Posted by gardenergirl on August 27, 2005, at 18:38:30
Hi everyone,
Just some thoughts that I've had triggered recently.One way to decrease a behavior that you do not want to continue is to choose to NOT reinforce it. That means ignoring the behavior, which I know is not always easy to do. But if a behavior you want to stop gets ignored long enough and consistently enough, it will eventually stop.
But be prepared for an increase in the undesired behavior, temporarily, when it's being ignored. If you can get past that and hold strong, you're on the right track.
It takes the whole village to make this work. So maybe the principles of reinforcement are not always applicable in all contexts.
But don't tell Skinner that! ;)
Also, the principles of reinforcement do not take into account the meaning of a behavior, which is another consideration, and is open to multiple interpretations. I'm sure not everyone interprets behavior the same way I do in every case. So feel free to toss this info out the window, if you wish.
Okay, end of ramblings for now.
gg
poster:gardenergirl
thread:547344
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050819/msgs/547344.html