SelfDirected Behavior Modification Project

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Self-Directed Behavior Modification Project

• 09-19-06

Reference Watson, D. L. Tharp, R. G. (1997)
Self-directed behavior Self-modification for
personal adjustment (7th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA
Brooks/Cole.
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Identifying the Target Behavior

• Specific behavior to be changed (concrete and
  observable)
• Specific situations in which the behavior occurs
• Choose a behavior that you are motivated to
  change.
• Short-term vs. long-term goals

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Specifying Behaviors in Situations

• 1. Make a list of concrete examples.
• 2. List the details of your problem.
• 3. Become an observer of yourself.
• 4. Your strategy should always be to increase
  some desirable behavior.

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When youre not doing what you want to be doing

• My goal is _________________
• (what you want to do)
• when_____________________.
• (the situation)

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When the problem is getting rid of some
undesirable behavior

• I want to quit goofing off and study more or
• I want to increase studying in those situations
  in which I should study.

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Specifying Behaviors in Situations

• 5. Specify the chain of events that will lead to
  your goal.
• 6. Observe other people who are successful at
  what you are trying to do, and then try their
  tactics yourself.
• 7. Think of alternative solutions.

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Anticipating Obstacles

• Expect mistakes.
• Dont blame mistakes on your personality.
• Prepare for temptations.

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Observing your Behavior Structured Diaries

• Antecedents
• Behavior
• Consequences

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Antecedents Behaviors Consequences
feeling stressed spanking
feeling bad kids misbehavior
But if instead
substitute kids misbehavior
punishment feeling good
(no spanking)
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Simple counting Frequency or duration

• Number of alcoholic drinks per day
• Number of cigarettes smoked per day
• Minutes studying per day
• Number of days jogging per week
• Number of times biting nails per day
• Hours slept per night
• Money spent on junk food per day

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Four rules for self-observation

• Do the counting when the behavior occurs, not
  later.
• Be accurate and strict in your counting. Try to
  include all instances of the behavior.
• Keep written records.
• Keep the recording system as simple as possible.
  Try to fit it into your usual habits.

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Principles of Self-Regulation

• Throughout life, regulation by others and the
  self (particularly through verbal instructions)
  acts as a powerful guide to behavior.
• Operant behavior is a function of its
  consequences.
• A positive reinforcer is a consequence that
  maintains and strengthens behavior by its added
  presence.

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Principles of Self-Regulation

• A negative reinforcer is a consequence that
  strengthens behavior by being subtracted from the
  situation.
• Behavior that is punished will occur less often.
• An act that was reinforced but no longer is will
  begin to weaken.
• Intermittent reinforcement increases resistance
  to extinction.

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Principles of Self-Regulation

• Most operant behavior is eventually guided by
  antecedent stimuli, or cues, the most important
  of which are often self-directed statements.
• An antecedent can be a cue or signal that an
  unpleasant event may be imminent. This is likely
  to produce avoidance behavior.

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Principles of Self-Regulation

• Through conditioning, antecedents come to elicit
  automatic reactions that are often emotional.
• Many behaviors are learned by observing someone
  else (a model) perform the actions, which are
  then imitated.

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Antecedents

• What stimuli seem to control the behavior? In
  what situations does the behavior occur?
• Do you react automatically to some cue with
  undesirable behavior?
• Do you react to some cue with an unwanted
  emotion? What is the conditioned stimulus for
  it?
• What are you saying to yourself before the
  behavior?

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Behavior

• Is it strong and quite frequent, or is it weak
  and not very frequent?
• Is any element of your problem due to something
  you are avoiding, perhaps unnecessarily?
• Are you aware of models in your past whose
  behavior you may have copied?
• Is the behavior resistant to extinction either
  because it is intermittently reinforced or
  because it is an avoidance behavior?

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Consequences

• Are your desired behaviors positively reinforced?
• What actions make the desired behavior difficult?
  Are they reinforced?
• Is it possible that the desired behavior is being
  punished?
• Is your own self-speech rewarding or punishing
  your behavior?
• Are the consequences for some behaviors difficult
  to identify, perhaps because of intermittent
  reinforcement?

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Features of a good plan

• Rules that state the techniques to use in
  specific situations
• Goals and subgoals
• Feedback about your behavior based on your
  self-observations
• A comparison of the feedback to your goals to see
  if you are progressing
• Adjustments in the plan as conditions change

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Goals for next 2 weeks

• Literature review
• Baseline data of target behavior (graph or chart,
  1-2 weeks)
• Both due in class on Tues, October 3