Contemplation: Self-Modification Program

Problem to modify

In this self-behavior modification project, the specific behavior that I targeted to modify concerns my hatred to getting out of bed in the mornings. It is really difficult for me to tip out of my cozy bed and ease myself into full wakefulness. In a case whereby my physiological alarm will shatter my dream around 7 am every day, I’ll wind up groping blindly for my hand phone, hitting the snooze button for 30 minutes and falling back asleep. I often struggle in such a dilemma between an intention to bounce out of bed and an urge to drift back into my slumber. An extra 30 minutes sleep surely will lead to another 30 minutes and then so on. It ends up setting my alarm around 4 or 5 times before I finally get up reluctantly. Soon, I have adopted a bad habit of giving myself an extra time to lounge before I wake up in the mornings. Oversleeping seems to be a next to impossible feat for me to get over.

As this cycle of refusing to get out of bed occurred every morning, it resulted in some undesirable outcomes. I have not only become a snooze button violator, but I have also gradually turned out to be a procrastinator. I have wasted my time lazing on the bed until the latest time I absolutely must get up to start my day. I could have done a lot of work in that 2 or 3 hours of time. Occasionally, I was late for classes and my learning progress was surely affected. I also experienced cognitive dissonance where my biological clock of waking preference rarely coincides with my schedule and responsibilities. Above all, I inflict in such anguish where it’s hard to refrain myself from the temptation of falling back asleep even I reset the irritated and intrusive alarm clock. Furthermore, my poor roommate was tortured by the annoying, continual ringing of my alarm clock.

Therefore, I decided to quit my bad habit of hating to get out of bed in the mornings.


Goal

The goal that I have set is to decrease the amount of time I spend in the bed after the alarm goes off every morning, and to habitually get out of my bed no longer than 5 minutes. In the long-run, my goal is to resist the excuse “Give me five more minutes” and spring out of my bed as fast as possible when the alarm sounds even after this program.


The commitment to change

As I have made up my mind to change this behavior, I realized the importance and advantages of doing so (Passman, 1977). In fact, the pros will definitely outweigh the cons if I were to change my waking up habit. I foresee the benefits of getting extra valuable time in the mornings to do my work (such as study, exercise and take a bath), hence improving my productivity in a day. Apart from that, I could discipline myself to be punctual to attend classes so that I have more time prepare my studies. If time to stay in bed is saved, I will have more time to savor a better life. The other advantage is that I will have a healthier routine and lifestyle once this daily ritual has been established. Although the effect is too small to be apparent unless being accumulated over time, it’s still important for the sake of my health in the long run. Lastly, by decreasing the number of time I press the snooze button, my dear roommate will suffer less from the annoying alarm ringing. The only thing that I have to scarify to obtain all the advantages listed is just the warmth and comfort of my bed.

In order to have a high chance to succeed in changing my behavioral problem, I have to be strongly committed to stay on with this self-modification program (Passman, 1977). Firstly, I listed down all the benefits of my program and posted it onto the conspicuous study board of my table (Martin and Pear, 2003). Then, I made my commitment to change known to public (Seigts et al., 1997). I told my course mates, my friends and my family members about this program (Passman, 1977). I also published my plan in my MSN nickname and MSN space to increase the number of people who know about it. Moreover, I specifically sought my boyfriend’s help to remind me of my targeted goals and to stick to the program persistently. He made a bet with me, and agreed that if I were to succeed in changing myself, he would treat me to a meal. My boyfriend’s support and prompting, as well as that of all the other people mentioned above, are vital sources for me to face the challenges and to resist the temptation of giving up.

I came to the resolution of altering my immediate surrounding environment to deal with the problem of not waking up to the sound of the alarm clock in the morning. (Martin and Pear, 2003). A few goal-reminder notes were also written and pasted at the appropriate places which I deem conspicuous, for instances my cupboard, door, table and the shelf beside my bed. (Garziano, 1975). This would encourage me to fight the unwanted urge and to wake up quickly.

In addition, I have invested considerable time and effort in planning this self-modification program (Watson & Tharp, 1997). I created a blog to post my program progress everyday and to receive comments from my friends. I also bought a new alarm clock with an earsplitting ringing tone but without an alluring snooze button. The time and effort I have put in would serve to strengthen and maintain my commitment. All these would go to waste if I were to give up. The invested time and effort have to be justified by positive therapeutic changes to reduce the cognitive dissonance (Axsom and Cooper, 1981). With the display of a list of statements related to the investment I have made, I will keep reminding myself to move towards the goal (Martin and Pear, 2003). A request was made to my roommate to wake me up for breakfast together so that I would get involved in a routine that I look forward to in the mornings. This is an incentive to deal with any of my temptations to give up getting out of bed at the required time (Watson & Tharp, 1997).


