Southwestern Illinois College
Abstract
This study is based on the effect of positive reinforcement on exercising more regularly. I wanted to try and exercise at least 30min – 1hr everyday within one week’s period of time. In trying to do so I used positive reinforcement to increase to time I used to exercise more each day. I studied myself for this case and I am a 21 year old female who attends Southwestern Illinois College. Over a seven day baseline period I noted that I never exercised at all, unless you count the time token to walk to my car and or from one class to the next. Over the seven day treatment period I exercised more being that I couldn’t watch TV unless I completed at least 30mins of exercise. So if I wanted to watch an hour of TV I had to exercise at least 30mins and this was very successful for me. The use of positive reinforcement in this study was easiest for me and worked to help me exercise more. In the future when applying behavior modification to help me exercise more I may try something different to help me increase the timed used to exercise daily. Instead of using a privilege as a reward I can switch it up and use something I really want, such as a new pair of shoes as a positive reinforcement to continue to get me to exercise more regularly each day.
Keywords: positive reinforcement, baseline period, treatment period, behavior modification
For my behavior modification project, I wanted to increase how much I exercised. My goal was to exercise at least 5 days a week for at least 30mins a day. The reason I chose exercising for this project is because I believe it’s something I needed to do more of to stay healthy and fit.
The reasons I think I have trouble exercising regularly is 1) I am so busy with school and school work, I made myself believe I didn’t have time to. 2) I procrastinate a lot and would always put it off for later and end up never doing it at all.
I plan on using positive reinforcement to increase