The behavior that I have chosen to modify is my habit of biting my lips. I have a lot of bad habits but I noticed while thinking about a certain one that biting my lips was the main habit that I have and would like to end. I have a lot of stress in my life and when I am bored or worried I notice that I bite my lips quite often. I choose to modify this behavior because it is a very unhealthy habit and my lips are always dry and peeling because of it. I want to modify this behavior so I don’t have to constantly put on chap stick and worry about my dry, peeling lips. I observed my habit for one week. I began on Sunday and continued until Saturday. I noticed that I would bite my lips more on the days that I had to go to work or school. The …show more content…
If I didn’t bite my lips for at least three hours a day I would reward myself with a piece of chocolate. If I did bite my lips during that time I would make myself eat a salad for lunch or supper instead of getting something that I would enjoy more. I chose chocolate to be my positive reinforcement because I love chocolate. I also always have a couple pieces of chocolate a day mostly during a work day and I knew that if I bit my lips then I would not get the chocolate like I usually do. I chose to eat a salad for a meal if I did bite my lips because I know I would much rather have something better for a meal than a salad. I knew that I would work hard to get anything other than a salad because salad is not something that I would usually choose for a meal. These reinforcements did help a lot with trying to quit my habit. I think the reward and punishment system was very successful. I think what helped me in changing my behavior on the last three days was that I noticed how often I engaged in the habit and how it affected me. I noticed how dry and sore my lips would get from biting them all the time. I would also start realizing my stressors and learn how to avoid them. I was motivated by my reinforcements and my own willingness to stop my habit. Although I haven’t fully stopped my habit I have noticed how much I stop myself each day from biting my lips and how much less I engage in this habit. I am going to keep trying to stop my behavior with this method until
Habits are choices that one continues to do repeatedly without actually thinking about them. Habits start with a decision, but they eventually become automatic. One can probably think about things we do every day that we wish we did less of, perhaps like binging Netflix, constantly checking social media, or snacking when not being hungry. If one can understand how habits are triggered, one can learn how to overcome them. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and “Rat Park” by Lauren Slater will reveal the main strategies to recognize and overcome habits. Angie Bachman, a women who developed a gambling habit due was well aware of her habits, but she continued to drag herself into debt, resulting in losing all that she owned and getting sued by
Ever wonder why many individuals are reluctant to changing their behavior? Some see change as a means of restarting their life while others do not know the first step to take. Due to this, psychologist has created a program known as the Behavior Modification Analysis to aid individuals who face these problems. Within this program, persons with behavioral issues will determine their issue and why it needs to be modified. Then this program will form various reasons as to why individuals portray certain behaviors. Next, the target behavior and the assessment of behavior will be examined, measured and observed. Then, a frequency tracking of the behavior will be completed and results recorded. After obtaining the results, realistic goals will be
Most of the things we daily perform are due to habits. Experts in psychology have suggested several theories to explain the process in which humans and animals shape such habits. Among those theories are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. As humans it is almost inevitable to fall into bad habits, either consciously or unconsciously. Fortunately science has demonstrated that we can change or modifying unwanted behaviors through conditioning, (Whitbourne, 2012). Operational conditioning underlines how a behavior is strengthened or weakened by the use of rewards or punishments; shaping, modeling, and extinction are some of the techniques utilized to achieve these behavioral alterations, (Cherry, n.d.). Key points to consider for effective behavior modification are: clear identification of behavior to change, the use self-control, and punishments or reinforcements, (Cherry, n.d.; Selig, 2012). This paper shows how operant conditioning has been effective modifying behaviors either by rewards, extinction, or shaping.
Change your mindset and you can change your body, discipline can be the difference between dieting and weight management. Health behaviors have a great effect on how we live our lives, often dictating how we experience our environment. One health behavior that many find difficult, including myself, to alter or manage over time is weight. The physical weight of an individual affects how the individual sees the world and poses a risk to health and wellbeing. A way to manage weight is through a behavioral contract, which aims to change current health behavior and form better, healthier habits. Through an individualized, self-monitored behavior contract and social support, healthy weight management may be achieved.
The behavior I would like to change is the management of chronic stress. Chronic stress is a precursor for most health problems in today’s society. If we look at the start of most health problems, we can likely trace it back to chronic stress. Chronic stress releases levels of cortisol higher than normal. Cortisol is a hormone released from someone with chronic stress, which can which can negatively affect the body’s ability to function.
There was a young boy that loved how he looked. When he entered high school that changed. He got picked on at school because he was big, so he decided to stop eating. This made the boy really sick. Eventually, he had to go to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with an eating disorder. There are many reasons why eating disorders are bad; a lot of people are affected, and there are a lot of illnesses caused by eating disorders, but some people don’t think it is a big deal.
