PSYC 305 Final || with Complete Solutions.
What are the stages of the two stage process for shaping behavior? How do they serve a role in
shaping our behaviors? correct answers Stage 1: Avoiding high-risk situations.
- For example, don't go to parties where you will be strongly tempted to smoke, or don't confront
yourself with high-calorie food. Your plan should include reinforcement for this avoidance and a
way of substituting other pleasant activities.
Stage 2: Building new behaviors
- Few situations can be avoided permanently, however. Eventually you want to return to parties,
go out with your friends, walk into a bakery, or enjoy your morning cup of coffee without having
a cigarette. In stage 2, build new behaviors, so that you can be in tempting situations but not
perform the overindulging or addictive behavior.
What are the six features of developing a good plan for change? correct answers 1. Goals and
sub-goals
2. Rules that state the kinds of behaviors and techniques for change to use in specific situations
3. Practicing, especially the challenging parts of the plan
4. Feedback on your behavior, derived from your self-observations
5. A comparison of feedback to your sub-goals and goals in order to measure progress
6. Adjustments in the plan as conditions change, particularly the development of if...then plans
What are some tips for developing good goals and sub-goals? correct answers 1. Try for quantity
of ideas
2. Don't criticize your ideas; don't even evaluate them. You will do that later.
3. Try to think of unusual ideas
4. Try to combine ideas to create new ones
What are some tips for setting rules for our own behavior? correct answers Rules are the way
you implement your goals and sub-goals. They guide your actions. Rules are statements of the
thoughts, behaviors, and techniques for change you will use in specific situations. If you are not
meeting a particular goal, set clear, explicit rules to guide your behavior until that behavior
becomes habitual.
What are some tips for practicing target behaviors? correct answers You should expect to
practice desired, new behaviors over and over, particularly if they replace an old, unwanted
habit.
Why is feedback an important part of a plan to shape behavior? correct answers Any effective
plan must incorporate a system for gathering information about your progress.
What is an If...Then plan and why are they important? correct answers An If...Then plan is
developing several different plants for coping with high-risk situations, so that if one doesn't
work, you won't necessarily fall back into your old, bad habits.
,How do we construct a behavioral contract? correct answers Once you have chosen your plan
and decided on each of its elements, write it out and sign it. This written plan becomes a contract
with yourself. The contract should list your rules as well as your goals and sub-goals, and it
should specify how you will collect feedback. This is not just a fanciful idea: A formal contract
increases your chances of success.
- Display your contract. Keep it in your notebook or on your mirror. Make it clear and explicit.
When it becomes necessary to change the plan, rewrite the contract, and sign the new one.
How might changes need to be made during the recording process of changing out behaviors?
correct answers Learn from your mistakes. You will make mistakes as you try to bring some
troublesome behavior under control. You can learn from these mistakes. Each loss is merely
information about skills that need work.
The skill of dealing with mistakes-- control your attention:
1. Don't focus on the frustration or negative emotion; distract yourself.
2. Focus on the next sub-goal, the one you can reach soon. Don't attend exclusively to the distant
goal. Someday you'll have a higher GPA, but today just think about meeting today's study goal.
3. Don't compare yourself with other people. Don't focus on how the genius sitting next to you is
doing. That's discouraging. Take the skills development approach in which you compare your
progress only to yourself.
4. Remind yourself of the progress you have made so far. Remind yourself of how good you will
feel when you reach your target goal.
5. Remind yourself, "I'm developing a skill. That takes time, and mistakes are a part of it."
How do we evaluate whether a plan is working or not? What are the three main strategies to
evaluate? correct answers 1. Finding averages. Weekly averages smooth out the record and
usually provide a more reliable picture than daily fluctuations. They can clarify a confusing set
of numbers.
2. Finding percentages
3. Making graphs
What is systematic problem solving? What are the four main steps to systematic problem
solving? Come up with an example of how you might use each step when solving a problem.
correct answers Problem solving means thinking about the obstacles to your progress and
figuring out how to overcome them. To solve a problem, follow this four-step process:
1. List all the details of the problem as concretely as possible
2. Brainstorm as many solutions as you can without criticizing any of them
3. Choose one or more of the solutions
4. Think of ways to put the solutions into operation, and then check to be sure you are actually
implementing them.
(USE SELF CHANGE PROJECT AS AN EXAMPLE!)
How could you apply systematic problem solving to address an issue in each of the following
areas: Antecedents, Behaviors, and Consequences correct answers Antecedents: What
antecedents make it difficult to perform the target behavior, or what antecedents are lacking that
, would make it easier to perform? Is it some thought you are having? Is it something you have not
controlled?
Behaviors: Have the correct incompatible or alternate behaviors been chosen and are you
practicing them?
Consequences: Are there still consequences that maintain the old, undesired behavior? Are you
being reinforced for a behavior that makes your desired behavior difficult?
What are common problems that come up during attempts at self-modification? How might we
prepare to resist these common problems? correct answers 1. Not keeping records
- If your project is not working, there is a real temptation to stop self-observation, because
continuing to keep records is embarrassing or humiliating. Yet keeping records even when you
are not being successful at self-change increases your chances of later success. Good self-
observations bring greater understanding of the antecedents and consequences of your behavior.
2. Not using the techniques for change
- If you don't use the techniques, you won't change. Try the techniques; evaluate them. If you
don't try, then of course they won't work.
3. Setting unrealistic goals
- Don't get discouraged because you haven't attained perfection. Perfection takes a long time. It's
a lot better to be somewhat better off, even if not perfect, than to still be in your original,
unhappy state.
4. Slow progress
- Developing a new habit can take time, and you have to stay focused on your goal by continuing
to self-observe. If progress is slow, try a finer-grained list of sub-goals.
5. Discouraging friends
- Sometimes people actually punish your attempts to change.
6. Stress
- Stress takes your attention away from self-change. One theory suggests that during stress our
attention turns to controlling our emotional frustrations, leaving no focus for other aspects of
self-control.
7. Alcohol
- Self-control dissolves in alcohol. One of the effects of alcohol is to narrow our focus of
attention and particularly to take our focus off ourselves.
8. Self-control fatigue
- Be wary of the weakening of brute self-control. Exercising self-control can be tiring, and your
level of self-control can become fatigued and decline if you use it continuously.
What is the difference between lapse and relapse? correct answers A lapse is a slip or mistake.
When a lapse occurs, you perform a behavior you are trying to avoid: you smoke a few smokes,
you go back to being rude to your friends, you go off your diet.
A relapse means going back to your full-blown pattern of unwanted behavior.
What are common high-risk situations that put us at risk for relapse? correct answers 1. Being
emotionally upset
