Positive Reinforcement and Extinction to Stop Nail Biting
Introduction
The
purpose of this study is to decrease nail biting. This has been a habit that
has persisted for as long as the participant can remember, probably starting
with fingers in the mouth at infancy and escalating to nail biting in toddler
years. The participant has tried to stop before but couldn’t. one way the
participant will monitor the behavior is self-monitoring. Self-monitoring has been shown to decease
problem behavior (Otero, 2016).
Method
Self-Monitoring
To start
this study the participant took a base line measurement of how often nail
biting occurred. This was tracked using a tally app on their cell phone. The self-monitoring
was an easy way to track the behavior and took place over 7 days. The app was a
preferred way to monitor because the undesired behavior of nail biting
previously took place in all settings with no clear antecedent behavior
Positive
Reinforcement
To increase the odds of me keeping
up with the program I positively reinforced the behavior of not biting my nails.
The primary reinforce for not biting my nails was candy at the end of the day,
but some positive self-talk was also required as an immediate consequence. Gum
of a desired flavor was also used to prevent from biting nails to satiate the
chewing and biting sensation.
Extinction
The
urge to bite my nails will not be reinforced by the biting of my nails. The
times I avoid biting my nails will be positively reinforced with candy using a
fading program requiring me to stop biting my nails for more and more days
before reinforce.
Results
The
average times I participated in nail biting before the procedure was 5.14 times
per day. During the procedure, the average times of nail biting dropped to .14
times per day. Which is a significant decrease of 97.28%.
Discussion
This
was a study that was performed on myself, with that being said the
generalizability of the results is very low. However, using self-monitoring and
positive reinforcement has been shown to decrease problem behavior
(Otero,2016). For future studies, I would suggest using a Differential
Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior (DRI), which would make it so I had to
do something else that was a desired behavior that included my hands. When using
this model, it essentially worked as a Differential Reinforcement of
Alternative behavior (DRA), and as long as I didn’t bite the nail it was fine. This
study resulted in no longer biting the nail, but it increased nail picking, or
using one nail to pluck the other. This is also an undesired behavior which
will need another procedure to correct.
Results
Results
Otero, T. L., & Haut, J. M. (2016). Differential effects
of reinforcement on the self-monitoring of on-task behavior. School Psychology
Quarterly, 31(1), 91-103. doi:10.1037/spq0000113khgc
