Breaking Bad Habits and Starting Good Ones: Behavior Modification using Operant Conditioning Deadline: Thursday, December 4th, 2017 Is there a habit that you would like to break? For example, maybe you think that you drink too much coffee, bite your nails too much, or put things off too often. Or maybe there is a word or phrase that you would like to use less frequently (e.g., “like”, “uhhh” “seriously”). Alternatively, is there a behavior that you would like to do more often? For example, maybe you would like to drink more water, floss after every meal, or spend more time on a certain activity (e.g., reading your textbook). For this assignment, you will choose one behavior and apply the principles of Operant Conditioning to affect how often you perform it. Step 1: Select the behavior. For the target behavior, try to select a habit you really do want to change, but also be realistic about what is feasible in a short time frame. Ideally, the behavior would be something that you do (or could do) several times a day. You need a behavior that occurs (or could occur) frequently so you can record it multiple times over the week. Step 2: Determine your baseline. If the behavior occurs frequently, first keep a written record of the behavior for two days without beginning any conditioning. If it is easy to remember how frequently the behavior occurred over the previous couple of days, then you can use that record as your baseline. (You will need to turn in a table or graph depicting these data with a separate column or data point for each day.) Step 3: Formulate your plan for changing the behavior using the principles of Operant Conditioning. (see the Operant Conditioning section in your textbook). To increase the frequency of a wanted behavior, use positive reinforcement. To decrease or “extinguish” and unwanted behavior, you need to remove the reinforcements that enable it (e.g., getting distracted with TV while studying at home, you may need to unplug your TV) or avoid the situation (e.g., by studying at the library instead of at home). If you are unsure about this part of the plan, please ask one of us. Note: Inflicting any pain (e.g., punching oneself) is not acceptable for this assignment, nor is it an effective method for changing a behavior. Other examples of positive punishment are mildly annoying rather than painful and possibly more effective (e.g., clapping/coughing every time a friend says, “seriously” rather than punching them). This assignment will be more valuable to you if you think about the different types of things you can do and how they might affect your behavior. Step 4: Continue to keep a record of that behavior for 5 days while you apply the principles of operant conditioning. Turn in a table of your behavior over those 5 days. Step 5: After the week is over, write up your assessment. Your report should not be longer than 2 double-spaced, typed pages (which does not include the 2 tables that you need to turn . in). The assignment should be uploaded on the assignment link by midnight December 4th, 2017. Please remember to save this file as either an .rtf or .doc (or docx) file, and save it as: Lastname firstname Assignment4.file extension. Make sure you address the following questions: 25 points total x 2 = 50 points 1. What is the target behavior? (1 point) 2. What is the baseline rate of behavior (before conditioning) – that is, what’s the average (rate) of the two days? (1 point) 3. Turn in a table with these baseline data broken out by day (either a table, or a graph). (3 points) 4. What are the conditions that give rise to the behavior? That is, when does the behavior tend to occur? (1 point) 5. What are the typical consequences of the behavior? (1 point) 6. Describe what reinforcers you used (for starting good habits)? Or, talk about the strategy that you used to break the bad habit (e.g., removal of enabling situations, extinction strategies). (3 points) 7. Please give examples of each of the following: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment? These do not have to be related to your experiment. (4 points) 8. What was the rate of behavior after conditioning – that is, what’s the average (rate) of the two days? Turn in a table or graph with these data plotted for frequency of behavior by day. (3 points) 9. How successful was your modification program? (1 point) 10. Based on your experience, what makes a behavior modification difficult or challenging? (3 points) 11. What would you do differently if you started your program again, and why? (4 points) Remember: you can lose points for not following formatting instructions (above) or the naming convention . Name Assignment 4 The target behavior for this experiment is to get out of bed only fifteen minutes after waking up. The baseline rate of behavior, or the average of the two days, is 32 minutes. Minutes in bed Day One Day Two Average 28 minutes 36 minutes 32 minutes What affects the length of time I stay in bed after waking up is amount of sleep the night before, whether or not I am hungry or need to use the bathroom, and what I have to do in order to prepare for my day. Typical consequences of this behavior include being late for the day, having a rushed morning, and forgetting things in my room. Every time I got out of bed five minutes earlier than the day before, I rewarded myself with a cup of coffee. If I failed to get out of bed five minutes earlier than the prior day, I did not get to start my day with a cup of coffee. Harsh. An example of positive reinforcement is giving a child a piece of candy every time he finishes his homework. An example of negative reinforcement is when a car stops beeping after the driver buckles his seatbelt. An example of positive punishment is giving a boy an extra chore every time he is past curfew. An example of negative punishment is taking away a boy’s phone every time he fails a test. The rate of behavior, or the average of the days is 29 minutes. Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Minutes in bed 28 minutes 36 minutes 31 minutes 37 minutes 30 minutes 25 minutes 17 minutes My modification program was very successful. After my two baseline days, I got up earlier on the first day. On the second day after baseline, I failed to get up earlier than the prior day, and therefor did not get my coffee. After realizing how much I disliked this, I made sure to get up each day earlier than the day before. By day seven of the project, I had more energy than any of the other morning and almost reached my target goal of fifteen minutes. Based on my experience, outside factors make a behavior modification difficult. Personally, some factors that made my modification challenging were getting little sleep the night before, therefor making it more difficult to find motivation to get out of bed, or randomly waking up abnormally early and having to somehow convince myself to get out of bed even though I did not have anywhere to be for a while. If I started my program again, I would try to set a certain amount of sleep each night so that my mornings were easier to control, thereby making my outcomes based solely on my decision to get up or not, not feeling as though my body needed more time. I would also change my experiment to getting out of bed so many minutes before having to leave, rather than so many minutes after waking up, to try to combat rare cases of waking up abnormally early and having to get out of bed for no reason. This way it would focus on showing up places on time and be more realistic. 25/25 1. What is the target behavior? (1 point) +1 2. What is the baseline rate of behavior (before conditioning) – that is, what’s the average (rate) of the two days? (1 point) +1 3. Turn in a table with these baseline data broken out by day (either a table, or a graph). (3 points) +3 4. What are the conditions that give rise to the behavior? That is, when does the behavior tend to occur? (1 point) +1 5. What are the typical consequences of the behavior? (1 point) +1 6. Describe what reinforcers you used (for starting good habits)? Or, talk about the strategy that you used to break the bad habit (e.g., removal of enabling situations, extinction strategies). (3 points) +3 7. Please give examples of each of the following: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment? These do not have to be related to your experiment. (4 points) +4 8. What was the rate of behavior after conditioning – that is, what’s the average (rate) of the two days? Turn in a table or graph with these data plotted for frequency of behavior by day. (3 points) +3 9. How successful was your modification program? (1 point) 10. Based on your experience, what makes a behavior modification difficult or challenging? (3 points) 11. What would you do differently if you started your program again, and why? (4 points) Remember: you can lose points for not following formatting instructions (above) or the naming convention Name Ellen Wright Introduction to Psychology December 1, 2016 25/25 Behavior Modification using Operant Conditioning It has become common knowledge over the years that exposure to electronics, particularly those with blue light emitting screens, before going to bed can inhibit one’s ability to sleep. I am very aware of this fact, and yet, before I try to go to sleep, I spend countless hours laying in bed watching Netflix, snapchatting my friends, and checking Facebook. Recently, I’ve been having some trouble falling asleep after putting away my technology for the night (upwards of four hours on bad nights). Therefore, I decided that my habit of using electronics before going to sleep had to end. My modification program, in which my target behavior was using electronics before going to bed, took place over a course of five days. The first two days served as my baseline during the experiment. It should be noted that the hours I counted for each night were the hours I spent using electronics once I got into my bed with the intent to fall asleep. On average over the two days, I spent 165 minutes/day on either my phone or my laptop before going to bed. I generally found that the reason I turned to technology rather than going straight to sleep each night was because once I got into bed I didn’t feel like I was tired enough to fall asleep. However, I found that once I was done using my electronics, when I tried to go to bed, I could not fall asleep. Therefore, the next morning I would wake up