There are many methods of behavior modification when it comes to helping individuals stop a bad habit from continuing or to assist an individual in picking up a healthy habit that will be helpful to them in their future. In this instance, lip biting is a self-injurious behavior that can be linked to many different reasons, including stress, nervousness, personality disorders, and even mental disabilities. This research will discuss a few behavioral modification methods used to help individuals with nervous lip biting behaviors.
Humans are naturally nervous creatures who tend to get nervous when put under pressure or put in certain situations that make them uncomfortable. There are many individuals who can handle this easily and know how to release that stress without it turning into a stress forming habit. There are others who are unable to handle these situations properly and develop certain “tics” that help the individual release this nervous tension. These types of behaviors can be things like nail biting, chewing on the insides of one’s gums, hair picking, and lip biting. Many different studies have been done on these types of nervous behaviors to figure out what can be done to help reverse these habits and which type of behavior modification works best for helping an individual stop these self-injurious behaviors.
In the research study, “Relax and Try This Instead: Abbreviated Habit Reversal for Maladaptive Self-Biting” done by Jones, Swearer and Friman, they found that the most effective treatment for self-biting is habit reversal. To show the success of habit reversal treatment they conducted a study on a fifteen year old boy, named Sam, who had been diagnosed with overanxious disorder and was severely biting his lips when...
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...estructive oral habits (biting, chewing or licking of the lips, cheeks, tongue or palate). Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 13(1), 49-54. doi:10.1016/0005-7916(82)90035-0
Jones, K. M., Swearer, S. M., & Friman, P. C. (1997). Relax and try this instead: Abbreviated habit reversal for maladaptive self-biting. Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, 30(4), 697-699. doi:10.1901/jaba.1997.30-697
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Sarkhel, S., Praharaj, S. K., & Akhtar, S. (2011). Cheek-biting disorder: Another stereotypic movement disorder? Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25, 1085-1086. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.07.006
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The nature of the disorder makes it difficult to treat, since patients are convinced that they suffer from a real and serious medical problem. Indeed, the mere su...
Psychology consists of countless different components that help describe various aspects of individuals both mentally and physically. Though Psychology is used for multiple different areas, one of the most common areas to observe in this field is behaviors. Behaviors range from person to person and can be altered by different situations and variables. The point when behaviors can become of interest is when an individual’s actions and behavior are extreme or they are inconsistent with the appropriate behavior in certain circumstances. These abnormal behaviors are often consistent and can be related to psychological disorders. Though some psychological disorders may be manageable to live
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An alarming and surprisingly common behavior among some developmentally disabled individuals is self-injurious behavior. The severity of this ranges from mild nail-biting to very severe head-banging or choking. This can be quite alarming for caregivers, other children, and can present a serious danger to the child engaging in the behavior. While such behavior would seem to be maladaptive, there is evidence that it is in fact learned through operant conditioning and that these behaviors persist because they reinforced by the child’s environment. If this is true, it presents an opportunity to combat the behavior by eliminating sources of reinforcement. Iwata, Dorsey, Silfer, Bauman, and
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In conclusion, Anti-Social Personality disorder has immense effects on people concerning empathy, violence, and even learning. It is also a very resistant disorder to treat. However, much needs to be learned about this disorder in order to help patients live normal lives, and can even be useful in establishing a treatment context for addressing conditions such as substance abuse, impulsive aggression, and schizophrenia ( Pajerla, 2007).
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To try and combat and modify this behaviour I attempted both positive reinforcement and positive punishment. For instance I allowed myself 1 hour extra on the computer if I went the whole day without biting my nails additionally after attempting the positive reinforcement above I attempted positive punishment which consisted of me doing 50 push ups each time I repeated the operant response.
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Smith et al. look into the role of SI therapies in reducing self-stimulating and self-injurious behaviors in children and adolescents with developmental delays and intellectual disability. For the purposes of the study, self-injurious and self-stimulating behaviors were grouped together, and defined as a repetitive behavior that serves no particular purpose, with the potential to cause harm to the individual. Examples of such behaviors include biting or hitting oneself, chewing objects, and making repetitive vocal sounds.
In most cases, the disorder may be evident as from preschool. There are isolated cases when the disorder may commence at later years. Research makes it apparent that the disorder in most cases kicks in at the teenage. The disorder may further be evident towards the end of the teenage years in some individuals. It merits noting that the condition is prevalent in the community to the extent that one in every 16 adolescents is likely to be a victim of the disorder (Rocque, 2016). The severity of the disease varies widely from mild, moderate to severe cases. In the mild cases, the symptoms are only visible at one setting either home or school. For the moderate cases, some of the symptoms could be visible in a minimum of two settings mostly at home and school. For the severe cases, the symptoms are evident in more than settings. The following are some of the symptoms to be on the lookout for when diagnosing for open defiance
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