Operational Definition of the Behaviour & Behavioural Goal

Operational Definition of the Behaviour & Behavioural Goal

The behaviour I want to modify in this assignment is to increase the times I take my thyroid pill at the same time everyday when I wake up in the morning. Normally I do not take my thyroid pill everyday and I definitely do not take it at the same time, as I do not wake up at the same time everyday either. For this assignment I am going to operationally define my behaviour modification as increase the frequency of taking my thyroid pill on a daily basis within 1 hour (60 Mins) of me waking up on that day. My behavioural goal is to successfully take my thyroid pill everyday for the next 3 weeks (1 week for monitoring phase and 2 weeks for treatment phase) and to take it within 1 hour of me waking up on that day, and make this behaviour contingent on receiving chocolate as a reward each time I successfully take the thyroid pill. Note that I will NOT consume chocolate at any time unless it is as the reward for the behaviour in these next 3 weeks.

Monitoring Phase

For the monitoring phase (1 Week), I monitored the frequency of my behaviour. I did not successfully take my pill each day in this week or within an hour of waking up in the morning. Typically, I would wake up, get out of bed and move out of my room to make breakfast in the kitchen. My bottle of pills was on my work desk and I would walk past it, but would say to myself “I will take it later when I can take it with water,” and I would put off taking my pill, until I would forget all together because I would be focusing on something else and I would never go back in my room with water. Once it would be past 3 pm, I generally did not take my pill that day. It seems as though there was no antecedent cue other than if I were to walk by my work desk and see the bottle, but it was generally not in my field of vision once I had left my room and I would never have any water with me to take it even if I did see the bottle and it triggered the behaviour. If I were to get ready and leave the house for school, then I would only have to rely on my memory and I would not have the bottle of pills with me at all times to take the pill then either when I did remember. Consequences to the behaviour were primary consequences/the biological effects of taking the pill. I would receive my dose of hormones for that day, however those effects are not overtly felt physically when I take my pill. It physically does not make any difference to me anymore if I take it or not, so if I don't take it for a few days, nothing happens and so I feel indifferent to taking it regularly. There is no specific reward to this behaviour because I do not experience anything in conjunction with classical conditioning. I get no pleasure or happiness from taking the thyroid pill other than knowing that I am taking my regulated dose