SELFMANAGEMENT Psychology 6710 Excellent Student Aug 8 th

SELFMANAGEMENT Psychology 6710 Excellent Student Aug. 8 th, 2008

PROBLEM I need to be flossing every day to make sure that I don’t get cavities from all the sugar I eat. The problem is that daily flossing only has a small but cumulative outcome. I can miss anyone day and there will be no serious outcome.

INEFFECTIVE NATURAL CONTINGENCY BEFORE Have a given level of gum health BEHAVIOR AFTER Floss teeth Have infinitesimally better gum health

COMPETING CONTINGENCIES Not only does flossing on any given day only infinitesimally improve my gum health it hurts and causes my gums to bleed

NATURAL COMPETING CONTINGENCY BEFORE Gums are not in pain BEHAVIOR Floss teeth AFTER Gums are in pain

THE SM INTERVENTION Target behavior: Floss teeth Contingencies: Flossing avoids the loss of IPod Deadline (SD): Before the end of each day MA TT PM manager: Matt Start End Date: June 9 th, 2008 Date: Current

PERFORMANCE-MANAGEMENT CONTINGENCY SD (Deadline): Before Bed every night BEFORE Will lose IPod for a day at next class BEHAVIOR AFTER Floss teeth Will not lose IPod for a day at next class

INFERRED THEORETICAL CONTINGENCY BEFORE Fear loss of IPod for a day at the next class BEHAVIOR Floss Teeth AFTER No fear loss Of IPod for a day at the Next class

Number of times flossed TARGET BEHAVIOR GRAPH Baseline Intervention Goal line Weeks

# of Days that gums bleed BENEFIT MEASURE GRAPH Baseline Intervention Goal line Weeks

PROBLEMS DURING INTERVENTION Problem 1: After I moved out of my apartment I misplaced my floss I missed two days Problem 2: Also after the move I no longer walked to class Now I don’t use my IPod very often It lost some of it’s reinforcing value

RECYCLE The bigger of the two problems seemed to be not having the floss that I need The solution: a contingency on buying new floss will be added Deadline: end of the same day that I run out or misplace my floss If I don’t buy a new container of floss by the deadline I will have to pay my performance manager $5

MY RESULTS The intervention was a success. I averaged close to 0 days per week during baseline The intervention average was 96%

MY COMMENTS The project was very beneficial I don’t think that I would have kept up with the flossing otherwise I plan to continue with the performance management contingency throughout the fall Hopefully it will be just as effective as it has been

THANK YOU!! Any Questions or Comments?