforcer was allowing me to have a lazy day and not work out on Sundays. This also allowed me to regroup for next week. Reinforcing the target behavior allowed me to elicit the behavior more. Also using reinforcement makes me feel better about myself and makes me more pleasant to be around. Since my reinforcers are conditioned they are known as secondary reinforcers. When changing a target behavior the outcome is more successful using reinforcement instead of punishment.

Since I am only being reinforced on Sundays I did not use continuous reinforcement. Instead I used intermittent reinforcement which means being reinforced every now and then. This allows me to not become satiated with my reinforcers. Since I did not become satiated with my reinforcers I did not have to adjust my contingencies. There are also different reinforcement schedules that can also be used dealing with operant conditioning. With my behavioral goal I am using the fixed-ratio schedule which means a response is reinforced only after a specified number of times.

When changing a behavior goal the antecedents are a big part of eliciting the behavior. There were a few things I emitted to do to change my environment to encourage me more. One thing I changed was setting a “friendly reminder” (alarm) on my cell phone to remind me to exercise. The second thing I changed was leaving my IPod and shoes out in my room which made them more noticeable to help motivate me to exercise.
When emitting to change a behavior goal it is important to keep track of your progress. I keep track of my progress in a notebook, also known as a behavioral diary. After every time I exercised at the gym I wrote down how long I exercised for and sometimes put down whether or not I had motivation during each exercise. It is important to write down your progress right after you emit the target behavior so you do not forget.

Before you can start emitting your behavioral goal you need to record your baseline. The baseline shows information and data before starting your behavioral goal. During this time there are no reinfocers being used. My baseline shows I was only exercised for 30 minutes every day and there was one day I didn’t exercise at all due to lack of motivation.

The next four weeks I started emitting my target behavior and using my reinforcers. The first week I worked out every day for 45 minutes and a few days 50 minutes due to more motivation. The second week was during thanksgiving break which changed my antecedents and motivation. Also I had to change my positive reinforcer to ice cream instead of frozen yogurt. There were a couple of days I worked out for 50 minutes due to more motivation and a couple of days I only worked out for 30 minutes due to lack of motivation. This indicates how important the antecedents play a big part in your target behavior. The third week was still part of thanksgiving break. This week showed around the same progress as the second week, however on Thanksgiving Day I decided to not work out at all and focus on spending time with my family. The consequence of not working out on Thanksgiving Day was not being able to eat ice cream. Then the final week shows I was less motivated during the beginning of the week and more motivated towards the end of the week.

While keeping track in my behavioral diary I graphed my progress as well. The graph shows what I am trying to measure (y-axis) and the measurement periods (x-axis). On my graph the y-axis will measure the amount of minutes spend exercising and the x-axis will show the days of the week. Also the title of my graph was labeled exercising more.

Overall I thought my behavioral goal was successful. I was able to focus on my target behavior and use my reinforcers to encourage me. Keeping track on my progress really helped encouraging me as well. I know I will be more successful in changing other target behaviors from the material I have learned from this class. I really enjoyed taking this class and learned a lot to use in my daily life. Thank you!

Terms: behavior modification, emit, behavior, behavioral goal, behavioral class, self-directed behaviors, target behavior, extinction, extinction burst, differential reinforcement, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, reinforcer, desirable stimulus, aversive, reinforcing, elicit, secondary reinfocers, punishment, continuous reinforcement, intermittent reinforcement, satiation, operant conditioning, differential reinforcement schedules, fixed-ratio schedule, antecedents, baseline, behavioral diary, x-axis, y-axis, and consequences

My behavior goal was to decrease the frequency of playing chess online to 1-2 hours a week. This was a challenging goal for me as my baseline for chess was sometimes 5-6 hours a week! There was a desirable need for behavior intervention of this behavior. One of the first things I did was the behavior assessment and baseline.
After looking at how much time I actually spent playing chess per week, it was a bit shocking. I used a line graph with the x-axis and y-axis to look at my baseline for one week before I would set up a behavior intervention. The behavior graph would help me look at my progress or regression of the desired behavior. Once I found out my baseline I need to find a way to look at the topographical behavior and discriminate between the behaviors.
After looking at my behaviors I decided to a reinforcement technique of interval for extinigushing this behavior. Although this behavior was desirable for me, it had aversive effects because of the time used instead of doing other important things. I chose to use a reinforcement, rather than punishment technique as I learned it was not as strong. The reward system I had set up was eating out once a week if my goal of decreasing the frequency of behavior was made.
One of the behavior assessments that I noticed about my behavior was that I a higher frequency to play chess if I was nervous and in the presence of a computer.(antecedent) One of the ways I was able to decrease this behavior was stayiing away from the computers unless I needed to do something specific. The computer was able to elicit and emit the behavior for for playing chess, the consequence of flow could be undesirabled.
When I first tried to decrease the targeted behavior it went well for a few weeks, but whenever I got stressed and finals and exams came back there was an extinction burst where the behavior proved to be averisive. I was not sure at first of the reward I had chosen because of the reinforcement. I believe a good portion of this was due to self-directed behavior and its consequences. Although I have good days and bad days, I sometimes slip up and play more chess as the graph has shown. The behavior diary has helped me keep track and recognize my antecedents and feelings of this emited behavior. Another thing I learned was that there was a satiation point when playing chess, but it was still hard for me to stop playing even after I knew I should, and I wasnt getting as much satifcation from it. This is something I will have to work at to decrease the frequency of the behavior so extinction can occur.
Overall I would say that this behavior intervention was successful, although I still have extinction burst. I have reduced the frequency of playing chess to a few hours a week. This will be a behavior that I will have to monitor with a behavior diary. One of the functions I learned about playing chess was that it made me feel good. When I am stressed out with work and I am unsure if I will be able to do it, I could play chess to make me feel better. This has had aversive effects and behavior modification was used to reduce this behavior.

terms: antecedent, behavior, consequence, extinction, extinction burst, self-directed behavior, behavior assessement, behavior diary, behavior intervention, behavior baseline, graph, discriminate, topographical, reinforcement, continious, aversive, positive, punishment, desirable, emit, elicit, goal, frequency, satiation, x-axis, y-axis, targeted behavior, record

Behavioral Change Project

Throughout this course of behavior modification we learned about how people go about emitted averse behaviors while they would rather elicit a more goal oriented behavior that they had decided to target. One of the projects we had to do was just that, we had to pick a behavioral goal and use the 7 steps the change our self-directed behavior. So, to be able to modify our target behavior we had to follow this program.

The first thing that I had to do for myself was to set a behavioral goal. When deciding your goal you need to make sure that you don’t do something to specific. The reason that it isn’t a specific is because this first step is supposed to be in a form of a behavioral class. So, I set my goal to try to increase how often I work out. Now that I have my non-specific goal I need to specify the goal as a set of target behaviors. This way I will actually be able to measure the target behavior without any confusion. I set this specific goal to go to the gym at least 3 times a week and complete a preplanned work out that I had decided on in advance. During this time you need to keep your goal realistic; normally I would want to say I want to go to the gym every day and complete a super long work out but I know that with my schedule that wouldn’t be possible. At this step you need to factor in your current everyday life; school, work, doctors’ appointments, social life, and then think logically about how much time you could honestly devote to your goal.

