behavior change project-1

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BEHAVIOR CHANGEPROJECT

For this project, you will target a behavior that you wish to change in order to contribute to your health.

You can target a good thing youd like to start doing (e.g., eat more fruit, spend more time with your

sources of social support such as friends and family, exercise more, drink more water, enact strategies to

better handle stress) or a bad thing youd like to stop doing (e.g., quit smoking/drinking or lower yourcaffeine intake, avoid people who make you feel bad about yourself, quit staying up and sleeping too late,

quit enacting a stress response over the little things). Whatever you choose, be sure you dont mind

writing about it and perhaps talking about it in class. Below is a detailed description of what is required

for this assignment.

Proposal

Indicate which behavior you plan to change with a brief explanation as to why you chose this

behavior and how you plan to measure your success. The proposal should not be more than one

paragraph in length.

H o w t o sub m it f o r f u ll c r ed it : Send your Proposal in an email ([email protected] or

d rj ayd ill @ g m a il.com) no later than its due date, indicated below. You can send the textof the proposal either in the body of the email or in an attachment. If you choose to send

it in an attachment, be sure that it is in Microsoft Word format or a PDF file so I can open

it properly and consider it on time. Its not considered submitted until I can read it.

Journal

Once your project begins, you will maintain a journal that chronicles your experiences for the entirety

of the project. The type of information that is recommended for your journal entries is described

below. Though you must type your journal, there are no formatting requirements; do whatever works

foryou.

H o w t o sub m it f o r f u l l c r ed it : Send your Journal in an email ([email protected] or

d rj ayd ill @ g m ail.co m) no later than its due date, indicated below. You must send the

Journal as an attachment, so be sure that it is in Microsoft Word format or a PDF file so I

can open it properly and consider it on time. Its not considered submitted until I can

readit.

Baseline period

During a period of at l eas t 2 w eek s, before you attempt to change your target behavior, you should

observe and record the occurrences of that behavior. The baseline period will provide you with an

assessment of the frequency of your target behavior as well as its antecedents (what happens before

the behavior and therefore what might lead to it) and consequences.

B ase li n e pe ri o dj ou r na l en tri e s . Your journal during this period should include observations and

reflections on the occurrence of your target behavior. Be sure to actually record and keep track ofthe

frequency (intensity, duration, etc) of the behavior, as this information will be used later in the

presentation of your data. Entries should also include any perceived consequences of your target

behavior (both positive and negative). If a particular antecedent or consequence seems interesting to

you, record and track it throughout the entirety of your project to see if it changes as well as your

target behavior changes. If you do this, please include it in your written report with an accompanying

graph.

It is during this period, in which you are becoming more familiar with how and why your target

behavior occurs (or doesnt occur), that you will design a behavior change intervention. An

intervention is simply a plan that will help you change your behavior. For instance, say you want to

get to sleep earlier (11:00 p.m. for example), but you dont do that now because you arent tired that
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early, you usually stay up later than that in order to get coursework done, you have a favorite show

that comes on at midnight, and so on Here, an intervention might consist of getting up earlier(so

youre tired when 11:00 oclock comes round), scheduling more time during the day for coursework

(during which time you dont also watch TV, listen to the radio, sit in a noisy area, etc), and taping

your favorite show while youre asleep for viewing the next day (in fact, fast-forwarding through

commercials will buy you an extra 13 minutes or so per hour you watch). Ideas for interventions may

be found in self-help books or on the internet.

Modification period

During a period of at l eas t 4 w eek s, attempt to change your target behavior with the use ofyour

behavior change intervention. It is during this period that you will implement yourintervention,

maintain a journal record of your experiences, record and track the changes in your target behavior

and record and track a particular antecedent or consequence of your behavior (if you chose to do so).

M od ifi ca ti o n pe ri o d j ou r na l en tri es . Your journal during this period should include observations and

reflections on the occurrence of your target behavior. Be sure to actually record and keep track ofthe

frequency (intensity, duration, etc) of the behavior as this information will be used later in your

data analysis. Entries should also include any perceived consequences that result from changing your

target behavior (both positive and negative).

Journal entries in general

You should make entries in your journal 4-7 times per week, depending on the nature of yourtarget

behavior and your intervention strategy. Entries should be written in grammatically correct, complete

sentences and should evidence meaningful reflection.

Written report

Your written report should be no longer than 5 content pages (no shorter than 4 content pages; a title

page does not count as a content page), should use Times font (size 12, only double-spaced, 1-inch

margins), and should include the following 4 sections:

1. An i nt roduction

This section will describe your target behavior as well as its antecedents and consequences,

will discuss your baseline period and how it contributed to the formulation of an interventionstrategy and will specify your behavioral goals (i.e., what you decided would constitute

success).

2. An i n t e r ven ti o n descri ption

This section includes a detailed description of your intervention strategy. What parts ofyour

intervention strategy worked...which parts did not work?

3. Th e r esu lt s o f you r behav i o r chang e attempt

This section presents how well you were able to change your target behavior, including a

r equ ir e d g r ap h that visually depicts your success by presenting data from both the baseline

period and the modification period.

4. A d i scuss i o n o f yourexperi enceThis section includes the reasoning behind choosing your target behavior, observations on

your challenges during the change, reasons for instances of success and failure, what you

would do differently if you had it to do over again, and your reflections on the experience in

general including whether or not you benefited from it.

H o w t o sub m it f o r f u l l c r ed it : Send your Written Report in an email ([email protected]

or d rj ayd ill @ g m a il.com) no later than its due date, indicated below. You must send the

Written Report as an attachment, so be sure that it is in Microsoft Word format or a PDF

file so I can open it properly and consider it on time. Its not considered submitted until I

can read it.
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Assignment due dates & requiredformat:

All reports, listed below, are to be submitted in accordance to the instructions provided above. Be

sure to include your name on each.

P r oposa l D u e D a te : Tuesday, 5 October Jou r nal

D u e D a te : Tuesday, 23 November W ritt e n Report

D u e D a te : Thursday, 2 December

Grading

You will not be graded on your success at changing your behavior. Rather, it will be graded on how

well you design your intervention, track your behavior (as well as your reflections) and present your

results in yourpaper.

behavior change project-1

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