Behaviour Modification Applications - Chapter 25

1. What do people mean when they talk about willpower? Is willpower a useful concept?
Why or why not?
People speak as thought willpower is a magical force within us that is responsible for
overcoming such problems. It is not a useful concept because the person offering it typically
neglects to tell us how to get more willpower. It is more useful to look at how problems of self-
control stem from differences between effective versus ineffective consequences of a behaviour.

Successful self-control programs proceed through five basic steps. Such programs are called
self-management or self-modification programs – a strategy for using principles of behaviour
modification to change or control one’s own behaviour.
2. Describe a problem of a behavioral excess in which an immediate reinforcer wins out
over a delayed punisher for the behavior.
For example, for many university students, the immediate reinforcer of fun with friends for
excessive alcohol drinking wins out over the delayed punisher of a hangover. Any appropriate
example is acceptable.

Behavioural excess is one type of self-control problem – doing too much of something. Even
though excesses might eventually lead to negative consequences, the latter are often ineffective.
Here’s why:
1) Immediate reinforcer versus delayed punisher for a problem behaviour – Suppose a teen
wants to go out with friends but still has homework to do. When parents ask about the
homework, the teen lies and is allowed to leave with friends thus, the lying is immediately
reinforced. The lie is not discovered until later and the consequent punishment is long delayed
from the instance of lying. If the behaviour leads to immediate reinforcers but delayed punishers
the immediate reinforcers often win out.
2) Immediate reinforcer versus cumulatively significant punisher for a problem behaviour
– Another self-control problem where the immediate reinforcer for example for consumption of
harmful substances wins out over the unnoticeable immediate negative effects that are only
cumulatively significant.
3) Immediate reinforcer for a problem behaviour versus delayed reinforcer for alternative
desirable behaviour – For self-control problems involving a choice between two alternative
behaviours, both with positive outcomes the one that produces the immediate reinforcers most
often wins out.
3. Describe a problem of a behavioral excess in which an immediate reinforcer wins out
over a cumulatively significant punisher for the behavior.
For example, the immediate reinforcer of the good taste for excessive eating of junk food often
wins out over the delayed punisher of weight gain that occurs only from the cumulatively
significant effects of excessive eating many times. Any appropriate example is acceptable.
4. Describe a problem of a behavioral excess in which an immediate reinforcer for the
problem behavior wins out over a delayed reinforcer for an alternative desirable behavior.
For example, for many students, the immediate reinforcers of enjoyable scenes from spending
time on Facebook win out over the delayed reinforcer of a good grade for the alternative
behavior of studying. Any appropriate example is acceptable.
5. Describe a problem of a behavioral deficit that occurs because the behavior leads to
immediate small punishers that win out over cumulatively significant reinforcers.
For example, the immediate small punishers (getting hot and sweaty and tired) from exercising
often win out over reinforcers (e.g., being in good shape) that occur only after exercising many
times. Any appropriate example is acceptable.
6. Describe a problem of a behavioral deficit that occurs because immediate small
punishers for the behavior win out over immediate but highly improbable major punishers
if the behavior does not occur.
For example, the immediate small punishers (being hot and uncomfortable) from wearing a
helmet while bicycle riding might win out of over the improbable punisher of brain injury from a
serious accident. Any appropriate example is acceptable. It is the accumulation of the benefits of
exercising on numerous occasions that is eventually noticeable.
7. Describe a problem of a behavioral deficit that occurs because an immediate small
punisher for the behavior wins out over a delayed major punisher if the behavior does not
occur.
For example, the immediate small punisher (such as the dentist's drill hurting your teeth) for
having a dentist repair you teeth often wins out over the delayed major punisher (your teeth fall
out) if dental check-ups do not occur. Any appropriate example is acceptable.
8. Consider the model of self-control illustrated in Figure 25.1. In that model, what controls
the controlling behaviour? Discuss.

The first part of the model requires clearly specifying the problem as a behaviour to be
controlled. The second part requires applying behavioural techniques to manage the problem. A
behaviour model of self-control states that self-control occurs when an individual behaves in
some way that arranges the environment to manage his or her subsequent behaviour. This means
emitting a controlling behaviour to effect a change in a behaviour to be controlled.

