“Self” as Controller of Behavior

 Radical behaviorism causes of behavior are found

in the environment
 Problem:
 Some causal variables are not apparent in the immediate
environment,
 Creates a tendency to point to internal causes of
behavior
 Willpower, Drive, etc.
Skinner
First to apply philosophy & theory of radical behaviorism
to actions typically considered to be controlled by the self
 Self-Control
 Two-response phenomenon
 Controlling response
 Controlled response

 See Science and Human Behavior by Skinner

Controlling Response
 Affects variables in a way that influences the
probability of a controlled response occurring
Controlled Response
 Relates to self-management of a behavior
 Is the actual behavior emitted to control the target
behavior
 Three Terminology Problems
with Self Control
 Brigham: Self control implies the ultimate control of
the behavior relies within the person
 Control is learned from interactions with the
environment (your experiences with the environment)
 Baum: Self control implies there is a separate
controlling self inside the person
 Relies on mentalistic models to explain behavior
 Mischel and Gilligan: Self control implies ability to
delay gratification
 The term becomes both the independent and dependent
variable for the same behavior. - Becomes confusing
Better Term Self-Management
 Target behavior the person wants to change (i.e.
“controlled response”)
 Self-management behavior (i.e. “controlled response”)
Today
 Self-Control is not the same as Self-Management
 Relates to the relationship between immediate and
delayed consequences.
 Can be related to behavior change tactics used to
modify behavior.
Immed. Vs. Delayed Conseq.
 Immediate Pos. Conseq. Taking Cod Liver Oil
Delayed Pos. Conseq. No Heart disease

 Immediate Neg. Conseq. Going to Dentist

 Delayed Neg. Conseq. Root Canal
Self-Management: Points to Note
 Encompasses one time & long running self-
management events
 Desired change in target behavior must occur for self-
management to be demonstrated
Reasons for Self-Management
 Live a more effective & efficient daily life
 Break bad habits & replace with good ones
 Accomplish difficult tasks
 Achieve personal goals
Advantages of Self-Management
 Influence behaviors not accessible to external change
agents
 External change agents can miss important instances
of behavior
 Promote generalization & maintenance of behavior
change
 Small repertoire of self-management skills can control
many behaviors
More Advantages
 People with diverse abilities can learn self-
management skills
 Some people perform better under self-selected tasks
& performance criteria
 People with good self-management skills contribute to
more efficient & effective group environments
Even More Advantages
 Teaching students to use self-management skills
provides meaningful practice for other areas of school
curriculum
 Ultimate goal of education
 Benefits society
 Helps a person feel good
 Feels good
Primary Feature of Self-Management
 Manipulation of antecedent stimuli to the target
(controlled) behavior
 Environmental planning
 Situational inducement
Antecedent-Based Techniques

1. Manipulating MO’s to make a desired (or

undesired) behavior more (or less) likely
2. Providing response prompts
3. Performing initial steps of a behavior chain
4. Removing materials required for an undesired
behavior
5. Limiting undesired behavior to restricted
stimulus conditions
6. Dedicating a specific environment for a behavior
Manipulating Motivating Operations
 General strategy:
 Behave in a way (controlling behavior)…
 that creates a certain state of motivation that, in turn…
 increases (or decreases as desired) the subsequent
frequency of the target behavior (controlled behavior)
Providing Response Prompts
 Wide variety of forms (e.g. visual, auditory, textual,
symbolic)
 Generic response prompt
 Specific response prompt
 Prompt repeated performance of a behavior in a
variety of situations & settings
 Supplemental response prompts (provided by others)
Performing Initial Steps of a Behavior Chain
 Ensures you are later cued with a SD that reliably
evokes the target behavior
Removing Items Necessary for an Undesired
Behavior to Occur