So realistically I would hope to go to the gym every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 8 O’Clock pm, but if my schedule doesn’t allow it I gave myself some wiggle room by having other days open in the week.
Now the next couple steps are where I always was the most forgetful. Step three is where we have to keep a recording of how we are doing on our behavior modification program. What I ended up doing is writing down a workout that I wanted to do. I would include the exercise, how long, how hard, how many reps, or how much weight was to be included with each exercise or cardio. After each work out I would go to the written down work out and cross off everything that I completed. Step four is when I had to graph my baseline. My baseline showed me getting in two complete work outs that I had already planned out. How I went about graphing is on my x-axis it was labeled Monday-Sunday and on my y-axis it started at 0 and went up by .2 until it reached 1.6. So then if I completed a whole work out I could just put in a 1, if I only got half way through I would put .5 and if I did more than originally planned I plugged in 1.5 on that particular day and that particular week.
The next step, which was the fifth step, was to determine the contingencies. My behavioral modification program used continuous reinforcement. The reinforcer was that every time I completed a full work out I let myself go tanning. I would reward myself for a complete work out, it would be an instantaneous positive reinforcement for completing my target behavior. This reinforcer will help me to reach my goal because tanning helps me unwind. The sixth step which is determining the antecedents was a major factor for eliciting my work out behavior. One thing that I did was to set reminders in my phone every afternoon just reminding me to try to fit a work out in that day. Then again another reminder would go off later in the afternoon once I would get home from classes. Also, I decided to keep my tennis shoes out so that every time I would see them it would be a mental reminder to work out.

Now that I had completed the steps above I just had to keep implementing the behavior modification program I was working with. Over Thanksgiving is when I had my hardest time because I was away from the gym and tanning beds. They were not conveniently located so the motivation was decreased.

All in all the program has worked to an extent, when I am really busy there are priorities that take over working out. It’s more time consuming trying to keep up with graphs and writing down work outs, but it does keep your brain more mentally on the point and goal oriented then if you weren’t always worried about graphing. The behavior modification program is a program that can work for someone if they are really dedicated to wanting to change a target behavior. But I have a feeling that once this class gets over and I am done graphing and writing down work out plans I may not be as faithful to it all. One of the most important steps that I think you need to know is what you are going to do to reinforce the behavior because if your reinforcer isn’t strong enough then your motivation may not be strong enough either. Also the antecedents that you have set in place need to be something that really grabs your attention and says hey listen here, cause if they are something you can easily ignore then most likely you will.

Terms: behavioral goal, target behavior, specific goal, continuous reinforcement, reinforcer, reinforcement, antecedent, eliciting, behavior modification, emitting, self-directed behavior, averse behaviors, behavioral class, realistic, baseline, contingencies, positive reinforcement, reward, motivation, increase, decrease

My initial behavior was emitting talking on the phone for hours. In order to punish this behavior or do a reduction, I had to use differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior (DRA. DRA is the concept of increasing one desirable behavior while decreasing the other undesirable behavior. My goal was not to extinct my talking on the phone behavior, but to reduce it while rewarding myself. So I started recording my behavior intervention by eliciting a behavior diary. My behavior diary included my intervention being recorded as I emit keeping track of my initial behavior. The reason for this punishment was to increase my school progress, because when this initial behavior occurs, my study time decreases, and when examination occurs I get unsatiated with my grades. Due to the talking too much on the phone, I did not comprehend when studying, I got distracted. According to DRA my undesirable behavior was talking on the phone for hours and the desirable behavior was studying for classes. After my behavior diary, I graphed a baseline, which was a way to measure my behavior, having the Y axis be the hours and my X-axis was the dates. At first my graph was high to about 5hrs of talking. Few weeks later, I started to see a slight change to my graph. The reason for this was because of the resistance of the topography, the friends I hung out with who talked a lot. I started decreasing my negative behavior of talking on the phone by using systematic desensitization, and I saw that it was starting to be salient. Positive contingency was relevant to me in that, it was reinforcing my behavior on one hand (studying) and decreasing my behavior on the other hand (talking on the phone). As I emitted reducing this behavior in using DRA, I used token economy. This is a way to reward myself instead of making the behavior extinct as indicated. This token economy was at least 15 minutes of talking on the phone after two or three hours of studying. These 15 minutes was considered my primary reinforcer. Another token economy was getting a vanilla ice scream, which I considered my secondary reinforcer. Over Thanksgiving break, it felt like extinction burst. I was unable to keep on with my intervention because family and friends were calling me and I had to call them back. This occurred for hours. I am obliged to say now I can talk for about 15 to 30 minutes or less a week and study more. Seeing my study time line increase each week and talking time line decrease, I see myself as a dedicated person accomplishing a desirable behavior. The first few weeks were tough and challenging, due to behavior change, but as the weeks went by, I had to be realistic avoiding the aversive behavior. Without it, intervening would be a waste of time. My behavior was modified by these principles of behavior modification. I tend to keep reinforcing myself into studying more and reducing my phone conversation. I do not want this to be an extinction burst because of the end of school year. This was a wonderful class!!!

Terms Used:
Initial, behavior, emitting, punish, reduction, differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior (DRA), increasing, desirable, decreasing, undesirable behavior, goal, extinct, rewarding, intervention, eliciting, behavior diary, occurs, examination, unsatiated, comprehend, distracted, graphed, Y axis, X-axis, resistance, topography, negative, systematic desensitization, salient, positive contingency, relevant, reinforcing, token economy, extinct, primary reinforcement, secondary reinforcement, extinction burst, realistic, accomplishment, behavior modification, baseline, measure, aversive behavior, obliged, challenging

My behavioral goal was to decrease my pop drinking to having a can or bottle once every 2-3 days. I chose to modify this behavior because it elicited a negative consequence; I would get headaches, pop is bad for my teeth and health, and I also would get extremely hyper to the point where I'm bouncing off the walls. To start my behavioral intervention I used a line graph with the x-axis and y-axis to look at my baseline for one week. The behavior graph would help me look at my progress or regression of my desired behavior. Once I found out my baseline I had to find a way to look at the topographical behavior and discriminate between my target behavior. I would set up sub-goals, where I would only have one pop a day, not two or however many I had. I found this to be helpful. If you want to change a behavior, take baby steps; do not change everything all at once. Once I cut down on one pop a day, I started to go a day and a half (which was hard at first) but then I went from one day to two days. Next was determining the antecedents. The antecedent is what causes the behavior. Antecedents are important when you want to change your behavior or someone else's. By changing the antecedents you can modify the target behavior. I changed my antecedent by stop buying pop and when I go out to restaurants, I order water.By doing these few things I was able to decrease my pop drinking. The next step is to implement the intervention and adjust the contingencies. From beginning to end I didn't succeed at decreasing my behavior overall, I had a few set backs, but I did get better. My contingencies worked well for me. Although I was not able to enforce them quite often, they worked so there is no need to change them.

