Appendix Flashcards
Behaviourist view on self control
From a behavioral perspective, difficulties in self-control typically involve having to choose between behaviors that lead to conflicting outcomes.
It as a choice between a highly valued but significantly delayed outcome, which can be called a larger later reward (LLR), and a lesser valued but more immediately available outcome, which can be called a smaller sooner reward (SSR).
SSR smaller sooner reward
SSRs are, of course, what we typically call temptations, and they are a major obstacle that we face in attempting to achieve our long-term goals.
The main factor involved is that temptations (and rewards in general) are much more powerful when they are immediately available than when they are delayed.
Each choice of the SSR is actually relatively inconsequential with respect to the overall likelihood of obtaining the LLR.
LLR larger later reward
A person who chooses SSRs over LLRs and a person who chooses LLRs over SSRs
From this perspective, a person who tends to choose SSRs over LLRs is said to be “impulsive,”
while a person who tends to choose LLRs over SSRs is said to exhibit “self-control.”
From a behavioral perspective, successfully managing this dilemma, which behaviorists refer to as behavior self-management, involves doing one or both of the following:
- Increase the frequency of desirable behavior— that is, the behavior that leads to the LLR, which may be effortful or unpleasant in the short run but beneficial in the long run.
- Decrease the frequency of undesirable behavior— that is, the SSR, which may be easy and pleasant in the short run but harmful in the long run.
- Remove the SSR completely.
General Guidelines for Effective Self-Management
- Don’t rely on willpower. Many people assume they can overcome temptations by gritting their teeth and “making up their mind” to do the right thing. Although this might occasionally work, the reality is that, for most of us, it often has little or no effect on our behavior.
- Be proactive rather than reactive. Because temptations are difficult to resist when they become imminent, effective self-control usually involves doing something ahead of time to prevent us from succumbing to the temptation when it arises.
3.Alter the environment to alter your behavior. The things you do ahead of time to manage your behavior will typically include altering some aspect of your environment.
Ex: This might be anything from rearranging the desk at which you study (the present arrangement being more strongly associated with playing video games than studying) to rewarding yourself for exercising by afterward watching your favorite TV show (so you get to watch TV after all).
Basic Strategies of Behavior Self-Management: Self-monitoring
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Self-monitoring.
A useful first step in behavior self-management is to track the occurrence of the “target behavior” you wish to change. This will give you an accurate picture of the behavior prior to trying to change it (the baseline phase) and during your intervention (the treatment phase). Moreover, the act of self-monitoring by itself can sometimes lead to a significant improvement in behavior. In what is known as a functional assessment, one can also track the antecedents (i.e., cues) that precede the behavior as well as the consequences that follow it; this will give you a sense of the present environmental influences on that behavior. A good rule of thumb, therefore, is to make self-monitoring as simple and easy as possible.
Basic Strategies of Behavior Self-Management: Manipulate the antecedent cues to the behaviour
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Manipulate the antecedent cues to the behaviour
Often involves altering the environmental cues (SDs) that precede the target behavior and thereby facilitate its occurrence. Two basic strategies are:
(A) Increase the cues for desirable behavior.
Ex: Making specific plans for when we study or exercise each week. “habitize” a behavior by repeatedly practicing it in the presence of certain cues.
(B) Reduce the cues for undesirable behavior.
A variation on this strategy is to narrow the cues for undesirable behavior, in which the behavior is allowed to occur only in specific circumstances.
Basic Strategies of Behavior Self-Management: Manipulate how effortful it is to perform the behavior
- Manipulate how effortful it is to perform the behavior
This tactic is also often described as increasing or decreasing the amount of “friction” involved in performing the behavior. The two options are:
(A) Make the desirable behavior less effortful to perform.
Even slight reductions in response effort can be surprisingly effective.
Ex: If you find that you rarely go for a workout at the gym, which is a considerable distance away, consider exercising at home instead.
(B) Make the undesirable behavior more effortful to perform.
Ex: If you’re addicted to checking your smartphone for messages while studying, then try placing the smartphone in another part of the house.
