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I need someone to review and make edits (especially with APA formatting) to the final paper for my psychology class on an experiment that was conducted.

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT

 

1 Healthy Eating Treatment Project

 

Name

 

Washington State University HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT 2 Abstract

 

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not increasing available time to prepare

 

meals has an effect on frequency of preparing and consuming healthy, home-cooked meals.

 

This is a within-subject study with one participant which took place over the course of three

 

weeks with a token economy with a continuous reinforcement schedule. With each week of

 

treatment, the available time for preparing meals was increased by 5 minutes, starting from

 

10 minutes. The results of the experiment indicated a positive correlation between the two

 

variables, as indicated by a significant increase in the frequency of the target behaviour. HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT 3 Healthy Eating Treatment Project

 

Self-control is an individual?s capacity to alter its own responses. It is a deliberate and

 

conscious effort to exert control over one?s actions, allowing a person to restrain or override a

 

dominant response to a stimulus. Self-control is extremely important, as it is what allows

 

humans to rise over animalistic instinct and make informed decisions based on future goals

 

and consequences. According to the theory of behaviourism, our behaviour is controlled

 

through events in our immediate environment, so self-control can be tied to these events.

 

Behavioural modification emphasizes the functional relationship between environmental

 

effects and behaviour, and it is important to understand how to identify and alter these events

 

in order to bring about changes in behaviour.

 

Goal-setting and mindset are two concepts that drive the desire for behaviour

 

modification and self-control. Goals increase motivation, focus our attention, and encourage

 

persistence, so setting goals for oneself is an effective way to motivate behaviour

 

modification. This is accomplished by making a specific statement of a final goal, and then

 

breaking it into sub-goals that can be tackled individually. The way we approach our goals is

 

tied to the concept of mindset. A mindset is essentially the way we perceive the world and

 

there are two types of mindsets that are relevant to self-control and behaviour modification:

 

fixed and growth. A fixed mindset views ability as a fixed trait, with talent and skill being

 

things that we are born with. People with this mindset typically respond to failure by giving

 

up and view intelligence as a ?statistic attribute, [with] poor performance on an intellectual

 

task [being] primarily attributed to a lack of intelligence? (Vandewalle, 2012) .A growth

 

mindset views ability as something to be developed, and people with this mindset view

 

failure as ?a signal of the need for more effort and an improved strategy? (Vandewalle, 2012).

 

Behavioural dimensions are aspects of behaviour that can be quantified and measured.

 

These can include the intensity, frequency, or duration of behaviour, as well as other metrics. HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT 4 This information is extremely useful, as it is how one gauges the effectiveness of behaviour

 

modification, as any modifications to behaviour can be observed through changes to

 

behavioural dimensions. Observing and documenting behaviour is typically done using a

 

three-stage process to identify behaviours and the events that influence them. The first part is

 

the antecedent, which is an event that ?sets up? the behaviour. This can be any number of

 

things, such as waking up tired or receiving a phone call. What is important is that the

 

antecedent is something in the environment or a situation that causes behaviour to occur. The

 

behaviour that follows is then informed by a resulting consequence. The consequence can be

 

anything that occurs as a result of the behaviour, and it alters the chances of repeat behaviour

 

in some way. These consequences come in the form of reinforcement and punishment, which

 

can both be positive or negative. Reinforcement increases the likelihood of repeat behaviour,

 

while a punishment decreases the likelihood. Positive reinforcement/punishment involves the

 

addition of a stimulus, which is perceived as beneficial or detrimental depending on the type

 

of consequence. Negative consequences see the removal of stimuli instead. The rate at which

 

reinforcements are applied is based on the schedule of reinforcement for the particular

 

treatment plan. These schedules vary based on whether they rely on instances of behaviour

 

(ratio) or the passage of time (interval), with these values potentially being fixed or variable.

 

Different schedules can produce different levels of behaviour reinforcement, so it is important

 

to choose the schedule that best fits the type of behaviour and individual being treated.

 

Examining responses ?under various schedule arrangements is a core component of many

 

analyses of operant behaviour? and much of what we know about applied behaviour analysis

 

comes from ?laboratory research involving the exposure of nonhuman subjects to a variety of

 

schedule arrangements? (Roane, 2008).

