Shaping 1

Shaping as a Behavior Modification Technique

Laquana Richmond

Fayetteville State University

PSYC 380

April 27, 2009

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents....................................................................................................... 2

Abstract...................................................................................................................... 3

Shaping as a Behavior Modification Technique..........................................................4

Shaping in Mental Health Institutions.........................................................................4

Toilet Training......................................................................................................... 4

Bed-Making.............................................................................................................. 6

Shaping in Substance Abuse Counseling....................................................................7

Shaping in Educational Settings.................................................................................8

Case Study 1........................................................................................................... 8

Case Study 2........................................................................................................... 9

References................................................................................................................10
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Abstract

Shaping or successive approximation is a form operant conditioning that is used in behavioral

learning techniques that refers to the teaching of new skills or behaviors by reinforcing learners

for approaching the desired final behavior. When the desired behavior has been conditioned;

reinforcement is omitted until the learner gives a response just a little closer to the goal.

Carefully withholding and giving of reinforcement gradually makes the learner emit complex

responses that he or she would never perform in an uncontrolled environment. It helps people

learn in educational settings, substance abuse centers, and in mental institutions.

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Shaping as a Behavior Modification Technique

Shaping is a behavior modification technique that is used in many everyday situations. It can

help a romantic partner increase interest through flirting. A parent can use it to help a child

overcome social shyness or even get a friend who doesn’t like horror movies to watch one.

Skinner (as cited by Pettijohn, 1998) described shaping as a gradual process that begins with the

reinforcement of some behavior that approximates, or gets closer to, the final behavior desired.

This approach to operant conditioning has become popular with psychologist and educators.

Mental health institutions use shaping to institute toilet training and bed making among its

residents. Also substance abuse counselors use it to eliminate drug addiction and teachers use it

as an important tool in classroom instruction for many students who need step-by-step

instruction and reinforcement.

Shaping in Mental Health Institutions

The form of behavior modification that has been successfully used in individual therapy

with the emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded is shaping. Shaping is a very effective way

of helping these patients acquire or learn new behaviors even though they have limited cognitive

capabilities. Simple spaced out instructions work better for these individuals because they can

achieve small goals over a period of time until a final goal is met.

Toilet Training

Incontinence is a major problem in the institutional care of the mentally ill. Patients in

institutional settings, especially those who are mentally retarded, often urinate or defecate in

their clothing on a daily basis. In a study by Azrin and Foxx (1971) shaping was used to toilet

train institutionalized patients. The study included nine male who were mentally retarded
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patients and who were incontinent. A general procedure was established where reinforcement

was given for appropriate elimination and inhibitory training for untidiness. A urine sensing

harness was attached to each patient that provided feedback to the trainer. During the first phase

of the training, each resident was observed for a period of time or a maintenance period. If the

patient remained continent after each period, they were reinforced. Their reinforcement was the

ability to perform a favorite task (such as sit in a preferred seat), M&Ms candies, and praise from

the trainers. When an accident occurred the patient was removed from the seat, received no

edibles or social reinforcers. After successful completion of this step the patient was then

introduced to the next phase which is actual training on a toilet. A second apparatus, a plastic

bowl, was inserted into the toilet bowl. The residents were then seated near the toilet and told to

signal someone if they had to eliminate. The behavior of signaling would then be reinforced. If

they successfully informed a trainer of the need to use the toilet, a reward was received. When a

patient eliminated without notifying a trainer of the need to go, there was a removal of the

reinforcer. This continued until the patient could show that they were able to inform the

observers of their need to use the toilet. For the patients that were not mobile, this was their final

step. Those who were able were encouraged to go to the toilet alone without being prompted.

Like all the other steps, each successful trip was reinforced until the behavior became part of the

patient’s normal routine. The overall rationale used in the present effort was that normal toilet

training is not simply a matter of learning to respond to bladder and bowel pressures by relaxing

the spincter but rather is a complex operant and social learning process that has been hindered by

reduced learning capacity and by institutionalization (Azrin & Foxx 1971). Although the study

is over thirty years old, it showed that successive approximation of behavior techniques can

teach an otherwise normal task to those with limited mental capacity.

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Bed-Making

There is more than an adequate amount of literature to indicate that most behaviors can

be modified by controlling reinforcers and developing the appropriate contingencies (Wolff &

Perkins 1970). A study of a female in a locked psychiatric ward used a contingency of bed

making and cigarette smoking. All the cigarettes were in the care of the ward personnel and

were dispensed in approximations to a patient who made her bed. Cigarette smoking reinforcing

and successive approximations was used to increase her bed-making. Since she had been

without cigarettes for sixteen days before the shaping began, the patient’s favorite brand was cut

in half to maximize the effectiveness of the treatment. In the first session, the female was

approached by three personnel of the ward as she sat in her normal position. When answering

yes to the question, “if she wanted a cigarette”, the female was told to see the ward supervisor

that was standing near the foot of the stairs. She was informed by the supervisor one of the other

employees would light the cigarette while another employee stood a few feet away offering her

an ashtray. Using this procedure for several days, they were able to get the patient to move up

the stairs to the second floor where her room was located. The next reinforcement was

introduced when she moved closer to her unmade bed and reinforcement was given when she ran

her hands over the sheets. The session ended here and she was given the half cigarette and

praise. At the end of the next session, the final reinforcement was giving when she assisted with

making her bed. During each subsequent session after the second one, she was reinforced at

locations closer and closer to her room with longer and longer cigarettes until she made her bed

before leaving her room, at which time she was reinforced on the main floor of the dormitory.

