wow! second to last blog!!! yipeee! I kind of feel like I have been writing the same thoughts over and over again since it has been the same requirements for the past several weeks. However, this positive reinforcement has definitely helped me out a lot. Based on the technique of giving myself $2 every week, I have been able to motivate myself to do what I need to do in order to stay organized and on task. Due to this motivation, it has led me to increase the times to check my planner and it makes the task seem easy. What would be a faster way to earn $2 for every check right? It was a nice feeling during this experiment because I always felt like I earned something or was rewarded by something that I did right. Just as children love to be rewarded by candy, a college student can reward herself with some cash to buy snacks or for shopping in general.
A very interesting website on implementing change is in the following link:
CHANGE. This article discusses the ways to change and how change can be followed through or be made as for longterm. It also mentions about Behavior-based programming and how it is the key to change. Behavior change is at the center of the program design process. From the article it states "The first step is to clearly delineate ideal behaviors that would achieve the desired health outcomes. A set of research objectives, based on the ideal behaviors, guides the systematic design of a qualitative research plan to document current behaviors and explore how they can be redirected, re-patterned or re-positioned toward the ideal." Basically, you aim for a goal and you try different methods to help direct yourself to that goal. You shape the plan in every way and any way possible to focus towards the goal. Another good point it mentioned is about the importance of Community engagement, ownership and empowerment, which are key to a sustained behavior change. That means, I need to feel a sense of entitlement or commitment in order to maintain the change. Also, I need to feel supported or reassured everytime I do something in order to want to change. This goes back to my idea that an attitude change will eventually lead to a behavioral change.
I think operant conidtioning theory is true to a certain extent. As stated before, it does work, but it works for a short period of time. I have also looked at some other blogs before about implementing a negative reinforcement. For my type of personality, it would not work because I want to try to stay positive in order to make progress and be inspired to keep going. If I punish myself, I will feel useless and it will be a snowball effect on feeling negative and then depressed and then I might give up. For positive reinforcement, I can only get something good and the worst that could happen is being neutral and not getting anything. Last time, I watched a show on how loyal dogs are to its owner. Some owners would give off fear or warning to make their dog do tricks or follow their command. The judges stated that that is not very effective and it means they do not have a sense of control or trust with their dog. The same goes for controlling my behavior. Fear tactics will just make me scared and intimidated, already hinting off negative feelings. On the other hand, positive reinforcements makes a person feel better and more confident in him or herself.
Overall, this has been working and works very well. I have a positive mentality of why I check my planner and a good reason is to relieve my stress of worrying about memorizing everything or forgetting to do homework from a certain class. With an attitude makeover, it can make a big difference. Getting a friend or two to constantly hold me in check would also be a great idea because it is similar to the community support in the article. Although my friend isn't community, she is a part of my community that influences me.
I love this experiment!
3 comments:
Hey yea dude that is really interesting. It seems that everything is working our for you, and I hop it continues to keep working. I like the idea of having a planner to have everything I am doing in it, so that I can stay on track, and it keeps stress levels to a minimum, so just continue to do that because it really helps a lot, so Good Luck! and I hope you accomplish your goals!
Wow, it seems like this blog has helped you change more than just the behavior you intended it to. I hope that you continue your behavior change and find more positive results from it. I'm glad to see that you're rewarding yourself a lot more than punishing yourself, it's really working! You should try to continue using operant conditioning through the winter to make your behavior change stick...forever! :)
I have started to use a planner as well for my assignments. Well, my dad forced me to use it. But that's beside the case. However, he has a point because I have noticed that I am more aware of what I have to do. It is really helpful and I can see how its helping you.
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