Behaviorists Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Behaviorists - Essay ExampleAccording to Guthrie much(prenominal) change could be achieved if a person is determined to replace the old behavior with something new instead. This could be achieved employing his suggested methods to include the threshold means, exhaustion, and incompatible response approach. Guthries idea of threshold adjustment states that behavior of a person can change if the stimulus is weak or could be tolerated. For instance, people who smoke may not be elicited to puff a cigarette if he can indulge cut down the number of sticks a day until eventually he would endure not to smoke. The threshold method is but reinforced through sidetracking. This is avoiding the cues that may compel undesirable behavior (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2009) such as avoiding friends who smoke. Another accommodative strategy is adopting the exhaustion mechanism which suggests repetition of the habit until the person feels the anguish of fatigue. An example would be to permit the person s moke until he coughs or get sick. Such reaction to smoking habit enables him to at last give up the habit. Equally important strategy is the use of incompatible response. Allowing the person to chew maunder helps forge the link between the habit to smoke and the relief from smoking. Despite the proposed methods above, habits are hard to break. This is attributed to the known neural pathways involved.