Basic Strategies of Behavior Self-Management: Manipulate how motivated you are to perform the behavior
- ** Manipulate how motivated you are to perform the behavior**
This strategy involves procedures that alter how attracted we are to the outcome of the behavior. There are two options:
(A) Increase your motivation for the desirable behavior.
Ex: An interesting version of this for a student would be to spend some of your “screen time” perusing the many YouTube videos on how to study, many of which are posted by actual students who appear to be extremely efficient and highly accomplished. In addition to learning about the specific study tactics they employ, you may be surprised at the extent to which these students also seem to lead well-balanced lives with plenty of time for rest and recreation.
(B) Decrease your motivation for the undesirable behavior.
Ex: A common trick used by dieters is to eat just before grocery shopping; one is then less likely to buy fattening foods, such as ice cream and cookies.
Satiation procedure —> force yourself to do it until you’re sick of it
Basic Strategies of Behavior Self-Management: Manipulate the consequences for the behavior
A critical aspect of achieving a long-term goal (LI.R) is to somehow arrange for more immediate consequences along the way. Basic tactics to consider include the following:
(A) Reward vourself for desirable behavior.
Contrived reinforcers, that don’t naturally follow from the behavior but will hopefully strengthen the behavior anyway. However, self-reward is a weak type of contingency nothing prevents you from taking the reward without performing the behavior. more natural type of self-reward is subgoals.
(B) Punish yourself for the occurrence of undesirable behavior.
Self-punishment is even more problematic than self-reinforcement because of a strong tendency by most people to not carry out the punishment.
(C) Create and accomplish subgoals. Accomplishing a major task almost always involves dividing the task up into a series of subgoals. These subgoals not only serve as cues for our behavior the successful completion of each also serves as a reward for our behavior.
(D) Make a commitment response.
A commitment response is an action carried out ahead of time that reliably eliminates or significantly reduces the value of an upcoming temptation. It often involves placing control of the consequences in the hands of another person.
Basic Strategies of Behavior Self-Management: Change the target behavior.
The main concern here is whether you’ve chosen the right behavior to try to increase or decrease.
Also, when trying to eliminate an undesirable behavior, it is sometimes better to focus on strengthening an alternative behavior to replace it. In fact, this is the main tactic used in treating various nervous (or motor) habits such as nail biting and teeth grinding. = “habit reversal training”
The extent to which human behavior is often influenced by rules or instructions.
In this regard, a self-management program is essentially a set of personal rules that you adopt in an attempt to modify your behavior.
People who are successful at self-management have, to some extent, created an effective set of rules that work for them. The following are a few rules (or “meta-rules,” if you will) that you may wish to consider in devising your own program.
- Keep it simple. This especially applies to self-monitoring.
- Keep it reasonable. It is common for people to try to do too much too quickly when attempting to change their behavior.
- Beware the “snowballing” or “what-the-hell” effect. Many people regard a self-management program as a “do-or-die” affair, such that if they fail to fully adhere to the program, they may as well abandon it. Regard self-management as a work in progress, one that involves both successes and failures, and where occasional lapses are expected and even prepared for. In fact, the most critical issue in behavior self-management is not whether you violate the program but what you do after you violate the program.
- Self-experiment. the key to effective self-management is to adopt an experimental attitude in which controlling one’s behavior is perceived to be less of a problem to fret over than a puzzle to be solved. As with any experiment, it necessitates gathering information, testing possible solutions, assessing their effects, and altering one’s plans accordingly.
Recommended Tactics
- Pomodoro technique. This is essentially a time-based variant of the subgoal tactic: work or study tasks are broken up into a series of short sessions (usually about a half hour long), the length of which is controlled by a timer.
- The just-get-started tactic. this tactic is also sometimes referred to as mini-, micro-, or tiny habits. When properly implemented—”Although I don’t feel like exercising, Fll do just a couple of push-ups and then decide whether to carry on or not”— it can be surprisingly effective.
- A dedicated study space This tactic, which involves creating a strong association between certain cues and the act of studying. An unusual variant of it is to create a mobile cue that is also strongly associated with studying such as noise-cancelling headphones or earbuds that you can carry with you and put on when studying in a variety of settings.
- The Premack principle When combined with self-reward, this tactic consists of using a high-frequency behavior as a reward for engaging in your target behavior.