lethargic from not sleeping enough the night before. The next five nights, I turned both my phone and my laptop off as soon as I got into bed. I also put them on the floor at the end of my bed so that I would physically have to leave my bed in order to reach them. This strategy was extremely successful, as I didn’t use either my phone or my laptop before bed, therefore my average rate over the five days was 0 minutes/day. I attribute this success partially to the fact that, along with turning off and putting away my electronics, I distracted myself by reading a book. Each night, if I wasn’t tired enough to fall asleep right away, instead of using my phone or computer to pass time, I would start reading. This was effective because the reading functioned the same way that watching television would have, expect, when I was done, I fell asleep right away because I wasn’t staring at a screen for two hours beforehand. I found my modification program to be extremely successful in that I completely eliminated my use of electronics before bedtime. Further, as a result of my modification, I fell asleep faster each night, which led to feeling more energized the following day. The main difficulty I see in behavior modification, especially when one is modifying oneself, is the absence of self control. In a situation like my own when I am relying on my ability to refrain from using my phone, self restraint is vital. I imagine how difficult behavior modification would be if someone with low self control were to try to, for example, kick a drug habit without help from outside resources. One may want to not have to rely on drugs, but one’s will to use drugs would likely trump one’s longing to be sober, given one has low self restraint. Looking back on my program, the only thing I would do differently would be to expand my modification. Seeing how successful I was in prohibiting my use of electronics at night, I would like to see how well I would be able to limit my screen time during the day (i.e. during class or while doing homework). Amount of Time Spent Using Electronics Before Bed Prior to Conditioning Day 1 Day 2 Time spent using elec- 150 tronics (minutes) 180 Amount of Time Spent Using Electronics Before Bed After Conditioning Time spent using electronics (minutes) Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 0 0 0 0 0 ● Positive reinforcement: When one is potty training a child, they give the child candy when the child uses a toilet. ● Negative reinforcement: A child eats five bites of chicken, so the parent does not make the child eat any brussels sprouts (which the child always dreads eating). You’re attempting to increase the eating of chicken nuggets? ● Positive punishment: A parent puts soap inside a child’s mouth because the child used a curse word. ● Negative punishment: A child is no longer allowed to spend the night at a friend’s house because the child was mean to their sibling. 25 points total 1. What is the target behavior? (1 point) +1 2. What is the baseline rate of behavior (before conditioning) – that is, what’s the average (rate) of the two days? (1 point) +1 3. Turn in a table with these baseline data broken out by day (either a table, or a graph). (3 points) +3 4. What are the conditions that give rise to the behavior? That is, when does the behavior tend to occur? (1 point) +1 5. What are the typical consequences of the behavior? (1 point) +1 6. Describe what reinforcers you used (for starting good habits)? Or, talk about the strategy that you used to break the bad habit (e.g., removal of enabling situations, extinction strategies). (3 points) +3 7. Please give examples of each of the following: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment? These do not have to be related to your experiment. (4 points) +4 8. What was the rate of behavior after conditioning – that is, what’s the average (rate) of the two days? Turn in a table or graph with these data plotted for frequency of behavior by day. (3 points) +3 9. How successful was your modification program? (1 point) +1 10. Based on your experience, what makes a behavior modification difficult or challenging? (3 points) +4 11. What would you do differently if you started your program again, and why? (4 points) +4 Remember: you can lose points for not following formatting instructions (above) or the naming convention ● 1 Name Professor Wright PSYC 10a December 1, 2016 25 Nice one! Breaking Bad Habits and Starting Good Ones: Drinking More Water and Less Juice I decided to use the amount of water I drink each day as my target behavior. I chose this behavior as the focus for operant conditioning because I truly want to increase the quantity of water I drink a day. Making sure that I receive the right amount of water each day will ensure that I am sufficiently hydrated. Hydration is key to good health and allows the body to function properly. I often notice that the less water I drink, the sleepier and more susceptible I am to a dry mouth. With the use of operant conditioning principles, I was able to drink more water than usual and eliminate those awful side effects of dehydration. Before I began operant conditioning the water I drank a day was very low. For this assignment I