A. How behaviour works B. Making yourself happy i.Self-management ii.Arrange your environment C....

Happiness: Lessons from behavior analysisThe psychology of happiness IIDr Rebecca Sharp, BCBAHealth & Wellbeing Lecture Series, Venue Cymru17th November 2015

Outline

A. How behaviour worksB. Making yourself happy

i. Self-managementii. Arrange your environment

C. Helping othersi. Trainingii. Feedbackiii. The power of choice

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Behaviour analysis

Brief overview:Behaviours of social significance

(important to individual)Behaviour changeApply scientific principles of

behaviourHuge range of applications

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ABCs of learning

Antecedents - what happens right before a behaviour occurs

Behaviour – actions (what people do and say)

Consequence - what happens as a result of the behaviour

Self-management

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Friday8am

Thursday

nightFriday

6am

What is self-control?Choosing a more delayed, but

larger / better / bigger consequenceE.g., eating an apple will contribute

to future health and wellbeing, but eating cake is gratifying now

How do we increase self-control?6

Self-management

Self-management strategies

Goal setting▪Achievable▪Measurable / specific▪Public

Self-monitoring Get someone else involved Programme pleasurable

consequences for achievement Be task-based, not time-based

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Arrange your environment

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Lack of enjoyment: Interferes

with quality of life

Hinders productivity

Impacts absenteeism

Enjoyment valued

1. What in your environment does or does not occasion behaviour?

Example: drinking fewer soft drinks Keep water bottle on desk

Fill water bottle up every morning as part of routine

Remove soft drinks from fridge

Take coins out of purse

Put alternative drinks on shopping list

Your environment – use antecedents

2. Change your motivation

Example: avoiding buying an unhealthy lunch Pack a lunch so that you aren’t hungry Pack snacks so you can eat regularly Pack a big lunch so you’re not hungry later on Pack foods that fill you up

Your environment – use antecedents

3. Decrease effort for behaviour you do want / increase effort for behaviour you don’t

Example: getting to work on time (decrease effort) Choose clothing the night before Set breakfast items out the night before Drive rather than walk

Example: buying fewer coffees (increase effort) Leave cash in the car

Park further away from the cafe

Your environment – use antecedents

Premack’s principle

Gran’s rules:▪Work before play▪Dinner before dessert

= Premack (1959), a more-preferred behaviour can be used to reinforce a less-preferred behaviour

How can we apply this to our daily lives?

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Deal with that horrible email you’ve been

avoiding when you

first arrive at work Do the ironing before you bake cookies

Go to the gym before binge-watching Strictly Come Dancing

Alternate 30 min

of writing a report

with 30 min of

reading a good

book

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Meeting your goals

=

Stop nagging, start acknowledging

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Stop and consider – does it work? If not, change it up!

ACKNOWLEDGE

BEHAVIOURS YOU DO WANT

Ignore

Behaviours you don’t want

Problem with unpleasant consequences

We assume that pointing out what we don’t want says what we do

Often makes the deliverer feel better ‘Unpleasant’ is in the

eye of the receiverPositive consequences

are more motivating

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Helping others (and yourself)

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?Training = teaching someone how to do

something (well)

Useful in workplaces, home, personal life

Helping others (and yourself)

Why don’t people do things (well/correctly/at all)?They didn’t know they had toThey aren’t motivated

▪Nothing in it for them▪Task isn’t enjoyable

They don’t have the skill▪Complexity of task▪Novelty of task 17

Good training involves…

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1. Describe what to do2. Show what to do3. Observe and provide feedback4. Repeat 1, 2, and 3 until competencyAvoid too much ‘what’ and not

enough ‘how’Knowledge versus skillA person has only acquired the skill

when they can do it ‘on-the-job’Parsons, Rollyson, & Reid (2012)

Label what was done wellLabel what could be done betterBe specificSolicit questionsEnd with empathetic

statement

Good feedback involves…

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Choices, choices, everywhere…

Within tasksBetween tasksGive yourself choicesGive others choices

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The best way to decrease the behaviours we don’t like is to

increase the ones we do

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Thank you.Please contact me

with any questions.

r.a.sharp@bangor.ac.uk