This course has taught me so much; I will be able to apply what we have learned in different areas in my life. I'm very grateful to Otto for being so passionate about teaching this course. It was eye-opening!

Terminology: Behavioral change, behavioral intervention, emit, elicit, antecedent, behavior, modify, goal, target behavior, data record, reinforce, x-axis, y-axis, behavioral chart, baseline, reinforcement.

The behavioral goal I chose was to improve my studying habits. Setting this goal was the first step in order to modify my chosen behavior. My target behavior was to study at least 30 minutes for each class I had for that day. Identifying the target behavior is the second step in the process to self-directed behavior. If I had two classes I would study for one hour. I used a positive reinforcer as a motivational tool for me to study. I did not think that it would be a challenging goal because I knew I needed to study to do good on my tests, and therefore getting better grades. It turned out to require more effort than I thought it would.
The third step in self-directed behavior is to keep a record. This is an important step in order to be able to keep a record for the progress being made. I wrote down the amount of time I spent studying each day. I made sure to record it right away so it would be as accurate as possible. I made sure to record the antecedents to when I did my target behavior. This was an important step because by knowing the antecedent of my behaviors I would be able to better manage modifying my behavior. The next step is just as important. It is the process of graphing a baseline. Graphing a baseline is the process of graphing data of behaviors prior to implementing the target behavior and reinforcers. I personally used a line graph. On the x-axis I have the days that I am including in my record. On the y-axis I have the amount of time that I spent studying on the day. My baseline was inconsistent showing somedays studying a lot and others not at all.
The fifth step is to determine the contingencies. I decided to use my playstation 3 as my reinforcement. I would not turn on my playstation until I finished my studying for that day. This would be a positive reinforcement because I would not have anything to do if it weren't for my playstation. By not using it I would basically force myself to study. The next thing I needed to do was to determine an antecedent. The antecedent is thing that precedes the behavior. I put my books next to my couch and my remote next to the television so it would increase me to emit the behavior to study rather than use my playstation. The last step involved is to implement and adjust the contingencies. This process involves keeping a journal of the data we have collected for the behavior. By observing the behavior and the progress we are making we can see if there is anything that needs to be modified in order to successfully modify our behaviors. While looking at my graph I noticed that my study habits were still inconsistent and could have used some modifications. I started to keep my notebooks open, and my books by my side to provide me with a good antecedent to accomplish my goal.

Terms: target behavior, self-directed behavior, positive reinforcer, keep a record, elicit, emit, contingencies, x-axis, y-axis, baseline, goal, intervention, and antecedent.

Running a Half Marathon

I used the self directed behavioral steps when I tried to change my behavior of running. There are seven steps: set goal, define target behavior, keep record, graph baseline, determine contingencies, determine antecedents, implement & adjust contingencies.

1) Set Goal
The most important part when setting a goal is to be specific. How will you know when you achieved your goal, if it isn't specific? My goal was to run a half marathon in Marion, Iowa, April 27th.

2) Define Target Behavior
A target behavior is something that a person is emitting (doing) because of an antecedent (stimulus) and getting reinforced by a consequence (reward). The most important thing about target behaviors is that they are very specific. They are precise and measurable. They are also manageable in day-to-day life by fitting into people's schedules. my target behavior is running. Running is defined by propulsion using the legs while encountering an airborne phase (both feet are in the air at the same time). Generally this will mean running at a 8-9 minute mile pace. Running will only count if at least 1 mile is run per workout (this can be in increments of 16 x 100 meter sprints or 4 x 400 meter sprints, etc...). The target behavior should total up to 5 miles per week.

3) Keep a Record
keeping a record is very important in seeing if things are working. This allows us to subjectively look at whether the antecedent or consequence needs to be changed.

4)Graph a Baseline
A baseline allows you to see the big picture. The baseline shows the time before the intervention. On the graph there is also the point of intervention, followed by the weeks after the intervention.

The graph is a picture of how when and how much the target behavior occurs. One of the axis (x-axis) is the independent variable (the variable that is manipulated), while the axis (y-axis) is the dependent variable (the variable that is measured). Behavioral psychologists use line graphs.

The last part of graphing behaviors is keeping a behavior journal. You need to record the environment (antecedent, and consequence) before and after the target behavior. This will allow you to find ways to increase the likelihood of emitting the target behavior.

5) Determine Contingencies
Contingencies are reinforcements or punishments. Reinforcements are things that are pleasant. Punishments are unpleasant. There are also negative and positive aspects of contingencies (adding or taking away something pleasant/unpleasant). In most cases reinforcement works better long term. I chose to use positive reinforcement. I decided to watch a movie while stretching out after the weekend run, if I ran the prescribed amount. This didn't have a high enough valence (intensity) to work very well. I think in the future something with a higher valence to do while stretching after the runs would be more effective.

I was using a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement (how often the behavior is reinforced). In the future, I would start by reinforcing the behavior every time.

Determine Antecedents
Antecedents when used correctly can be small changes that produce big changes in habits. Antecedent are the things that happen before the target behavior occurs. In this case it could be a cold windy day. It's much harder to emit a running behavior when it's cold and windy outside. Antecedents also include discriminative stimulus (something specific that influences a specific response). One of the days of the week I work at the YMCA, this makes it much easier to run because I don't have to worry about the antecedent of the weather outside being cold and windy. The antecedents I used to my advantage was setting a time to run with a friend at the YMCA and setting a weekend long run with kids in the neighborhood. Two problems I've encountered are: the friend at the YMCA moved out of the area, and sometimes the kids can't make it to the weekend long run.

7) Implement and Adjust Contingencies
This is the most important part for long term success. When things stop working, look at antecedents and consequences. You might need to adjust the reinforcement schedule. Reinforcement every time works well when starting out, but you might want to switch to a different schedule of reinforcement when things start to get boring. This is where i struggle the most with this project. The first couple weeks I was excited, but after that wore off I needed to reinforce more. When I didn't find a good reinforcer and my antecedents were unhelpful, I ended up reducing and finally lapsing into my previous behavior of neglecting to run.

In the future, I would pay a lot more attention to the reinforcements. I would pick something with a higher valence and I would reinforce my behavior every time. I would also try to find a way to make the antecedent work in my favor. Getting a treadmill. Finding a time that will work every work, and scheduling it.

Terms: behavior, self directed behavioral steps, antecedent, consequence, emitting, target behavior, baseline, reinforced, intervention, reinforcement, punishment, positive, negative, valence, positive reinforcement, discriminative stimulus.

For our intervention we had to change or modify a behavior of our choosing. This is an example of a self-directed behavior modification, because I am the one that administers the intervention. The behavior I chose to modify and increase was the behavioral class of exercising. Now behavioral class is very general and for an intervention to be successful I had to be more specific on the behavior changing it from a behavioral class to a target behavior. The target behavior I identified was the behavior of exerting energy using elliptical machines, free weights, or exercise videos to exercise my body. (In that specification I also included the function that the behavior served.) In defining a target behavior another important part is specifying what qualifies the target behavior as being implemented especially when it comes to reinforcing. So I said that I would do the target behavior at least 35 minutes for at least 3 days out of the week. My plan originally for my behavior modification was to emit the target behavior in the context of going to the WRC after class in the afternoon.

