Changing Behavior Case Study Analysis
Baker College – PSY111 Seminar 3
Changing Behavior Case Study Analysis
A client approached me because he has a serious problem with procrastination. My client has procrastinated most activities that were not comfortable or enjoyable for as far back as he can remember. Procrastinated activities include but are not limited to paying bills, doing homework assignments, making progress on assigned projects in the office, buying presents for birthdays or holidays and scheduling just about anything. Due to this undesirable behavior my client has lost a few jobs, failed out of school and is behind on his mortgage. Of all of these activities my client would like assistance with procrastination as it
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The repeated pairing of the stress from arguing while paying bills strengthened the desire to avoid the situation resulting in the habitual behavior problem of procrastination. Had the stress from arguing occurred only occasionally over bills, also known as intermittent pairing (Morris, C., & Maisto, 2013), then it may have been less likely that my client would procrastinate his bill paying.
In this scenario you could compare my client’s procrastination with the results from Pavlov’s experiment with his dogs. Pavlov’s experiment measured how much his dogs would salivate when food was introduced. The food and salivation were the unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response respectively. Pavlov also rang a bell each time he fed the dogs. After some time Pavlov noticed that his dogs would salivate when the bell rang even if there was no food present. In this way the bell became the conditioned stimulus that elicited the conditioned response of the dogs salivating. (Morris, C., & Maisto, 2013)
Operant Conditioning:
If we look at my client’s behavior from the perspective of operant conditioning then we have to determine if there were reinforcers or punishers that affected the desired, or undesired, behavior. To explain how operant conditioning could cause procrastination we first need to define reinforcers and punishers. In Operant conditioning a reinforcer is some sort of stimulus that is introduced after the desired behavior that
Behavior Modification, a psychological theory of human behavior. It evolved from the application of experimentally derived principles of learning to the modification of problem behaviors. The theory is based on a psychological model of human behavior that rejects the psychoanalytic or quasi-disease model of mental illness. Approaches to behavior modification assume that abnormal behavior is acquired and maintained in the same manner as normal behavior and can be changed directly through the application of social-learning principles. Assessment procedures focus on describing how an individual behaves, thinks, and feels in specific situations. Treatment methods are derived from the theories and findings of
This behavior change project has become a huge part of my everyday life. I lost sight of how important staying in shape affects my overall mental state along with my physical well-being. Having a life that consists of so many activities such as going to school, working, and maintaining a full and happy relationship with the people I care about is hard to balance with just making time for myself. That is why keeping this three day a week workout regime over the past five weeks has been so important; it made me realize that I can make time to focus on just working on myself, and in turn, improve all other aspects of my life. Realizing of course that there are many people in this world that have real life health problems that they seek professional help for. These changes in their lives require a system or a theory that must be applied to develop a strategic an organized way to regulate or change their behavior.
1-Green Valley Medical Center is a nonprofit teaching hospital affiliated with a large state university and had grown since its foundation in the 1930s with continuous support from state revenues. Since it is a nonprofit organization its main goal is not to create profit for the investors, but to reach their institutional goals, which in this case is to offer good service for the region it is located in and to train the students that attend to the state university that the medical center is affiliated with.
At the beginning of the spring semester, when I read the syllabus for the Models of psychotherapy class assignments, the one that took my attention was about behavioral change exercise. I thought, this exercise could help me through my high temper combined with my anger issues by screaming all the time my family. In all my college experience this was the specific project I was really looking forward to complete. Not just for doing my homework, but also because I was thinking this will be really beneficial for my family well been and my own harmony.
Procrastination is something that you don’t naturally have an innate ability to do. It is often brought on by finding ways
Thesis: Procrastination is the main result of disorganization whether it’s at home, work or school.
Dr. Barbara Oakley teaches that when the brain perceives discomfort, it initializes a pain response. By thinking about or doing something else, i.e. procrastinating, we experience relief from that pain response and temporary happiness occurs, but the task remains undone. In the case of my son and the Missing Portfolio, the poor grades he was receiving on some of his daily assignments triggered the pain response, to which he responded by throwing away these assignments. The assignment was gone, therefore the pain was alleviated. Unfortunately, the assignment was not corrected and saved for the portfolio. Procrastination is habit forming and can become an addictive behavior. Addictive behaviors are habits which produce an immediate gratification which makes a person feel good at the time. As these habits become ways to cope with life, addictions are formed. Habits are interesting
“A Dictionary of the English Language” written by Dr. Samuel Johnson, defined procrastination as “delay.” This common issue mostly around everyone. Many people struggle with deadlines every day. It is one of the largest problems seen in college counseling centers. (Grohol, Psy.D.)
It would also be in the best interest of the staff and faculty if they were involved in promoting a “team concept” by soliciting feedback down to the lowest level in the evaluation of newly implemented systems.
To begin with,a health practisioner may fascilate behaviour change in an individual with a health
Another factor that causes procrastination is fear. Fear is a very powerful emotion. Whenever someone is faced with a difficult task, they can become overran by the fear of not being able to complete it. People who succumb to this are setting themselves up for failure. Whenever someone feels as if they are going to fail, they tend to postpone the task for as long as possible. This means that they often try to avoid the task all together until completion is absolutely necessary. In doing so, the number of tasks that need to be done increases. However, the time required to complete them does not.
Procrastinating is a minor reinforcer and provides immediate reinforcement. It has negative short-term consequences e.g. stress, regret, academic failure and fatigue. The benefits attained from are
The questionnaire was posted online for psyc121 students of Victoria University of Wellington. “Please read each statement, and select the option that best describes how much you agree or disagree with each one” was the instruction given to the participants when completing a Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS) which was developed by Steel (2010). It had 12 items and on a one to five scale where one is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree. A statement “I generally delay before starting on work I have to do”. Higher scores meant higher levels of procrastination.
Operant conditioning, is defined as an organism developing a link between its behaviors and consequences that follow those behaviors. The goal of operant conditioning is to develop a desired behavior in response to a given stimulus. When teaching a dog to roll over, the trainer wants the dog to rollover in response to his command. In this way the dog rolling onto its back is the
lives with is grandparents, parents and one younger sister. Grandparents speak Spanish. Parents and children speak Spanish and English. had been ill frequently during first grade and missed a number of days of school. Parents indicated enjoys school.