Research Proposal on "Behavior Change Changing a Behavior: Excessive Television"

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Behavior Change

Changing a Behavior: Excessive Television Watching

Target Behavior

The behavior I will be targeting for this project is a tendency to watch too much television, especially in the hour immediately preceding my going to sleep. I have difficulties sleeping, and though I have used television consistently as a way to relax and try to ease myself into sleep, I have become worried that I spend far too much time watching television, and might actually sleep better -- and get to sleep earlier -- if I watched less. From now on, I would like to limit my television to no more than one hour from the time I get home in the evening until I go to bed, to take place no less than an hour and a half before I turn in. I want to change this behavior because I believe it will help me in two ways. First, I think that I might sleep more, and sleep better, if I watched less television, and second, I think that cutting down on my television would help me be generally more productive.

My hopes for the new behavior are that, in addition to cutting down total time spent watching television to an hour in the evening at least an hour and a half before I go to bed, is that my studying will improve, that I will sleep more hours every night and that my sleep will be less interrupted, and that my general productivity and mood during the day will both be lifted. In order to test this, I have calculated the amount of time I send watching television and sleeping on the average work/school day. I generally start watching television between six and seven, and continue until approximately midnight -- a whopping five to six hours a night. It takes me as lo

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ng as an hour to fall asleep, and I am up at six-thirty. This means that I spend almost the same amount of time sleeping that I spend watching television.

The Intervention Plan

The temptation to watch more television will be great, especially as I do not live alone and can't stop others from watching. Feeling that I can't fall asleep might tempt me to turn on the television, so I have removed the set form my room. The notion that television helps me sleep is probably false (that is what we are testing), and I must give myself time to overcome this cognitive distortion. Behavioral learning is central to this intervention; it is my hope that through behavior modification I will be able to become happier and more productive and thus reinforce the newly learned behaviors. The design of the intervention is essentially a positive-reinforcement behavior modification experiment with no extrinsic rewards, but some concretely defined (by me) intrinsic rewards.

I know that I have a tendency both to be lazy and to become very set in my habits, and this could cause some definite difficulties in forcing myself out of my usual routine, and into a "work mode" of studying when I would normally be watching television in the evenings. These personality traits can be accounted for by developing a well-organized and well-structured plan. As lazy as I can be, I also like to keep things regimented and compartmentalized, so if I consciously set out times allotted to specific activities, I should be able to stick to this schedule. Half-an-hour to an hour after coming home, I will watch an hour of television with dinner (for efficiency's sake -- eating doesn't take a lot of concentration). I will then study and do any homework I have for the next three… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Behavior Change Changing a Behavior: Excessive Television" Assignment:

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Below are the guidelines for the Self-Change Project. Students should type their projects. Students should label and bold each section of their projects with the main headings for that section. Students will receive credit for this project based on the completeness and effort of their work. This project must be done independently; no unauthorized collaboration. Any plagiarized or false projects will result in a grade of zero and the Vice President for Student Affairs will be notified. If you have any questions about this project or want my help/feedback with any of the steps, please stop by my office during my office hours or set up a time to see me that works for you. I am more than happy to help and give feedback so that your learning experience is a good one. This project is worth 150 points & due Friday, Nov. 13th.

1. Select a target behavior to change (25 points)

a. Provide an operational definition of the behavior you are looking to change.

b. Why do you want to change this behavior?

c. What do you want your new behavior to look like?

d. Collect some sort of baseline data/pre-intervention data of the behavior you want to change. This will help you determine whether an actual change in your behavior occurred. (This gives you a chance to compare you behavior before and then after the project.)

2. Design the intervention/plan (50 points)

a. Identify potential barriers (cognitive distortions/thinking errors, behavioral addictions, and/or social factors) that may help or hinder you changing your behavior *****“ how can you address these in your plan?

b. What principle(s) of learning can you use? Explain.

c. What principle(s) of motivation can you use? Explain.

d. How might you take into consideration you personality/temperament in designing your intervention?

e. Provide a detailed description of exactly what you plan to do in order to change your behavior *****“ be creative!

3. Implement the intervention for 2 full weeks (50 points)

a. Make the change according to your plan above.

b. Monitor your progress for 2 full weeks. This could be achieved through journaling daily about your progress or set-backs and you could set up a log and count behaviors, etc. You could graph the frequency incline or decline of your behaviors over these 2 weeks. You could use pre-intervention data and post-intervention data. Turn this data in with your project.

c. Briefly summarize the results using the data you collected.

4. Reflection (25 points)

a. Did you plan work? Why or why not? Did you make any changes or modifications to your plan during the intervention? What were your changes/modifications?

b. What factors contributed to the success or failure of your plan? Identify specific barriers or enabling factors. What would you have to do to remove those barriers for lasting behavior change?

c. What were your emotions during this project like?

d. Is there anything you would have done differently if looking to change this or a similar behavior in the future?

e. Overall did you like doing this project? Why or why not?

How to Reference "Behavior Change Changing a Behavior: Excessive Television" Research Proposal in a Bibliography

“Behavior Change Changing a Behavior: Excessive Television.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2009, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/behavior-change-changing/5758544. Accessed 3 Jul 2024.

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A1-TermPaper.com. (2009). Behavior Change Changing a Behavior: Excessive Television. [online] Available at: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/behavior-change-changing/5758544 [Accessed 3 Jul, 2024].

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1. Behavior Change Changing a Behavior: Excessive Television [Internet]. A1-TermPaper.com. 2009 [cited 3 July 2024]. Available from: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/behavior-change-changing/5758544

1. Behavior Change Changing a Behavior: Excessive Television. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/behavior-change-changing/5758544. Published 2009. Accessed July 3, 2024.

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