Principles of Behavior Modification

Breaking old habits and starting new ones is hard at any age, but becomes especially harder as the years pass. Habits are conditioned behaviors that have evolved over time. The principles of behavior modification use this conditioning process to develop new habits and eliminate old ones. Positive and negative reinforcements are the tools used throughout this process.

Identification

• Behavior modification principles are based on a branch of psychology known as behavioral theory. Behavior--whether good of bad--is viewed as a conditioned habit. The process of behavior change is a matter of reconditioning old and new behaviors. B.F. Skinner--an American psychologist--is credited with first developing this practice in the mid 1900s. His theory of operant conditioning formed the basis for the principles behind the behavior modification approach. This approach is useful for promoting behavior change in children, and has been used to treat individuals with anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder.

New Behaviors

• Part of behavioral conditioning involves the circumstances leading up to a behavior. These circumstances set the stage for the behavior to take place. The cueing principle makes use of these pre-conditions as a way to develop new behaviors. Once the desired behavior is carried out, positive reinforcement, or a reward is given. The use of reward works to shape a person's motivations toward the desired behavior. For larger tasks, or goals, the principle of successive approximation can be used to reward a person as he progresses through each successive step toward a goal.

Old Behaviors

• When developing a new behavior, or habit, eliminating undesirable behaviors becomes part of the change process. Behavior modification makes use of negative reinforcement techniques to phase out undesirable behaviors. The extinction principle works by gradually removing whatever positive reinforcements are attached to an undesirable behavior. Another technique--called the satiation principle--encourages the individual to indulge in the undesired behavior until she loses interest. A more direct form of negative reinforcement is based on the punishment principle where the undesired behavior is paired with an unfavorable stimulus.

Emotional Responses

• The process used in modifying an emotional behavior is made up of similar techniques that involve positive and negative reinforcement. The avoidance principle introduces a negative reinforcement prior to an undesirable behavior, like an angry outburst. The fear reduction principle is used to eliminate an undesirable fear response by desensitizing a person to the feared event, or object. This is done by gradually exposing the person to the situation in steps, until he no longer experiences feelings of fear.

Maintenance

• An important part of developing a new behavior is maintaining a new routine until it becomes a regular part of a person's lifestyle. The substitution principle uses positive reinforcements to maintain a new behavior by substituting a more powerful reward in the place of the reward being used. This is done by presenting the new reward directly after the old reward is given. In order to further strengthen a new behavior, the principle of decreasing reinforcement uses fewer positive reinforcements spaced out in longer intervals. This encourages a person to work harder and longer for the same reward.