Can Behavior Be Changed - Coursework Example

Can Behavior Be Changed Can Behavior Be Changed Introduction Human beings at birth usually posses free behavioralcomplexity, physiological barring and deficiencies. Their behavioral natures mostly stand out to be crystal clear and straight forward. However, their perception of clarity on various events and line of thinking are considered to be absolutely uncorrupt. In most cases their behavior, deeds, actions, and attitude are considered to be under-woven and relatively close-knitted and adjacent to one another. Moreover, somewhere down the line an individual’s behavior undergoes some deviations leading to situational development accordingly. This deviation results to change and alteration of the individuals designed pattern of life to enhance appropriate lifestyle of an individual. Both the human behavior and attitude can easily undergo transformation and transitional changes with regard o various factors resulting to its complexity in existence. These changes are attributed to various factors which can either be changed or not with regard to a matter of concern by an individual and the environment as stated by the great thinker Nietzsche in his rule of both positive and negative changes. According to this rule, it is clearly perceived that, something rare in an individual is insanity and for parties, epochs, nations and groups, it applies as a rule. Basing on the concept above it is clearly outraged that, behavior can be easily changed through rehabilitation programs as a major factor (Fieger, 2009). Behavior Can Be Changed Basically behavior can only be changed by an individual’s perspective on the basis of the life’s trend depending on the kind of desirable lifestyle. The behavior of an individual is determined by moral values and beliefs though it is also strongly controlled by the physical and social environment of an individual and the problem arising. Behavioral changes can only be achieved by changing or adjusting all the conditions that usually influence behavior in any given destination. For the case of offenders, prisoner’s should be given the mandate to make solid decisions on their own, should also restructure a dynamic process to involve more cooperation with other relevant teams and or with other colleagues a process that aims at changing their behavior thus fitting in the society. It need hardly be said that discussing these changes with the behavior offenders in the design phase will initiate and support both positive and negative changes very strongly to the offenders. According to Zukav (2007), all behaviors that require to be changed are mostly involuntary and are considered to be of the compulsions, obsessions, and the addictions as the strongest of all to individuals. These are parts of personality of an individual that are considered to be out of control. For instance, when an individual hears words that are not desirable he or she is likely to be enraged and withdrawn. The reason is that he or she has seemingly encountered part of the personality that he is entitled and is likely to be controlled by the external factors and circumstances. Another example is when an individual sees an open bottle of alcohol and cannot resist taking a drink or he finds a sexual partner and cannot resist engaging in sex. With regard to these circumstances, one is considered to have experienced his or her personality that is out of control. Each and every painful emotion and reactions that an individual creates are felt to be involuntary. The reason behind all these experiences is that they originate in various parts of the individual’s personality which operate outside the field of one’s awareness (Rollnick and Miller, 2002). Behavioral changes in psychology are largely dependent on the basis of rehabilitation programs parts that are described as unconscious of an individual’s personality. They are said to be unconscious because individuals usually become aware of them until they become active. This results to the aspect of vengeful, irritation, frightening, jealous, and angry. Behavioral rehabilitations such as offending behavior programs available in prisons like: rehabilitation and reasoning (R & R), Enhanced Thinking Skills (ETS), problem solving or Thinking First Inside, Controlling Anger And Learning To Manage it (CALM), Cognitive Self Change Program (CSCP), and Sex Offender Treatment (SOTP) usually change behavior of an individual in various ways for instance: they aim at reducing the level of crime acts but not reducing the mental distress affecting the offender. To be eligible, inmates are expected to demonstrate the feelings experienced in the problem or the contents of the problem behaviors they display in terms of the offending behaviors risk factors. By considering such factors, it is easy to change behaviors of an individual (Sundel and Sundel S, 2004). Mostly, the rehabilitation programs for the offending behaviors last for a period of not less than three months to allow prisoners of short term sentence periods to be released before the completion of the stipulated sentence period. Under this program of the offending behavior which progress through the prison system, the goal of behavioral change can be easily achieved through various perspectives. Among them include: transferring and transforming offenders to the conditions that are more open and easily accessible to the parole as agreed upon by the prisoner’s intervention to attend a particular program. With regard to the above argument it is clearly reflected that indeed offending behavior is and can be changed through rehabilitation behavior. Basing on the psychological