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… Too Much Praise? Don’t Believe What You Read Every day I read, see or hear something that drives me crazy. The latest is the headline on a piece that’s circulating the news outlets, “Too Much Praise Can Turn Your Kids into Narcissistic Jerks, Study Finds.” As I have said many times, if you reinforce in the wrong way and at the wrong time, one time is too much, but if you do it correctly, …
… Predicting Future Behavior It sometimes is said that the best predictor of future behavior is present behavior. Like most blanket, categorical statements about what … why behavior changes, or why present behavior isn’t always the best predictor of future behavior. Reinforcement has been said to select behavior, much as the environment selects certain physical traits. Such traits often have, or give the possessor, certain advantages in particular environments. Selected …
… its behavioral history. Let’s take a look at this last one. It is sometimes used casually as a catch-all category for “explaining” behavior when we can’t relate current actions to current circumstances (i.e., contingencies). As such it is a throw-away category that nominally accounts for everything we can’t otherwise “explain,” but therefore “explains” nothing. The real problem with behavioral history is that we can’t see it. And that’s, obviously, because it is no …
… being misinterpreted and changed the title to Pay for Profit when he updated the book in 2011. While The Sin of Wages explains why organizations should shift to performance pay, Pay for Profit outlines exactly how to do that. Bill’s third book, Human Performance Diagnostics, is a detailed problem-solving guide and a practical complement to his first two books. Together, the three books showcase Bills’ … ask or a situation you could present to him that he couldn’t immediately answer with multiple examples of past success and failures related to your question. His measurement and incentive pay expertise was unmatched. While there’s no denying what a …
… Survivor: Feeding the Fire In the long-running TV reality series Survivor , starting and maintaining a fire has always been a fundamental and immediate need. Without the proper tools, merely generating a spark can be … frustrating for the castaways. The spark must still be coaxed into a flame, and the flame developed into a roaring and sustainable fire. Once there is fire, castaways must carefully attend to it, occasionally adding fuel to keep it going. Neglect …
… with systems that don’t work effectively or inadvertently do more harm than good. ADI senior vice president, David Uhl, explains the real intent of near-miss reporting and the role senior leaders must play to strengthen this process. For a closer … with systems that don’t work effectively or inadvertently do more harm than good. ADI senior vice president, David Uhl, explains the real intent of near-miss reporting and the role senior leaders must play to strengthen this process. For a closer …
… It didn’t matter why she did it, the fact is that her action was successful in allowing the game to continue. This is certainly not to say that what we call intentions do not matter in considering behavior. Of course they do, often anyway. It … that massive flood because the plumber installed materials that he had no idea were inferior because the manufacturer failed to test the batch of widgets that he used to fix the original plumbing problem. My, second, philosophical objection … or capable of causing anything, as we normally use the term “cause.” Intentions are just words that we use to describe certain kinds of relations between an organism’s behavior and its environment. They are indeed very powerful words because we …
… it, for the death of several of his fellow soldiers, that he begins separating himself from war. His return is filled with daily reminders of that dangerous time and an extraordinarily clear depiction of the difficulties troops face in returning to the daily life of America after the intensity of war. In the scene that marks his turning point in putting the war in some … the very people who shared his experiences of the war but this time stateside. The support of family and friends, and his daily life, take on their own reinforcing properties as well. All too sad that Chris Kyle in real life didn’t live long …
… of each of us. This was more upsetting to the girls than to me (because I, as usual, was losing and figured I could only gain from having to re-start the game). My elder granddaughter whisked up the toy and tossed it into the other room. This … this, based on his experience, was to revisit the playing field, setting the entire process just described into play again. And that is exactly what happened. My granddaughter had a great idea for managing the pug’s behavior the first time she … time, thereby reinforcing bringing the chicken to her. Infants often play the same game by dropping items from the high-chair onto the floor for parents to pick up and return to them. Reinforce behavior and it becomes more likely. I certainly am …
… Who am I? “I am a behavior analyst,” I answer in whatever circumstance the question arises. I then have to explain why my first identity is not that of psychologist (yes, I am a professor of psychology; no, I am not psychoanalyzing … one's life, all to the spectacle of increasingly glazed over eyes of the person who is nominally listening to what I am explaining. I have to admit that I am a little unsure of being labeled a behavior analyst. The label really doesn't capture well … in context. The label "behaviorology," proposed by others, suffers the same weakness as behavior analysis in that it fails to identify the critical role of environment in what we do. It also once was suggested that our science be called …
… up the slack for coworkers, people often find themselves in their own Groundhog Day. Doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Having to constantly hover and nudge can be exhausting. “Helicopter parents” of teens … is a lot going wrong in these kinds of situations. Antecedents lose all meaning and effectiveness because they are never paired with consequences. Doing anything other than what’s requested is often reinforced when the helicopter parents swoop in … behavior and escaped the drudgery of a recurring bad day, we all have the ability to have a significant impact on what awaits us each morning by what we do each day. If you want to put an end to your Groundhog Days, let Punxsutawney Phil sleep …
… tools and skills we use directly with our clients,” states President and CEO Tom Spencer. “This workshop has become a mainstay for many of our long-term clients and they can be assured that the foundational elements they’ve come to rely on are … by using positive, practical approaches grounded in the science of behavior and engineered to ensure long-term sustainability. ADI supports its clients in driving strategy execution while fostering employee engagement and positive … tools and skills we use directly with our clients,” states President and CEO Tom Spencer. “This workshop has become a mainstay for many of our long-term clients and they can be assured that the foundational elements they’ve come to rely on are …
… on their lives by giving them the greatest access to opportunities, environments, and rewards that would not otherwise be available. The converse goal is to help children avoid those behaviors that will have the greatest negative impact on the … For example, learning to play a musical instrument or play a sport may increase access to important opportunities not available to other children even though they learn to play an instrument or a sport. The identification of these behaviors, … minutes to 15 minutes. What is most interesting about the marshmallow test is that those children who delayed longer and waited for the experimenter to return as adolescents generally performed better on the SAT than those children who did not …
… can and do handle largely on their own. Everything from stopping bad habits - be they trichotillomania (playing with one’s hair constantly), smoking, or even substance abuse - to starting good ones such as weight loss, eating better, getting more exercise, and better work efficiency. There isn’t space here to detail procedures for setting up a self-help program for specific problems. One of the fathers of American psychology, William … by exercising. The other consideration in delivering consequences is doing so consistently in relation to the behavior, again, something hard to do with one’s self. Behavior change is hard, no matter who is trying to do it. It often is a case of …