 

A token economy is a specific system of reinforcement that relies on rewarding tokens

 

to reinforce behaviour. These tokens themselves are relatively meaningless, but they are used HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT 5 to track progress towards the target behaviour and can be exchanged for back-up reinforcers

 

that motivate behaviour. An example would be rewarding behaviour with fake money that can

 

be exchanged for some sort of prize in the future. This method of reinforcement can be quite

 

effective, as it provides an individual with a tangible method for tracking progress, as well as

 

periodically motivating the individual in a manner that they feel like they have control over. A

 

key aspect of a token economy is the response cost, which is a form of negative punishment

 

for undesirable behaviours that compete with the target behaviour. This is introduced after the

 

token economy has been in place for some time, and usually takes the form of taking back

 

tokens. It is important that these tokens can be regained through some sort of desirable

 

behaviour. The response cost serves as an important consequence to offset the reinforcements

 

provided by the token economy. A 2011 study done in Iran found that token economies had a

 

noticeable positive effect on academic achievement for students with intellectual abilities,

 

with the token economy reinforcements having a greater effect than basic social

 

reinforcement (Ashoori, Mizamani, & Sereshki, 2011).

 

For my treatment project, I decided to increase the frequency at which I prepare and

 

consume healthy, home-cooked meals. This is a behavioural deficit that I am hoping to

 

increase. The goal of this project is to move towards a healthier lifestyle and to reduce my

 

consumption of heavily-processed foods. This should hopefully help me with improving my

 

health and lowering my weight.

 

The operational definition of a healthy meal in this context is a meal prepared from its

 

starting ingredients (no pre-packaged ingredients that come prepared) that comprises all the

 

food groups from the Center of Nutrition Policy and Promotion?s food pyramid. My treatment

 

plan runs on a continuous ratio schedule, meaning that each instance of the desired behaviour

 

is rewarded. The secondary reinforcer for this experiment is snack food, exchanged for 3

 

tokens. Eating unhealthy or heavily-processed foods will incur a response cost of 1 token per HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT 6 occurrence. This will serve as an effective consequence for undesired behaviour. My

 

hypothesis is that when I am pressured for time, I am likely to eat something unhealthy due to

 

the ease of preparation, and work against my goal of healthy eating as a consequence. As

 

such, it would benefit my treatment project to work towards a more organized schedule that

 

allows sufficient time to prepare meals each day. HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT 7 Method

 

Participant

 

I was the only participant in this study. I am 22-year-old male university student who

 

is slightly overweight at 210 pounds.

 

Materials

 

Functional assessment/baseline chart. To determine the antecedents, behaviours,

 

and consequences, as well as the baseline frequency of behaviour, I used an ABC chart over a

 

weeklong baseline phase. This baseline phase began on September 26th and ended on October

 

2nd. Table 1 shows a variety of antecedents, behaviours, and consequences experienced during

 

this one week.

 

Treatment chart. I used a treatment chart to keep track of my behaviour frequency

 

and undesirable behaviours. This tracking was done over a three week period, starting from

 

October 16th and ending on November 6th. Table 2 shows my behaviour frequency, as well as

 

all instances of undesirable behaviour and token gain.

 

Pennies. Pennies were used as the tokens for my token economy during this study.

 

The pennies were earned on a continuous ratio reinforcement schedule and could be

 

exchanged for a back-up reinforcer for every 3 tokens.

 

Procedure

 

This experiment used a within-subject design on a single participant. The independent

 

variable was free time (defined as time not spent a particular scheduled task) and the

 

dependent variable was the number of healthy meals prepared and consumed. The subject

 

simply planned his schedule with the intent of providing more time in the morning and

 

evening to prepare and consume healthy meals. In the first week, 10 additional minutes were

 

allotted for the subject?s morning routine, providing additional time for meal preparation. In HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT 8 the second week, this was raised to 15 minutes. Due to extraneous circumstances, this was

 

not continued into the third week of treatment.

 

Results

 

The number of healthy eating behaviours I performed each week increased from a

 

baseline of -1 to 6 during the peak of the treatment phase. This can be clearly seen by

 

comparing Table 1 to Table 2. Week 1 of treatment saw an increase in net behaviour

 

frequency from -1 to 5, while the increase in preparation time from Week 1 to 2 resulted in a

 

minor increase from 5 to 6 occurrences. Due to extraneous circumstances surrounding a

 

military simulation event where I spent several days away from home during Week 3, my

 

results for that week do nothing to support my hypothesis. Overall, the changes to preparation

 

time resulted in an increase in average frequency of healthy eating from -1 during the

 

baseline phase to 2.66 during the treatment phase.

