Behavior Modification - Essay Example

Behavior Modification The behavior that I would like to change is the affection behavior that I have developed over time for my friend Daisy. Presently, it has become difficult for me to separate the scent of the nice perfume from her as a person. In my mind, both the scent and her personality have ended up become a single identity; a symbol of attraction. It all started with associating her with the perfume that she always wears, which has an attractive scent. This association with the perform was merely an unconditioned stimulus, which I grew fond of with time, always enjoying her presence and feeling differently whenever she was around me. At first, it was a case of unconditioned stimulus (perfume), which produced an unconditioned response (feeling of attraction) (Krieger, 22). However, with time I have grown fond of her too much, such that I cannot spend a whole day without wanting to be with her, or at least to spend some little time with her. Being in her company simply gives me a feeling of satisfaction. Thinking about her is what I do most of the time. Therefore, my behavior emanates from a case of two stimuli being combined to produce a new set of feeling, which was not present before. The most intriguing aspect is that I now find the scent of the nice perfume associated with her so much, so that even if I come across another person who wears the same perfume, my mind will not recognize the person, but will go straight to thinking about her. I have felt the need to unlearn this behavior, and try to dissociate the scent of the perfume from her, through naturally trying to perceive the perfume as a separate identity from her. While the whole issue started with feeling that Daisy was wearing good perfumes, the unconditioned stimulus, which produced some unconditioned response has now changed, to the present situation where the stimulus (good perfume scent) is being associated with Daisy’s attractiveness. Thus, the whole situation has fitted the provisions of classical conditioning, where Daisy (conditioned Stimulus), whom I have been associating with nice perfume (unconditioned Stimulus), has now become attractive (conditioned response) (Krieger, 47). Therefore, the present feeling of desiring to be around daisy is no longer based on enjoying the good scent of her perfume, but has now changed to be elicited by finding her to be attractive. The unconditioned stimulus which was initially the good perfume scent has now created a conditioned response, which is finding her attractive. From the 4 day experimentation that I have undertaken, I have realized that I think about her more than 10 times in a day. The frequency of my mind going to Daisy is even higher, especially whenever I am associating with a group of people or when I am completely alone. When I am with a group of people, the different scent of their perfumes, whether it matches that of daisy or whether it is completely different always sends my mind to her. This indicates that her perfume, which acts as the stimulus in this case, has produced a behavior or response which is unconditioned (Krieger, 12). The stimulus produces the unconditioned response, because the response of thinking about her is not purely caused by her presence or the presence of her perfume, but the presence of others, who may have similar or even different perfumes. This indicates that the response is not elicited by a specific stimulus, but by associative stimulus. In the second case, where I think about her when I am alone, it is a case of lack of the stimulus that elicits the response. Thus, the stimulus is associated with location and occurrences, because I think about her more when I go to a beautiful restaurant, a party, an entertainment event, a wedding or a visit to a shopping mall, where there are many nice perfume scents, or when I am lonely or stressed up. This serves to indicate that my mind has started associating Daisy with exciting or joyous events and moments, or even the stressful and the lonely once, when I need some sort of comfort. Thus, her perfume scent has become associated with the emotions of happiness or loneliness, both of which the elicited reaction is to desire her presence (Krieger, 77). While experimenting on the behavior, I found that barely a single hour would pass before my mind goes to her. However, the behavior of desiring to have her with me increases on the event that I have a visitor, whom I tend to wish it was Daisy, or when I do not have company and I would like to have one. In the 4 days of trying to change the behavior, I set my mind to stop thinking about her every passing hour, and stopping associating her with either exciting activities of loneliness. Whenever I could spend a whole hour without thinking about her, I would give myself a positive check, ad when I attained 7 positive checks, then I would buy myself a ticket to the theater to watch some performances. Whenever I could not stop thinking about her for at least 8 hours, then there was no going to the theater in the evening, which is my most favorite pastime activity. Therefore, the reinforcement of the behavior entailed both positive reinforces (a ticket to the theater), as a reward for achieving the targeted behavior, and negative enforces, (failure to purchase a ticket to the theater), as a punishment for failing to stop thinking about her frequently (Krieger, 56). Considering that going to the theater is my most favorite activity for every evening, I strived very much to engage my mind in different activities such as reading or telling stories, which would keep my mind occupied for a long time to allow myself to pass some hours without thinking about her. It was however difficult during the first 2 days, when I managed to stop thinking about her for 3 hours cumulatively he first day, and 5 hours the second day. However, having missed to attend the theater for two consecutive days, I managed to spend 7 cumulative hours the third day without thinking about her, during which I bought a ticket and attended the theater. This motivated me to do the same for the fourth day, during which I also maintained 7 cumulative hours. The only thing that motivated me to reinforce the behavioral change is taking a punishment involving my most favorite pastime activity; attending the theater, which gave me more discipline to adopt the behavioral change, so I could get an opportunity to engage in the activity. However, the greatest challenge that hindered me from effectively adopting the behavioral change is the coming of visitors, who always made me think about her, any moment they visited. Works Cited Krieger, Marilyn. Naughty No More!: Change Unwanted Behaviors Through Positive Reinforcements. Irvine, Calif: BowTie Press, 2010. Print. Read More