The schedule of reinforcement has many variables, as well as many ways behavior is reinforced. In order to completely create reinforcement schedule the person must understand the behavior that they wish to change. In my case, the behavior that I wish to change is eating habits. In this paper, I will explore the different schedules of reinforcement and how each would work towards changing my behavior, as well as cause weight loss. My eating habits are very easy to explain, I eat when I am hungry which is not very often. This causes my body to store whatever nutrients I do take in, as well as any fat. This way of eating, in addition to medications I have and am taking make it extremely hard to lose any weight. The first reinforcement …show more content…
In order to lose weight, I would need to limit the amount of calories taken in, as well as increase the amount of calories burned in a day. After I figured out at what rate I would lose one pound, I would then be able to develop a plan in which a set number of calories were eaten and burned each day. With variable ratio intervals the amount of calories taken in would hinge upon the amount of activity in a day. By rationing the amount of calories to the amount of activity, the weight loss would be negligible because as with continuous reinforcement, there would be days in which the calories taken in would be zero and my body would then begin to hold whatever calories I did take in. The next category is the fixed interval meaning that the time that I would eat is fixed. There would be a set schedule and the reward for sticking to it would be weight loss. The problem with the fixed interval reinforcement schedule is that real life would soon intrude on the interval in which I ate. Having set times for anything is not a solution because my lifestyle does not support a schedule that is strict and inflexible. Feldman states that a variable interval schedule is “a schedule by which the time between reinforcements varies around some average rather than being fixed (2011).” Going by this definition the average would be the times eaten. While my lifestyle does not support scheduled meals, it does support an average of time between meals. By
Token economies have had success when improving exercise behaviors in children and some other types of mammals. In this study exercise behaviors and negative thoughts were studied and a token economy, long term reinforcers and prompting were used to intervene in the target behaviors. This study aimed to increase the participant’s exercise behaviors from once a week to three times or more, in an effort to allow the participant a healthier lifestyle along with allowing her to combat the negative thoughts that prevented exercise behaviors from taking place before the intervention. The intervention appears to have worked, in that the participant completed nine exercise sessions during this period, and her average negative thoughts per day decreased. Maintenance for this intervention does not seem to be as strong as it could be however, as the participant’s exercise behaviors did not remain high after the intervention was completed. A more permanent solution of a changing criterion design combined with systematic fading would potentially create a more long-lasting behavioral change. The initial results of the intervention illustrate that a token economy can be effective with adults as well as children.
I applied these strategies to help me lose weight. Before I began my weight loss journey, I must admit I didn’t have any set plans in mind but only to sign up for Weight Watchers (WW) to try it out. I had seen plenty of success stories, so I figured what’s the harm right? I signed up blindly, but once I activated my account I did notice WW had a set plan of a daily allotted points and pre entered foods with points attached. With this information I became motivated, so I set my phone aside and created a plan of action. I identified any and all crucial moments as to when I may want to eat poorly, or if I am having days I don’t want to cook or count any points (it seemed like a lot in the beginning). I also created vital behaviors and how I will enact these toward my crucial moments. First, there were no days off for weight loss, if I was going to lose weight I must commit. So I told myself if I chose to eat badly this day, the next day would be a great day. I also removed all foods that I knew were not good for me, only shopping for foods that were well within my point range for the day, and were filling as well. I turned a lot of bad days into good data. I noticed eating out wasn’t working because I lost more weight when I prepared my own meals versus eating out. I also realized, I love certain meals and made mistakes along the way of making old recipes just to have that meal I
In order to permanently lose weight you must create an environment for your body to thrive. And, in order to do this you must feed your body correctly. It's not about limiting your caloric intake - in fact, if you're eating correctly, you won't have to ever count calories again.
Both Mr. William and I choose two weeks period to measure the actions. The reward would be experienced by Mr. William such as reduce the feeling of sluggishness and increase of energy from exercise regularly. If he follows through by limiting empty calorie snacks, it would be beneficial in his weight loss as well. As the counseling process progressing, my client would like to upgrade his reward by treating himself with a seasonal ticket to the game of his favorite football team. It is a great decision because the higher the reward, the harder he would try to accomplish his goals.
First, the subject relied on two positive reinforcers: a primary positive reinforcer and a rewarded positive reinforcer. The primary reinforcer was strong enough to increase the target behavior as the criterion changes. As the subject began to drink more water, she was more likely to feel dehydrated if she did not drink for a short period of time. Thus, the subject felt thirsty more often. While the primary reinforcer was effective, the second reinforcer was ineffective as a reward. The subject’s appetite for sweet snacks was too strong, and she ate sweet snacks even when she was not supposed to receive the reward just yet. In future studies, a newer and stronger positive reinforcer should replace the positive reinforcer, the sweet snacks, to decrease the likelihood on extinction.