 

Discussion

 

I believe that my results support my hypothesis, but my findings are not entirely

 

conclusive. Increasing the amount of available time for meal preparation saw a significant

 

increase in occurrences of the target behaviour, but additional increases to this available time

 

did not result in another significant increase. However, I do believe that Week 3 of treatment

 

would have seen another significant increase if it had been a normal week, free of abnormal

 

circumstances outside the changes to the independent variable. The main strength of this

 

study lies in the ease of tracking the target behaviour, as it was well-defined and low in

 

number. Limiting the participant pool to one person also reduced the influences of

 

uncontrollable factors outside the experiment, though this also serves as a weakness to the

 

experiment?s design as well. The limitations of this study seem to lie mostly in its duration.

 

Two-and-a-half weeks of normal testing were not sufficient for me to gather completely

 

conclusive results. Additionally, the changes in the independent variable may not have been HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT 9 significant enough from week to week to create significant change. Despite this, I can

 

reasonably conclude that increasing the available time to prepare and consume healthy meals

 

has a positive correlation with the number of healthy meals consumed. HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT

 

10 References

 

Mirzamani, S. M., Ashoori, M., & Sereshki, N. A. (2011). The Effect of Social and Token

 

Economy Reinforcements on Academic Achievement of Students with Intellectual

 

Disabilities. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry, 6(1), 25?30.

 

Roane, H. S. (2008). On The Applied Use of Progressive-Ratio Schedules of

 

Reinforcement. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 41(2), 155?161.

 

http://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2008.41-155

 

Smith-Nelson, L. J. (2016, Fall). Psychology 328 Lecture. Lecture presented in Washington

 

State University, Pullman, WA.

 

Vandewalle, D. (2012) ?A Growth and Fixed Mindset Exposition of the Value of Conceptual

 

Clarity?, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 5(3), pp. 301?305. doi:

 

10.1111/j.1754-9434.2012.01450.x. HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT

 

11 Tables and Figures

 

Table 1

 

Functional Assessment for Healthy Eating Behaviours

 

Healthy eating is defined as preparing and consuming a home-cooked meal from non-processed ingredients that

 

includes a proper balance of each food group, as defined by the Center of Nutrition Policy and Promotion. A

 

change in behaviour will be observed if the frequency of healthy eating increases.

 

Date/Time

 

Setting Event Antecendent

 

Behaviour

 

Behavioural

 

Consequence R+, R-, P+,

 

Dimension

 

PMonday,

 

Did not sleep Slept in by

 

Made a Hot

 

Reduction in Saved time in R9:10

 

well

 

10 minutes

 

Pocket for

 

healthy

 

morning

 

breakfast

 

eating

 

routine

 

instead of

 

cooking

 

Consumed

 

P+

 

unhealthy

 

food, felt bad

 

Tuesday,

 

Last class of

 

Went home

 

Prepared

 

Increase in

 

Significant

 

P+

 

5:00PM

 

day canceled early

 

wellhealthy

 

time spent in

 

balanced

 

eating

 

preparation

 

meal (steak,

 

potatoes,

 

Felt good

 

R+

 

broccoli,

 

about eating

 

fruit for

 

healthy meal

 

dessert)

 

Wednesday,

 

Ran out of

 

Went to

 

Prepared

 

Increase in

 

Felt good

 

R+

 

6:00PM

 

food in

 

grocery store wellhealthy

 

about eating

 

apartment

 

balanced

 

eating

 

healthy meal

 

meal (salad

 

with chicken

 

Healthy food Pand fruit,

 

is expensive

 

biscuit)

 

to buy

 

Thursday,

 

Did not eat

 

Spending

 

Bought

 

Reduction in Consumed

 

P+

 

2:30PM

 

breakfast

 

time at the

 

nachos for

 

healthy

 

unhealthy

 

CUB while

 

lunch

 

eating

 

food, felt bad

 

hungry

 

Spent money

 

eating out

 

PFriday,

 

Human vs.

