Effects of Choice-Instruction on the Variability of the Behavior of Participants with Different Reinforcement Histories

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Behavior Therapy Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 23 - 32
• Main Author: MURAI, Keiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japanese Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies( JABCT ) 31.01.2014
• Subjects: behavior variability; psychological flexibility; reinforcement history; rule-governed behavior
• ISSN: 0910-6529; 2424-2594
• DOI: 10.24468/jjbt.40.1_23

The aim of the present research was to examine how reinforcement histories with different instructions affect behavioral variability. The participants, 53 undergraduate students, were divided into 2 groups: a group scoring high on the General Health Questionnaire (High GHQ group) and a group scoring low on that instrument (Low GHQ group). Each of these groups was randomly divided into 4 groups: an other-instruction group, a self-instruction group, a choice-instruction group, and a control group. After the participants' responses were reinforced under each instructional condition, their behavioral variability was recorded and compared to that of participants in the control group. A significant difference between the scores of the Low GHQ group and the control group was not observed, whereas a significant difference from the control group's scores was observed for the scores of the other-instruction group and the self-instruction group in the High GHQ group. These results suggest that the overall variability of the behavior of those participants with few mental health problems was not decreased by the instructions. On the other hand, it is possible that, for those with mental health problems, the variability of their behavior decreased as a result of effects of the other-instructions and self-instructions. Those participants' behavioral variability did not, however, decrease in the choice-instruction condition, in spite of their mental health problems. These results suggest that adopting choice-instruction may be an effective measure for maintaining clients' response variability in clinical settings.