theory, it is clearly predicted that long term behavioral change is likely to be achieved. This is with regard to the psychologist’s perception outlined in the developed stages of change theory which is a comparison between the smokers under therapy and those individuals considered to be self-changers in the behavior change continuum. The rational behind this comparison was to estimate the staging point on the individuals tailored therapy to the needs of the person at his or her disposal point of the changing or transitional process. As a result of this, the four mainly known components of the psychological theory of change were developed thus presented as a linear change initiating process. The developed stages of the psychological change theory constitutes of: action, contemplation, pre-contemplation, and maintenance. In addition to that, a fifth stage known as preparation for the action was developed and incorporated in the psychological theory of change as stated by Norcross (1992). How the Following Stages Enhance Behavioral Change Pre-contemplation This stage occurs when an individual has a problem of it is either identified or not thus having no intention of welcoming change. For this case, behavioral change can be achieved through raising knowledge and information about the problem in a consciousness manner, role playing in a dramatic manner, reevaluation of the environment and determine how the problem is of impact to the physical environment. Contemplation This stage occurs when an individual identifies the problem and thinks critically about means of changing behavior. This stage fosters behavior change through self reevaluation whereby the feelings of an individual regarding behavior are assessed and evaluated. Action preparation This stage is whereby an individual identifies the problem and intends to change the behavior immediately like within a stipulated period of approximately one month. In this stage, some of the efforts resulting to behavior change are likely to be reported and they include inconsistent usage of condoms and frequent criminal offences. This stage is significant to the behavior change process because it facilitates individual’s self liberation whereby an individual or an offender beliefs in ability to change through commitment. Action This is the actual stage of enacting and embracing behavior change by an individual for a period of less than six months. The process of behavior change is achieved through reinforcement management termed as convert and overt rewards, social support through self help groups termed as helping relationships, developing of counter conditioning termed as behavior change alternatives, and finally through avoiding cues of high risks termed as stimulus control. Maintenance After acquiring all the above outlined stages, individuals usually maintain newly acquired behaviors as a result of behavior change for a period of six months or even more than that. Following the mentioned stages of psychological theory it is clearly evident that behavior change is likely to be achieved. Recommendation According to the above discussion it is clearly evident that, behavior change process can be achieved regardless of the age, environmental factors, and other social related factors. For easy achievement of the behavior change process, it is advisable to keep in mind the rehabilitation programs for the behavior offenders, psychological and cognitive theories of behavior change. It is highly recommended that, behavior change process can be achieved by an individual at any level of life as supported by the theoretical argument and empirical evidence. Conclusion From the above argument on the support of the fact that behavior can be changed it is clearly evident that behavior under various circumstances can be changed. Basically behavior can only be changed by an individual’s perspective on the basis of the life’s trend depending on the kind of desirable lifestyle. The behavior of an individual is determined by moral values and beliefs though it is also strongly controlled by the physical and social environment of an individual and the problem arising. For instance establishment of rehabilitation programs especially for the behavior offenders has played a fundamental role in changing behaviors of prisoners (Vito, Maahs and Holms, 2006). Behavioral changes can only be achieved by changing or adjusting all the conditions that usually influence behavior in any given destination. For the case of offenders, prisoner’s should be given the mandate to make solid decisions on their own, should also restructure a dynamic process to involve more cooperation with other relevant teams and or with other colleagues a process that aims at changing their behavior thus fitting in the society (Zukav, 2007). It need hardly be said that discussing these changes with the behavior offenders in the design phase will initiate and support both positive and negative changes very strongly to the offenders with regard to the behavior change theories such as psychological and cognitive theory. Works Cited Fieger H. Behavior Change: A View from the Inside Out. New York: Wordclay. 2009. Rollnick S. & Miller R. W. Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change. New York: Guilford Press. 2002. Sundel M & Sundel S. S. Behavior Change in the Human Services: behavioral and cognitive principles and applications. London: SAGE Publication. 2004. Vito F. G, Maahs R. J, & Holms M. R. Criminology: Theory Research and Policy. USA: Jones and Bartlet Learning publishers. 2006. Zukav G. Soul to Soul: Communications from the Heart. New York: Free Press Publishers. 2007. Read More