Behavior modification - Essay Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Behavior Modification This assignment provided me with a chance of eliminating an unwanted behavior that I have developed since my childhood. Through the instructions provided by the assignment, I could not help but get excited at the opportunity set out in front of me. Since my childhood, I developed the bad habit of sucking my thumb. This behavior has stuck with me to present time. My family frowns at me whenever they see me indulge in this behavior. My friends do not like seeing me suck my thumb as they believe it makes those around me look like babies. I suck my thumb unconsciously. This behavior makes me look odd in front of a mature crowd or in the classroom. It is also a distracting behavior that makes me appear absent minded and unfocussed. This behavior also makes those around me become uncomfortable as they begin to draw that I am disinterested in them. I would be really glad if I can get to eliminate or decrease the number of times I partake in this behavior. Through the first four days of the assignment, I got to understand how often I suck my thumb. The data sheet recorded in a table format indicates the number of times I sucked my thumb, the time interval, and the dates I conducted the experiment. From the data sheet I recorded, I observed that I sucked my thumb mostly during my first class on Tuesday, the second class on Wednesday, and the first class on Friday. I noted that during these classes we conducted less writing and more of listening. I observed that I sucked my thumb as a distracting mechanism towards boredom. From the observations, I noted that the unconditioned stimulus was feeling bored and distracted, and the unconditioned response was sucking my thumb. The conditioned stimulus is when I am in those three classes with minimal writing, and the conditioned response is sucking my thumb when in those classes. From the table, I sucked my thumb mostly in my 11:00-12:15 morning classes on Tuesday and Friday; and also in my 2:00-3:15 afternoon class on Wednesday. During these classes, I recorded that I sucked my thumbs on 5 occasions in each class. During the 8 days of experimentation, I regularly reminded myself “do not suck your thumb, you are embarrassing yourself”. Recording the number of times I sucked my thumbs in class enabled me to understand how often and regular I carried out this behavior. The last 4 days of the assignment got designed to assist me to get rid of my behavior. It is difficult to stop sucking my thumb by simply stating it as embarrassing to myself. The second part of the assignment assisted me to come up with measures that would assist me to eliminate my behavior. The second part proposed coming up with rewards and punishments that could help me eliminate this behavior. I really enjoy watching movies after school. I would describe myself as a movie fanatic. As part of this assignment, I decided to turn this pass time to assist me with eliminating my behavior. As punishment, if I sucked my thumb even once in school I would not watch movies after school. I really could not imagine my evenings without watching a recent movie release; I would really get bored at home. I would have a bad night. As a reward, if I did not suck my thumb in school, I would go and buy the latest movie releases to watch. I take pride in watching the latest movies and bragging to my friends. I believed this reward and punishment would help me change my behavior. This part of the assignment helped me to partially change my behavior. Out of the 4 days, I employed the reward and punishment method, I only sucked my thumb once. During the first 4 days, I used to suck my thumb between 2-5 times in a class. This represents a change in my behavior. I will continue to carry out this plan until I can get rid of sucking my thumb. Through classical conditioning or the first 4 days of the assignment, I got to understand my behavior. Before I undertook the assignment, I used to suck my thumb in class unconsciously without noticing it. When I started to record the number of times I sucked my thumb and under what circumstances I sucked my thumb, I realized how often I indulged in this behavior. Classic conditioning helped me to learn my behavior. I could associate the environmental stimulus that contributed to my response stimulus which was sucking my thumb. I got to learn that when I get bored or distracted, I got to suck my thumb more. This provided for my unconditioned stimulus. My unconditioned response of sucking my thumb resulted from my unconditioned stimulus of getting bored or distracted. My conditioned stimulus was being in class with minimal writing and my conditioned response was to suck my thumb. The second part of the assignment assisted me to modify my behavior. The operant conditioning assisted me to change my behavior through the reward and punishment mechanisms I came up with. By punishing myself through denying myself movies motivated me to not suck my thumb during class. The idea of spending my nights bored assisted me to try and achieve the goal I set for myself. The unpleasant consequence of spending boring evenings assisted me to minimize the amount of times I sucked my thumb. I rewarded myself by buying the latest movies and this motivated me towards not sucking my thumb. Operant conditioning assisted me to work towards my behavior change. To maintain my behavior change in future, I will come up with more ways of punishing myself. I want to completely get rid of sucking my thumb and I will need to punish myself further if i am to achieve this objective. I am planning to start taking cold showers in the evening after school if I suck my thumb during the day. I dislike cold showers and the thought alone makes me cringe. I believe that more punishment will help to push me towards changing my behavior. Date Time interval Instances observed or duration of behavior during self-observation period Situational factors 11/19 11:00-12:15 5 Bored/distracted 11/19 2:00-3:15 1 11/20 11:00-12:15 0 11/20 2:00-3:15 5 Bored/distracted 11/21 11:00-12:15 2 11/21 2:00-3:15 1 11/22 11:00-12:15 2 11/22 2:00-3:15 5 Bored/distracted Date Time interval Successful modification session (Check or no check) 11/26 11:00-12:15 11/26 2:00-3:15 11/27 11:00-12:15 11/27 2:00-3:15 11/27 11:00-12:15 11/28 2:00-3:15 11/29 11:00-12:15 11/29 2:00-3:15 Read More