Therefore, there is a requirement to expand the discussion about however reinforcement affects behaviour. Reinforcement is seen as: “an event, a circumstance, or a condition that increases the chance that a given response can recur in a scenario like that within which the reinforcing condition originally occurred” (TAHMDC, 2007). Meanwhile, Azrin and Holz (1966, cited in Skiba and Deno, 1991) defined penalty thus:
My objective for the behavior management strategy was to maintain a consistent diet of three meals per day, in order to consume an average of 2200 calories per day. I normally would consume two meals per day with light snacks in between and average 1600 calories per day. This caused fatigue and weight loss did I not anticipate or understand for a long time. My behavior change is essentially adding another meal to my daily diet, and also measures my calorie intake to find an average.
Additionally, an alarm will be set for exercise timings as an additional discrimination stimulus. This alarm will signify the duration and rigor of the exercise in order to illicit the target behavior of a well-established and followed work-out routine. Throughout the month, the above discrimination stimuli will be used three times daily at fixed ratio intervals to encourage regularity. If any activity not determined by the schedule set for the subject occurs, the problem can be dealt either with a negative punishment or negative reinforcement. For example, if the subject does not meet the rigor of the exercise or consumes a diet other than the prescribed one, the possibility of joining the football team can be removed as a negative punishment. Similarly, delicious snacks-established to be reinforcements at the beginning of the month-will be removed as a negative reinforcer for not following the plan. Similarly, to reward target behavior (following the plan) a positive reinforcer will be
Losing weight is the primary way of dealing with obesity, but unfortunately, for some people, losing weight simply isn’t as easy as it is for some other people. One of the most difficult things to do as part of the weight loss program is to stick to the recommended diet and controlled calorie
Rewarding myself was really exciting, because I was finally getting something after my “hard work” of adhering to the program. I was so proud of the items I bought and enjoyed the rewarding experience of buying a scarf and a bracelet. The punishments, however, were more impactful. While I only thought of the rewards for the day, after I had to pay my friend for eating the brownie I kept on reminding myself not to slip up day after day because I was so annoyed with having to pay. In a way, my twice non-adherence to the program helped me adhere to the program even more because I was more aware of avoiding the $10 punishment. The other form of punishment I used, rubber band snapping, was not really visibly impactful to me. It soon became just automatic for me to snap the rubber band whenever sugary food was in sight. Subconsciously, however, the punishment will still affect my behavior. After several days of adherence, I started to notice I was appreciating my meals more and more, savoring the taste and texture of my food. I was tasting every bite, instead of just eating because I was hungrier due to lack of snacking. This was rewarding and pleasant to me. I also enjoyed sweet fruits and even appreciated the
The exercises had a need to make this happen come extra to getting the various tools necessary to keep an eye on this calorie deficit. First, find your BMR (basal metabolic process). You'll find this online, and it'll provide you with the minimum amount of calorie consumption had a need to maintain normal and healthy body functions. You'll then need to work with a web tracker or buy a heartrate monitor that could keep track of just how many calories you are burning each day. Also, a straightforward binder will be asked to keep an eye on these important volumes plus your exercises when you commence those.
In addition to barely eating anything throughout the day, I participate in extreme exercises to burn a significant amount of calories and fat. Dieting and exercising has successfully assisted in my desired weight loss in a short period of time.
When you start thinking about a weight loss program, also start thinking about what your goals are. You might want to look sexy, but that is too general for the goals you need here. When you are making goals they need to be very specific and smart, like being time-based, or measurable, as well as something that is realistic. In this article, we shall discuss how to make action-oriented, energizing and rewarding goals for weight loss.
The behavior that I want to modify is my excessive and continual bad diet habits. This behavior would be considered excessive because it is occurring way more frequently than it should be. This behavior began this semester. Throughout the summer, when I was living at home, I was on a very strict diet, and also had time to accommodate this lifestyle. However, now that I am living on my own again, I have more access to unhealthy food and less time to prepare meals and eat them. I find myself grabbing something easy, which is typically unhealthy, for breakfast almost every morning. Lunch and supper are not much different. In the past, I could easily avoid situations where unhealthy food would be served, and I did not buy anything unhealthy as
It is simple, take in less calories than you burn and going on a diet is crucial to achieving the ultimate goal of weight loss. When dieting you eat what you body needs and nothing else extra. There are many ways to go about dieting but a new revolutionary one is called the Small Plate Movement. This is a website says if you eat off of a smaller plate you will have a smaller appetite. (Small Plate Movement. (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from http://www.smallplatemovement.org) Another way to diet is to eat only certain foods for a certain amount of time. There are diets set where they ship the meals to your house and you only eat their product this diet is called the Atkins Diet.