The first part of the intervention was actually to do nothing. Well not nothing but do the same thing I had been doing so I could get a baseline of my behavior. This showed me what my normal pattern of emitting or doing the target behavior was. Another component of gathering the data was also making notes in my behavioral journal on the events, moods, and overall contexts that were present when I would or would not emit the target behavior. I found that the antecedent, which is the context in which a behavior takes place, of having a headache elicited not emitting the target behavior. Basically the headache made it so I was less likely to do the target behavior; you could say that the headache worked as a natural positive punisher. The headache was an aversive thing that was added that decreased the frequency of the behavior. Another observation from my baseline week was the antecedent that after class I would feel tired and want to go home to Waverly and did so. Another antecedent I recorded in my behavioral journal was saying I had too much school work and didn’t have enough time to do the full 35 minutes. So I found in the baseline recordings and behavioral journaling that antecedents are very important when implementing an intervention because they directly interact with the target behavior and can help to elicit or hinder.

Keeping in mind the baseline which I recorded exercising two days out of the week and the important contextual/antecedent observations I came up with my intervention. First I wanted to at least alter the ‘problem’ antecedents to elicit an increase in the target behavior rather than a decrease. First I made a rule that when I had a headache I would do low contact low cardio exercise such as exercise bike or Pilate’s video. Next I addressed the time antecedent, clearly afternoon was not working so I instead planned on morning and evening times to complete the target behavior. The mornings I could feasibly emit the target behavior I planned to go to the Health Beat. In the evenings that I could emit the target behavior I planned to do free weights or exercise videos at home. Another strategy I implemented was that if it was a particularly busy day I could split up the time into 10 minute segments and actually use exercise as a reinforcer to completing my homework and readings. The next part of my intervention was deciding what to use as the reinforcer, which; would serve to increase the likelihood of me completing my target behavior. I thought a good reinforcer would be one that would be weekly reinforced as I completed at least all three of my days implementing my target behavior. I used the fixed ration schedule of reinforcement. I thought a good reinforcer would be renting a movie or movies and having a movie night. This I found out however was not a good reinforcer for me, I realized I had to change the schedule of reinforcement to increase the likelihood the behavior was emitted. I then used the Premack Principle to help elicit the target behavior. The premise of the Premack Principle is that in order to do a less desirable activity or one of lower frequency we use an activity that we really like to do. Using this I then changed the reinforcer to getting on Pinterest, an activity I already enjoyed, for an hour if I completed at least 35 minutes of my target behavior. Getting on Pinterest is an example of a secondary reinforcer because it is something that is learned. I then was using a continuous reinforcement schedule which rewarded me every time I emitted the behavior. This served to motivate me and was a stronger reinforcer for me to get my exercise done.

As I implemented this intervention I saw that it was working! I was exercising more than three times a week. In my behavioral journal I kept writing down the contexts in which the target behavior was emitted and not emitted. I found that I was more likely to emit the target behavior when I did it for short periods throughout the day. Then unfortunately…dun dun dun… the holiday week came Thanksgiving (exercise’s worst nightmare.) Just an observation if someone wanted to give an excuse for not sticking to a diet or exercising on thanksgiving it should be universally known as ‘The Thanksgiving Antecedent,’ no more would need to be said everyone knows. The antecedent was also that I was at my parents’ home for the week; I of course forgot my weights and videos and didn’t have access to a gym. So what happened? Not the target behavior! I did manage to sneak two times in which I partially did the target behavior. Meaning what exactly? I did the target behavior for only 10 minutes which by my specifications and qualifications does not equal the completion of the target behavior. And oh yah I also used my reinforcer of Pinterest without doing the target behavior. My self-control is obviously something of a problem (…and probably along with a Pinterest addiction.) After getting back from the holiday my intervention still did not hold true. It was a flop. After I had gotten back into the rhythm of not emitting the target behavior but still getting the reinforcer I couldn’t quite take it away. If I would continue to do this intervention I would need to choose another reinforcer that would also be a continuous reinforcement schedule but I would need to find something other than Pinterest.

Self-directed behavior, Behavior, behavioral class, behavioral journal, target behavior, reinforcing, reinforced, reinforcer, schedule of reinforcement, baseline, function, emitting/emit, eliciting/elicit, antecedent, positive, punisher, aversive, frequency, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement, secondary reinforcement, Premack Principle,

Behavioral change I decided to do for this project was the goal of improving my time management skills. I wrote a to-do list for each day in my planner and crossed off the things I got done by 11:00pm. I would take the number of things I got done divided by the number of things that were on my to-do list for that day. So, the number of things I got done was the numerator and the number of things that were on my to-do list for that day was the denominator. I chose to improve this because I want to able to have a normal sleep schedule and not stay up late doing homework or other things. Another reason is because I wanted to become more motivated to get all of my tasks done and not be lazy. I might have used a little too much generalization in this project because I didn’t want my to-do list to strictly be about homework. I am involved in a sorority and I live in a dorm as well as other things. My point is homework is not only thing that I have to get done during the day, so my to-do list might need a better value of valence.
If you were to use the ABC’s of behavior modification to look at my project I think you can see an antecedent, behavior, and consequence. The antecedent is having lots of things to get done. As a college student we have lots of homework, bills that we need money to pay, work, social time, sleep, and campus activities we are involved with. We need time for all of these! The behavior emitted here is not having enough time to get it all done in a timely manner. I need to stop procrastinating. The consequence of this is losing social time, not being able to be involved on campus, and possibly getting bad grades. Time management is a target behavior that requires a lot of self-reinforcement. You have to get yourself to elicit the behavior. Give yourself some kind of behavioral intervention by using self-directed behavior by self-evaluating your behavior and giving reinforcing consequences to yourself. I decided that if there was more than one day a week that I was less than 75 percent productive I would have to spend an extra hour studying on Sunday for each day I was less productive that week. So, if I slipped up three times one week. I would spend three extra hours studying on Sunday.
I used being able to go out to restaurant of my choice for a meal as a reinforcer to get me to stay on track. By this establishing operation being put in place it make the reward of successful time management easier to want to do. Positive reinforcement is a great way to encourage yourself. It is also a good way to deal with children opposed to negative punishment. It is a way of using the Law of Effect. I can associate time management with a positive outcome because it follows a positive response.
In my behavior modification graph you can see that there was an improvement over time in my time management. I feel that this project was not completely accurate because of Thanksgiving Break. I feel that break isn’t an everyday type of event, so it messes with trying to change a constant behavior. In my graph the x-axis is labeled time and the y-axis is labeled percentage. So, the day that I did that to-do list is lined up with the percentage of my to-do list I got done for that day. You can see a lot of improve from my baseline to the end of my graph. This was an easy behavior to track because I use my planner daily. For my graph all I had to do was figure out the percentage of things in my planner from that day that I crossed off and how many I had written down for that day. The function of this behavior of time management can only help me, it is not a punishment.