After each session the wait time for her to receive her reinforcement increased whenever she

failed to make her bed in a timely manner or make it without being prompted. This study clearly
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shows that making a bed is a behavior that can be incorporated into the daily routine of

psychiatric patients.

Shaping in Substance Abuse Counseling

Contingency management has been among the most successful therapies for treating

cocaine abuse. The purpose of shaping in positive behavioral strategies for drug abusers was to

promote drug abstinence and participation in treatment activities. One of the most effective

applications of the procedure has used a monetary-based escalating-reinforcement schedule in

which the value of the incentive increases with each consecutive drug-negative urine specimen,

whereas lapses (positive urine and blood screens and a battery of assessment instrument) results

in no reward being received (Preston, Umbricht, Wong, & Epstein, 2001). Cocaine users

submitted urine samples every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to trained laboratory

technicians. The urine was tested for the enzyme BZE. Instead of making the reinforcer

contingent on a negative drug urine specimen, this study reinforced decreases in the amount of

BZE concentrations until the participant finally gave a negative sample. Since actual money was

not given a voucher incentive program was used. For every testing session during a week a

decrease in BZE or a negative specimen was given, the dollar amount of the voucher increased.

These vouchers were exchangeable for goods and services that supported a drug free lifestyle. If

there was no decrease in BZE then the participant did not receive a voucher. Preston et al.

(2001) showed that contingency management for cocaine abuse can be more effective when

introduced in a stepwise fashion. Reinforcement of decreases in urine BZE concentrations prior

to initiation of abstinence reinforcement (shaping group) resulted in lower cocaine use (as

indicated by more cocaine-negative urine specimens) than did a contingency that reinforced only

cocaine-negative urine specimens (abstinence group).

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Shaping in Educational Settings

Immediacy of reinforcement is crucial to teaching, but so is the decision as to what

behaviors to reinforce. Instead of kindergarten teachers withholding reinforcement until a child

learns to recite every letter of the alphabet, it would be better to praise the child as they learn one

letter at a time and then as they progress to learning several letters until finally they earn all

twenty- six letters. Most students need reinforcement along the way and when teachers guide

students towards goals by reinforcing the many steps that lead them to success, they are using

shaping. This technique can encourage emotionally disturbed children and control behavior in

those who are aggressive or hyperactive.

Case Study 1

A 1962 article, a study conducted using two emotionally disturbed boys in a residential

treatment center (whose behavior was monitored by the instructor of their English class) exhibits

classic cases of shaping used as part of an educational therapy program (Zimmerman and

Zimmerman). The first case study was 11 years old and appeared to be of normal intelligence.

Whenever he was chosen to spell a word that had previously been studied in class sessions, he

would pause and simply utter letters unrelated to the word he was asked to spell. After a

considerable period of time had passed and after receiving added attention from the instructor,

the boy would finally correctly spell the word. With each subsequent session, the student began

to take longer and longer to spell the word and demanded more attention. To eliminate this

behavior pattern, the instructor gradually decreased the amount of attention he gave the boy

during each session until finally there was an extinction of the behavior. After that, attention was

only given after the desired behavior was achieved or some approximation of it.
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Case Study 2
Shaping has also been used to decrease aggressive behavior in hyperactive children as an

alternative to drug and medical management therapies. Hamblin and Buckholdt (as cited in

Prout, 1977) focused on children who were reported to be the most severe behavior problems in

a local school system in their 1967 study. The teachers were told to conduct their classroom

instructions normally as observers watched. The observational reports showed the teachers were

rewarding the aggressive behavior with attention and social reinforcement. A token system was

introduced and was structured to the needs of the classroom. Each hyperactive child received a

token after each successive step toward decreasing aggression was achieved. As hypothesized,

the token exchange system reduced the amount of hyperactive and destructive behavior in the

classroom. There was an increase in attention level and class cooperation. Although the reward

system had to be reconstructed for several of the students, it still proved to be successful in

eliminating problem behavior and encouraging appropriate behaviors.

Shaping as a behavior modification technique can be beneficial in many different

situations. Institutions use shaping to encourage self motivation and independence for its

residents and patients. Many addictive behavior patterns such as smoking, drug use, or alcohol

are minimized or eliminated when clinicians use successive approximation as a therapeutic

technique. One of the most important uses of shaping is inside a classroom setting. Shaping is

an intricate part of classroom instruction as it eliminates problem behaviors and introduces

appropriate ones. Children can obtain behavior patterns that will help them succeed in the later

years of their education. At one point in life we have all either received benefits from shaping or

introduced new ideas to someone else using shaping.

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References
Azrin, N. H., & Foxx, R. M. (1971). A rapid method of toilet training the institutionalized

retarded. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 4, 89-99.

Pettijohn, T. F. (1998). Psychology: a connectext (4th ed.). Guilford: Dushkin/Mcgraw Hill

Preston, K. L., Umbricht, A., Wong, C. J., & Epstein, D. H. (2001). Shaping cocaine abstinence

by successive approximation. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69(4), 643-

654. Retrieved March 13, 2009, from PsycArticles database.

Prout, H. T. (1977). Behavioral intervention with hyperactive children: a review. Journal of

Learning Disabilities, 10(3), 20-25. Retrieved March 09, 2009, from ProQuest database.

Wolff, R., & Perkins, D. (1970). Contingency control and shaping procedures to institute bed-

making behaviors in a state mental hospital. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 76(2),

320-321. Retrieved March 1, 2009, from ScienceDirect database.

Zimmerman, E. H., & Zimmerman, J. (1962). The alteration of behavior in a special classroom

situation. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 5(1), 59-60. Retrieved

March 13, 2009, from PsychINFO database.