Baseline data and analyze cause

To provide a reference point to evaluate the progress, the amount of time I lounge on the bed after the alarm sounded in each morning was consistently recorded for 7 consecutive days before the program starts. The recording was done each time after I was completely awakened and leapt out of my bed. I would set my alarm clock to 7 am every morning and the duration of my problem behavior would be the extra time taken to get out of bed after 7 am. For this purpose, I placed a piece of paper on the shelf beside my bed to keep track of the data. The recording chart was in an obvious place to increase the likelihood of feedbacks from my roommate, which in turn would reinforce my tracking behavior (Martin and Pear, 2003).

The baseline data is shown in Figure 1 below:
















Figure 1: Baseline data taken over a week

During the preliminary observations, I realized that my self-control problem consists of behavioral excesses which are caused by immediate reinforcers and delayed punishers (Martin and Pear, 2003). The immediate pleasure derived from sleeping for an extra 30 minutes may override and win out over the delayed negative consequences of time constriction or being late for classes. The emotional flare up of my roommate is also too long delayed to counteract the attractive enjoyment of lazing on the bed.

More to the point, I managed to detect the antecedents that might be served as the discriminative stimuli for my problem behavior. There is a higher tendency of staying in bed when the air-conditioner is on and when my room dark and conducive for sleeping, with the curtains drawn. I am more likely to become a “snooze pusher” when my hand phone, which acts as my alarm, is an arm’s length away from the bed. Most of the time, I tend to sleep in when my roommate is not there to wake me up. At the same time, it is harder for me to wake up in the morning if I were to get into bed after midnight the night before. Ironically, the amount of time required for me to wake up is significantly reduced whenever I need to accomplish certain tasks before classes. For example, on certain days, I need the extra time before classes to study for quizzes or to complete an assignment before the deadline.


Designing and implementing a program

After taking the baseline data and identifying the stimulus control, I deliberately designed a self-modification program. For manipulating consequent events, my strategy is to eliminate the inadvertently reinforcing stimuli of my problem behavior in the room (Martin and Pear, 2003).I first removed the key attraction of my room by using the fan instead of the air-conditioner so that I would be less comfy while sleeping. In addition, by packing away some of the pillows into the cupboard, I hope to reduce my affection for the bed. I would also leave the curtains drawn before I sleep so that I could be more responsive to the bright morning sunlight. I would set my handphone alarm tone to an irritating ringing tone instead of a soothing piece of music so that I wouldn’t be habituated to the soft melody. I placed both my hand phone and the new clock out of reach across my room so that I would have no option but to remove myself from my bed in order to turn them off.

Subsequently, I made concrete self-instructions by writing down the program rules on the headboard of my study table (Martin and Pear, 2003). This was done to present the cues to strengthen self-control through keeping myself engaged in the alternative desired behavior. If only abstract mental or verbal instructions were to be applied, it would be less likely for me to keep to my goal. Then, I signed a contract with my buddy, PingJun to ensure the rules would be followed constantly.

The program I am going to execute is based on the use of a Token Economy, where the primary reinforcer is a sticker dispensed by my roommate, YinYue. She will place a sticker on the data collection paper if I meet the criterion in the morning. The sticker acts as a salient immediate reinforcer which exerts a strong effect on my behavior (Powell et al, 2005). According to the Premack Principle, a high frequency behavior can be used to reinforce a low frequency behavior. So, the associated secondary reinforcer is to earn myself with a 2-hour access to Facebook (which is a lengthy appetitive event), if I receive a certain amount of stickers. YinYue will release the password to me in order to log in to my Facebook and set a new password for the next reinforcement. Rewards are administered and monitored by her to prevent reinforcer bias or self-biasness.

The criterions to receive the rewards are shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1 Criterions set to attain rewards :














Using changing-criterion design, successive changes in the behavioral criterion to receive reinforcers were manipulated across the level to demonstrate the effectiveness of my program (Martin and Pear, 2003). I would use postitive reinforcement where the reinforcement schedule of the primary and secondary reinforcers are fixed ratio=1 and fixed ratio=2 respectively. So as to gain my secondary reinforcers, I have to collect the number of stickers required. The criterions to receive stickers which are progressively increasing in difficulty are suitable in shaping my behavior systematically within my abilities and patience (Powell et al, 2005). By doing so, I can refrain myself from easily give up as a result of trying too much too soon at the beginning.

The same method during baseline recording is used to collect the amount of time I perform the undesired behavior in the mornings. Mere daily measuring and graphing might lead to improvement in my progress towards the goal (Martin and Pear, 2003). Whenever I find myself falling behind, I’ll put myself back on track to sustain the program. The behavioral change will be served as an indicator of the effectiveness of my program.

This self-modification program is being carried out from 16th to 26th Oct 2008. Keeping in mind that the delayed natural consequences are for my own benefit, I gradually reduce the maximum amount of time I allow myself to lie on my bed before I completely wake up. Hand in hand with this, I’ll try to push my bedtime before midnight as to get enough sleep overnight.