BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION PROJECT
Design a behavior modification project, using techniques in this handout and discussed in class. Chose a specific behavior that you want to modify. This will make it meaningful and easier to understand. Habits- both good and bad- are especially useful. Follow the outline below for your program - be sure to be realistic and specific in your goals, reinforcers and timing. Record a baseline for a week, follow the program for 5 weeks (recording your daily behaviors), and note changes in the behavior at the end of the program. Due _____________for grading. Each day it is late is one point off. NO EMAILED PAPERS. You must turn in a journal with your paper. The journal should have a Week of baseline entries and five weeks of tracking. There should be a minimum of 5 recordings per week (total of 30 entries).

Applying Operant Conditioning-Improving Habits
Would you like to increase the number of hours you spend studying each week? Would you like to exercise more, attend more classes, concentrate longer, or read more books? All these activities and many others can be improved by following these rules:
1.	Choose a target behavior. Identify the activity you want
to change.
2.	Record a baseline. Record how much time you cur
rently spend performing the target activity.
3. Establish goals. Remember the principle of
shaping
and set realistic goals for gradual improvement on each
successive week. Also, set daily goals that add up to the weekly goal.
4.	Choose reinforcers. If you meet your daily goal, what
reward will you allow yourself? Daily rewards might be
watching television, eating a candy bar, socializing with
friends, playing a musical instrument, or whatever you
enjoy. Also establish a weekly reward. If you reach your
weekly goal, what reward will you allow yourself? A movie?
A dinner out? A weekend hike?
5.	Record your progress. Keep accurate records of the
amount of time spent each day on the desired activity.
•. Reward successes. If you meet your daily goal, collect your reward. If you fall short, be honest with yourself and skip the reward. Do the same for your weekly goal.
If you have trouble finding rewards or if you don't want to use the entire system, simply remember this: Anything done often can serve as reinforcement For example, if you watch television every night and want to study more, make it a rule not to turn on the set until you have studied for an hour (or whatever length of time you choose). Then lengthen the requirement each week. A sample of a student's plan:
1.	Target behavior: number of hours spent studying for
school
2.	Recorded baseline: an average of 1 5 minutes per day
for a weekly total of 1 % hours
3.	Goal for the first week: an increase in study time to 20
minutes per day; weekly goal of 2 hours total study time
Gook for second week: 25 minutes per day and 2  hours
per week
Goal for third week: 30 minutes per day and 3 hours par

Ultimate goal: to reach and maintain 8 hours par week
study time
4. Daily reward for reaching goal: 1 hour of guitar playing
in the evening; no playing if the goal is not met
Weekly reward for reaching goal: go to a movie or buy a
record album
Self-Recording Even if you find it difficult to administer and withhold the rewards in your program you are likely to succeed. Simply knowing that you are reaching a desired goal can be reward enough. The key to any self-management program therefore becomes accurate record-keeping. This concept is demonstrated by an investigation in which some students in an introductory psychology course recorded study time and graphed daily and weekly study behavior. Even though no extra rewards were offered, students who recorded their study time earned better grades than those who did not (Johnson and White, 1971).
Contracting If you try the techniques discussed and have difficulty sticking with them, you may want to try behavioral contracting. In a behavioral contract you state a specific problem behavior you want to control or a goal you want to achieve. Also state the rewards you will receive, privileges you will forfeit, or punishments you must accept. The contract should be typed and signed by you and a person you are close to.
A behavioral contract can be quite motivating, especially when mild punishment is part of the agreement. Here's an example reported by Numberger and Zimmerman (1970): A student working on his Ph.D. had completed all requirements but his dissertation, yet for two years had not written a single page. A contract was drawn up for him in which he agreed to meet weekly deadlines on the number of pages he would complete. To make sure he would meet the deadlines, he wrote post-dated checks. These were to be forfeited if he failed to reach his goal for the week. The checks were made out to organizations he despised (the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party). From the time he signed the contract, until he finished his degree, the student's work output was greatly improved.

Learning. Memory, and thinking

Question:   How can I use learning principles to break a bad habit?
The following techniques offer some helpful possibilities.
1. Try to discover what is reinforcing a habit and remove.
avoid, or delayed reinforcement.
Example: A student who developed a habit of taking longer and longer "breaks" when studying realized that the breaks usually were lengthened by TV watching. A chance to watch TV was also reinforcing more frequent "break-taking."
Comment: To improve study habits, the student should either resolve to stay out of the room where the TV is located until work is done, or else require two hours of study for one-half hour of TV watching.
Example: Pam has a slightly different problem. While reading in the evening her periods of concentration last only about 15 minutes. They are usually followed by a trip to the kitchen for a snack. In addition to falling behind in her reading, she is gaining weight.
Comment: Snacking is rewarding her impulse to avoid reading. She should do her reading at school or at a library, so that there is a delay between the impulse to eat and the reward of snacking. At home, she should keep only foods that must be prepared to eat, or keep only staples on hand, so that a separate trip to a store is required for "goodies." Requiring a walk around the block before eating a snack would also help (Ferster era/., 1962).
2. Try to get the same reinforcement with new responses.
Example: A young mother realized she was yelling at her children more often than she would like. This habit seemed to be reinforced by the periods of relative quiet that followed when she raised her voice.
Comment: To avoid this habit, she should (as much as possible) ignore her children when they are noisy and should make a special effort to praise them, show approval, and pay attention to them when they are playing quietly and constructively.

