Applied Behavior Analysis Examples

It seemed that my consumption behavior was following a cycle. For example, during a Sunday I would have hot coffee during the morning with my family, in the afternoon I would have a sweet tea, a coke, and/or an iced coffee. This much caffeine would maintain me awake during the day but provoked a difficulty concealing a good sleep. By the next day, Monday, I would have to drink large quantities of caffeine in order to maintain myself awake and alert during the day. By the time that it was time to sleep I would sleep late again, and consequently I would start the new cycle of not sleeping well because of too much caffeine, and having to drink more caffeine on the next day. Identifying my behavior patterns made me feel more frustrated, anxious
By following the principles of behaviorism, and behavior analysis I was able to identify the antecedents and consequences of my behavior, the motivating operations that set the environment for my behavior, and the reinforcers maintaining it. In my case usually the antecedent was feeling tired, drowsy, and sleepy; the consequence was feeling awake, alert, a wider attention span, alert, etc. This feeling of feeling active was also my main reinforcer and motivator. The setting events or motivating operations were the situations I experienced each day which would make me prone to engage in the caffeine consumption behavior; this included having a bad night of sleep (physical necessity), being surrounded by family members that consumed high doses of caffeine (social learning/modeled patterns of behavior), wanted to avoid feeling drowsy, tired and irritable (avoid positive punishment), and experiencing a physical relief/pleasure when drinking caffeine (automatic/self
The strategy used to confront this obstacle was to influence them instead of allowing them to influence me. I explained to them the benefits of withdrawing from caffeine, the influence of the caffeine on their mood and behavior, and my experience of well being while maintaining myself abstinent. Initially I was not able to influence them and as a consequence I had to maintain my distance from them, but the more days passed, the stronger I was to abstain from consuming caffeine, and after it became easier for me to be near my family. Indeed a positive support system is a key factor on maintaining self’s abstinence.
Follow-up Phase
After completing the abstinence phase, I confirmed that I did not want to cut caffeine from my diet completely. I change my goal, and I feel good with my decision. The reason of my decision is that I do not want to add stress on myself at the moment; and I am allowing myself to take a step at the time. Another variable affecting my decision is the fact that I start to quit eating fast food three months ago, and it has been stressful. I don’t want to add to many goals to my repertoire that I will not be able to accomplish; I prefer to do small permanent steps.