7.1: Overview of the Process of Change

Self-control

Before we dive into the process of change, I wanted to briefly comment on the fact that to make a change we must have discipline. In some cases, we adjust our behavior based on the feedback we receive from others. Joking around with our significant other after he or she had a long and hard day at work will be perceived differently than a day in which he/she received an exemplary performance evaluation and a raise. Or the feedback may come from ourselves, such that we stop working out because we notice our heart rate has reached dangerous levels or we turn off the television because we are distracted. Our ability to carefully consider our actions and the effect they have on others or ourselves, and to make such adjustments, is called self-regulation. We self-regulate or self-direct more than just our actions. We can also control our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and impulses. You might think of self-regulation as a form of behavior modification but in the short term. It could be long term too. To lose weight, we have to exercise on a regular basis, watch what we eat, drink water, manage our stress, and get enough sleep. A few days of doing this will not produce the results we seek. We need to stay committed for many months or even years.

This leads to the topic of self-control and avoiding temptations. It takes a great deal of discipline to not sleep in, get fast food for dinner, stay up late watching Netflix, or let demands in our environment overwhelm us. This is sometimes called brute self-control (Cervone, Mor, Orom, Shadel, & Scott, 2011) and if it goes on for too long can leave us in a weakened state and cause giving in to our desires (McGonigal, 2011).

Note that Skinner (1953) did not see self-control as willpower, the term that is commonly used, but more so involving outcomes or the consequences of engaging in a behavior. If we eat ice cream after a hard day and it makes us feel better (NR — taking away an aversive feeling or say the frustration from the day) we will be more likely to eat ice cream again as comfort food. If we are on a diet, this can wreak havoc. Though we may feel better in the short-term, we will feel guilty in the long-term when faced with weight gain. He discussed things we do to alter how often a response occurs. The altered response itself is called the controlled response and the responses that do the altering are called controlling responses. If we decide to watch a funny movie to feel better after a hard day instead of eating ice cream, then the movie is a controlling response and the ice cream is the controlled response. We might also use something discussed in a bit called self-instructions and talk ourselves through a better way to deal with the stress of the day (also a controlling response). We will discuss numerous types of controlling responses in this Module. Some were discussed in Module 6.

Steps in the Process of Change

The process of change involves the following steps. Be advised that these are not universal but my conceptualization of the order, though most other textbook authors use similar steps. Some parts of the process must occur in a specific order. For instance, you cannot implement your plan without first having an idea of what strategies you would use. You cannot do that without having an idea of the ABCs of the behavior. And to start the whole process off you have to know what behavior you want to change, by identifying the target behavior. A plan concludes with a maintenance phase and you have to know when to go to it by evaluating your success. So again, there can be some variability with some steps and their order, such as determining the plan to record and establishing goals. They generally occur about the same time and 5 could go before 4.

Figure 7.1. Steps in the Process of Change

Planning for Change

1. Identify the Target Behavior
2. Conduct a Pros and Cons Analysis and Assess Self-Efficacy
3. State the behavioral definition
4. Establish goals and criterion
5. Determine a plan to record data
6. Conduct a baseline phase and functional assessment, to include an identification of temptations
7. Select strategies
8. State the plan rules, identify potential mistakes, and develop a behavioral contract

Implementation and Behavior Change

1. Implement the plan and collect data as you go – Treatment phase
2. Re-evaluate the plan and see if it is working. Make adjustments as needed
3. Once you have achieved your final goal move to maintenance phase. Engage in relapse prevention