3 Weeks After The Program Implementation example essay topic

ABSTRACT A study was conducted which used operant conditioning principles to reinforce the positive behaviour of not over sleeping in a uni student. The subject was a healthy female who was reinforced positively with ice cream, self praise and social reinforcement. Punishments for occasions of oversleeping were applied by taking away TV privileges. Results indicated that although there were some lapses toward oversleeping throughout the program, there was an overall decrease in oversleeping.

This supports the hypothesis that application of behavioural principles will decrease the undesirable behaviour. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to implement behaviour therapy techniques of operant conditioning for behaviour modification of over sleeping in a university student. The study will comply with the 'guidelines for effective application of positive reinforcement and punishment (Marin et al, 1999). It is predicted that the frequency of oversleeping will decrease in the subject by following the appearance of waking up at target times with positive reinforcement. The positive reinforcement will include tangible rewards and self-reinforcers. Punishment will apply for oversleeping in order to decrease the frequency of the undesired behaviour.

Over time, tangible reinforcers will be gradually eliminated and the desirable behaviour (waking at appropriate times) will be maintained through social reinforcement. Periodic assessments of the behaviour after the program has terminated will be was administered to check that the desired frequency was being maintained. In order to maintain confidentiality and comply with research code of ethics, the subject was given a consent form with all information about the purpose of the study. These measures were taken to ensure that the participant understood the exact nature of the project and had given their fully informed consent to the use of information recorded (Gilbert et al, 1995). METHOD Participants The subject (SG) is a 21 yr old female university student.

The subject was assessed and found to be within the average height and weight range and considered to an overall healthy subject. However she was oversleeping in the mornings causing her to be late for work and uni on average 5 out of 7 days of every week throughout her university degree. (She was currently in her third year). Materials A self-monitoring diary was used to document progress each day, documenting amount of awards and punishment received throughout the program. Procedure The subject had her alarm clock set for two hours before her first lecture started at University from Monday to Friday.

This enabled enough preparation and driving time to reach Uni or work at the appropriate starting times. The alarm was also set for two hours before the start of her part time job shift on Sundays. Saturday was the only day where the alarm clock was not set and was considered the only day where the alarm clock was not set and was considered the one day of the week fro rest and sleeping in. Every time the subject woke up at the time of the alarm, her mother had agreed to immediately give her 5 dollars to spend at uni or work to buy an ice cream which acted as positive reinforcement as it was her favourite treat. Punishment for not waking up at the set alarm time and over sleeping, was established by not allowing her to watch her favourite Television show (The Simpson's), for that day of oversleeping.

Further positive reinforcers included self-reinforcers such as self-praise and self-approval as her ability to understand lectures in uni would increase. Gradually the tangible rewards were decreased with social reinforcers such as praise from her fellow university classmates and appreciation from her work friends and her work boss. The program ran for 4 weeks with reinforcers and punishes strictly implemented. The subject was to document her progress throughout the program and continue to document after the program as it was used to check for overall results of the program after its implementation.

The subject's diary was checked 3 weeks after program implementation. RESULTS Key: 1 represents waking up at the appropriate times 2 represent oversleeping Days were represented as each day for 4 weeks, excluding Saturdays. This graph shows that over the 4-week duration of the program, the total number of times overslept was 4 out of 24 days. After program implementation, the results of the diary checking is tabulated below This graph reveals 3 weeks after the program implementation, the subject overslept 2 out of 18 days (still excluding Saturdays). DISCUSSION Literature suggests that behavioural strategies such as operant conditioning are tactful methods for changing behaviour (Herbert, 1997). From the present study, it can be seen that an overall improvement of waking up at the appropriate times had developed from the operant conditioning procedures administered.

This conclusion is based on the knowledge that the subject pre program was oversleeping on average 70% of times during the week. The program decreased this percentage to 20% and 3 weeks later, to 11%. Although this is a clear improvement, the results of this study do not demonstrate a 100% improvement. The reason for the lapses toward oversleeping during and after the program must be investigated in order to distinguish whether the program was poor or the individual was experiencing for example, social / emotional issues that may have affected her performance and results. The study could also be improved by a replication, increasing the number of subjects, both male and female, as a single case study is of poor validity, making the efficacy of this study questionable. However the considerable improvement shown in this study give rise to further study and research into he implementation of behaviour principles such as operant conditioning, for the behaviour modification of habits such as oversleeping, in uni students.

Bibliography

1. Herbert M. 1997, ABC of behavioural methods 2.
Australian council for educational Research publishing Ltd. 2. Martin G & Pear J. 1999, Behaviour modification;
what is it and how to do it, 6th ed. Prentice Hall, Inc. 3. Gilbert & Tobias, 19th May 1995.