We assume that the society in which we live teaches us various controlling behaviors such as
setting goals for ourselves, giving ourselves reminders to meet those goals, and keeping track of
our progress in doing so. If such controlling behaviors are successful, the natural consequences
of success will maintain them. The model consists of doing something (emitting controlling
behavior or applying techniques of behavior change) to increase the chances that you will do
something else (change a behavior to be controlled, such as a problem behavior). Thus, the
model involves emitting a controlling behavior to effect a change in a behavior to be controlled.
9. List the steps that Mager recommends to “unfuzzify” a vaguely stated problem or self-
control goal.
(a) Write out the goal;
(b) make a list of the things that you should say or do that clearly indicate that you've met the
goal;
(c) given a number of people with the same goal, how would you decide who had met the goal
and who hadn't?
(d) if your goal is an outcome, (rather than something that you do) such as achieving a certain
weight, then make a list of specific behaviors that will help you to achieve that outcome.

Self-improvement goals such as “having a more positive attitude toward school”, “becoming less
tense” are difficult to measure and are referred to as “fuzzies”. A fuzzy is an acceptable starting
point for identifying a self-control goal; however, you must then “unfuzzify” the abstraction by
identifying the performance(s) that would cause you to say that you have achieved your goal.
10. How does that book define commitment to change?
Commitment to change refers to your statements or actions that indicate that is important to
change your behaviour, that you recognize the benefits in doing so, and that you will work
towards doing so. It was demonstrated that both a commitment to chance and knowledge of
change techniques were important for successfully accomplishing self-modification projects by
undergraduate psychology students.
11. Describe five steps that you could take to strengthen and maintain your commitment to
a program of self-control.
1. List all the benefits there are for changing your behaviour and place them in a conspicuous
place
2. Make your commitment to change public
3. Rearrange your environment to provide frequent reminders of your commitment and your
goal.
4. Invest considerable time and energy in initially planning your project.
5. Plan ahead for various ways to deal with temptations to quit your project.
12. Describe two strategies for increasing the likelihood of keeping records of a problem
behaviour.
1. Self-control projects- a sticky note and a pencil or a tally counter app can be used to count
instances of the problem behaviour as they occur.
2. External reinforcers for others to control - give control of your spending money to someone
who can monitor your behaviour and return your money contingent upon consistent data taking.
13. Describe an example that illustrates how recording and graphing a problem behavior
was all that was needed to bring about improvement.
In the case of out-of-seat-behaviour by an 11-year-old girl in school behaviour decreased over a
6 week period as a result of daily self-counting and graphing
14. Describe how Al, the lead case at the beginning of this chapter, was inadvertently
reinforced for eating numerous times throughout the day.
The majority of instances of excessive eating were followed immediately by some other
reinforcing event e.g. a bite of donut then a sip of coffee or candy to much on in his cra and the
red light turns green
15. List seven major classes of antecedents that you might consider when planning how to
manage the situation in a self-control program.
1) Modeling – A modelled behaviour is another class of stimuli that is useful in self-control
programs. A procedures called participant modeling is an especially effective method for
reducing fears. With this procedure, the fearful person observes a model interacting with
the fear-inducing stimulus and imitate the model.
2) Physical Guidance – In Skinner’s own analysis of self-control, he describe how
individuals use physical restraint to control their own behaviour. You might for example,
keep your hands in your pockets to avoid nail biting, bit your tongue to avoid making a
rude comment, etc.
3) Our immediate surroundings – Many people have a particular behaviour they would like
to decrease that occurs in particular situations. A useful strategy is to rearrange the
environment to present cues for desirable alternative behaviours.
4) Other people – Another great way to engage in some behaviour is to simply change the
people around you. You have learned to behave one way with some people and other ways
with other people.
5) The time of day – Sometimes it is possible to achieve successful self-control by changing
the time of the activity. For example, any students are more alert in the evening, but they
spend that time socializing thus, it may be best to move socializing to morning and
studying to evenings.
6) Motivating operations – In self-control programs, a strategy for increasing desirable
behaviour is to introduce an MEO for reinforcers that influence that behaviour. Example,
when a women saw a picture of herself jogging in the earlier years of her marriage it
motivated her to continue her jogging program to maintain her figure. MAOS can also be
used in self-control programs to decrease the likelihood of undesirable behaviour.
Example: A strategy that Al used to decrease his doughnut consumption was to eat some
carrots before going to the cafeteria to have coffee with Mary. Which functioned as an
MAO for food and decreases the likelihood of his doughnut purchases.
7) Manage the behaviour – If the behaviour of concern is relatively simple, you’re likely to
focus more on antecedents and consequences. If the behaviour is complex, you need to spend
some time focusing on the behaviour itself. If your goal is to acquire some complex skills, it is
helpful to consider task analysis and mastery criteria.
16. Describe an example that indicates how the manipulation of a motivating operation is
an effective self-control strategy.
For example, to decrease his donut consumption when having coffee with Mary in the campus
cafeteria, Al ate a couple of carrots before going to the cafeteria. Any appropriate example is
acceptable.
17. Define mastery criterion. Describe an example that is not in the text.
A mastery criterion is a performance requirement for practicing a skill such that if the criterion is
met, the skill has been learned. For example, a novice basketball player might practice shooting
foul shots until she can make 5 in a row.

