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

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