Terms: goal, behavior modification, behavior, antecedent, emitted, y-axis, x-axis, graph, self-reinforcement, elicit, target behavior, behavioral intervention, self-directed behavior, function, punishment, baseline, reinforce, establishing operation, reward, Law of Effect, negative punishment, positive response, positive reinforcement, generalization, valence

When we were first introduced to the idea of behavior modification, I was unsure of what to do. There are many behaviors I would like to change and I picked my target behavior to emit a studying behavior at least an hour a week. There are four main reasons why people chose to emit a behavior to change. They are that a behavior bothers them, the individual, others or that it may lead to trouble or because it is simply illegal. The reason I used was because my behavior bothers myself, and it may bother others if they care about my studying behavior. My behavior was self-directed because I wanted to change it myself. My target behavior was to emit a studying behavior at least an hour a week, this is realistic because it was only an hour not like five. It is a manageable behavior because it fits within my schedule and it isn’t a too big of a time commitment. I wanted to increase my behavior so I would not have to worry with extinction or extinction burst. It is a good idea to use differential reinforcement.

I decided to use reinforcement to increase the frequency of studying. There are two types of reinforcement, positive and negative. We learned in class that it was best to use reinforcement than punishment which can be aversive. I first decided to reinforce myself with a shopping spree of some sort if I was able to complete my behavior and get the desired grades. I chose the shopping spree because it was desirable to me and I would only get it if I emitted the behavior. That didn’t work as well so I added other reinforcers as I would only get to watch television if and after I studied for an hour. Then as a secondary reinforcer, I would be able to go out to eat on the weekends if I studied the entire week. I hoped the secondary reinforcer would elicit the studying behavior even more.

I used continuous reinforcement otherwise I feel like I would not be able to emit my behavior. If I used intermittent reinforcement, I would only be reinforced once in awhile. During finals week I was more prone to using this type of reinforcement because I was busy with lots of studying and work to do. I had no worries of becoming satiated with my reinforcers because I enjoy watching television, so I did not adjust my contingencies. With my operant conditioning I used a fixed-ratio schedule because I am only reinforced after a specific number of times.

While determining my baseline data I found that antecedents of watching television or being around other people were huge predictors of me not actually doing my behavior. So I realized as a consequence that I needed to change my environment in order to do the behavior. So I made television a reinforcer and then I closed my door so I wouldn’t talk to people and get distracted. It is important to write my progress down in a notebook, because otherwise I wouldn’t remember and it’s nice to be able to look back and see how far I’ve come. I would write it down in my behavioral diary after I emitted the behavior so I could graph it later. With my baseline data I found that I didn’t study for more than a half an hour much and a lot of times I didn’t study at all.

After recording my baseline I started implementing my intervention. The first week I was able to study for at least an hour. Then I got sick the second week, so I wasn’t able to study as much that week as I would have liked. It is understandable because I was sick, but it is hard to keep going once I had a few days off. It was a good thing though that I gave myself the weekends off anyway so I was able to rest then. I was sick during Thanksgiving break, which wasn’t as hard when I felt healthy to keep up with my studies. It was a little hard though because antecedents weren’t consistent while being at home, so I wasn’t in my usual routine like I am during school. The final week after that I was able to stay on task and get prepared for finals, because I had a ton of things to do so it wasn’t hard for me to study. I graphed my progress too. On the x-axis I put the days, and the y-axis time in minutes.

Overall I think my behavior goal was successful. I was able to use reinforcers that worked and encouraged me to emit the behavior. Recording everything down in my notebook helped me see my progress and it made me proud to look back and see how far I’ve come this semester. I learned a lot of things this semester and it makes me more aware of my behaviors and people’s behaviors around me. I hope I can recall the information from this semester and be able to use it for years to come.

Terms: behavior modification, emit, behavior, goal, self-directed behavior, target behavior, extinction, extinction burst, differential reinforcement, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, reinforcer, desirable stimulus, aversive, elicit, secondary reinforcers, punishment, continuous reinforcement, intermittent reinforcement, satiation, operant conditioning, fixed-ratio schedules, antecedents, baseline, behavioral diary, x-axis, y-axis, consequence, recall

My behavioral change was to emit the behavioral class, a general behavior, of eating healthier. My target behavior, specific behavior within the behavioral class, was to increase the amount of servings of fruits and vegetables. I chose to elicit this target behavior because I realized that I was not getting enough servings of either. In the beginning my behavioral change I was uncertain as to what I wanted to emit as a behavioral change. I had several behavioral classes that I wanted to improve but I decided to take it easy and go with something that I already have started. Now that I have improved my eating habits, I have now emitted the behavior to other goals, by using the 7 steps of self-directed behavioral change. I used these steps when eliciting my behavioral change. I have really enjoyed using these steps and have started to use self-directed behavior in emitting several other behavioral changes.

SET A GOAL
The first step is to set a goal. I set the goal of eating healthier. I have been interested in eating healthy for awhile and taking care of my body, but after evaluation I wasn't getting enough fruits and vegetables. When choosing a goal it is important to know why you are setting this as a goal and if this is something that you are willing to elicit the behavior for a long period of time.

DEFINING MY GOAL AS A TARGET BEHAVIOR
It is important to make your goal as specific, manageable, and can be measured. My specific goal was to emit the behavior of eating more fruits and vegetables, with fits in the behavioral class of eating healthier. This is manageable because I have the resources to access fruits and vegetables and this is not aversive, or unpleasant to my lifestyle. I can also measure how many servings I have in a day.

KEEP A RECORD
I have emitted the behavior of using MyFitnessPal for two years now and I used this app to keep record of my eating habits. When keeping record you need to be able to have easy access to what ever it is you want to use a journal. It's also important to document the behavior in a timely and detailed way.

GRAPH A BASELINE
Using Excel I put the data on to a spread sheet and then created my baseline graph. A baseline is used to determine what how much or how little you are elicit your target behavior without change. When graphing, the x-axis is the amount or time of the target behavior and the y-axis are the days the target behavior is being recorded.

DETERMINE CONTINGENCIES
The contingencies are the reinforcers and how much you will be reinforced. This is when your behavioral intervention has started. It is best to use positive reinforcer, reinforcers that are given to increase a behavior. At first, my contingency was to be able to eat a cookie or extra snack because I had extra calories to use. I quickly realized that this defeated the purpose and was simply happy with the fact that I started to lose the extra weight I had been trying to lose.

DETERMINE ANTECEDENTS
Antecedent is the environment or time as to which the target behavior is more accessible to being challenged. My antecedents were adding more fruits and vegetables to my grocery list and I noticed that late at night I was eating poorly so instead of chips or a candy bar, I reached for an apple. Changing the environment or know a time of the day that you resort to the aversive behavior will help in emitting the behavioral change.

