To strengthen a new behavior

7. Decreasing Reinforcement Principle:

To encourage a child to continue performing an established behavior with few or no rewards, gradually require a longer time period or more correct responses before a correct behavior is rewarded.

8. Variable Reinforcement Principle:

To improve or increase a child's performance of a certain activity, provide the child with an intermittentreward.

How To develop a new behavior

1. Successive Approximation Principle:

To teach a child to act in a manner in which he has seldom or never before behaved, reward successive steps to the final behavior.

2. Continuous Reinforcement Principle:

To develop a new behavior that the child has not previously exhibited, arrange for an immediate reward after each correct performance.

3. Negative Reinforcement Principle:

To increase a child's performance in a particular way, you may arrange for him to avoid or escape a mild aversive situation by improving his behavior or by allowing him to avoid the aversive situation by behaving appropriately.

4. Modeling Principle:

To teach a child new ways of behaving, allow him to observe a prestigeful person performing the desired behavior.

5. Cueing Principle:

To teach a child to remember to act at a specific time, arrange for him to receive a cue for the correct performance just before the action is expected rather than after he has performed it incorrectly.

6. Discrimination Principle:

To teach a child to act in a particular way under one set of circumstances but not in another, help him to identify the cues that differentiate the circumstances and reward him only when his action is appropriate to the cue.

What Is Behavior Modification?

Do you remember being punished as a child? Why do you think your parents did that? Despite what we thought back then, it wasn't because they hated us and enjoyed watching us suffer through a week without television. They merely disapproved of our actions and were hoping to prevent us from repeating them in the future. This is an excellent example of behavior modification.

Behavior modification refers to the techniques used to try and decrease or increase a particular type of behavior or reaction. This might sound very technical, but it's used very frequently by all of us. Parents use this to teach their children right from wrong. Therapists use it to promote healthy behaviors in their patients. Animal trainers use it to develop obedience between a pet and its owner. We even use it in our relationships with friends and significant others. Our responses to them teach them what we like and what we don't.

Origin of the Theory

Behavior modification relies on the concept of conditioning. Conditioning is a form of learning. There are two major types of conditioning; classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning relies on a particular stimulus or signal. An example of this would be if a family member came to the kitchen every time you baked cookies because of the delicious smell. The second type is known as operant conditioning, which involves using a system of rewards and/or punishments. Dog trainers use this technique all the time when they reward a dog with a special treat after they obey a command.

Behavior modification was developed from these theories because they supported the idea that just as behaviors can be learned, they also can be unlearned. As a result, many different techniques were developed to either assist in eliciting a behavior or stopping it. This is how behavior modification was formed.

Techniques

The purpose behind behavior modification is not to understand why or how a particular behavior started. Instead, it only focuses on changing the behavior, and there are various different methods used to accomplish it. This includes:

• Positive reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement
• Punishment
• Flooding
• Systematic desensitization
• Aversion therapy
• Extinction

Positive reinforcement is pairing a positive stimulus to a behavior. A good example of this is when teachers reward their students for getting a good grade with stickers. Positive reinforcement is also often used in training dogs. Pairing a click with a good behavior, then rewarding with a treat, is positive reinforcement.

Negative reinforcement is the opposite and is the pairing of a behavior to the removal of a negative stimulus. A child that throws a tantrum because he or she doesn't want to eat vegetables and has his or her vegetables taken away would be a good example.

Punishment is designed to weaken behaviors by pairing an unpleasant stimulus to a behavior. Receiving a detention for bad behavior is a good example of a punishment.

Flooding involves exposing people to fear-invoking objects or situations intensely and rapidly. Forcing someone with a fear of snakes to hold one for 10 minutes would be an example of flooding.

Systematic desensitization is also used to treat phobias and involves teaching a client to remain calm while focusing on these fears. For example, someone with an intense fear of bridges might start by looking a photo of a bridge, then thinking about standing on a bridge, and eventually walking over a real bridge.

Aversion therapy is the pairing of an unpleasant stimulus to an unwanted behavior in order to eliminate that behavior. Some people bite their finger nails, and in order to stop this behavior, there's a clear substance you can paint on your finger nails that makes them taste awful. Painting your nails with it helps stop the behavior of biting nails.

Extinction is the removal of all reinforcement that might be associated with a behavior. This is a powerful tool and works well, especially with young children.

8 Useful Behavior Modification Techniques for Adults for free

Adult behavior modification is the method of changing the way an adult reacts either physically or mentally to a given stimulus. This process can be applied to anything from stopping a drug addiction to making your bed each morning. Behavior modification is a treatment method, and it is based on the values of operant conditioning. The undesirable behaviors are exchanged with more suitable ones through various techniques and methods. B.F. Skinner, the father of behavior modification science, conducted scientific research in the 1950s that involved training rats through rewards and punishments. His practices and theories continue to influence schools of psychology and practicing psychologists to this day.

Behavior modification has been successfully used to treat anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), enuresis (bed-wetting), among others. Some methods of behavior modification require preparation and attention, where others are just common sense. Find out what you can do to shake your nasty habit today.

1. Positive Reinforcement

Some of us want to know, “What do I get out of this?” Positive reinforcement answers this question. This practice involves the addition of a gratifying experience in reaction to something someone has done. Many adults respond to praise and recognition. Treat yourself to a night out every time you avoid the behavior you are trying to modify.

2. Negative Reinforcement

With negative reinforcement, the method of training involves a negative reinforce. This could be a behavior or event with which the reinforcing properties are associated with its removal. Opposing behavior is shunned by performing an action, and as a result of this, the action is repeated prior to the adverse reaction.

3. Punishment

One of the toughest things we can do as adults is to punish ourselves. Punishment is a form of behavior modification that discourages the unwanted act by application of an unpleasant stimulus in reaction to the behavior.

4. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

Also known as Meridian Tapping, EFT is based on the premise that negative emotions or behaviors stem from short circuits in the body’s energy system. These techniques are done by drumming on certain areas on the body to balance and release the short circuit.

5. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

The NLP technique is a study of communication; how we communicate with others and ourselves, and how that affects the way we react and behave. This communication can be altered through submodalities, metaprograms, etc. to change a behavior.

6. Meditation

Meditation has been used for centuries to help the brain make physiological changes for the better. Not only does it improve brain function and memory, it enables “whole brain synchronization”, a process that allows the left brain portion to interact and be in focus with the right brain hemisphere. Meditation is one of the best behavior modification systems in existence. It alleviates anxiety and depression, causing a remarkable improvement in a person’s sense of well-being.

7. Don’t Give it Attention

You can modify a behavior through ignoring the act. By ignoring the behavior you will often reduce its tendency for appearing again. Don’t give someone attention who is engaging in a behavior that needs stopped.

8. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a psychotherapeutic approach that addresses maladaptive behaviors through a number of goal-oriented systematic procedures. The common hallmarks of CBT are the focus on the “here and now”, a structuring of the sessions and path, a guidance role by the therapist, and on alleviating both the patient’s vulnerability and worrisome symptoms.