Friday, January 2, 2009

Behavorial Modification Project Questions

Your project should be well under way at this point. I have received some questions regarding the best way to present the data that you have collected. Remember that you should have already collected data regarding the amount of times/day/hour....that you notice this behavior. You were also to understand the antecedents that occur prior to this behavior that you wish to change.

For example let's say I'm trying to quit swearing. I need to get a baseline or figure out how often I swear. I count the amount of times over two days that I swear. This information will be part of my data and will go on a graph. The third day I take a look at the antecedents or behavior that occurs prior to swearing. For example, on the third day I notice that I swear most often when I drive my car. This is an antecedent to the behavior that I would like to change. Over the next few days I would try to reduce my swearing by:
1) Knowing that every time i get behind the wheel I'm more likely to swear - so prepare ahead of time to say "shucks" or that "that person must be mentally challenged" instead of my usual cuss words.
2) Reward myself with 10 extra minutes in the swimming pool if I did not swear once in the car.
3) Observe this behavior over three days and get the data totals.

This data should be recorded and first put in a data table. I would then use the data from the table to display the results in a graphic form.

I would include all data on the graph using a separate color to display the first two days of observing my behavior, another color to show when I was observing the antecedents and finally a third color to show when I had my plan of using other words and reward system.

email me with specific questions
Happy New Year!

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