Becka Vandenboss

For my Final Fiesta project, I thought it would be great to do a project on trying to get rid of my parent’s addictive habit, smoking. I also thought, this would project would help my mom prep for her tonsil surgery coming up and help her quit or slow down before then (doctor’s order: no smoking for a couple of weeks). I knew trying to do this project would be extremely hard and time consuming considering they have been smokers for a few years now.

I started by making a fact sheet of the awful effects of smoking to one’s body and calendar where they could track how much they were smoking each day. I also placed in a rule that every time they smoked, they would have to read at least one or two

facts from the sheet while they smoked. I hoped by reading these awful facts, they would stand for an aversive condition. By having to read these aversive facts, their behavior of smoking would be punished, hopefully decreasing the frequency of smoking.

Avoidance Contingency:

Besides having to read an aversive fact, I thought I would also place the rule of having to pay me each time they both smoked. For every cigarette my parents would have to put in a quarter into my piggy bank and for each pack of cigarettes, they would have to put in the same amount they spent on the pack.

Before:Will not have to

read aversive fact

Behavior:Mom/Dad smokes

one cigarette

After:Will have to read

aversive fact

Rule-Governed Behavior:

A description of a behavioral contingency.

Aversive Condition:

Any stimulus, event, or condition whose termination immediately following a response increases the frequency of that response.

Avoidance Contingency:

Response-contingent prevention of an aversive condition resulting in an increased frequency of that response.

Becka Vandenboss

Due to my parent’s addictive habit, the motivating operation would be the need for nicotine or withdrawal of that nicotine from the body. The need for nicotine reduces the urge or calms them down.

With the calendar in place, I was able to see how many cigarettes my parents were each smoking on a daily basis and tried to come up with another plan or procedure where they cut one cigarette

off per two days. Day 1 would be considered the baseline of the intervention. Fortunately my parents both smoke exactly the same amount each day.

If the conditions were not aversive enough to cause a slight change in their behavior, I would add another aversive condition in. I began to gather ideas from my

Before:Mom/Dad does not have to

read aversive fact or put money into piggy bank

Behavior:Mom/Dad smokes one

cigarette

After:Mom/Dad does have to read aversive fact and put money into piggy

bank

Motivating Operation:

Withdrawal from nicotine

Motivating Operation:

A procedure or condition that affects the learning or performance with respect to a particular reinforcer of aversive condition.

Baseline:

The phase of the experiment or intervention where the behavior is measured in the absence of an intervention.

Becka Vandenboss

parents of what they would like reinforcement or aversive wise in order to help their habit. My mom suggested that I text her or penalize her behavior verbally with a rude comment. The sight of aversive pictures would also help slow down the amount of cigarettes they each smoked. I decide to do one reinforcer in hopes that it might help decrease the frequency of their smoking habits and it could potentially help them gain back some of their losses. I thought that for each cigarette they didn’t smoke that day (below 9) or whichever day they were on (ex: Day 7, 7-6 cigarettes) I would return a quarter to them. But there is a deadline in order to receive that quarter back; they must have smoked one less for that day but the end of that day.

Analog Avoidance Contingency:

I was trying to manage the performance of my parents smoking. According to Dr. Malott, Performance Management Contingencies can be designed to decrease performance. In this case I am trying to decrease the performance of my parents smoking. By doing decreasing their smoking, I needed to add in several aversive consequences. The first contingency, Ineffective Natural Contingency is often too small or too improbable. Therefore, my parents will not notice a huge change in their health by smoking one cigarette. It would take a long time and a lot less cigarettes to notice a huge amount of change in their health. Since the change in health is so small and too improbable, it is ineffective.

SD:Before end of

day

After:Parents will lose

opportunity to gain a quarter back.

Before:Parents will not

lose the opportunity to gain

a quarter back.

Behavior:Smokes one

cigarette

Sdelta:After the end of the day or the next morning.

After: Parents will lose

opportunity to gain quarter back.

Becka Vandenboss

Ineffective Natural Contingency:

With performance management, there is the Effective Indirect- Acting Performance Management Contingency. With my parents being able to have the opportunity to earn their money back, the opportunity to not hear negative comments or having to read aversive facts, I thought this would be more than enough to help end their smoking habits. From the fact sheet that I presented them with, on average smokers spend about $3,000 a year for cigarettes. If my parents spent that much a year funding their cigarette habit and having to pay me each time they smoked, they would end up losing a substantial amount of money. Since they would not be losing that substantial amount of money within sixty seconds, this contingency is indirect-acting.

Effective Indirect-Acting Performance Management Contingency:

Before:Parents will have

infinitesimally more health issues.

Behavior:Parents smoke one

cigarette.

After:Parents will not have infinitesimally more

health issues.

Before:Parents will not lose

opportunity for having a substantial amount

of money.

After:Parents will lose

opportunity for loss of substantial

amount of money.

Behavior:Parents smoke one

cigarette.

The Three- Contingency Model of Performance Management:

The three crucial contingencies are the ineffective natural contingency, the effective, indirect-acting performance management contingency, and the effective, direct-acting contingency.

Indirect-Acting Contingency:

A contingency that controls the response, though the outcome of the response does not reinforce or punish that response.

Becka Vandenboss

The last contingency in Performance Management Contingencies is the Effective Direct-Acting Theoretical Contingency. In theory I hope that just having that thought of losing a substantial amount of money overtime will be aversive enough. My parents should be consciously thinking about each time they pull out another cigarette to smoke that they will losing money. From thinking about smoking one less cigarette and actually smoking one less cigarette, they will hopefully think about the money they will save (this thought should happen within 60 seconds). Since this thought should happen within 60 seconds, it is a direct-acting contingency.

Effective Direct Acting Theoretical Contingency:

Trying to help a smoker quit smoking is tough work. Smokers have to be willing to actually want to stop smoking. I was hoping to help my parents quit smoking because it not only affects their health but also mine. Since my mother will already be in extreme pain from her tonsillectomy, I was hoping to avoid her having to go through nicotine withdrawals as well. I think it has and will continue to help that my parents have each other as a support team and their kids to motivate them to quit smoking. When I asked my mother why she wanted to quit smoking, she said “I want to be alive to see my children grow, my grandchildren, and live past 80 years old.”

As of today, both of my parents smoke less than they were but have no completely stopped. Besides all of the aversive conditions I put in, I think the tonsillectomy will help be an aversive effect as well. I also believe the combination of the surgery and not being able to smoke (the withdrawal of nicotine) will help put an end to smoking for my mother. For my dad, he tends to really only smoke

Behavior:Parents smoke one

cigarette.

Before:Parents do not have

aversive thoughts about losing

substantial amount of money.

After:Parents have aversive thoughts about losing substantial amount of

money.

Direct- Acting Contingency:

A contingency in which the outcome of the response reinforces or punishes that response.

Becka Vandenboss

when my mom does. With her not smoking, he will probably quit as well! Lucky for him, he can quit cold turkey without any issues (he agreed to do this intervention to really help out my mother).