Behavioural Perspective Model

This article briefly explains the Three-term contingency and the Behavioural Perspective Model (BPM). It further draws upon the BPM to examine the extent to which all of the elements of the BPM could be combined to produce a more effective social marketing initiative to influence students not to smoke in the university cafeteria.

What is Behaviour Perspective Model?

It is an extension of the Three-Term contingency.
The Three-term contingency was devised by Skinner to influence the behaviour of organisms. He defined two types of intervention to shape behaviour. One is by associating the consequences to the behaviour, the other is by using the stimuli which encourage or discourage certain types of behaviour.

The Three-term contingency:

Verbal prompting + Sign

The Three-term contingency uses the following two elements (or a combination of both) to influence behavioural responses:
- Manipulation of the reinforcing consequences (R+/-)
- Manipulation of the discriminative stimuli (SD) preceding the behaviour

The Behaviour Perspective Model (BPM):

The BPM extend the three-term contingency with the following two additional elements:
- The reinforcement is divided into two forms, along with their respective negative counterparts: o Utilitarian reinforcement, Utilitarian punishment o Informational reinforcement, Informational punishment
- Accommodation of individual learning histories together with the environment and their outcomes.

The utilitarian reinforcement means there is a direct positive outcome realised by the individual as a result of his action (from now I will use ‘his’ as implying either gender).
Its counterpart utilitarian punishment means that there is a direct punishment as a result of the action.
Informational reinforcement: There is an indirect positive consequence following a desired behaviour.
On the other hand, informational punishment means there is an indirect negative consequence following the

References: 1. A Brief Abstinence Test for College Student Smokers: A Feasibility Study - By Jessica G. Irons, Department of Psychology, James Madison University; Christopher J. Correia, Department of Psychology, Auburn University. 2. Predicting and Explaining Responses to Consumer Environments: An Empirical Test and Theoretical Extension of the Behavioural Perspective Model by GORDON R. FOXALL and GORDON E. GREENLEY 3. Quit and Win Contests: A Social Marketing Success Story BY ANNE M. LAVACK, LISA WATSON, AND JULIE MARKWART 4. Surfing the Urge: Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention for College Student Smokers Psychology of Addictive Behaviors © 2009 American Psychological Association 2009, Vol. 23, No. 4, 666–671 By Sarah Bowen and Alan