An Application of Learning Principles to Change a Particular Behaviour

AN APPLICATION OF LEARNING PRINCIPLES TO

 CHANGE A PARTICULAR BEHAVIOUR

Presented to

Bruce Walker

Presented by

Jeremy Bonifacio

PSYC 001 – A1

April 13, 2012

Specification of the Target Behaviour

My life changed so much when I started attending college. One of the most obvious changes was my irregular sleeping pattern. I learned how to sleep late and only for few hours in exchange to trying to finish various workloads. And the next day, I will get too much sleep. My sleeping habit has been influenced by many factors and affects many aspects of my life. I never thought that sleeping would be very important. In this psychology class, I learned so much about sleep. For this assignment, sleeping late and not getting enough sleep are the behaviours I would like to modify. I will attempt to apply different types of learning theory to alter these undesirable behaviours. After accomplishing this report, I am hoping to eliminate those sleeping habits.

Observation Section

This section will focus on making observations of the following (1) occurrences of the target behaviour, (2) the antecedents that precede it, and (3) the consequences that follow it.

Occurrences of Target Behaviour

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The amount of work done is a significant factor of sleeping. Teenagers like me still need 8-9 hours of sleep; however, trying to juggle many things, I tend to sleep late in a busy week. Compared to a less busy week, for example, I am either off at work or have a reading week; I am able to manage my sleeping time wisely. When the amount of work load is fair, I have very acceptable hours of sleep.

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Antecedents that Precede Sleeping

There are many factors that influence my sleeping habits. First of all, changes in routines such as work shifts affect the hours of sleep. Working in two part-time jobs and studying full-time at the same time require heavy work load. Even after working until 10 o’clock at night, I do not sleep right away because I still need to study for my courses. So when I have morning class, the result will be having only 5-6 hours of sleep. Conversely, when my class starts in the afternoon, I try to sleep in and get up to a maximum of 9 hours.  Moreover, I used to consume caffeinated or energy drinks almost every day.  When I have loads of work such as assignments, reports, and tests, those stimulant drinks keep me awake until dawn. After watching a video that was shown by one of my professors last semester, I would only buy energy drinks during busy weeks. For instance, I will drink Starbucks energy drink to stay up late and study for a test.  In addition, my sleeping environment is another reason why I sleep late and get not enough sleep. My sisters and I share the same bedroom; therefore, there are many distractions when sleeping. Our room is like an overall function room where my sisters and I watch movie, eat food, chat with each other, play games, and study or read books. When one of us is studying, that person cannot avoid making noise, and the light would still be on; therefore, I won’t be able to sleep. Other reasons for staying up late are the following—taking a nap in the afternoon or whenever