 Alter the environment so that an undesirable behavior

is less likely or impossible to emit
Limiting Undesired Behavior to Restricted
Stimulus Conditions
 Decrease the frequency of an undesired behavior by
limiting the setting or stimulus conditions under
which the person engages in the behavior
Dedicating a Specific Environment for a
Desired Behavior
 Reserve or create an environment where the person
will only engage in that behavior
 Special stimulus arrangement that can be turned on &
off in a multipurpose setting
Self-Monitoring
 Procedure whereby a person observes his behavior
systematically & records the occurrence or
nonoccurrence of a target behavior
 Also called self-recording or self-observation
 Originally conceived as a method of clinical
assessment
 For behaviors only the client could observe & record
 Became a major therapeutic intervention because of
reactance effects
 Problem: Behavior revertd to old behavior as time
progresses
Self-Evaluation
 Comparison of person’s performance with a
predetermined goal or standard
 Involves the use of self-monitoring with goal setting
 Also called self-assessment
Self-Monitoring with Reinforcement
 Self-monitoring may be part of an intervention
package that includes reinforcement
 For achieving self selected goals
 For achieving teacher selected goals
 Reinforcer may be
 Self-administered
 Delivered by Others
Guidelines & Procedures for Self-Monitoring
 Good directions are essential
 Must know what behaviors to include or exclude
 Must know what to record
 Provide materials that make self-monitoring easy
 Provide supplementary cues or prompts
 Self-monitor the most important dimension of the
target behavior
 Self-monitor early & often
 Reinforce accurate self-monitoring
Technologies to help with Self-Monitoring
 Variety of mechanisms can be utilized to measure the
target behavior
 Do not need to be complicated
 Paper & pencil
 Wrist counters
 Pennies in different pockets
Supplementary Cues or Prompts
 Variety of stimuli can prompt self-recording (e.g.
auditory, visual, & tactile)
 Auditory: prerecorded tones or signals
 Visual: written instruction or symbols
 Tactile: Motivaider® – signals through vibration
Techniques
 Each occurrence of the target behavior should be self-
recorded as soon as possible
 Act of self-monitoring should not disrupt the
occurrence of the target behavior
 Self-monitoring should occur more often at the
beginning of a behavior change program
 Frequency of monitoring can decrease if performance
improves
Reinforce Accurate Self-Monitoring
 Especially when participants are utilizing self-recorded
data for self-evaluation & self-administered
consequences
 You need accurate data so you can tell if progress in
changing the behavior is occurring
Self-Administered Consequences
 Self-reinforcement should not be considered
synonymous with the principle of operant behavior
(Skinner, 1953)
 Performance-management contingencies are best
viewed as rule-governed analogs of reinforcement &
punishment contingencies
 Response-to-consequence delay is too great
Self-Administered Consequences
 Increase or Decrease desired behavior
 Problem, we always give ourselves the reinforcer, often
do not administer the punisher
Recommendations for Self-Administered
Consequences
 Select small, easy-to-deliver consequences
 Set a meaningful but easy-to-meet criterion for
reinforcement
 Eliminate “bootleg reinforcement”
 Put someone else in control of delivering
consequences (if necessary)
 Keep it simple
Other Self-Management Tactics
 Self-instruction
 Habit reversal
 Self-directed systematic desensitization
 Massed practice
Self-Instruction
 Self-generated verbal responses, covert or overt, that
function as response prompts for a desired behavior
 Often used to guide a person through a behavior chain
or sequence of tasks
Habit Reversal
 Typically implemented as a multiple-component
treatment package
 Self-awareness
 Response direction

 Identify events that precede & trigger the response

 Use competing response training

 Motivation techniques
 Self-administered consequences

 Social support systems

 Procedures for promoting generalization & maintenance

Self-Directed Systematic Desensitization
 Substituting one behavior (generally muscle
relaxation) for the unwanted behavior (fear/anxiety)
 Wolpe
 Develop Hierarchy of situations of least to most fearful
is developed
 Gradual exposure to each situation is then accomplished
 First imagining each situation
 Then actual real life (in vivo) situation
Massed Practice
 Forcing oneself to perform an undesired behavior
again and again
 Sometimes decreases the future frequency of the
target behavior
Conducting an Effective
Self-Management Program
 Specify a goal & define the behavior to be changed
 Begin self-monitoring the behavior
 Contrive contingencies that will compete with
natural contingencies
 Go public with your commitment to change your
behavior
 Get a self-management partner
 Continually evaluate your self-management
program & redesign it as necessary
Conclusions
 Self-Management technologies can be very effective at
changing behavior
 Can be used with a wide variety of behavior
 Can be done by individual or with others
 May need close monitoring to ensure maximum
success