Modification of Behavior Essay Example
The behavior I want to engage in is to eat breakfast every weekday. As of right now, all I do is have a nutri-grain bar or something similar to that a couple minutes before class, not really eating anything substantial. I feel as if not eating breakfast makes me more tired and lethargic throughout the day. On Mondays I don't have a class until 1 o’clock so I wake up later then go get lunch. Wednesdays are chapel days with service starting at 10, which means I wake up at 9, not giving myself time to eat much. Then Tuesday and Thursdays I have class at 9:30, but I wake up at 8:45 so I don’t give myself enough time to get breakfast, I only have time for something quick. Finally on Fridays I have an 8 o’clock class so I go to the dining hall after class. What I want to do instead is wake up earlier and ideally go to the dining hall to eat their breakfast or have better food in my room to have in the morning. Due to me wanting to partake in breakfast, I will go to bed earlier since I need to be waking up earlier to make time for it.
Operant Conditioning is a type of learning using positive and negative reinforcements and punishments. This form of conditioning came about in part from B.F. Skinner and having pigeons press a button to obtain food. Studies similar to this have been looked at throughout the years, one even having burmese pythons push a button for a mouse.
A substantial breakfast to me is one with eggs, oatmeal, hash browns, one or two pieces of bacon, a fruit, and a glass of water. My plan is to go to bed earlier so I am able to get at least 8 hours of rest a night. Then I will wake up an hour and a half before whatever it is I have to excluding Fridays when I get breakfast after an 8 am class. On Monday and Wednesday this means waking up at 8:15 to make sure I get there before the hot breakfast closes. Next, on Tuesday and Thursday I need to wake up at 7:50-8 possibly to make sure I get breakfast before my 9:30 class. Subsequently, that night my positive reinforcement will be that I am able to watch my favorite Netflix show that came out with a new season recently. I believe that this delayed reinforcement is strong enough to get me out of bed to get to breakfast. However, it will be difficult for me to get to the dining hall on a Thursday morning because Wednesday nights I have soccer games and it is tough to get up the next day after playing 90 minutes. This is the only problem I can see happening because I am good at getting to bed and waking up to my alarm.
The plan that I created for the two week time frame worked pretty well. There were only two days that I didn’t get up early for breakfast and on both occasions it was Thursday. As stated previously in this paper I realized getting up Thursday may not go well due to me having a game the night before. My behavior changed for the two weeks that I did this but I feel that I won’t keep waking up early to make sure I get breakfast. One reason I believe this is because I finished the Netflix show so I am unsure of another consequence that would make me want to get out of bed.
