Principles of Learning - Essay Example

The first being is behavior which is the action of an individual usually in reaction to some stimuli of the environment. Then there is another concept of conditioning which to state an example, I will take a negative aspect of my own life and then use the knowledge and steps of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to design a series of steps to bring about a change of behavior in myself. The negative behavior that I chose for this purpose is the habit of procrastinating. I tend to procrastinate in case of assignments, home chores, payment of bills, almost every activity and tend to do the work on the last day or last minute only (Chance 2006).

This sometimes gets me into trouble when I am not able to finish my work or sometimes when I cannot do the work up to the best of my ability. This is a type of voluntary behavior because I conduct it with my own free will. The first step towards solving any problem is to recognize and understand the problem itself. So the first step that I will undertake is to measure the problem. Repeatability is how often a behavior occurs and is the frequency of occurrence increasing. My habit of procrastinating has increased over a period of time with the increased number of activities I have to conduct.

Then comes temporal extent which is for how long does the behavior last? In my case this will extend as long as I can carry on without getting into trouble. These measures are enough to indicate that my problem is very serious and requires immediate action. Now there is the element of the functional behavior assessment which in very simple words is described as a hypothesis between an occurrence of an external factor and a behavioral response. Function is basically the benefit derived from conducting the behavior or what an individual gains from doing what he does.

This is a very important aspect because it indicates the source of the