By Steven Griggs

 What Terms We Need To Understand When Changing Teen's Behaviors
I've been a child psychologist for twenty-six years. During that time,
I've evolved a system for dealing with children. It involves some basic
reinforcement strategies, but it also has some new ideas. People tell
me
they want the nuts and bolts or, "How To's" about various subjects and
they
want it fast. So, here's my "to the point" version of how to change
teenager's
behavior. This and many subsequent articles will explore teenager various
subjects, but first there needs to occur a discussion of some introductory
terms.
The first one is Reinforcer. A reinforcer is anything that follows a behavior that either increases or decreases some aspect of the behavior.
I write about three kinds of reinforcers. The first kind is a positive
reinforcer. Ever get a dollar for studying? Ever get a dollar for each
night you studied? The dollar is the reinforcer because it reinforces
(in
this case encourages or increases) the behavior (studying). The dollar
is a
positive reward because it is pleasant. When it follows a behavior, the behavior gets associated with the positive reinforcer and voila! We see more
of the behavior. In short, a positive reinforcer increases either the
frequency
or intensity of the behavior it follows. You want many potential
positive
reinforcers when selecting teen behaviors to change.
The second kind of reinforcer is punishment. We all know about
punishment.
This is an aversive reinforcer. Follow a behavior with
punishment and you get
less of the behavior in the future. Ever get grounded
because you watched TV
instead of studying? Then you got an "F" and got
grounded some more?
Getting grounded is the punishment and it slowed down
the TV watching.
Getting grounded is unpleasant and probably took the fun
out of not studying and
getting a crummy grade. Notice I didn't say that
punishment is a negative
reinforcer.
The third kind, or a negative reinforcer, actually increases positive behavior by not having a punishment occur. I'll explain. You think you're
going to get punished if you get an "F" in a class. But instead, your
parents
give you a second chance but warn you that if you actually get an "F,"
you will
get punished later. You breathe a sigh of relief and start
studying!
You didn't get punished and it increased a positive behavior
(studying)! It increased the frequency of studying (more often) and the intensity (studying harder to avoid the "F").
Another term is Contingency. This has to do with the qualities or
aspects
of the reinforcers. There are three contingencies of reinforcers
that I use.
These are the important ones; the ones that most quickly
produce changes in
behavior.
The first contingency is immediacy. It means how soon the reward
occurs
after the behavior. It's best to reward a behavior right away.
Don't wait. The sooner the reward follows the behavior the better and the more likely the reward will positively change the behavior (in this case increase
the
quantity or quality of the behaviors). The longer you wait to present
the reward
after a (good) behavior, the less strength the reward will have to
change the
behavior, to motivate the person to repeat the quality or quantity
of the good
behavior. In real life you might miss a few chances to reward a
good behavior,
but try your best to do it every time. That's the goal, even
though it's not
going to happen that way all the time. The same applies to
both punishment and to negative reinforcers. Apply them right away!
The second contingency is consistency. This has to do with how often
the
eward occurs after the behavior. Try to present the reward every time
you see
the positive behavior, not every other time or every third time.
The more
consistent you present the reward following a good behavior, the
better. Get as
close to "every time" as possible, and that will be good
enough. Again, the ideal
is to do this every time, but real life gets in the
way, so do the best you can.
And again, the same applies to punishments and
negative reinforcers.
The third contingency is constancy. This just means how big or little, important or unimportant, significant or insignificant the reinforcers are. It's really about the magnitude of the reinforcer. Giving kids a nickel
after
cleaning up their rooms is a small magnitude (yet positive) reinforcer.
Taking
them to Disneyland for doing the same thing is a huge reward, hence
has a great
magnitude. The idea is to present a positive reward following a
good behavior
that has approximately the same magnitude each time. Try to
not vary the magnitude
of the reinforcers too much or teens will start
expecting the bigger magnitude
rewards and won't change their behaviors
for the little ones. Again, constancy
applies to punishments and negative reinforcers.
-Dr. Griggs
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