Behavior Principles in Everyday Life

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Behavior Principles in Everyday Life

• Chapter 1
• Science and Human Behavior

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Behavioral Definitions

• One of the first great advances in behavioral
  science, about 100 years ago, was a demand for
  behavioral definitions --- which are careful,
  detailed, and objective descriptions of behavior.
• It is true that no one can be 100 objective and
  accurate in creating definitions of behavior but
  efforts to improve the detail of our definitions
  have greatly clarified our everyday actions and
  experiences.

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Behavioral Definitions Cont.

• When people define thoughts, emotions, and
  activities vaguely, they can only develop simple
  generalizations about them.

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External and Internal Events

• Behavioral definitions deal with both external
  actions and their internal counterparts (such as
  thoughts and feelings).
• External. All external behaviors can be defined
  behaviorally although the task is not always
  easy.
• Internal. Many feelings and thoughts inside our
  bodies can be described behaviorally although
  the task is not always easy.

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External and Internal EventsCont.

• The use of behavioral definitions has facilitated
  the discovery of numerous important behavioral
  principles which are generalizations about the
  causes of our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

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Behavior Modification

• Behavior modification is the systematic and
  scientific use of behavioral principles to
  improve peoples thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• There are four main reasons why behavior
  modification is more effective than other methods
  of changing behavior
• (1.) Behavior modification utilizes carefully
  designed behavioral definitions, rather than
  vague definitions, to describe any behavior we
  might wish to change.

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Behavior Modification Cont.

• (2.) Behavior modification draws on extensive
  scientific research to design strategies that are
  likely to be effective.
• (3.) Behavior principles show us how to make
  behavioral change easy and rewarding by arranging
  clearly defined changes in our external
  environment and inner words.
• (4.) The scientific methods underlying behavior
  modification help us collect data on our behavior
  to see which plans work best and which need
  redesign. Thoughtful people continue to observe
  their behavior all through life, looking for
  better ways to modify their behavior and the
  behavior of others.

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Behavioral Excesses and Deficits

• Two main types of problems can make life less
  rewarding than it could be behavioral excesses
  and deficits.
• Behavioral excesses such as overeating,
  overachieving, dominating conversations, getting
  angry too often can create countless
  difficulties.

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Behavioral Excesses and Deficits Cont.

• Behavioral deficits such as limited abilities
  for studying, exercising, or talking comfortably
  with others can create problems.
• There are two central goals of behavioral
  modification Help people learn how to reduce
  behavioral excesses and gain the skills needed to
  overcome deficits.

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Illness or Wellness?

• For the past 300 years, people have attempted to
  apply scientific methods to the study of human
  behavior.
• In the 1800s, the medical sciences made progress
  in dealing with human suffering and many
  scientists assumed that the medical model which
  specializes in dealing with illness could be
  applied to sick and unhappy behavior.

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Illness or Wellness? Cont.

• Freud, for example, was a physician who focused
  his studies on people with neuroses, hysteria,
  and other psychological problems, attempting to
  extend the medical model to analyze and cure
  these problems.

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Illness or Wellness? Cont.

• After much research, we now know that the medical
  model is not as useful for understanding behavior
  as was first hoped in the 1800s. It is true that
  the medical model has had some success in
  treating behavioral problems, especially those
  with biological origins, such as genetic defects,
  malnutrition, and the side effects of physical
  diseases. However, much of the behavior we see
  in everyday life does not result from medical
  problems.

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Illness or Wellness? Cont.

• In the 1900s, with the help of behavioral
  definitions, behavioral scientists discovered
  that most human behavior is learned and therefore
  better explained by behavior principles that
  explicate learning than by the medical model.
• When we are not sick, the medical model is far
  less useful than the behavior principles that
  explain learned behavior.

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Illness or Wellness? Cont.

• For most of us, the influence of learning greatly
  overshadows the effects of illness as conceived
  by the medical model. One of the most important
  recent advances in behavior science is the shift
  from a narrow medical model to focus more on
  learning without neglecting any relevant
  biomedical conditions.

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What is the medical model?

• Of course there are diseases and disorders of
  physical and mental health and these can be
  treated medically.
• But should the assumptions of medicine and
  resultant treatment be applied to a phobia,
  stuttering, a nervous tic, compulsive gambling,
  addictions, insomnia, shyness or social
  clumsiness, unusual sexual arousal, mood
  problems, and so forth?
• Are the only treatments of problems of life
  medical treatments?

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Personal Adjustment

• In the past century, behavioral research has
  discovered a large number of scientific
  generalizations about various types of learning
  related to our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• The shift from a purely medical model of behavior
  to a greater focus on learning has led to the
  development of a very optimistic view of life.