Example: Frank has been drinking increasing amounts of beer after getting home from work in the evening. He usually feels more relaxed but often drinks too much and gets into arguments with other family members
Comment: Frank's need to "unwind" and dissipate the frustrations of the workday might be better achieved by • participation in an athletic activity, such as jogging swimming, bowling, handball, and so forth. An organized team sport might ensure that he will actually stick with his substitute activity.
3. Avoid or narrow down cues that elicit the bad habit.
Example: A student has begun to notice how much impulse-buying he does at the grocery store. As a first step in avoiding this habit, he has begun to shop after he has had a meal because he has observed that hunger is a cue for his food-buying.
Comment: He should also make a shopping list and stick to it so that he only looks at items he intends to buy
Example: A father has noticed that he nags and criticizes his four-year-old son almost nightly because the boy pours ketchup all over his dinner. He is upset about this and other daily instances of criticizing the boy.
Comment: The father has identified one cue for his excessive criticizing. It could be avoided by giving the boy a small bowl of. ketchup to prevent the regular dinner battle. Other cues for nagging can be avoided in similar ways as they are identified (Schmidt, 1976).
Example: Raul is not ready to give up smoking, but would like to cut down. He has taken many smoking cues out of his daily routine by removing ashtrays, matches, and extra cigarettes from his house, car, and office. He also has been making an effort to avoid situations in which most of his smoking occurs by staying away from other smokers, taking a walk after meals (leaving his cigarettes at home), and putting a piece of gum in his mouth when he feels nervous.
Comment: To improve his control of smoking, Raul should try narrowing cues. He could begin by smoking only inside buildings, never outside or in his car He

215   Conditioning and Learning II
could then limit his smoking to home.  Then to only one room at home. Then to one chair at home. If he succeeds in getting this far. he may want to limit his smoking to only one uninteresting place: a bathroom, basement, or garage, for example (Goldiamond, 1971).
4.	Make an incompatible response in the presence of
stimuli that usually precede the bad habit.
Example: A sprinter has developed a habit of "jumping the gun" at track meets and is frequently disqualified.
Comment: The sprinter should prepare for meets by remaining in the blocks while his coach fires the starter's pistol several times.
Example: A child has developed the habit of throwing her coat on the floor after coming in the front door. After being scolded, she would hang it up.
Comment: The parents should recognize that scolding has become the cue for hanging the coat up. The girl should not just be scolded, but should put her coat on again, go outside, come in the door, and hang her coat up. Soon, coming in the door will become the cue for hanging the coat up.
Example: June bites her nails so much they are painful and unsightly. She has identified several situations in which she is most likely to bite her nails and would like to break the connection between these and her habit.
Comment: June should make a list of incompatible behaviors she can engage in when she has the urge to bite her nails. These might include: putting her hands in her pockets, taking notes in class, sketching pictures, crossing her arms, leaning against something with her hands, chewing gum, playing a musical instrument, or combing her hair (Perkins and Perkins, 1976).
5.	Use negative practice to associate a bad habit with
discomfort.
Example: Rick has a facial tic that appears when he is nervous or tired. The tic looks like a wink made with his right eye.
Comment: In negative practice, a response is repeated until it becomes boring, painful, or produces fatigue.

This increases awareness of the habit and tends to discourage its recurrence. Rick should stand in front of a mirror and repeat the tic until the muscles used become quite uncomfortable. Similarly, if you have a habit of saying "you know" or "uh" too often when speaking, set aside 15 minutes a day and repeat the error over and over while thinking, "I hate the way this sounds when someone else says it."
6. Utilizing feedback is one of the most direct of all approaches to changing bad habits.
Example: Four college students who are renting a house together are concerned about their high utility bills. Also, they would like to make an effort to conserve energy. To date, however, their good intentions have not lowered their electric bill.
Comment: The roommates should keep a daily record of their energy consumption by writing down and posting the numbers shown on their electric meter. A study of families given this kind of daily feedback showed that their energy use was greatly reduced (Palmer efa/., 1977).
The last technique described is worth emphasizing. Almost any habit will benefit from simply keeping score. Keep track of the number of times daily that you arrive late to class, smoke a cigarette, watch an hour of TV, drink a cup of coffee, bite your fingernails, swear, or whatever other response you are interested in changing. A simple tally on a piece of paper will do, or you can get a small mechanical counter like those used to keep golf scores or to count calories.
Throughout this chapter, we have tried to emphasize the practical applications of learning theories to everyday problems. Many simple difficulties can be handled effectively without special training. If you have a really troublesome habit, such as overeating, excessive use of alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana, you may find it most expedient to consult a professional counselor; Additional learning techniques for overcoming mild difficulties can be found in Chapter 23, "Behavior Modification," Chapter 12, "Motivation." and Chapter 8, "Conditioning."