Happiness Isn’t Brain Surgery:
Behavior Modification Basics/Part 2
Presented by: Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes
Executive Director, AllCEUs
Host: Counselor Toolbox
Continuing Education (CE) credits for addiction and mental health counselors, social workers and marriage and family therapists can be earned for this presentation at
https://allceus.com/member/cart/index/product/id/575/c/
Objectives
– Continue to explore the usefulness of behavior modification
– Review basic behavior modification terms:
– Unconditioned stimulus and response
– Conditioned stimulus and response
– Discriminitive stimuli
– Learned helplessness
– Learn additional modification terms:
– Reinforcement
– Punishment
– Extinction Burse
– Premack Principle
Why Do I Care
– Change means doing something different or modifying a response
– While stimuli prompt a behavior, reinforcement and punishment are associated with motivation
– Understanding these principles will help you
– Elicit a behavior
– Increase the likelihood it will happen again
– Decrease the likelihood of unwanted behaviors
Review basic behavior modification terms
– Unconditioned stimulus and response
– Loud noise / startle
– Bright light / squinting
– Conditioned stimulus and response
– Doorbell / answer the door
– Yellow light / slow down
– Discriminitive stimuli
– Set the occasion for the behavior (reminder stickies, pictures, alarms,
– Learned helplessness
– Lack of responsiveness to a stimulus when all options have been exhausted
New Terms
– Positive Reinforcement
– Providing something positive in order to increase the likelihood a behavior will occur again
– Examples
– Food
– Money (Paycheck)
– Validation
– Promotion
– Power (Choosing activities)
– What can be added that is rewarding AND helpful for the person
New Terms
– Negative Reinforcement
– Removing something negative in order to increase the likelihood a behavior will occur again
– Examples
– Reducing mandatory counseling sessions
– Dropping restitution or additional charges upon completion
– Can leave the table once vegetables are eaten
– What can be eliminated that would be considered rewarding AND helpful for the person
New Terms
– Positive Punishment
– Adding something negative to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will recur
– Examples
– Antabuse
– Spanking
– Additional sessions
– Rubberband snaps
– What can be added that would be considered unpleasant for the person
New Terms
– Negative Punishment
– Removing something positive to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will recur
– Examples
– Grounding/priviledges
– Money (Fines)
– Jail
– Relationship/Setting boundaries
– Control/power
– What can be eliminated that would be considered undesirable
Types of Rewards and Punishments
– Rewards and Punishments can be:
– Emotional (Happiness)
– Mental (Improved decision making, cognitive clarity)
– Physical (Appearance, health, pain, energy, sleep, relaxation)
– Social (Acceptance, admiration, support)
– Spiritual/Karmic
– Financial
– Environmental (freedom, pleasant conditions)
Apply It
– The more rewards that can be gained the stronger the motivation to repeat the behavior
– Drugs/Addictive Behaviors
– Positive Reinforcement: Dopamine
– Negative Reinforcement: Numbing of Pain
– Self-Injury
– Positive reinforcement: Endogenous opioids, feeling of control
– Negative reinforcement: Numbing of pain
New Term
– Behavior Strain
– The point at which the reinforcement or punishment is no longer effective
– Effected by:
– Age
– Cognitive development
– Strength of the reinforcement or punishment
– Smaller, more frequent rewards for completion of smaller goals:
– Provide rapid benefits
– Maintain momentum
New Term
– Extinction Burst
– A temporary increase in a behavior when rewards are absent or insufficient
– Child in the store
– Pigeon wanting food
– “Acting Out”
– The behavior ceases when the demands/costs of the behavior exceed the potential reward
– Promotion
– Treatment
New Term
– Premack Principle
– Concurrently pairing something undesirable with something desirable
– Examples
– Laundry folding with watching television
– Exercise with socialization/puppy time/nature
– Studying with peer pressure
– Cleaning with music/tv/aromatherapy
– Work with coffee
Apply It
– Behavior 1: Social Withdrawal
– Social withdrawal is rewarding mainly due to negative reinforcement (elimination of the unpleasant)
Apply It
– Behavior 2: Explosive Anger
Apply It
– Behavior 3: Emotional Eating
Summary
– If you eliminate a behavior, you must replace it with at least one, preferably 3 new ones
– People are “motivated” for rewards and to avoid punishment.
– Decisional balance exercises can help people make new behaviors rewarding and old behaviors…less rewarding
– Reinforcers must be reinforcing to the person (i.e. jail avoidance to a career criminal, money to Trump)
– Likewise, punishments must be unpleasant
– Rewards and Punishments can be:
– Emotional (Happiness)
– Mental (Improved decision making, cognitive clarity)
– Physical (Appearance, health, pain, energy, sleep, relaxation)
– Social (Acceptance, admiration, support)
– Spiritual/Karmic
– Financial
– Environmental (freedom, pleasant conditions)