8 Behavior Modification Techniques

Behavior is everything that people do or say (actions, reactions, responses, actions, ...). When certain behaviors of a person are not appropriate (for example, aggressive behaviors), these must be worked to modify and, thus, favor a better quality of life.

We will explain reinforcement, punishment, modeling and extinction, among other psychological techniques to learn new behaviors, eliminate or enhance existing behaviors. Do you want to know 8 of these behavior modification techniques? Keep reading this Psychology-Online article: 8 behavior modification techniques.

Index

1. Positive and negative reinforcement
2. Intermittent reinforcement
3. Extinction
4. Fading
5. Molded
6. Punishment
7. Satiation
8. Systematic desensitization

One of the main behavior modification techniques is reinforcement. Due to its effectiveness, positive and negative reinforcement is one of the most widely used behavior modification techniques.

When to apply reinforcement? In order to positively or negatively reinforce a certain behavior, it is first essential to determine whether it is an appropriate or inappropriate behavior. When we speak of appropriate behaviors, we refer to those behaviors that we would like to see repeated frequently. One of the techniques or strategies to ensure that these behaviors are repeated the next times when the person in question faces the same situation, is to reinforce the behavior concrete. There are two types of reinforcement: positive and negative.

Positive reinforcement

What is positive reinforcement? When you opt for positive reinforcement, what you want to achieve is to reinforce the desired behavior immediately after its appearance, immediately, by means of a prize to be able to provoke a greater probability that it will reappear. repeat.

• Examples positive reinforcement: a congratulation for the behavior carried out and a hug.

Negative reinforcement

What is negative reinforcement? When opting for negative reinforcement, it is not about giving a reward, but about removing or withdrawing something that It is unpleasant for the person, so it also increases the possibility of continuing to repeat the behavior desired. In this sense, both negative and positive reinforcement follow the same purpose: to increase the probability of repeating desired behaviors, even in different ways.

• Example negative reinforcement: decrease tasks

In this article you will find more examples of positive and negative reinforcement: Operant conditioning.

When we talk about intermittent reinforcement we refer to the same behavior modification technique above (positive and negative reinforcement) but resorting to reinforcement intermittently and not intermittently keep going. That is, it is not about reinforcing the same behavior each time it is carried out, but rather about reinforce behavior occasionally.

Extinction is another of the most widely used behavior modification techniques. In this case, it is done through the withdrawal of positive or negative reinforcement prior to ensure that a behavior disappears over time. In this way, with the withdrawal of the reinforcements, the person will begin to stop performing specific behaviors until finally, there will come a time when the behavior will disappear completely. This technique always works gradually to end unwanted behaviors that are intended to be eliminated.

Fainting is another of the behavior modification techniques and refers to a gradual change in behavior. Is about accompany the behavior from another person through aid (verbal, physical ...) to turn it into desired behavior. In this sense, these aids must be withdrawn over time until the person is able to carry out the desired behavior on their own, without the need for help.

The molding o behavior shaping It is carried out when it is intended to get a person to carry out a certain behavior and this has never been carried out before. To carry out this behavior modification technique, the first thing to do is reinforce responses similar to the desired one and, as the desired behavior is configured, it is a matter of gradually extinguishing the similar approaches to the desired behavior.

Another of the most used behavior modification techniques, especially in childhood, is the punishment. The application of a punishment as an immediate consequence after the performance of an unwanted behavior, reduces the probability of a future appearance of the same unwanted behavior. There are two types of punishment: positive and negative.

Positive punishment

A punishment is a aversive stimulus or punitive that makes it used to reduce the frequency of the appearance of certain behaviors in similar situations. Although it can also be a punishment, in this case it would be called punishment

Negative punishment

In this case, the punishment is withdrawal from a pleasant stimulus.

• An example Negative punishment is taking a teenager's cell phone.

To be able to modify a behavior through the satiation technique, one must massively and excessively present a reinforcerIn such a way that its excessive presence weakens the value of the reinforcement itself, giving rise to a perception of this reinforcement as something aversive. In this sense, when the value of reinforcement is weakened by making it punitive, the person begins to avoid certain behaviors to, at the same time, avoid said reinforcements massive.

Example of stimulus or reinforcer satiation

In order to better understand satiation, we present the following example: a child never wants to eat vegetables, however, he always wants to eat meat with potatoes, so for a few days he is fed only meat with potatoes, until finish by get tired of that food, becoming unpleasant for him, so he will eventually choose to eat what his parents consider to be the most appropriate.

The systematic desensitization technique It is the most widely used behavior modification technique to treat phobias and other anxiety-related disorders. It is a technique consisting of three steps to follow:

1. Relaxation training: teach the patient to learn to relax using different relaxation techniques.
2. Rank the feared situations: order in a hierarchical way the situations that are feared by the patient from the lowest degree to the highest degree of fear. For example, a patient with a phobia of spiders (arachnophobia) ranks her situations by putting in the first place, imagining a spider, secondly, to see a photo of a spider, among others, until arriving at the presence of a living spider, in movement and in life real. In addition, once the hierarchical list of feared situations has been created, the patient must show the degree of anxiety caused by each one of the situations on the list and, thus, list them according to the degree of anxiety that each situation causes (for example, from 0 to 10).
3. Systematic desensitization: is about expose the patient to such dreaded situations, starting with the least feared and moving up the list gradually. The exhibition can be carried out through imagination, virtual reality and live exhibition. Thus, depending on the patient and her specific situation, the professional must choose the type of exposure that best suits her. In addition, while gradually advancing in the hierarchy created by the patient, it should be mixed with the relaxation techniques in order to be able to reduce the fear and anxiety that the situations may provoke in the patient.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to 8 behavior modification techniques, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

• Labrador, F. J. (2008). Behavior modification techniques. Madrid: Pyramid.
• Martin, G., and Pear, J. (2008). Behavior modification: what it is and how to apply it. Madrid: Pearson Educación, S.A.