Technique To Change Beth’s Tardiness Behavior

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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From the description of the case study, Beth’s tardiness behavior has been a major cause of cold relationship with her previous employers. Her tardiness behavior has cost her a lot of opportunities in her life and hence the more the reason she is yearning for change. Though she clearly understand here behavior, it has become increasingly difficult for her to change since this is a behavioral problem that has been built over the years.
Before we come up with technique to change Beth’s behavior, it is important to understand how this behavior has been built over the years. From the case study, it is evident that this problem started early in her life but there were no efforts from her parent to change her. Like other behavioral problems, Beth’s tardiness behavior has developed over the years because her parents did not take any action to change her. If here parents had intervened with behavior modification techniques, Beth would have changed her tardiness behavior there averting the string of misfortunes that she has faced in her life.
From the case study, it is evident that Beth is suffering from a behavior ...
... problem that can be changed through behavior modification technique. Behavior modification involves a treatment approach which utilizes the main principles of operant condition in order to change undesirable behaviors (Martin and Pear, 2007) (1). Operant conditioning will be the bet technique that can be applied in this case to change Beth’s tardiness behaviors.
Operant conditioning operates on principles of reinforcement. A reinforcer acts as a stimulus for behavior change. One of the behavior modification techniques under operant conditioning is positive reinforcement where an individual is encouraged to change a behavior through a reward. Another technique includes negative reinforcement where a negative reinforcer encourages behavior change through when it is removed. Operant conditioning can change behavior through punishment which discourages continuity of a negative behavior (O'Donohue and Ferguson, 2006) (2).
The problem could be solved with the adoption of Brainstorming technique with the promotion of positive mental attitude and to curb the negative traits in a systematic pattern through the generation of healthy ideas in the personality of the target individual. The brainstorming techniques will double the existing creative and physical outputs through the application of the techniques as on gradual and regular basis .
A positive liberty technique is also useful for the modification of Beth’s behaviors through the application of the method as to gain associated benefits from the technique. Liberty as in the positive shape will inculcate a wave of positive behavior with a sense of responsibility and shared authority as to deliver the assigned tasks in a perfect manner .
The adoption of a teamwork spirit among all the members including that of Beth will help the organization to achieve its targets as on successful pattern. Teamwork is defined as “the activity of working well together as a team” toward a common goal. It is a combined function in which each team member harmonizes his/her contributions towards a common goal . The technique will help in the modification of Beth’s behavior as in favor of the organization. A team has the benefit of a shared pool of knowledge and expertise to device an effective solution. The characteristics of an effective team include team members with complementary skills who share a well defined common goal and have clear role within the team. Members of an effective team are not created equal in abilities, strengths, and experience, but the team members generally have qualities that complement weaknesses of the others. In addition, a team must have a clear goal, a result driven structure, competent team members, unified commitment, standards that are understood by all, and principled centered leadership.
In addition, the problem could also be solved with the adoption of the following approaches either in their collective senses or a combination of two or more options depending upon the severity of the problem as
(a)The introduction and creation of external modified environment as a motivating factor for the achievement of desired results with the use of optimum resources for the achievement of maximum output as on cost effective basis with their positive consequences ,
(b)Offering bonuses and financial rewards to the workers for enhancing the quality and quantity of production through a change in the radical behavior in a given time period with the use of fixed human resources ,
(c)Reinforcement and punishment are the two important tools which are used for the modification of operant behavior and booth of the these tools are applied together for the achievement and maintenance of the improved behavior in the workers, and finally
(d)The inculcation of instrumental learning as through the use of conditioned stimuli for the promotion of acquired behavior as to benefit the individual as well as the organization as on sustainable pattern.
Operant conditioning is applicable to change Beth’s behaviors. In this case, operant condition would be used to encourage her to come to work on time and discourage her from lateness. As outlined in the principles of operant conditioning, positive reinforcement and punishment would be the most appropriate principles to apply in this case. For positive reinforcement, the counselor can agree with the Ms Smith and Beth to come up with a reward system where Beth would be rewarded when she comes to work about 20 minutes before time. Reward could take different forms but financial rewards have been shown to work best for most people. For example, they can agree to add one dollar to Beth’s salary every time she arrives 20 minutes before time. This would encourage her to come to work earlier in order to get more money.
On the other hand, punishment should not be left out. Punishment is mainly used to discourage individuals from continuing with their current negative behaviors. Punishment has been shown effective in changing negative behaviors. For example Beth parents had punished her for her tardiness in childhood she would not have grown up with the behavior. In this case, the counselor and the employer can agree to use punishment measures like deduction on her daily earnings, extended working hours, and others ways every time when she arrives to work late. This would discourage her from coming to work late.
Positive reinforcement through rewards and punishment would be effective in changing Beth’s behavior. In line with operant conditioning, Beth would adopt a behavior that is more rewarding and drop those which attract punishment. Consequently she will be coming to work early since this is more rewarding and avoid coming late since this attracts punishment (Olchowski et al., 2007)(3).
There are different Types of participant problems technique could be used with operant conditioning. One of such technique is screening technique thorough which it is simple to identify potential barriers to the overall design. Participant observation can also be used as a technique to identify possible constraint to participants.

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