Ch. 8: Developing a Successful Plan

What are the six features of a good plan?

1. Goals & Sub-goals 2. Rules that state the kinds of behaviors and techniques for change to use in specific situations 3. Practice 4. Feedback on you behavior, derived from your self-observations 5. A comparison of feedback to your sub-goals and goals in order to measure progress 6. Adjustment in plan as conditions change.

What are the major techniques in the checklist that you should use for your project?

2: Anticipating obstacles and setting goals: -Specific target behaviors clearly -Planning to practice -Self-efficacy beliefs -Steps to cope with temptation -Goals and sub-goals 3: Dealing with self-observation: -Self-observation system to use when problem behavior occurs -Make record as soon as behavior occurs -Make changes as self-understanding increase -Recording successes and failures 4: Controlling antecedents: -In decreasing unwanted behavior, take steps to discover and eliminate antecedents of behavior -Change thoughts of antecedent behaviors -Beliefs and interpretations -Plan to cope with physical, social, and emotional antecedents of behavior -Antecedents to encourage desired behavior 5: Developing new behaviors: - Shaping -Incompatible behavior as substitute -Relaxation -Distancing/ distraction -Self-instrucitons -Practicing -Imagined rehearsal 6. Reinforcement: -Observe reinforcement of undesired behaviors & develop plan for using same reinforcement, or alternate reward, to strengthen desired behavior -Token system -Premack type -Precommitted punishment 7: Successful plan: -Set goals and subgoals -Practice and face mistakes -Rules -If...then plans

If you change your target, what should you do about your record keeping?

Basically begin new plan- Best to establish new baseline Whenever target behavior changed, must begin recording new target to see what baseline is and notice small changes as they occur. If initial target for change was some undesired behavior, might have begun by recording it. Later involved substituting some new behavior instead of undesired, be sure to keep record of new, to-be-increased actions

What are important considerations in working with others on self-change projects?

Be a good listener -Listen and pay attention and later it will be reciprocated -Don't interrupt -Ask for info -Encourage others to keep giving info -When offering ideas, be considerate of other peoples feelings Be a good helper: -Find out if person has done steps at end of each chapter -Make sure using right techniques -Don't just say ideas, brainstorm -Offer ideas in terms of specifics, not abstractions -Don't just look for problems of be negative

How can developing options help you deal with high-risk situations?

Develop several diff. plans for coping so if one doesn't work, won't necessarily fall back into old, bad habits Use two-stage process. In developing new behaviors, have back up plan. If... then... Make rules. ex: wants to control drinking when playing darts. stopped going to pub for few weeks, then returned and had list of requirements to follow.

How can you brainstorm to generate more ideas on how to carry out self-change?

Do I have the best plan? 1. Try for quantity of ideas. 2. Don't criticize ideas; don't even evaluate them. Do that later. 3. Think of unusual ideas. 4. Try to combine ideas to create new ones.

How can you learn from mistake?

Each loss is merely information bout skills that need work. Hold skills development attitude

Why is it important to gather feedback?

Effective plan must incorporate system for gathering info about progress. Without feedback, aren't likely to improve (if you did, you wouldn't know it) All goal-oriented behavior is governed by cybernetic principle -Without some info about performance (feedback), can't correct self = Must include system for collecting data Must continue to self-record for duration of plan, so self-correction can occur

What techniques can you use to evaluate your progress?

Finding averages -Weekly averages smooth out record and provide more reliable picture than daily fluctuations Finding percentages -Can be examined across periods of time to see if you're changing -Use average, weekly comparison rather than daily Making graphs

What are skills dealing with mistakes? What steps can you take to learn these skills?

Forewarn yourself that it's going to be a difficult skill. Control attention -Don't focus on frustration or negative emotion -Distract self -Focus on next sub-goal -Don't compare self to other people; take skills development approach in which you compare your progress only to yourself -Remind self of progress made so far & how good you'll feel when reaching target goal -Remind self that mistakes are part of developing skills.

What are if...then plans? When should you develop them?

Plans that spell out the when, where, and how of reaching goals "If situation X is encountered, then I will de behavior A." Plan A: Ask what might go wrong, then develop if...then plan to cope with situation. -having plan for what you'll do increases chances for self-control Must be specific, not general Plan B: First time self-change plan is unexpectedly stopped bye vents and you don't do what you intended, work out an if...then plan on what do when that happens. Hope is not a plan. Not specific enough.

What is the role of practice? What should you be sure to practice?

Practice desired, new behaviors over and over, particularly if they place old, unwanted habit. The more you practice, the better you learn. If can't do real-life practice, use imagination. Should practice parts that are challenging for you. -Is where you need to improve, will make mistakes if you don't improve Design practice to focus on specific needs

How are record keeping and A, B, and C elements combined in a single plan?

Problem: Puts down friends. Self-change program- counting number of putdowns per week and kept records for several weeks. Worked out plan to change and cont. making observations. Antecedents: Putdowns as jokes. Knows he's joking, but friends don't like it. Asked friends to tell him when he's putting them down b/c doesn't always realize. Behavior: Reduce # of putdowns per week (shaping). Relaxation exercises so more relaxed when horsing around. Modeling after people with good manners. Mental practice, imagined rehearsal. Pause before saying anything. Complimented instead of putting down (substitute). Consequences: Primary reward for no putdowns was allowing himself to talk on phone with friends for certain minutes. Table to related # of putdowns to time on phone. As time passed, changed ratio so fewer putdowns = same amt. Stopped keeping record, but still performed mental rehearsal.

How is feedback compared to goals and sub-goals?

Record of self-observations are used to compare to goal. See if you're off ideal standard and make adjustments for improvements to occur. Process of comparing feedback to goals & sub-goals may require short, deliberate period of taking stock

How are rules used in self-modification? What are the rules used in self-modification?

Rules: ways of implementing goals and sub-goals; guides actions -Statements of thoughts, behaviors, and techniques for change you'll use in specific situations If you've not meeting particular goal, set clear, explicit rules to guide behavior until it becomes habitual. Typical plan will have more than one rule. Can apply over periods of time, or be specific to one time and place. -Don't set impossible rules. "No more desserts ever." If rules are too severe, will fail. -Specific, not general -Set rules for problem situations -All rules are "no choice", must stick -Practice following rules

When do you make adjustments in your plans?

Should expect to make adjustments week-to-week New goals require new tactics.

How are goals and sub-goals used?

Sub-goals should specify what exactly you must do. Has to be stated precisely enough to compare with performance and know whether or not you've achieved it. Each sub-goal has own rules.

What is the two-step process for dealing with high-risk situations?

Used when undesired consummatory behaviors present. Stage 1: Avoiding high-risk situations. -Avoid the antecedents -Include reinforcement for avoidance and way of substituting other pleasant activities. Stage 2: Building new behaviors -So you can be in tempting situations but not perform overindulging or addictive behavior ex: wants to quit smoking so avoided lunch break with friends for 2 weeks and instead spent time with wife. when returned to coffee breaks reinforced himself specifically for not smoking. Imagined rehearsal helps.

How can the two-stage process be used in any kind of project?

ex: L and H worked together but relationship bad. Stage 1: cooling off period. didn't talk to H unless necessary. after couple weeks, things settled down; anger disappeared. Stage 2: Important to develop new and more desirable behaviors. -3 elements: Didn't respond to annoy remarks by H, positively reinforced H for pleasant remarks, & praise H for good work and refrained from criticizing.