IMPLEMENTING THE INTERVENTION AND ADJUST CONTINGENCIES
This is when you begin he behavioral intervention. I continued to use the app to keep record and I weekly graphed. This gave me the opportunity to adjust any contingencies. As stated before, I had an unhealthy reinforcement and was able to adjust my contingency to one that made me a lot happier. You do not have to keep a contingency if it is not working or helping.

Terms: behavioral change, emit, behavioral class, target behavior, elicit, goals, 7 steps of self-direceted behavioral change, set a goal, aversive, keep a record, graph a baseline, determine contingencies, reinforce, behavioral intervention, positive reinforcer, antecedents, implementing the intervention and adjusting contingencies

Final Behavior Project
For my behavioral intervention project, I decided to emit behaviors that would reduce the amount of time I spent each week browsing the internet for leisure. My behavioral goal (also known as a target behavior) was to reduce my time to ninety minutes each week or less. My baseline performance was two hours and fifteen minutes the first week I started recording in my behavioral diary. I chose the internet browsing behavior because I realized that it was very easy to go from doing online homework to randomly browsing the internet. Also, in order to be sure I could maintain my goal-seeking behaviors, I decided that my self-reinforcement or reward for my self-directed behaviors was to get my favorite Jimmy John's sandwich at the end of each week. I felt that a continuous schedule of reinforcement (one sandwich each week that I met my behavioral goal) would help elicit my desire to maintain the low frequency of my internet habits. By limiting myself to this specific type of reinforcement, I made sure that not only would I not feel deprived from not rewarding myself enough, but I also wouldn't have too much reinforcement with Jimmy John's to become satiated or too accustomed to it so that it would actually become aversive. My schedule of reinforcement also relates to operant conditioning because by having myself on a fixed ratio plan, (a specific number of times)I was able to avoid extinction (the result of a reinforcement that I no longer consider reinforcing).
Now, although there were a few days that I spent an hour browsing online, I didn't punish myself because I felt that if I punished myself for that behavior, I would decrease the frequency of my internet browsing, but it wouldn't be for the same reason as I had initially intended. Typically, I noticed that as I recorded my behaviors, I was more inclined to browse the internet under specific circumstances, known as antecedents. The most common antecedents that elicited my internet browsing behavior were: being in my apartment alone, having no good televisions shows to watch, and just being bored with a large amount of time with nothing to do. These antecedents would lead to negative consequences like procrastinating on my homework and keeping me isolated from other people. However, by determining my antecedents and changing my environment, I was able to have more positive consequences and avoid my browsing habit. A couple examples would be watching my favorite television shows during the week and running errands to go get groceries and such allowed me to condition myself to not grab my laptop and start browsing around. I would consider these activities establishing operations becuase they effectively caused my positive consequences to feel more rewarding than my negative ones.
In my graph, I was able to show a negative trend line to show that I was effectively reducing my target behavior. My x-axis was labeled with the days of the week and my y-axis was labeled with the number of minutes spent browsing the internet in intervals of five minutes. This helped support the Law of Effect in that through reinforcement, a target behavior is more likely to be accomplished than through the use of punishment. I then put a vertical line in the graph to represent where my baseline performance ended and my behavioral interverntion began. With my graph, I was also to see how my contingencies (positive reinforcers) were used effectively and didn't need to be changed. Also, one way I was always able to remember to get my reinforcer was by walking past Jimmy John's on my way home from classes because it became my discriminative stimulus. In other words, it started out as an unconditioned stimulus that elicited a an unconditioned respose to think about Jimmy John's and push myself to not browse on the internet. As a result of this, my conditioned stimulus to maintain distance between my laptop and focus on other activies became a conditioned response. To conclude, my behavioral intervention taught me that I am in control of all my behaviors and that reinforcement is definitely more effective than aversive punishment.

Terms used: behavioral intervention, emit, target behavior, baseline performance, self-reinforcement, self-directed behaviors, continuous, schedule of reinforcement, elicit, frequency, reinforcement, deprived, satiated, aversive, operant conditioning, fixed ratio, extinction, punish, antecedents, elicited, consequences, establishing operations, x-axis, y-axis, interval, Law of Effect, contingencies, discriminative stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned respose, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response

With my project, I had to emit a more pleasurable target behavior of eating less in order to fit into a size 12 dress for my summer wedding. I believed (at the time) that this may not work to help me change my behavior of eating less. I started by eating less meals in a day. When I had emitted this behavior, it was so hard not to sit down, pick up a donut, and eat the whole box! Once I was able to do that, I then started eating less at each meal. At the same time, I had changed another behavior of drinking more water. Once these behaviors were changed, I realized how easy it was to change small parts of my behavior at a time. In order to reinforce myself, I let my weekends be "free." By the word "free," I mean that I let myself go up to 2000 calories. If I ate 4 out of my 5 week days under 1700 calories, then I was able to eat go up to 2000 calories. I did make some exceptions in this like Thanksgiving and a death of a close family member. Looking at my graph, It actually was really hard to even hit that calore mark some days, Depending on how aversive the day was (since I am a stress eater).
Stress eating is one behavior throughout this journey that I had yet to come face to face and admit that it is an aversive issue in my life up until I started this goal. Being in stressful situations has been one antecedent that I and other are forced to be in. The consequence for many of us are aversive like not eating at all to eat way too much. In order to change the behavior that causes an aversive behavior, I have forced myself to drink a bottle of water, instead of grabbing a pop or an unhealthy food item.
Another antecedent that causes me to eat is getting bored. I get very bored easily and this causes me to believe that I am hungry. In order to emit a more pleasurable behavior of not eating when I'm bored, I decided to go hang out with friends. This really helped me in my journey!
I didnt have anything to punish myself when achieving this goal. I changed my mind set so that I knew that I could always do better tomorrow. I felt that If I punished myself in this behavioral change, it may cause me not to want to keep pushing along in this long and hard journey. It is hard to stay under this amount of calories for long term, but I do believe that it has helped me change a once aversive behavior into a more pleasurable one.
Terms: Aversive, Pleasurable, Behavior, Target Behavior, Reinforce, Consequence, Antecedent, Punish, Emit, Graph

Final Blog Assignment:

Behavior Modification can be broken down into three parts known as the ABC's: the antecedent, the behavior, and the consequence. The antecedent is the environment that sets the occasion for the behavior. The consequence is what happens when the behavior is emitted (done) with a specific antecedent. For example, at a funeral, telling a joke will result in people being angry with you. Telling a joke is not acceptable at every occasion. The ABC's are a way to explain all behaviors.

I wanted to change my aversive or unpleasant behavior of not working out since ending my swimming career. There are four reasons to change or modify a behavior: if it bothers the individual, if it bothers others, if it leads to trouble, or if it is illegal. However, these reasons were primarily targeting negative behaviors and based on a punishment schedule. Simple put, I didn't want to punish myself for a current aversive behavior but instead reinforce myself for emitting a desirable behavior more often. The four reasons to emit a behavior more are as follows: if it makes the individual feel better about him/herself, if it makes an individual more pleasant to be around, if it keeps the individual out of trouble, or if it is legal.

