PSYC 355 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Job Satisfaction, Community Psychology, Organizational Behavior Management
Chapter 1: Introduction to Behavior Modification
Defining Human Behavior:
● Behavior: what people say and do
● Characteristics that define behavior:
○ Involves a person’s actions (what they say/ do)
■ Described with action verbs
■ Behavior is not a static characteristic of the person
○ Have dimensions (measurable aspect of the behavior)
■ Frequency
● the number of time the behavior occurs
■ Duration
● a time from when an instance of the behavior starts until it stops
■ Intensity
● The physical force involved in the behavior
■ Speed of behavior/ latency from some event to the start of a behavior
○ Can be observed, described and recorded by others or by the person engaging
in the behavior
■ Detected through the senses
○ Have an impact on the environment (physical or social)
■ Behavior is an action that involves movement through time and space
● Has some on the environment in which it occurs
■ ie. turn the light switch the light comes on;
■ Sometimes the behavior has an effect only the person engaging in it
■ All human behavior operates on the physical/ social environment some
way, regardless of whether we are aware of its impact
○ Is lawful; is occurrence is systematically influenced by environmental events
■ Behavior principles describe the functional relationships between our
behavior and environmental events
● How our behavior is influenced by, or occurs as a function of,
environmental events
■ Understanding the environmental events that cause behavior to occur,
you can change the events in the environment to alter behavior
○ May be overt or covert
■ Most often, behavior modification procedures are used to understand/
change overt behaviors
● Overt behavior: action that can be observed and recorded by a
person other than the one engaging in the behavior
● Covert behavior (private events): not observable by others
○ ie. thinking
Defining Behavior Modification:
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● Behavior modification: the applied science and professional practice concerned with
analyzing and modifying human behavior
○ Analyzing: identifying the functional relationship between environmental events
and a particular behavior
■ Want to understand the reasons for the behavior or determine why a
person behaved as they did
○ Modifying: developing/ implementing procedures to help people change their
behavior
■ Altering environmental events as to influence the behavior
■ Goal to improve some aspect of a person’s life
Characteristics of Behavior Modification:
● Focus on behavior
○ Designed to change behavior, not a personal characteristic or trait
■ De-emphasizes labeling
○ Target behavior: the behavior to be modified
■ Behavioral excess: an undesirable target behavior the person wants to
decrease in frequency, duration or intensity
■ Behavioral deficit: desirable target behavior the person wants to
increase in frequency, duration or intensity
● Guided by the theory and philosophy of behaviorism
○ Guiding theory behind behavior modification is behaviorism
■ -behavior is lawful and controlled by environmental events occurring in
close temporal relation to the behavior
● Procedures based on behavioral principles
○ Behavior modification is the application of basic principles originally derived from
experimental research with laboratory animals
■ Scientific study of behavior= experimental analysis of behavior
(behavior analysis)
■ Scientific study of human behavior to help people change behavior in
meaningful ways is called applied behavior analysis
● Emphasis on current environmental events
○ Involves assessing and modifying the current environmental events that are
functionally related to the behavior
○ Human behavior is controlled by events in the immediate environment
■ Goal of behavior modification is identifying these events
● Controlling variables
○ Controlling variables are altered to modify the behavior
● Precise description of behavior modification procedures
○ These procedures involve specific changes in environmental events that are
functionally related to the behavior
■ For procedures to be effective when used, the specific changes in
environmental events must occur each time
● Need to have descriptive procedures to follow
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Involves a person"s actions (what they say/ do) Behavior is not a static characteristic of the person. Have dimensions (measurable aspect of the behavior) Intensity the number of time the behavior occurs. A time from when an instance of the behavior starts until it stops. The physical force involved in the behavior. Speed of behavior/ latency from some event to the start of a behavior. Can be observed, described and recorded by others or by the person engaging in the behavior. Have an impact on the environment (physical or social) Behavior is an action that involves movement through time and space. Has some on the environment in which it occurs ie. turn the light switch(cid:3450) the light comes on; Sometimes the behavior has an effect only the person engaging in it. All human behavior operates on the physical/ social environment some way, regardless of whether we are aware of its impact.
