How Does Behavior Modification Work?

Behavior Modification and Discipline

Have you ever been in a grocery store and seen children act like brats with the parents seemingly giving into their whims? Ever seen that happen repeatedly with the same kids and same bratty attitude with no change? Some would suggest that a time out is in order. Other people may think that corporal punishment is needed. Yet even more people think that talking to the children will stop what their doing. Either way, these techniques are all forms of behavior modification.

Behavior Modification Defined

In psychological terms, behavior modification is the act or process of starting, stopping or changing specific actions. This is typically done to improve certain behaviors and actions. With almost all behavior modification techniques, there are clearly defined goals, timelines and accountability involved. There are also specific examples involved that show how behavior modification scientifically changed a pattern of actions.

Behavior Modification at Work

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian psychologist who studied the stimulus-response phenomenon by employing a bell, a dog and food. He would place food down and ring a bell to get a dog's attention. The dog would eat the food. He would do this several times, to the point where the dog could anticipate the food being there every time the bell rang. Pavlov noticed that whenever the dog thought he was about to eat because of the bell signal he would salivate. Pavlov's experiments further showed that the dog would still salivate at the sound of the bell, even if there was no food present.

This is the basis of behavior modification: using techniques to create changes. Many behavior medication techniques thrive off of stimulus and response. When a specific action happens, a specific response entails. If the goal is to change the response, sometimes the modification must be made to the action. Other times the modification must be made to the response. Some techniques rely on behaviors to happen with examination after the fact, where other techniques have an immediate response as soon as the behavior is enacted.

Behavior Modification Technique Examples

The positive reinforcement technique employs offering positive rewards only for positive behaviors. For example, a child who "acts up" in the store does not get dessert, whereas a child who is quiet and helpful always gets a special treat with no real focus on the "acting up" child's behaviors. The "ABC" approach lets people examine a behavior after it happens by starting with the Antecedent, or "what happened first." Then the subject would talk about the Behavior, followed by the Consequence. This is in hopes that through cognitive analysis, a negative behavior can be eliminated when a subject recognizes the precursors that led up to the behavior last time and they modify themselves by not following them with a negative action.

Not for Everyone

The issues with some people who are against behavior modification is that certain proponents believe that their technique is one-size-fits-all. Scientific studies prove otherwise. People who smoke can't always quit "cold turkey," especially if they have addictive personalities. Some people would need to take medications in order to quit a physically addictive behavior such as smoking.

Corporal punishment with children, in another example, may get the negative behavior to stop temporarily, but could cause other reactions that are worse than the original negative act. Resentment and more violent behaviors could incur if the spanking or physical discipline goes too far or damages the child's psyche rather than add "shock value" to a negative behavior. Although behavior modification can be successful, research and study should be conducted before engaging in any techniques.