4. Design and Implement a Program
From the observations made in the baseline phase, I will make use of various measures to alter my behavior excess of sleeping during day time based on the antecedents for my undesirable behavior and immediate consequence that maintain the behavior of falling asleep in the day.
a) I will only study at my study desk or the dining room table. The removal of the discriminative stimulus of bed and sofa while studying will increase the behavior of achieving zero hours of nap time as I will have less chance to associate the bed or sofa with my drowsiness.
b) I will constantly remind myself to resist the urge to take naps when I am very tired by looking at the post-its and posters I have drawn up.
c) I will make use of a natural, intrinsic reinforcer to motivate myself in the treatment by reading and updating my blog and the graph daily. The happiness and satisfaction is a natural consequence I obtain from watching my sleeping hours decrease and stabilize at zero daily. It is an intrinsic form of reinforcement provided by the mere act of observing my daily graph.
d) I will make use of positive reinforcement contingency between zero napping hours and getting a treat. For each day that I manage to not nap at all during day time, I will draw a star on my notebook. When I have collected 3 stars, I will treat myself to ice-cream, chocolates, chips or any sweet desserts. I love to eat sweet treats and comfort food so it is an appetitive and pleasing stimulus for me to encourage myself to increase the behavior of achieving zero hours of nap time. Getting a sweet treat is a primary, intrinsic and artificial reinforcement that I would love to obtain as it is associated with the pleasure of eating comfort food. Since immediate reinforcement is more effective than delayed reinforcement (Powell, Symbaluk, & Macdonald, 2005), I will make use of the secondary, extrinsic and artificial reinforcer of drawing a star daily to remind myself that I met the goal that day. Drawing a star is not inherently reinforcing but it would be associated with the primary reinforcer which is getting sweet treats.
e) Since the most effective way to modify a behavior is to combine punishment of the target behavior and reinforcement of incompatible behavior (Powell, Symbaluk, & Macdonald, 2005), I will also make use of positive punishment contingency between napping and doing sit-ups. For each day that I nap regardless of the number of hours, I will draw a sad face on my notebook. When I have collected 3 sad faces, I will have to do 100 sit-ups. I hate to exercise, so doing sit-ups is an aversive stimulus to reduce my behavior excess of napping in the daytime. Doing 100-situps is a primary, intrinsic and artificial punishment that I detest as exercising is related to mental and physical exhaustion. I will make use of the secondary, extrinsic and artificial reinforcer of drawing a sad face right after I wake up from my nap to remind myself that I did not meet the goal that day. Drawing a sad face is not inherently punishing but it would be associated with the primary punisher which is doing sit-ups.
f) I will get my boyfriend to call me occasionally so that he can check if I have fallen asleep. This is a variable interval schedule as I will not be able to predict the time he will contact and check on me. The schedule would encourage me to stay awake so that I will not be asleep when he calls.
g) My buddy and friends can leave comments on my blog to encourage me when I have done well or scold me when I have not achieved zero napping hours.
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4 comments:
Hey, I think your punishments are too lenient!
The program implementation only lasts for 11 days. If you collect 5 sad faces already then do sit-ups, then you will only need to do at most 2 sets of sit-ups throughout your whole program. That is not very aversive right? Haha, okay, maybe it's just not that aversive for me =X
And the tv time right, if your average naptime is 2.5-3 hours, then you sleep more than 2 hours then cut away the tv time, that may not be so effective if your ultimate aim is not to nap at all. Maybe you can do changing criterion for that? I think that's what i'm going to do for my bathing thing! =)
ok..makes sense, i shall change to 3 sad face for the 100 situps. =( situps! >.< i hate situps.
i cannot use changing criterion. like in treatment day 3, the nap hours can fall straight to 0 if i exercise enough self-control. my results can fluctuate, it is not gradual decreasing so changing criterion is not very suitable.
and the tv part, it is quite effective. because i feel really sad when i have to cut down on my tv time! deters me from sleeping the next day on treatment day 3. i love my television!
It was funny when you said you did not want to do the sit up in the sharing. I guess the sit-up was a very strong punisher to reduce your napping rate haha :)--Venus
YES!! I was so afraid of getting the situps that i keep telling myself not to sleep after i got my 2nd sad face. just one more sad face and i am doomed!! it is really a very strong punisher.
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