Term paper on Behavior change

Evaluate the Process

Behavior change process requires much effort and tolerance, but at the same time it is really rewarding. At some point it may seem that you are who you are and you need to find a place under the sun according to all your virtues and vices. However, I have discovered that behavior intervention is possible and that I have a treasure inside of me and the task is to dig it out. Much work is to be done for that end, but if to follow all the directions and instructions, it is not as difficult as it may seem. Concentrating on my baseline data, I understood that my problem is my shyness and diffidence which prevented me from sound social contacts and understanding with people. In my early days I was often alone and didn’t communicate much with other children. Therefore, I learnt to be and to do everything on my own and it became a calamity for me to turn to someone else for help. Instead of team games I read books, and the imagined characters substituted real people for me. However, it is rather difficult to survive in the real world without interacting with other people, and to make this interaction successful I had to change something in me. I realized that I need to develop communication skills.

My target behavior was to build social contacts easily and successfully, to perform public speeches and guide relatively large social groups (more than three persons). According to the intervention plan, I had to learn to be courageous to verbalize my thoughts and opinions. I was ensured that my intelligence and wide scope were my benefits and I always had something to say, but did not have courage to participate in conversations. I had to practice this skill, so I deliberately participated in the discussion clubs. I entered meaningless chatters in hospital queues just to interact with unknown people and thus overcome my fears. The fear of being rejected was the strongest obstacle on my way to replacement behavior and I had to overcome it. Besides, I was afraid to be ridiculous, but I learnt that the ability to laugh at myself would be a proof of my confidence. If a person is able to laugh at him or herself, people are likely to feel sympathetic to them instead of rejection. I had to learn to use my eyes, as eye contact is very important in interaction with other people, while I got used to hide them. What is more, my gestures had always been constrained and poor, so I had to change them. It was one of the most difficult parts of the plan, and I still feel I was not very successful enough. Still I understand that to change inherently, you need to change physically first.

One of the most responsible as well as exciting stages of behavior change process is writing goals. This method was unexpectedly helpful. Writing goals is extremely beneficial because it helps you to concentrate on what you want and verbalize your ideals. When you make a list of your goals and fix it on the paper, you get rid of unnecessary information that prevents you from understanding yourself. My goals were to become open-hearted and more friendly, socially active and humorous. My objectives were to get acquainted with people in the street and to turn to them for assistance; to encourage some movement among the students and spread ideas to a broad audience; to take part in disputes and express my own point of view freely. For that ends, I learnt anecdotes and jokes, in particular. I should admit that I made a progress in feeling much more confident in a large group because I am no more afraid to do something wrong or ridiculous. I know now that I can always laugh at myself and even if people around will laugh too; they will do it as my company, not my rivals. There are no perfect people and there is no need to be perfect. People like when other people behave naturally and I had to forgive myself for not being perfect. Of course, my misbehavior in relation to others was obvious, but it affected not them; it affected me negatively and I saw a need to change. According to my ideas, the plan was developed with a number of interventions.

Now, I hope that the implementation of the intervention plan will help me to decrease future occurrences of problem behavior. Positive social initiations were important steps on the way to a more behavior. Inappropriate behavior was to a great extent replaced though setting events which were arranged on purpose. Meanwhile, there were certain obstacles, as, for example, not all the people in the street or public places were ready to spend time and mental resources on me, and I had to be rejected several times. But one of the objectives I had planned was to learn to be rejected and never mind, so I did it well.