A behavioural increase plan is a strategy for increasing the frequency or intensity of a specific behaviour in a person. You first identify the targeted behaviour, set clear and attainable goals, and implement a reinforcement plan to encourage the individual to engage in the desired behaviour are typical components of the plan. The first step in developing a behavioural increase plan is identifying the behaviour that needs to be increased. The specific, observable, and quantifiable behaviour you want to increase must exist. The behaviour may be defined as a particular number of daily steps or an exact amount of time spent engaging in a specific type of exercise if the goal is to increase a person’s level of physical activity.
The specific behaviour that I would like to improve in my brother is the act of him spending more hours watching the television and playing video games rather than reading books. We all know how distracting and harmful watching television for a more extended period can be. It can lead to wasting a lot of fruitful time and possibly to health problems like poor eyesight, back pains and maybe body aches. Reading books, on the other side, can be so influential in developing one behaviour and self-improvement; for example, reading books can increase our knowledge and give us worldly ideas that can change the world. In addition, it can be very therapeutic to the human brain and improve concentration rate and focus.
Stimuli or events that occur after an action enhance the probability that the behaviour will be repeated. A reinforcement is something that increases the likelihood of a behaviour occurring again. Positive and negative reinforcers are the two different categories of reinforcers. Positive reinforcers are given immediately after the conduct to increase the likelihood that an action will be repeated. Praise, awards, and privileges are examples of positive reinforcers. Negative reinforcers are stimuli that are eliminated or avoided immediately following an effort, increasing the chance that the activity will be repeated in the future. Negative reinforcers include the removal of an unpleasant task or reducing demands (Powell et al., 2016, p.247).
We will consider the primary and secondary reinforces for behaviour increment in the plan of aiding my brother to spend more hours studying rather than watching television and playing video games. Primary reinforcers are intrinsically satisfying rewards for a person, such as food, money, or other tangible goods. Non-food incentives, such as a movie night or a day excursion, might be considered primary reinforcement in our scenario to motivate my brother to keep reading books with a stimulus-response that he can watch a movie after executing the desired behaviour. These incentives should be provided for the desired behaviour of reading books rather than watching television and playing games (Powell et al., 2016, p.247). On the other hand, secondary reinforcers are rewards that become reinforced over time through association with primary supports or through social validation. In our example, social proof can be secondary reinforcement, such as expressing how impressed you are with their progress or your pride in their efforts. Social validation can be essential when the primary reinforce insufficient to motivate the individual. For instance, if the individual is not motivated by tangible rewards, social proof may help increase their motivation to engage in the desired behaviour.
The schedule of reinforcement is one of the most important factors to consider when trying to increase a specific behaviour. Consistency and frequency in support can significantly encourage the behaviour. To prevent reliance on reinforcement and ensure that the behaviour can be sustained, it is crucial to constantly decrease the frequency of reinforcement over time. The matching law, which states that an organism’s response rates to a specific schedule will closely follow the ratio that support has been obtained, has been a significant discovery. To encourage my brother to read more books often, we can be more consistent and frequent in providing positive reinforcements, such as giving him rewards and other forms of positive reinforcement (Lim, 2020). It will make him associate the behaviour with this positive rewards and outcomes. However, reducing the reinforcement frequency is crucial as he improves his behaviour. It is a variable reinforcement schedule since the person is not rewarded each time they exhibit the behaviour. If he grows overly dependent on the reinforcement, he might quit acting out once it is no longer present.
Every time my brother chooses to read a book instead of watching television, we can start by rewarding him for his behaviour. We can gradually lower the frequency of reinforcement to every other time he reads a book, then to every second time, third time, and so on, as he becomes more adapted to this behaviour and starts to exhibit it more regularly. The idea behind a variable reinforcement schedule is that my brother will keep up the behaviour even if he doesn’t get rewarded every time since he knows he still has a chance to get rewarded. The behaviour of watching television can moderately reduce and be maintained over time by concentrating the schedule of reinforcement. Remembering that the individual’s reaction to support should determine how quickly the reinforcement schedule is lowered (Lumen, 2010). It’s critical to remember that a person’s response to reinforcement should dictate how frequently reinforcement occurs. Instead of reducing the frequency of support, it might be necessary to increase it if the person needs to display the desired behaviour more regularly. It might be required to increase the frequency of reinforcement rather than decrease it if the person is not increasing the frequency of the desired behaviour. When choosing reinforcement strategies, keep the individual’s preferences and motivations in mind. For example, if a person is strongly driven by social validation, praise and acknowledgement for their work may be more successful than physical incentives. Ensuring the incentives are suitable and relevant to the individual is also critical. Rewards that are too tough or simple to obtain may not be motivating, so finding a happy medium is vital.
Evaluating the success of a reinforcement scheme requires assessing behavioural change. Setting behavioural changes includes monitoring and comparing the frequencies, duration, or intensity of the desired behaviour before and after the mediation. I will calculate based on how much time my brother spends watching TV and reading books to assess the evolution of his behavioural change. I’ll keep track of everything he does and gradually increase the time he spends reading books while decreasing the time he spends watching television. I also need to assess if my brother is enjoying and finding the new habit satisfying. I can ask him, for example, to keep a diary about his adventure in reading books and the steps he undergoes as he develops the desired behaviour, from then I can be able to access his feeling about the behaviour by assessing the tone in his diary and witnessing the experience he gives. I will also employ direct observation, observing my brother in his natural environment and recording the frequency of the targeted behaviour before and after the intervention. Although this method can take some time, it offers reliable data and enables immediate feedback. To achieve accurate findings, it is critical to examine the reliability and validity of the evaluation techniques utilized.
Furthermore, a baseline measurement of the targeted behaviour must be established before the intervention begins to quantify any changes reliably. Objective metrics, such as recording the intended behaviour with technology or equipment, can give exact and reliable data. A pedometer, for example, may be used to track an individual’s daily steps, which can help them increase their physical activity.
The chart shows the time spent reading a book against watching TV.
In conclusion, the reinforcement methods chosen are appropriate as they provide positive reinforcement and social validation, which can motivate the individual to engage in the desired behaviour. The frequency of support will be enough to increase an individual behaviour because the reinforcement schedule is moderately reduced as the behaviour becomes more consistent. However, it is essential to ensure that the rewards that are the positive reinforcements are appropriate and motivating for the individual and that they are simple enough to accomplish. It is also critical to assess if the individual is enjoying and finding the new activity pleasant since this might affect the longevity of the behaviour change. It also helps an individual to know if the plan is effective and will require some adjustments.
References
Lim, A. G. Y. (2020, July 2). Schedules of Reinforcement | Simply Psychology. Www.simplypsychology.org. https://www.simplypsychology.org/schedules-of-reinforcement.html
Lumen. (2010). Reinforcement and Punishment | Introduction to Psychology. Lumenlearning.com. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/waymaker-psychology/chapter/operant-conditioning/
Powell, R. A., Honey, P. L., & Symbaluk, D. G. (2016). Introduction to Learning and Behavior. In Google Books. Cengage Learning. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HsMaCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=Powell
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