measured the amount of water I drank by using 16.9 fluid ounce water bottles. I used two days as a baseline to mark the average amount of water I drank. My baseline rate of drinking bottled water was about 1 bottle a day (Figure.1). My water drinking habits tend to occur when I need to quench my thirst. I drink the most water when I exercise or when there is no access to juice. The typical consequences to not drinking enough water is dehydration, sleepiness, and dry mouth. To limit these unpleasant consequences, I decided to use negative reinforcement for operant conditioning. I removed all of my juices from my mini fridge and avoided making eye contact with juice in the dining halls and C-store. This 2 conditioning has increased the amount of water bottles I drink to a rate of about 4 bottles a day (Figure.2). Although I did not use positive reinforcement, positive punishment, or negative punishment in my experiment I could have used any of these operant conditioning strategies to reach my goal of drinking more water. As positive reinforcement I could’ve had juice only with my dinner as a reward for drinking only water throughout the day. For positive punishment I could have made my boyfriend tickle me if I had juice or drank less water than the day before. I do not like being tickled therefore it would’ve been an unpleasant stimulus. As negative punishment I could’ve removed having juice all together if I failed to drink less water than the day before or drank juice at a time other than dinner. My modification program was very successful because I did reach my goal in increasing the amount of water I drink each and every day. From this experiment I found behavior modification difficult. Sometimes I had to force myself to drink water even when I was not thirsty and missed having juice around. It takes a lot of self-discipline to follow your own conditioning and break bad habits to start news ones. If I was to start my program again I would change my use of negative reinforcement to positive reinforcement because then I would’ve been able to still enjoy juices without eliminating it completely. I learned that a balance would have made my program less challenging while still receiving the same results. 3 Figure.1 # bottles of water Baseline 3 2 1 0 Day 1 Day 2 Figure.2 Operant conditioning 7 # bottles of water 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Breaking Bad Habits and Starting Good Ones: Behavior Modification using Operant Conditioning Assignment 4 – Due 12/4 Your Mission…  Pick a habit that you would either like to decrease (e.g., saying ‘like’ all the time, spending too much time on Facebook) ➢ like to increase (e.g., flossing every night ☺, spending more time studying) ➢  Collect the baseline data for 2 days ➢ This will then be eventually put on a graph along with the experimental data) Next  Formulate your plan for changing the behavior using the principles of Operant Conditioning (check the text and your notes) ➢ ➢ To increase the frequency of a wanted behavior, use positive reinforcement To decrease or “extinguish” and unwanted behavior, ➢ Predictors of the behavior ➢ ➢ ➢ remove the reinforcements that enable it (e.g., getting distracted with TV while studying at home, you may need to unplug your TV) or avoid the situation (e.g., by studying at the library instead of at home) Consequences for eliminating the behavior ➢ ➢ Punishment – you may NOT use pain – mildly aversive punishers are permissible, but NOT pain Positive reinforcement – if you wish to reward yourself for not doing the behavior, do this in addition to either removing the reinforcements that enable the behavior or doing avoidance behaviors Next   Keep a record of the frequency of the behavior (this too will go on the graph you need to provide Write up your report – write it in report style with paragraphs 2 double-spaced, typed pages (page count does not include the 2 tables that you need to turn in) ➢ Assignment due by midnight on December 4th uploaded on LATTE ➢ Parts of the Report       Target behavior? (1 point) Baseline rate of behavior (before conditioning)? (1 point) Figure with these baseline data broken out by day (either a table, or a graph). (3 points) Identify the conditions that give rise to the behavior? That is, when does the behavior tend to occur? (1 point) Typical consequences of the behavior (before conditioning)? (1 point) Describe what reinforcers you used (for starting good habits)? Or, talk about the strategy that you used to break the bad habit (e.g., removal of enabling situations, extinction strategies) (3 points) Parts of the Report      Give examples of each of the following: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment? (4 points) – does NOT have to be from your own experiment but just generally Rate of behavior after conditioning? Turn in a table or graph with these data plotted for frequency of behavior by day (3 points) How successful was your modification program? (1 point) Based on your experience, what makes a behavior modification difficult or challenging? (3 points) What would you do differently if you started your program again, and why? (4 points) # Likes Day 1 37 Day 2 35 Day 3 34 Day 4 31 Day 5 27 Day 6 25 Day 7 20