Behavior Modification Essay Example

Behavior Modification Essay Example Behavior Modification Essay Behavior Modification Essay Behavior Modification BY db80 Exercising Behavior Modification Part 1: Identify Target Behavior (2 pt) a. What behavior are you going to attempt to modify? Target Behavior:_Amount of exercise each day. Part 2: Baseline (14 pts Total) Create a spreadsheet (i. e. table in excel) to document your baseline target behavior. Spreadsheet should include the following items: a. When does the behavior (remember thoughts are behavior) occur (time of day? day of week? weekends vs weekdays? )? (2 pts) See page 9. b. When the behavior occurs, how long does it endure? (2 pts) See page 9. c. How intense is the behavior (e. g. re you sprinting or Jogging when running)? (2 pts) This category was not always applicable for my observation because many times my behavior was exhibited in thoughts. These thoughts did not have an intensity; therefore, I only recorded intensity during my work out. d. Frequency of the behavior: Is the behavior occurring per hour, per day, per week, per year (select the single most meaningful period of time). (2 pts) I left this part of my spreadsheet blank because my goal was to have the behavior occur more often every week and since it occurred multiple times a day I chose to leave it blank to make the spreadsheet asier to understand. . Where does the behavior occur? (2 pts) f. What was present or occurring 5-10 minutes prior to the behavior? (2 pts) See page 9. g. What was present or occurring within 2-3 minutes after the behavior? (2 pts) See page 9. Part 3: Functional Assessment (19 pts Total) While monitoring the baseline of your target behavior, reflect on the following questions. a. What is the pattern that the behavior displays? (3 pts) The behavior happens more often when I am looking at Instagram. My Instagram contains pictures of fitness and fashion models who strictly control their diet and exercise. It seems that the majority of times I engage in looking at my Instagram, I feel guilty or unsatisfied with my body. I think about fitness soon after I wake up and near the time I am getting ready to sleep. b. Does the location of the behavior have any meaning or purpose? Is the behavior only at home? at school? in the presence of particular persons or objects? )? (3 pts) The behavior happens most frequently at home. The presence of particular persons does not seem to have any affect. c. Is there anything significant about what or who was present around the time of the behavior? 3 pts) The behavior happens when I am reminded of working out. This occurred when I passed the gym and when I see pictures or videos on my phone of people training. d. Describe in very specific behavioral terms what ONE instance of the behavior looks like. Describe it so an actor could display the exact behavior. Relate what was said as well as what was done and with what. Even seemingly insignificant actions could provide a clue for moderating the behavior. (10 pts) One instance when the behavior occurs is when I sit down in class before the class starts. I choose a seat, set all my materials on my desk and then take out my phone to pass the time. I first start browsing through Instagram and track some of the fitness models fitness progress through their photos. I am fully invested in the pictures and do not pay attention to what is going on around me. I start to compare myself to the fitness models I see in the photos and begin to doubt my ability to change my body. The more I look, the guiltier and unsatisfied I feel. I then convince myself that there is no point in living a life so filled with restrictions and turn off my phone. Part 4: Intervention (32 pts Total) Identify potential interventions and select one or several that match the target behavior. . Identify and explain category of target behavior: (2 pts) My target behavior falls in the category of increasing or strengthening an existing behavior. I am already very familiar with exercising and used to be a competitive tennis player who trained six to seven days a week. When I stopped playing tennis competitively, I stopped training. In order to increase my exercise I will need to positively reinforce myself whenever I exercise. reinforcers are positive reinforcers. These will include both social reinforcement and automatic reinforcement. My social reinforcement will be praise that I receive from riends and family. My automatic reinforcement will be how good I feel when I see progress (Miltenberger, 2012). c. Specify the conditions under which reinforcement can be earned: (3 pts) I will earn my social reinforcement when I show my progress pictures to my family and friends every week, it will also come from my trainer when I attend group workouts. My automatic reinforcement will be when I step on the scale or finish a work out. . Apply intervention. Persist with intervention for a minimum of two weeks. e. Create another spreadsheet and continue to collect data throughout the two weeks(10 pts) See page 10. a. When does the behavior (remember thoughts are behavior) occur (time of day? day of week? weekends vs weekdays? )? (2 pts) See page 10. b. When the behavior occurs, how long does it endure? (2 pts) See page 10. my behavior was exhibited in tho ughts. These thoughts did not have an intensity, therefore I only recorded intensity during my work out. d. Frequency of the behavior: Is the behavior occurring per hour, per day, per week, per year (select the single most meaningful period of time). (2 pts) I left this part of my spreadsheet blank because my goal was to have the behavior occur more often every week and since it occurred ultiple times a day I chose to leave it blank to make the spreadsheet easier to understand. e. Where does the behavior occur? (2 pts) See page 10. 10. page 10. Part 5: Evaluating the Intervention (18 pts) a. Graph the baseline and results from intervention. Include 2 graphs. Each graph should include your baseline data and your intervention data. (8 pts) See page 1 1 and 12. b. Evaluate the results and reach conclusions. In each case, elaborate on the elements that worked well and those that did not. Evaluate the stages of the project and identify what was learned about changing the behavior that would be helpful if ou were going to do this project again. (10 pts) The intervention was successful as shown by both spreadsheets and both graphs. The baseline study shows that I spent a large majority of my time thinking about exercising without actually exercising. This seemed to be tied into my continuous following of fitness models on Instagram. The more I looked at the success stories of these women, the more inadequate I felt. I chose to employ positive social reinforcement because it is a strong motivator for me. I knew that self-management would be an issue for me because I tend to strive for eason I chose to have positive social reinforcement, if it is controlled by a person other than me, I am more likely to complete the task to gain the reward. During the intervention, I Joined a group work out that consisted of women who work with my boyfriend. I wanted to give myself the added pressure of the women knowing my boyfriend to help me stay committed to attending the group. The first week of the intervention the graph shows that the second half of the week my exercise time drastically increases. These results coincide with when I start my group sessions. The praise from my partners and my trainer encouraged me to try other forms of exercise on my own. I had the added reinforcement of later being able to tell my trainer that I trained on my own and again receive praise. The spreadsheet for my week one and two of intervention also so a decrease in the amount of time I spend looking at Instagram. I believe that my more positive attitude due to the workouts translated in me wanting to compare myself to radical fitness competitors. However, I did fail to stay committed to keeping progress pictures. This prevented me from receiving the additional reinforcement of self- atisfaction through progress. This failure did not stop me from feeling as if I made progress with my physical fitness. I also ended up relying on my boyfriend for a lot of reinforcement. I asked him how I look and if he sees progress, on an almost daily basis. I did not account for scheduling difficulties and feel that if I had, my intervention would have shown even stronger results. The holidays and family celebrations made training and eating a healthy meal extremely difficult. I also learned that it would have been helpful to document when I had thoughts of how I look and whether those houghts are positive or negative. Another element that I would add if I were to do the project again, is to be more aware of my activity on Instagram. The charts and spreadsheets show a relationship between my body image and the amount of time spent on the social media application. References Beck-Ellsworth, D. (2013). Behavior Modification [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from University of California, San Diego Psyc 154 FA13 Blackboard site. Miltenberger, R. G. (2012). Behavior modification: principles and procedures (5th Ed. ). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.