Assignment : Habit Reversal

1. Choose a habit that you currently engage in, and identify the following:

Contracts

a. What type it is (e.g. motor tic)

b. The antecedent for your habit (what is going on in the environment when it is most likely to occur)

c. A clear description of what the habit is (use action words and descriptions)

d. What function you believe the habit has (e.g. reduces anxiety) and why you think that is the case

e. How you would use awareness training to further your understanding of your habit

f. What kind of competing response training you would engage in to counter your habit

g. What kind of social support you'd enlist to help you

h. What kind of motivational strategies you'd employ to make sure the change continues.

2. For the following...decide which kind of behavioural contract to use, and provide a rationale for your choice. Then write out a contract, clearly defining all behaviours and possible reinforcers.

Mike and Dan decided to co-own a car. They saved and each put in half to buy a cherry red 1967 Mustang with white leather interior. Very soon, the two were at war. Mike, a self-proclaimed neat freak, was obsessed with keeping the car immaculately clean.

Every day he would crawl into the car and become enraged, because Dan, a HUGE fan of fast food, would eat as he drove and get ketchup on the interior and toss his finished containers into the back seat.

Mike would empty the car and wax it from top to bottom until the steering wheel, dashboard and seats had a beautiful sheen. This drove Dan absolutely crazy! Dan would get in the car and at the first turn found himself slipping and sliding all over the seat! And forget about using the steering wheel to hold on....without his rubber-grip gardening gloves he couldn't even hold the wheel! They are ready to come to blows.