Bad behaviour
Behavior is defined as the way a person undertakes his or her actions. Bad behaviors can be curbed by either positive or negative punishment. I have developed a bad behavior of back biting which I am very determined to finish. I have become a very nuisance gossiper whereby I can back bite ten neighbors in a day. Every time I get a neighbor outside her premises, I always tell her news about the other neighbors with so much exaggeration. I can not leave any rumor undiscussed.
Since most of the stories of are not truthful, they end up reaching the person I have talked about. This behavior is costing me most of my friends hence the reason why am seriously thinking about quitting by employing positive punishment. For a start I will begin with always keeping my self busy so as to minimize the chances of meeting my neighbors. Day one: I manage to stay indoors for most of the day but I meet some of my neighbors on my way to the grocery store and although I restrain myself, I end up back biting ten times as usual.
Day two: am feeling like no matter what happens am not supposed to talk about anybody but unfortunately, my next door neighbor comes visiting. One thing leads to another and I end up discussing seven of my friends. At the end of the day although I can see there is an improvement I am not comfortable. Day three: I nearly swear that am no longer going to be gossiping people, because I have already realized that my greatest weakness is being close to anyone who is willing to listen to my fake news.
Although the urge of talking ill about somebody is almost killing me, I do as much as I can to restrain myself but I end up gossiping five neighbors. Day four: I have so much household chores to attend to so I spend the whole day indoors and luckily, I receive two friends only who I send off immediately after attending to them so I manage to finish the day without back biting anyone. I congratulate myself at the end of the day and see it as a day well spent. Day five: I travel to visit my grannies who live hundred miles from my home.
Although I do not meet with any of my neighbors, I meet an old acquaintance whom we used to live with in the same neighborhood and eventually we gossip three of my neighbors. Day six: I am feeling tired due to my yesterday’s traveling so I don’t feel like seeing any neighbor and therefore I manage to finish the day without a single gossip Day seven: I think I am getting used to not gossiping at all and in fact I don’t feel the urge I had before I decided to quit this bad behavior.
Although I happen to meet to meet with some of my neighbors, I happen to gossip no one (Sundel, Sundel, 2005 p 130- 137) I have a major improvement although I have not stopped completely. I think that it is just a matter of time and I quit it all together. REFERENCES Changing Behavior with Positive Reinforcement, retrieved on 3rd, November, 2008, available at http://www. fairview. org/healthlibrary/content/bha_behav_bha. htm Martin Sundel, Sandra Stone Sundel (2005) Behavior Change in the Human Services: Behavioral and Cognitive Principles and Applications, NY, SAGE,
