Students sometimes find the concept of target behavior a little difficult. One of the main problems is that in day to day life we tend to speak generally of behavior, while in behavior modification we have to speak about specific behaviors. Keep in mind that the language of behavior is very precise. So we have to be precise when we are talking about behaviors as well.
We might say "eat your vegetables," and we all know what that means because the behavior is generally agreed on. You can probably get a good vision in your head about a kid sitting at a table with the last thing left on the plate being some string beans or spinach eating one bite at a time.
Let's suppose that I hate mushrooms and you like them. And you think if I ate them every day for a month that I would like them too. You feel so strongly about this that you are willing to pay me $100 if I eat mushrooms everyday for a month (face it you like to be right and it is worth $100 to prove your point).
"South Africa says it needs one billion condoms this year, anticipating extra demand from foreign football fans."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8557582.stm
How do you describe this using the ABCs of behavior?
"...a significant proportion, about 15 percent, reported they shopped in corner stores both before and after school, five days a week, consuming up to 3,560 calories per week in junk food and soft drinks. For these children, the corner store is a potential health threat."
http://www.miller-mccune.com/business-economics/little-stores-and-fatter-kids-6818/
What are the ABCs related to this story? In behavioral terms what are people try to do about it?
"Making your own food is a great way to save money. There are so many examples of how making your own food is way less expensive (and less wasteful in terms of extra packaging) than buying the food pre-made or pre-packaged. Eating in restaurants can get very pricey, so to that end, the Huffington Post is trying to make it easy for you to keep track of your expenditures during the Week Of Eating In challenge, which starts February 22nd. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/12/the-week-of-eating-in-cha_n_455460.html
Basic Premise: Plant crops and harvest them to earn money and experience points which will allow you to develop your own personal farm complete with livestock, decorations, equipment, and a home of your choosing.
ABC's-Basic Premise: This farm game offers numerous rewards in order to overtly reinforce people into continuing to play the game for enjoyment purposes (it still makes money through advertisements). However, it also uses covert behavior modification to increase the likelihood that you will use your credit card to purchase "Farmville Cash" to purchase even cooler buildings, vehicles, and decorations for your farm. After you realize how long it takes to build a huge farm, why not spend a few bucks to greatly cut down on your time? After all, time is money...and they'd like some of yours.
For the next few weeks as part of the class you will be asked to keep track of the food you are eating. For the first week we will conduct a baseline of the food you are eating. You will probably need to carry a small note pad or something manageable to record eating. It should be something that you can carry around since eating takes place in a variety of settings.
You will need to record the time, date and what you ate. Please try to estimate the number of calories you consumed as well. Do the best you can. Please also note the context (antecedent) of the eating behavior. For example I was at my friends house, we were out having fun, for lunch at school, I was busy with my homework....
Please make the recordings as soon as possible so you don't forget what you ate or forget the circumstances.
We will do this for a week and turn in the baseline recordings this coming Tuesday in class.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the class project,
--Dr. M
How does this relate to what we are learning about behavior?
"Nutricate Corporation is a technology-enabled health and wellness solutions company founded in Santa Barbara in 2004. Nutricate, meaning "to nutritionally educate", helps consumers make smarter choices. Nutricate aspires to help individuals make managing a healthy lifestyle fun, easy & rewarding."
What is up with this site? How does it differ from the ones I just posted? What behavioral principles are used with this program? Do you think this will be a success?
Extra assistance is available this month through Quitline Iowa and the UNI Employee Wellness Program. Quitline Iowa (1-800-784-8669) will provide four weeks (rather than its usual two) of nicotine replacement therapy and UNI will provide another two weeks for employees participating in its Tobacco Cessation Program. Contact Kathy.Green@uni.edu, 3-6921.
If you want to quit somking or chewing behaviors, you can get some assistance. If you want to document it you can get class credit.
Or if you just want to find out how the program works - you can get credit for that as well...
Obesity has become as serious a contributor to the burden of disease and shortening of healthy life as smoking, according to new work published this week in American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Another recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that health effects from obesity may soon overtake improvements to the average lifespan resulting from declines in smoking. We'll get the latest on research into obesity, and talk about weight and health.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201001082
What are some of the environmental factors of obesity? What are the cosequences of obesity? How is obesity measured? What are lifestyle behaviors? What are some of the suggestions on how to change these behaviors?
(Also read http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/01/06/obesity-smoking-public-health.html)
