Operant Conditioning Paper

Weight loss is a challenging task for most people because of the amount of commitment that it requires. However, through the principles of operant conditioning, behavior can be modified to get a person started on their goal. In this particular situation, I will be helping my roommate lose weight to increase his chances of making the football team. This will be done by making a month long program emphasizing positive reinforcement toward healthy behaviors and negative reinforcement for the unhealthy ones. The program will include dieting and exercise in a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement where his progress will be monitored.

In order to begin the behavior modification, he will have recorded the way he usually eats, including the calories. Essentially, this is to understand how his behavior currently is before beginning the weight loss program. Therefore, now that his starting point is apparent and recorded, his end point must be settled. Say he begins at 200 pounds; by the end of the month his goal will be to weigh 190 pounds. Setting the goal to

lose 10 pounds means exactly 2.5 pounds each week. His diet will begin based off of shaping, using the process of successive approximation. Whereas, the calorie intake will decrease little by little each day and the workouts will slowly increase in intensity. Each day, the amount of calorie intake will be recorded as well as the daily workouts in a food and fitness planner. This is how the progress of my roommate will be monitored.

By means of this, a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement will be arranged.

A fixed interval schedule is when a settled amount of time has passed before the reinforcement is given. Correspondingly, if my roommate has met or surpassed his goal by the end of each week by employing good eating habits, I will implement a positive reinforcement. For the reward, I will take him to a movie of his choice or somewhere fun for losing 2.5 pounds. This is one of the two types of reinforcement. On the contrary, if he does not complete the goal, then the stimulus that is decreasing the behavior will be withdrawn. The stimulus might be a television or even chips. This is the second type, negative reinforcment, which will be implemented if he is not eating healthy or exercising. Each reinforcement will only be applied in order to help my roommate reach his ultimate weight loss goal and will not counter

it.

Furthermore, I would incorporate the principle of using a discriminative stimulus. For example, I will take all of the unhealthy foods out of the kitchen and replace them with healthier options. Also, I will hide his phone or television and replace it with a football or a physical game of some sort. The reason being for this is to give my roommate a cue to either start working out or to eat healthier. With consistent use of these principles of operant conditioning, my roomate will have loss weight by the end of the month as well as have a better chance of making the football team.