My goal was to exercise more. Ever since I stopped swimming competitively, I've had a hard time motivating myself to continue to workout. I had bad experiences during my final season and just didn't want to try after that... The behavior I chose to increase the frequency of wasn't specific enough. How does one define exercise? What does it look like? Exercising is a behavioral class. It is a large category for many smaller ones. To be exact, exercising is a functional behavioral class meaning all kinds of exercises serve the same function (staying in shape/healthy) but look different being performed. I needed to define a clear, concise and easy to identify target behavior within the behavioral class of exercising. My target behavior was to do an ab workout for twenty minutes, five days a week (not including weekends).

Before I could implement my behavioral intervention, I needed to record how many times the target behavior occurred without reinforcement. I started this by writing down every time I performed an ab workout and for how many minutes within a small planner or journal. This is known as taking a baseline. I also included my results on a graph. After a good baseline was done, I began my intervention with the use of positive reinforcement. I chose to use a favorite treat as my reinforcer, kettle corn.

During the baseline, I only emitted an ab workout for twenty minutes twice. Most of the time I did one for five to ten minutes. Once the intervention began, I decided to reinforce myself on a fixed ratio. After emitting an ab workout for at least ten minutes, five days a week, I would be reinforced with kettle corn, but that meant I had to wait till the weekend. I decided to do this because my baseline showed me that I struggled to reach twenty minutes most days. To make it more motivating to reach twenty minutes, I also included continuous reinforcement for every occurrence of the twenty minute mark. This way I was being reinforced to do a minimum amount of time and when the twenty minute mark is hit. Long as I was emitting close to the target behavior after five days, I was reinforced. This way I am exercising to some degree instead of never. But as time went on, my reinforcer was not reinforcing enough. I became satiated or had too much of a good thing. My reinforcer was no longer motivating. Plus, my inner satisfaction was lacking. My graph said it all. I only emitted a twenty minute ab workout once during the whole intervention and on the last day. There was an entire week I did not do anything... Overall, I only did an ab workout for five minutes. I would have to say my intervention was not successful. I was all over the place.

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I have learned so much throughout this class. I never thought behavior modification was so complex. I have benefited from taking this class in so many ways. What I learned in this class will benefit me within my career. I have a better understanding about behaviors in general and how they all serve a purpose. I really enjoyed this class and will use this information for the rest of my life, especially my future children... HAHA

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Terms: Behavior Modification, ABC's, Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence, Set the Occasion, Target Behavior, Emit, Aversive, Desirable, Behavioral Intervention, Four Reasons to Change, Punish, Punishment, Punishment Schedule, Reinforce, Positive Reinforcement, Reinforcer, Motivation, Behavioral Class, Functional, Serve a Function, Baseline, and Graph

My behavioral goal was to emit a behavior of consuming 1300 calories a day. I had first started out with a goal of eating 1300 calories in order to lose weight, but the stress of having to keep track of my weight made me anxious and I had a bit of a meltdown. My first week of baseline recording was a lot like the implementation. I was under 1300 every day the first week, except for one day. The implementation of forcing myself to eat under 1300 calories worked quite well, again, with the exception of a few days. Now, I’m not totally sure what happened those days, but I consumed usually 200 calories or more than I should have. I think I just couldn’t take it anymore. I needed a piece of chocolate, I guess. Seeing as I only implemented the modification for three weeks, I can no longer remember what my reinforcer was. Let’s say it was the piece of chocolate I ate on the days I “cheated” and went over 1300. In this case, the piece of chocolate wasn’t a helpful reinforcer. However, I plan on keeping this modification plan on the right track and using a shopping trip as a reinforcer, because that will burn calories!
In order to record my data, I used a line graph titled “Calories a day: 1300”. The X-axis was labeled as “Days of the Week”. The Y-axis was labeled as “# of Calories”. My baseline started Oct. 25th and ended Nov. 2nd. Nov. 5th through the 27th was my implementation. This activity taught me a lot about how behavior modification can change someone’s life. The rules about self-directed behavior are extremely important when deciding how to go about changing a behavior. The importance of goals is another great chapter because most people don’t think their goal is important, as long as they get results. However, they usually will not receive results because their goal is either too broad or too unreachable. I do not think my goal is too broad or too unreachable. I believe it was manageable and easily reached.
This class elicited a happy response in me because I enjoyed being taught about behavior modification. I really liked the hybrid aspect of it. The hybrid aspect allowed me to fit my homework into my schedule and allowed me to learn when I was exhausted. However, having class at 330 kind of sucked a little bit, mainly because I had just gotten off work an hour and a half earlier and had just finished eating. Mostly, I just wanted to take a nap.

Terms: Behavior, Goal, Baseline, Record, Implementation, Modification, Reinforcer, Graph, Self-Directed Behavior, Importance of Goals, Emit, Elicit, Response,

For my behavior modification I chose to increase the amount of time I spent working out. By doing this I would reach my goal of being in better shape. For four weeks, I measured the amount of time, in minutes, that I spent working out. Over these four weeks I have recorded the information and made it into a line graph, since line graphs are the most often style of graph used in behavioral modification because you can see your progress over time. The x-axis on the graph is days of the week and the y-axis is time (in minutes). For the first two weeks, I behaved exactly as I’ve always done so that I could establish a baseline and know where I have started from. The second two weeks were after the intervention. I would say the intervention was successful because after that working out became more consistent and when I did commit time to working out, it was generally a longer amount of time. The target behavior, which was working out, included working out at home or in the gym, but it must be time entirely dedicated to working out. For best results, I believe you have to have a work out plan. The ideal plan is to go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which cardio and abs on Tuesday and Thursday. By following this schedule, I will have the weekends off. This is very important because the weekends are a time for fun. Since reinforcement is more successful than punishment, I am using differential reinforcement by being able to go to the bars if I don’t miss any scheduled days to work out. Along with all the natural reinforcers that comes with working out, going to bars is a treat because it is very enjoyable and can’t do it all the time since it is often times very expensive. There must be some leniency to the reinforcement you want keep at the behavior or else I could miss one day at the beginning of the week and think I might as well wait until the start of next week to start working out again because I know for that week I won’t be reinforced. So to help combat that thinking I have put in the loop hole that if I miss one day I can still get that reinforcer, but also put in the stipulation that it cannot happen two weeks in a row. This reinforcement will have fixed intervals because it will be rewarded every Saturday.
I have noticed on the days on the days that I missed going to the gym were because of two different antecedents. They were both were intertwined and easily solved. I noticed that when I didn’t work out early in the day I’d often get lazy and lose the motivation. Also another problem was that if I didn’t go to the gym right when it opened, it would get very crowded and was very unpleasant. To break this behavior down into the ABC’s; the cornerstone concept of behavioral modification:

(A)ntecedent: Late in the day
(B)ehavior: Gets lazy
(C)onsequence: Does not work out and sits around playing video games

The solution to this problem is very simple; work out earlier in the day. By doing this I will avoid the crowd and won’t get lazy. Overall the behavioral modification process was successful, although I’m not sure how successful it will be when I go home for Christmas break for 4 weeks because again the environment and antecedents have changed; only time will tell.

