Your Name:

PSYC 110 Section:

Behavior Modification Exercise (15 Points)

Everyone has a behavior that s/he wishes to improve; either eliminating a bad habit or improving a skill. Behavior modification has been used to do just that through classical and/or operant conditioning. For example, an elementary school teacher may use “time-out” as a form of negative punishment to reduce a child’s disruptions during class. Also, some techniques, though not widely conducted now, used electric shocks as positive punishment to reduce self-injuring behaviors.

Your assignment is to identify a behavior that you want to modify (e.g., getting to class on time, going to bed by midnight, studying more, wearing a seatbelt, eating healthier breakfast, etc.). Once you have identified this behavior, write an operational definition for the behavior below. Next, collect some baseline data on how frequently the behavior that you wish to modify occurs per day, and that data on the graph. Do this for at least three days. Next, devise an operant or classical conditioning procedure that could be implemented to modify your behavior in the way you want. Describe this procedure below the graph. If you want you may implement this procedure for a few days to see if your behavior changes from your baseline. Doing so may earn up to 5 extra points on this assignment. Enjoy!

Operational Definition of Behavior to be Modified:

Describe you behavioral modification procedure. Be specific and use proper terminology (e.g., positive punishment, extinction, higher-order conditioning) as necessary: