Behaviour Modification

...is the approach used by behavioural psychologists (watered-down behaviourists) to modify behaviour (Surprise!). It is usually based on the reinforcement of desired behaviours and ignoring (as far as possible) undesired ones. This is not as simple as it sounds, because always reinforcing desired behaviour, for example, is merely bribery. The "schedule" of reinforcement is critical. Behaviour modification is much used in clinical and educational psychology, particularly with people with learning difficulties. In the conventional learning situation it applies largely to issues of class- and student management, and to psychomotor skill development, rather than to learning cognitive content. It applies at the micro-level: awarding students high marks for good work is only behaviour modification in the broadest and weakest sense, whereas attention and praise at the second-by-second level are much more likely to follow its principles.

If you want consciously to practise it, then:

• Reinforce the desired behaviour: praise is much more potent than criticism or even punishment.   
• Immediacy matters: feedback after the event is useful at a cognitive level, but from a behavioural point of view, the feedback (praise) has to be so close to the specific bit of behaviour that there is no doubt as to what it applies to. The principles are exactly the same for humans and dogs. (Most of the material from a net search on this related to dog and parrot training)

More on Skinner

On behaviour modification in schools

"Strokes"

Transactional Analysis, which was very popular in the heyday of the personal growth movement in the '70s and later, used deliberately informal language; Eric Berne, its founder, coined the term "stroke" to refer to "a unit of human recognition" (symbolic as much as physical). Strokes may be positive (such as compliments) otherwise known as "warm fuzzies", or negative (such as criticism or telling-off) or "cold pricklies". However, the distinctive TA point is that: 

Negative strokes are better than no strokes

which means that criticism, and nagging, and anger are all forms of attention. The general rule is that all attention is reinforcing, and if people can't get or accept positive attention, they will provoke negative attention. (It's a bit like the show-business dictum that there is no such thing as "bad" publicity.) So ignoring undesired behaviour is a more effective way of dealing with it than reacting to it, although practicalities set limits on this. True to the principles of behaviour modification, the best strategy is to reinforce behaviour incompatible with the undesirable behaviour (technically known as "reciprocal inhibition" in behavioural learning theory [Wolpe, 1958]). However, it is a little unfair to list TA under the heading of behaviourism, since overall it is an eclectic approach to communication and psychotherapy.  

What TA is

Reference

(I have to include explicit reference to "behavior" modification: behavior without a "u", and repeat the term "behavior" several times, because otherwise�such are the ways of search engines�no-one outside the UK will ever read this!)

Revised 3 August 2013