Shaping is another procedure for focusing on the behaviour and it is useful for self-improvement
projects in which your ultimate goal involves a large behavioural change from your starting
point. Important points to keep in mind include starting small, meeting a mastery criterion before
moving up a step and keeping progressive steps small.
18. Describe an example that illustrates how the manipulation of energy expenditure or
effort needed to perform a behavior is an effective self-management strategy. Would you
say that the example involved the manipulation of a motivating operation? Why or why
not?
Another manipulation that requires you to focus on the behaviour is to consider the energy
expenditure needed to performance the behaviour, generally referred to as effort. One strategy for
decreasing a problem behaviour is to arrange conditions so that it requires more effort to perform
that behaviour. For example, if I wanted to reduce eating sweets, I could put them too high for
me to reach, requiring a chair to get to. It isn't an MO however because it doesn't increase or
decrease the value of the reinforcer.
19. List the five steps that characterize many programs of self-control.
1) Specify the problem and set goals – Many problem of self-control can be easily specified
in quantitative terms. Self-improvement goals such as “having a more positive attitude
toward school” are difficult to measure and are referred to as “fuzzies”. A fuzzy is an
acceptable starting point for identifying a self-control goal; however, you must then
“unfuzzify” the abstraction by identifying the performance(s) that would cause you to say
that you have achieved your goal.
2) Make a commitment to change - Commitment to change refers to your statements or
actions that indicate that is important to change your behaviour, that you recognize the
benefits in doing so, and that you will work towards doing so. A high probability of success
in changing your behaviour require actions to keep your commitment strong. Check Q11
for all the steps to strengthen and maintain commitment.
3) Take data and Analyze causes of the problem – The next step is to take data on the
occurrence of the problem behaviour – when, where, and how often it occurs. This is
important when the goal is to decrease excessive behaviours. For many self-control
projects, a sticky note and a pencil or a tally counter app can be used to tally instances of
the problem as they occur throughout the day. Look at Q12 and Q13.
4) Design and implement a treatment plan – The presence of certain antecedents, certain
behaviours have had certain consequences. Each of these variables provides a fertile area
for selecting self-control techniques.
5) Prevent relapse and make gains last – Relapses are common in self-control programs
and just as the three variable of antecedents, behaviours, and consequences were valuable
areas to consider when designing your program, they also provide a useful framework for
analyzing causes of relapses and how to prevent them.
20. Describe, in a sentence or two for each, three different strategies for manipulating
consequences in self-control programs.
Strategy 1: Eliminate certain reinforcers that may inadvertently strengthen a particularly
undesirable behavior in a specific situation
Strategy 2: Recording and graphing the target behavior . seeing a graph that shows gradual
improvement can serve as a prompt for positive thoughts about your progress
Strategy 3: Arranging to receive specific reinforcers when you show improvement or even for
just sticking to the program. This is especially important if your desired behaviour will lead to
small but cumulatively significant reinforcers or if failure to perform your desired behaviour will
lead to small but cumulatively significant punishers.
21. Describe, in a sentence or two for each, three different ways of arranging for reinforcers
to be received in a self-control program.
1) Asking others to manage them for you is an effective way to receive reinforcers in self-control
program. Ex: When Sue initiated a jogging program, she decided that she would receive money
immediately after jogging. Also, if she jogged every day, she could select and engage in one of
several possible social activities with her husband. If she met her goals, Sue’s husband dispensed
the reinforcers.
2) Reminding yourself of delayed natural reinforcers for a behavior immediately after it occurs.
Ex: Suppose that you set a goal of buying gifts early during the year rather than waiting until the
last minute. Doing so has sizable natural consequences. You can buy items on sale, saving a
significant amount of money.
3) Managing reinforcers yourself for your behavior. Ex: You decide to allow yourself to surf the
Internet only after studying for an exam
22. What often occurs when self-reinforcement is used as a self-control strategy? In a
sentence, state how one can minimize or prevent short-circuiting of contingencies when
using self-reinforcement.
Self-reinforcement is not the most effective self-control strategy because you can always access
the reinforcer without even emitting the desired behavior. For example, you can always surf the
internet without studying. Other contingencies may be operating in addition to self-
reinforcement. self-reinforcement is a misnomer and its recommended that self-regulation be
used in its place. One can minimize or prevent short-circuiting of contingencies by ensuring that
other contingencies are operating in addition to self-reinforcement. For example, just before
studying you worried about the likelihood of failing the exam and studying enabled you to
escape from such worrying.

