Self-Management

1. Self-Management Chapter 27

2. “Self-Management” • The personal application of behavior change tactics that produces a desired change in behavior • Examples??? • Why not “self-control”?

3. Applications of Self-Management • Living a more effective and efficient daily life • e.g., shopping list • Breaking bad habits and acquiring good ones • Baum (2005) – impulsivity, bad habits, and procrastination result from reinforcement traps • Immediate but smaller consequences control our behavior rather than delayed but more significant consequences • Malott (1984) – being able to state a rule about the long-term consequences does not always control our behavior – why? • Weak rules describe outcomes that are delayed, incremental, and/or unpredictable • Self-management is a way to provide short term outcomes that will control behavior when weak rules and delayed outcomes do not!

4. Applications of Self-Management • Accomplishing Difficult Tasks • e.g., thesis, lit review • Achieving Personal Goals • e.g., exercise, relaxation

5. Benefits of Self-Management • Can be used to change… • thoughts and feelings • behaviors that cannot be easily observed by others • behaviors that might go unnoticed by others • Can be used to promote generalization and maintenance of behavior change • People with diverse abilities can learn self-management skills • Self-selected tasks performance criteria may lead to better performance

6. Benefits of Self-Management • It’s an ultimate goal of education • “The development of independent, self-directed people who are capable of behaving appropriately and constructively without the supervision of others” (p. 583) • Dewey (1939) – “the ideal aim of education is the creation of self-control” • Expected, but not often specifically taught! • Benefits society by foregoing immediate reinforcers in favor of very delayed outcomes (e.g., global warming) • Helps a person feel free (not bound by immediate consequences)

7. Self-Management Software for Children • KidTools and KidSkills • Developed with partial funding by the DOE OSEP • Download for free at • http://kidtools.missouri.edu • Kidspiration

8. Antecedent-Based Self-Management Tactics • Manipulating MOs • Person behaves in a way that creates an MO • The MO then evokes or abates behavior • e.g., eating before grocery shopping • e.g., drinking tea to quit smoking • Providing Response Prompts

9. Antecedent-Based Self-Management Tactics • Performing the Initial Steps of a Chain • e.g., leaving the open bag on the counter… • Removing Items Necessary for an Undesired Behavior • Limiting Undesired Behavior to Restricted Stimulus Conditions • e.g., reducing stereotypy or sexual behavior in public • Dedicating a Specific Environment for a Desired Behavior • e.g., studying with the peach candle…

10. Self-Monitoring • AKA Self-recording, self-observation • Person observes his behavior systematically and records the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a target behavior • Monitoring alone can change behavior! • Can be combined with Self-Evaluation • Compares performance with a goal or standard • Can be combined with contrived consequences for meeting or not meeting goals • Why does self-monitoring work? • Covert statement “I did well!” self-reinforces performance • Performing below standard produces guilt that can be avoided by improving your performance

11. Guidelines for Self-Monitoring • Provide materials that make it easy • Wrist counters, timers, stop watches • Simple datasheets • Provide supplementary cues or prompts • Tones, MotivAider • Use more prompts in the beginning and gradually decrease • Self-monitor the most important dimension of the target behavior • Frequency, rate, latency, interresponse time, duration • Productivity more effective and preferred than on-task • Self-monitor early and often • Record as soon as possible but don’t interrupt the behavior to do it • Use permanent products if possible • Record the first step in the chain if possible • Monitor more in the beginning • Reinforce accurate self-monitoring • Spot check and reinforce accuracy • But perfect accuracy may not be necessary!

12. Self-Administered Consequences • To Increase Desired Behavior • Positive Reinforcement • Examples: tokens, points, mins of free time, self-recruited SR+, • Negative Reinforcement • Avoid token loss, paying money, exercise, chores • To Decrease Undesired Behavior • Positive Punishment • Examples: snap rubber bands, sit-ups, bad taste on nails, overcorrection • Negative Punishment • Response cost: pay a fine, lose tokens • Time-out: don’t allow yourself to engage in a behavior for a period of time (e.g., don’t talk for 2 min)

13. Guidelines for Self-Administered Consequences • Select small, easy-to-deliver consequences • Set a meaningful but easy-to-meet criterion for reinforcement • Eliminate “bootleg reinforcement” • If necessary, put someone else in control of delivering consequences • Keep it simple

14. Other Self-Management Tactics • Self-Instruction • Self-generated verbal responses, covert or overt, that function as response prompts for a desired behavior • e.g., student is taught to say to himself, “If I wait, I’ll get to have _________.” • Habit Reversal • Self-directed Systematic Desensitization • Substituting one behavior, usually relaxation, for the unwanted behavior, fear/anxiety

15. Guidelines for Conducting an Effective Self-Management Program • Specify a goal and define the target behavior • Begin self-monitoring the behavior to obtain baseline • And to observe effects of self-monitoring alone • Create contrived contingencies that will compete with ineffective natural contingencies • Go public • Get a self-management partner • Continually evaluate and redesign program as needed • A-B and changing criterion designs

16. http://dick-malott.com/home/