Behavioral psychology is a perspective that focuses on the experiences learned from the environment. One of the behavioral psychologists named J.B.Watson (1913) called this as the behaviorism. Behaviorism is concerned about the external like observable behavior instead of the internal like feeling. We are going to discuss the two theory of behaviorism that might causes increases of obesity in the world. The first theory is observed by Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist, who won the Nobel Prize in 1904. The observation of Pavlov is known as the process of classical conditioning. Pavlov conducted an experiment to measure the amount of saliva of a dog when food is given. He rings the bell every time he presents the food. After a several times of the stimulus, the dog started learn to salivate when the bell rings without food given. In conclusion, the dog has become classically conditioned when the dog have learned to salivate automatically while the bell rang. The second theory is observed by B.F Skinner (1938), according to McLeod author of Simply Psychology (2007) said B.F Skinner beli...
Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, acknowledges how habits control our daily lives in every decision we make. For Instance, an ambitious woman named Lisa Allen, has not always had a fruitful life. Previously, she had abused her body with harmful toxins such as tobacco and alcohol since the beginning of her teenage years. Carrying out these habits everyday resulted her into being unmotivated and unconfident. In fact, she never kept a job longer than a year and began to fall into major debt. “She needed a goal in her life, she thought. Something to work toward” (xii-xiv). It begins with the “three-step loop” a cue that triggers our brain to do the habit. Next a routine, a set of actions that are either physical or mental. Finally a reward of satisfaction that determines whether or not this habit will be continuous (19). Not all habits can be good, but this is where the golden rule applies. Duhigg explains that in order for you to change your habit “ you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine”(62). “However, simply understanding how habits work- learning the structure of the habit loop makes them easier to control”( 20). Reading The Power of Habit, helped me understand the process by which I made a positive change to fight procrastination.
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.
Suzy is a 5 year old girl with Cerebral Palsy (CP). She has recently entered Kindergarten, where she is receiving early intervention services. Suzy’s teacher has noticed during snack that Suzy shows little interest in most of the foods the other children enjoy, such as animal crackers and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. After several weeks of picky eating and food rejection, the teacher suggested the parents look into the matter further, as she was worried about Suzy’s nutritional needs being met. Suzy’s parents took her to their Primary Care Physician, who suggested an evaluation by a Speech Language Pathologist. Although picky eating is not uncommon for young children, it can have adverse effects on growth and development if not addressed early (Justice, L.M., 2014).
Eating behaviour is a complex behaviour that involves a vast array of factors which has a great impact on the way we choose our meals. Food choice, like an other behaviour, is influenced by several interrelated factors. While hunger seems to drive our ways of food consumption, there are things outside of our own bodies that influence our food choices and the way in which we eat. The way we eat is controlled by and is a reflection of our society and cultures. I explore this idea through a food diary I created over a few weeks and the observations made by several anthropologists that I have studied.
After a long deliberation I decided to do my behavior modification project on my unhealthy eating habits. There are many meaningful reasons why I choose this as my behavior to modify. I want to kick start a healthy lifestyle change by eating healthier and being more active. Another upside to modifying this behavior is too hopefully *fingers crossed* lose a few unwanted pounds. The long term goal of this change is to live a happier, healthier life, and become more confident in myself. I have high hopes that I can achieve all of these goals by cutting out junk food and sweets and replacing those items with nutritious and balanced food.
When eating takes place in a social context, people tend to eat more than they usually eat when the individual is alone. The quantity of food eaten by an individual is positively associated with the amount of people present (de Castro, J.M, 1994). Using the example of Esma- a girl of normal body weight who has recently been invited to a birthday dinner with her boyfriend and people whom she is not familiar with- the purpose of this essay is to determine how eating in a social situation with other people encourages an individual to eat more than when eating alone. This occurs due to a number of influential factors, such as; social facilitation and social approval. Furthermore, this essay will not only show how being in a social setting encourages an individual to eat more but also how lack of trait empathy can influence a person to eat less in a social setting.
In the article “Breaking bad habits: classical conditioning and smoking”, it claims that psychological conditioning can be used to break bad habits (Reichelt, 2013). For smokers, seeing a cigarette packet or bud can induce the feeling of wanting to smoke. This though is not restricted to smokers or drug addicts, we all form associations with all types of environmental stimuli and things we desire. Just like in the article “Addicted to Your Smartphone? Here 's what to Do”, it shows how just looking at your phone can create an urge to check your email or messages (Davis, 2015). These multifaceted associations maintain behaviors and can cause reinstatement when certain signals are faced, and this is why smokers find it hard to quit and why people addicted to cellphones find it hard to quit checking their phones all the
Freshman year of college began just like every other year for me, busy, boring, and filled with stomachaches. After every meal I ate, my stomach would feel as if I was being eaten from the inside out. Occasionally the pain would be so horrid that I would ball up into the fetal position and remain that way until the pain had passed. After months of enduring this, I finally went to the doctor. After much discussion, we determined that I had gluten intolerance. Intolerance is not as serious as coeliac disease; however, the treatment remains the same.