Some guidelines for incorporating reinforcers for self-regulation include:

a) making it possible for you to earn daily specific reinforcers that you cannot receive without
emitting the desired behaviour
b) Setting up bonuses that you cannot receive without emitting the desired behaviour and that
you can earn for progress on a weekly basis
c) Varying the reinforcers from one day to the next or one week to the next to prevent boredom
with the entire system
d) Have other individuals dispense the reinforcers to you for meeting your goals
d) Tell others about your progress.

Recall, the Premack Principle, this principle is also good to use for self-control programs.
23. Briefly describe four possible causes of relapse in antecedents. Indicate how each might
be handled.
1) Avoidable Setback Antecedents – A common cause of relapses in self-control programs is a
failure to anticipate setback antecedents, which are antecedents that increase one’s risk for
returning to earlier unwanted behaviour patterns. Some setback antecedents can simply be
avoided until your are better able to cope with them. Example: Carla decided to quit smoking but
she knew when she hung out with her friends she couldn’t resist smoking, so she stopped
hanging out with her friends for a bit.
2) Unavoidable Setback Antecedents – Some setbacks simply cannot be avoided. A strategy for
prevent relapse is to anticipate unavoidable setback antecedents and to take steps to cope with
them. Example: John faithfully followed his exercise program for a month and a half, but he was
about to embark on a camping trip. He knew that the complete change in his routine and duties
each night around the campground were not conducive to exercising thus, his solution was to
obtain his travelling companion’s approval to stop travelling each night half an hour early. The
more you recognize unavoidable setbacks antecedents before you encounter them, the better
you’re chances for planning coping strategies.
3) Overreaction to Occasional Setbacks – Temporary setbacks are not a problem if you get right
back into your program. When you suffer a setback, don’t dwell on it. Review the occasions
when you have stuck to your program as a prompt to set new goals and to make a renewed
commitment.
4) Counterproductive Self-talk – When individuals encounter stumbling blocks
counterproductive self-talk can exacerbate the problem and may lead to a relapse.
24. Briefly describe three possible causes of relapse in the specification of the response.
Indicate how each might be handled.
1) Some goals are too “fuzzy” of a target behaviour. As described earlier, a fuzzy goal is an
acceptable starting point, but you must unfuzzify your target by describing it in such a way
that you can and other
2) A long-term target behaviour, your goal is clear but it is a long way away. For such project,
you should set short-term goals that provide specific progress checks along the way. Daily
short-term goals should be precisely stated and realistic and should move you in the
direction of your long-term goal.
3) Trying too much too soon. Some self-control projects never get off the ground because
they are too ambitious. From the top two or three priority areas, select the easiest one first
as your focus. Starting small increases your likelihood of success.
25. Briefly describe two possible causes of relapse in consequences. Indicate how each
might be handled.
1) Failure to incorporate everyday rewards into your program., in which there isn't enough
rewards to counteract the effort put in. One way to prevent relapse is to link your self-
control program to everyday rewarding activities.
2) Consequences that are only cumulatively significant, in which immediate consequences
win out over cumulatively significant consequences. Example: One dessert is not a
problem, but accumulation of extra desserts on numerous occasions that will put the weight
back on.
26. What important stimulus control functions does a behavioral contract serve?
1) It ensures that all parties involved agree to the goals and procedures and that they do not
lose sight of them during the course of the treatment.
2) Because the goals are specified behaviorally, the behavioral contract ensures that all parties
will agree on how close they are to reaching the goals.
3) The behavioral contract provides the client a realistic estimate of the cost of the program in
time, effort, and money.
4) The signatures on the behavioral contract help to ensure that all parties will faithfully
follow the specified procedures, because in our society signing a contract indicates a
commitment.
27. Is it plausible to suggest that many individuals can become their own behavior
modifier? Justify your answer.
Yes, as many people have mastered behavioral principles and procedures and use them to control
their behavior.