 

Decided to

 

Ate dinner at Reduction in Consumed

 

P+

 

7:00PM

 

Zombies

 

play in

 

McDonald?s

 

healthy

 

unhealthy

 

event

 

mission

 

to save time

 

eating

 

food, felt bad Saturday,

 

6:00PM Sunday,

 

10:00AM Ran load of

 

dishes in

 

dishwasher Slept well Frying pan

 

unavailable

 

due to being

 

washed Woke up

 

earlier than

 

expected Baked a

 

pizza Cooked full,

 

healthy

 

breakfast

 

(Veggie

 

omelet, toast,

 

side of fruit) Reduction in

 

healthy

 

eating Increase in

 

healthy

 

eating Spent money

 

eating out

 

Saved

 

significant

 

effort in food

 

preparation

 

Consumed

 

unhealthy

 

food, felt bad

 

Consumed

 

healthy food,

 

felt good PR- P+

 

R+ HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT

 

12 Table 2

 

Tx Phase

 

The target behaviour of eating healthy meals is operationally defined as the number of nutritious

 

home-cooked meals that I prepare and consume during a single day.

 

The primary interfering behaviour observed during the functional assessment is eating heavilyprocessed foods or outside my home.

 

I will reinforce my behaviour of eating healthy meals on a CRF schedule of reinforcement. This

 

means that for every time I prepare and consume a healthy meal, I?ll earn 1 token.

 

I will incur a response cost of 1 token for each time I eat an unhealthy meal.

 

I would like to increase my target behaviour from 3 times per week to 7 times per week. This means

 

that, if I reach my goal, I will earn 7 tokens per week.

 

When I earn 3 tokens, I will ?buy? my backup reinforcer of a snack food, such as a small bowl of ice

 

cream.

 

Day/Date

 

Frequency of

 

Frequency of

 

Tokens

 

Notes:

 

preparing and

 

consuming

 

earned/lost

 

consuming

 

heavily-processed

 

unhealthy meal

 

or outside food

 

Monday 17/10

 

II

 

Earned 2 tokens

 

Tuesday 18/10

 

I

 

I

 

Earned 1 token,

 

Ate lunch at CUB

 

lost 1 token

 

due to time

 

constraints

 

Wednesday 19/10 II

 

Earned 2 tokens

 

Thursday

 

I

 

Lost 1 token

 

Did not eat lunch,

 

20/10

 

at dinner at Red

 

Bento

 

Friday 21/10

 

I

 

Earned 1 token

 

Saturday 22/10

 

I

 

I

 

Earned 1 token,

 

Went to friend?s

 

lost 1 token

 

home in Moscow

 

for most of day

 

Sunday 23/10

 

I

 

Earned 1 token

 

Net tokens earned for week 1: 5 tokens

 

Will try to do

 

better next week,

 

but good first

 

attempt

 

Added 10 minutes

 

to morning

 

routine

 

Monday 24/10

 

I

 

Earned 1 token

 

Tuesday 25/10

 

I

 

I

 

Earned 1 token,

 

Ate lunch in CUB

 

lost 1 token

 

Wednesday 26/10 II

 

Earned 2 tokens

 

Thursday 27/10

 

I

 

II

 

Earned 1 token,

 

Slept in, made

 

lost 2 tokens

 

Hot Pocket for

 

breakfast and ate

 

lunch in CUB

 

Friday 28/10

 

I

 

I

 

Earned 1 token,

 

Ate lunch at

 

lost 1 token

 

McDonald?s

 

Saturday 29/10

 

II

 

Earned 2 tokens

 

Sunday 30/10

 

II

 

Earned 2 tokens

 

Net tokens earned for week 2: 6 tokens

 

Added 15 minutes HEALTHY EATING TREATMENT PROJECT

 

13

 

for morning

 

routine

 

Monday 31/10

 

Tuesday 1/11 II

 

I I Wednesday 2/11

 

Thursday 3/11 II

 

I II Earned 2 tokens

 

Earned 1 token,

 

lost 1 token

 

Earned 2 tokens

 

Earned 1 token,

 

lost 2 tokens Friday 4/11 II Lost 2 tokens Saturday 5/11 II Lost 2 tokens Net tokens earned for week 3: -1 token Ate lunch in CUB

 

Spent most of day

 

driving to Seattle

 

and on a plane.

 

Ate fast-food for

 

lunch and dinner

 

Attending a

 

military

 

simulation event,

 

mostly ate

 

military rations

 

and protein bars

 

Attending

 

military

 

simulation event,

 

still eating

 

military rations

 

Not surprised by

 

this week?s

 

results, due to

 

extraordinary

 

circumstances.

 

Completely

 

unable to prepare

 

meals in the field

 

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