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Brief overview: Behaviours of social significance (important to individual) Behaviour change Apply scientific principles of behaviour Huge range of applications 3
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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
2
Behaviour analysis
Brief overview:Behaviours of social significance
(important to individual)Behaviour changeApply scientific principles of
behaviourHuge range of applications
3
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