Terms: Behavior Modification, Goal, Target Behavior, Baseline, Reinforcer, Intervention, Reinforcement, Punishment, Natural Reinforcer, Antecedents, Unpleasant, X-Axis, Graph, Y-Axis, Differential Reinforcement, Rewarded, Fixed Intervals

For behavioral change project I choose to change my behavior of going to bed so late. When first thinking about my I wanted to change, I was looking for an behavior that would adhere to my daily life and would be beneficial. Therefore, the targeted behavior came to be going to bed earlier. From this, I made a list of the ABC’s of behavior modification. The antecedent would turn out to be my room, the behavior being going to bed earlier, and the consequences would be that I would not be so tired the next day. After this, I looked at the seven steps for self-directed behavior and made my “plan of attack”. The first step was to set a goal, which I had accomplished by determining that I wanted to go to bed earlier. The second step was to determine the goal as a targeted behavior. The targeted behavior is to go to bed before 11 pm, which rarely happened before this behavioral change so I wanted this behavior to become extinct, for it was not helping me stay awake that late. Because originally my targeted behavior was to go to bed earlier, I had to define what “earlier” meant, because going to bed 15 minutes before I usually do could be considered “earlier”. So I set a time that would be functional and that would be possible for me to emit this behavior everyday so that the behavior would change. I also wanted to choose a behavior that I could consistently keep track of and would be consistent day to day. The third step to self-directed behavioral change is keep a record. I accomplished this step by keeping a behavioral diary. This behavioral diary was just a small notepad that I recorded the time I went to bed each night. I kept the diary on my nightstand right next to wear I put my phone every night so I would remember to write in it every night. I also made a little line graph in my behavioral diary so I could see my progress in a better form that just times of the night. This informal line graph gave a subconscious positive reinforcement that I was going a good job changing my behavior. With this positive reinforcement also came positive valence, good qualities that were desired. The fourth step, graph the baseline, worked well with the behavioral diary. I established my baseline, which showed that I typically went to bed later than I thought I did on a night to night basis. When figuring the baseline and informally graphing my behavior, I had to distinguish what the x and y axis would be. I distinguished that the x-axis would be time and the y-axis, or dependent measure, would be the day of the week. As the baseline was graphed, the behavior change was becoming obvious. However, with the weekends not requiring to get up early, there was a fear of spontaneous recovery occurring. The fifth step, determining contingences helped define the reinforcement. When first deciding to change the behavior of going to bed late I thought feeling refreshed and not so tired the next day would be enough of a reinforcer. However, as I thought about that reinforcer more, I could see this reinforcer not be helpful, for I could take naps the next day and the reinforcer would diminish. Due to this, I wanted to find a better reinforcer that would be more beneficial. I took time to think about what would help me be reinforced but would not occur on a day to day basis so the reinforcer would have a bigger effect.. I began to find an establishing operation, or something that would make the reinforcer more reinforcing. When establishing the reinforcer, I also found that not getting enough sleep the night before would act as a punisher effective the next day. I finally determined that I would use sleeping in on Sundays as the reinforcer. It was enough motivation to want to go to bed during the week with a promise that I could sleep in as late as I wanted on the Sunday of every week. The sixth step determining the antecedent was something I had already done while figuring out my targeted behavior. The seventh and final step was to implement and adjust contingences. Because of the weekend and my tendency to stay up later on these nights, I had to tweak my behavior change because if I stuck directly to the plan, I would not get any reinforcement. I decided to use the approach of going to bed early on the week days, Monday through Friday, and the weekends were more lenient. However, I still did not allow myself to sleep in on Saturdays because that would ruin the reinforcer I had in place for Sundays. I also had to determine if I was going to allow any leeway. For example, one night I had to stay up late to help my brother with a project he had for school. When it came to the end of the week I questioned if I would still be reinforced and allow myself to sleep in on Sunday because I had gone to bed as planned all the other nights and that one night was an exception
Overall, the project was very helpful in helping me modify my targeted behavior. It was helpful learning the steps and seeing them put into action and seeing a beneficial outcome from the modification. I know I will be using these steps later in life to help modify any aversive and undesired behaviors in the future.

Terms Used: targeted behavior, behavior modification, antecedent, behavior, consequence, self-directed behavior, extinct, functional, emit, consistently, behavioral diary, line graph, positive reinforcement, positive valence, baseline, x-axis, y-axis, dependent measure, spontaneous recovery, reinforcement, reinforcer, reinforced, establishing operation, punisher, aversive.

posted for DT:
Final Blog
My behavioral goal was to increase the amount of time I emit studying/ focusing more on my studies instead of putting more time into marching band, work, and sorority. My target behavior was to at least study 5 hours a day and not doing any of extra marching band activities, sorority clubs, and to study after work. This target behavior really made me elicit my behavior. To help me achieve my target behavior I set up a reward system. If I did 5 hours every night I would reward myself of having free time that night to either hang out with my marching band friends and sorority friends. If I reached my goal every day for the 5 hours of study time then on the weekends I would give myself a positive reinforcement by either getting a $5 movie for me to watch that night or go get a scratch cupcake. This reward system really helped me motivate myself to make sure I got my 5 hours of study in because I want to do in school and get good grades but I like to hang out with all my friends. Grades come first to me and before I was doing this behavior project my grades were not good. Keeping track of how many hours I was studying really helped me realize how many hours I am putting into my studies. I did have a negative reinforcement if I didn’t study for 5 hours a day. If I didn’t put my 5 hours then instead of buying a movie, getting a scratch cupcake, or hanging out with friends for the weekend I would put myself into the library or a quiet place and study/ get my homework. I like my weekends off from school and just to sit back and relax but one day did throw me off with all my homework/ studies. Sitting in the library for 5 hours on a weekend was not fun! It taught me though, that this is punishment for not putting 5 hours into my studies during the week.
This last week of doing my behavioral change really made an impact on my performance during finals! The week before finals I went over my target behavior by studying 6 hours a day. I never realized that I studied for 6 hours or more a day. I was getting used to studying for 5 hours that it was getting easier and I got a lot done and felt very good about my finals! The weekend before finals my reinforcement was a great one! My parents sent me a care package because they were so proud of how much I was studying and how time I was putting into my studies. I also got to get my $5 movie and got to go to my sororities Christmas party. I felt great about all my finals for all the studying I did and preparation I did for them. So far I have gotten all A’s on my finals and I’ve truly never been happier!
This project was definitely one of the best I’ve done. I didn’t realize how much it could change my behavior and how it can motivate you to get it done. I’m definitely going to keep on continuing my behavior change throughout next semester so I can have great start to my classes unlike the one I had this semester. I’m going to boost up my target behavior and maybe even have a better reinforcement. This class has taught me a lot about behavioral changes that I can’t wait to use when I teach kids and just use in daily life.