Behavior management methods are used to motivate positive behaviors in a variety of settings. Behavior management differs from other attempts to modify behavior, such as psychoanalytic psychotherapy, because it emphasizes the behavior itself and limits attempts to identify an underlying psychological cause. Behavior management methods identify and emphasize reinforcement factors that lead to desirable behavior in a given setting.
Good Behavior Game
The Good Behavior Game uses positive reinforcement to encourage desirable, measurable behavior in the classroom. Individuals and teams compete for rewards such as prizes or special privileges and lose the opportunity to win if the number of undesirable behaviors exceeds a determined limit. Each occurrence of an undesirable behavior is noted on a chalkboard or flip chart so that students can monitor individual and team performance.
The Good Behavior Game can have positive, long-term consequences. A study published in the June 2008 "Drug and Alcohol Dependence" journal found that first- and second-graders exposed to the Good Behavior Game showed lower incidence of drug and alcohol dependency, smoking and antisocial behavior by young adulthood.
Organizational Behavior Management
According to the Organizational Behavior Management Network, organizational behavior management identifies good and bad behaviors to understand why those behaviors occur, and intervening to reinforce good behavior and modify or eliminate bad behavior. Within an organizational setting, motivations for changing employee behavior include improved customer service, quality or safety enhancements, lower expenses and higher profitability.
OBM identifies measurable outcomes, such as units produced per hour or units produced to a given quality standard, trains employees on how to achieve these outcomes and provides positive reinforcement, such as bonuses, time off or profit sharing, for achieving goals.
eHealth Behavior Management Model
The eHealth Behavior Management Model uses technology to drive behavioral change. The model was developed to help patients actively change and control health-related behaviors such as disease management and prevention. Through a series of questions accessed on the Internet, the eHealth Model acts as a diagnostic tool to identify an individual's readiness to change. The underlying algorithm then directs the individual to Internet-based behavioral information that is appropriate for that user's state of readiness.
For example, an Internet-based model helps assess an asthma patient's readiness to begin managing the factors that can trigger an asthma attack. The eHealth Model will provide asthma-sufferers with different levels of information on how to manage triggers depending upon whether the patient is already using medical care and prescriptions and how alert they are to asthma triggers. Sufferers who do not use medical care or prescriptions would be encouraged to seek medical treatment, while patients who actively manage their care and medications receive detailed suggestions on how to manage specific triggers.
References
- Evidence Based Programs: The Good Behavior Game Manual
- National Institutes of Health: Effects of Classroom Behavior Management in First and Second Grades
- Organizational Behavior Management Network: Why Should Business Leaders Use OBM?
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The eHealth Behavior Management Model
