Professional Documents
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Nicholas Mackay
N01042976
Behavior Modification
Nicholas Mackay
N01042976
I suspected the cause of my original behavior (not exercising) was largely a product of
over convenience. In the instances where I could have engaged in 30 minutes of brisk walking I
was instead presented with cheap and easy access to a bus or, more rarely, a car. The bus was
faster and warmer than walking but it had unintended results for my health. It was a comfortable
choice to make as opposed to walking. This convenience and comfort would have to be
overcome through appropriate stimulus.
In order to modify my behavior I produced a plan based on operant conditioning (Wood,
S., Wood, E., Boyd, D., Wood, E., & Desmarais, S., 2011). Operant conditioning is a means of
learning in which a subject reacts to the consequences of its behavior by changing its behavior.
The consequences must be either desirable to the subject because it is pleasant (i.e. positive
reinforcement) or something that the subject wishes to avoid because it is unpleasant (i.e.
negative reinforcement). Both positive and negative reinforcement increase the rate of response.
Through operant conditioning I sought to increase my rate of response with regards to brisk
walking.
My plan was simple and modest as a result of my limited timeframe and level of
experience with regards to applied behavior modification. As I have stated, my intention was to
walk briskly for 30 minutes each day. I would be raising this quantity of time from essentially 0
minutes of intentional exercise in the form of walking. I would measure and record the quantity
of time that was spent walking. In most cases this exercise would simply be a result of replacing
a bus ride with walking. By using google maps I determined that the distance between the
nearest subway station and my home is a 30 minute walk. On school days I would walk this
distance and on other days I would walk for 30 minutes under other circumstances. My plans
implementation spanned from November 12, 2014 to November 22, 2014.
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Behavior Modification
Nicholas Mackay
N01042976
Behavior Modification
Nicholas Mackay
N01042976
Nov-12 Day 2 Nov-14 Nov-15 Nov-16 Nov-17 Nov-18 Nov-19 Nov-20 Nov-21 Nov-22
Minutes of Brisk Walking
The strategies I employed were mostly effective during the timeframe that the plan was
implemented. There were only two days in which I did not meet my goal of 30 minutes of brisk
walking each day. These failed days were the result of poor weather. My behavior was changed
in a desirable way. It seemed to me that the clementines were more effective than avoiding the
unpleasant sound as a means of changing my behavior but this cannot be proven at this time.
Overall the project was inherently somewhat flawed because the subject and pseudo therapist
were one and the same. At any time I could have overridden any aspect of the plan. I do not
believe that this format of behavior modification would be very effective for changing a behavior
that the subject was not already in favor of changing. It also relies on a great deal of selfdiscipline in order to implement the plan. This willpower could more simply be used to directly
choose to modify ones behavior. Still, the results show that operant conditioning continues to be
a powerful means of affecting learning in subjects. The behavior has yet to become extinct as of
November 26, 2014 and therefore I have learned to change my sedentary behavior.
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Behavior Modification
Nicholas Mackay
N01042976
References
CDC Website (2014, May 8). Leading Causes of Death. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
Hamermesh, D. S. (2011). Beauty pays: Why attractive people are more successful. Princeton
University Press.
Jebb, S. A., & Moore, M. S. (1999). Contribution of a sedentary lifestyle and inactivity to the
etiology of overweight and obesity: current evidence and research issues. Medicine and Science
in Sports and Exercise, 31(11 Suppl), S534-41.
Lane, A. M., Crone-Grant, D., & Lane, H. (2002). Mood changes following exercise. Perceptual
and motor skills, 94(3), 732-734.
Shephard, R. J., & Balady, G. J. (1999). Exercise as cardiovascular therapy. Circulation, 99(7),
963-972.
Verhallen, T. M., & Robben, H. S. (1994). Scarcity and preference: An experiment on
unavailability and product evaluation. Journal of Economic Psychology, 15(2), 315-331.
Wood, S., Wood, E., Boyd, D., Wood, E., & Desmarais, S. (2011). Learning. In The World of
Psychology (7th ed., pp. 136-145). Toronto: Pearson.