Behavior Change Report

Student name

Institution

PSY205 Motivation and Emotion

(1510 words)
 1. Introduction

The way individuals conduct themselves towards a stimuli or other individuals is

referred to as behavior. Study shows that the human behavior can be classified into four

temperament categories, that is: positive, negative, unquestioning and resentful. A behavior

could be rare or a habit; it is a habit when it is done often. Negative behaviors needs to be
changed, this involves a five stages process of behavior change. Stage one is called the pre-

contemplation stage where an individual is not ready to change their negative behavior. The

second stage is the contemplation stage where the individual is cognitively thinking about

their behavior and is now formulating strategies of how to make necessary changes. The third

stage is the preparation stage where by the individual is get ready for the change in their

behavior. The fourth stage is the Action stage where by the individual is now implementing

their strategies which they formulated for behavior change. The final stage is the

Maintenance stage where by now the individual work on maintaining the strategies they

implemented and ensuring that they do not go back to their bad behavior. Positive behaviors

should be increased while negative behaviors should be decreased. Progress should be

monitored constantly.
2. Operational Definition

The behavior I have and I wish to change it is excessive anger. The excessive anger

occurs mainly during the daytime when am in school interacting with my classmates, and

also when am interacting with my parents especially may dad. I am highly emotionally

sensitive and most of negative actions done toward me triggers may anger. Some of the

things that I do when am angry includes shutting down and crossing arms and screaming

and yelling often. The excessive anger is trigger when my classmates are bullying me and

making fun about how I dress and this make me struggle with a pattern of a negative

thoughts and I end up angry. This excessive anger is also triggered when my dad is

constantly forcing me to pursue something am not interested in and I have to because he

is the one paying my school fees. Getting Angry is natural and many things such as:

financial instability, family problems and stress causes anger. At one point or another

getting angry is inevitable and every individual at a particular point in their lives they get

angry. However it is inappropriate for anger to lead into violence and in cases where

violence does not enter mind, it is inappropriate where anger results to a behavior which

is threatening and also the use of vulgar language.

 3. Behaviors change report
3.1. Behavior under view (S1)
The behavior under view is excessive anger. My client is a student and she wants to act

upon changing the behavior. Getting angry is natural especially when other people do wrong

against us. Anger can also be as a result of financial issues and family issues. Despite Anger

being natural, it is inappropriate when it leads to physical violence. In cases where it does not

lead to violence, it is inappropriate when it results to use of abusive words and threats.

Excessive anger needs to change since it has an overall significant effect to an individual’s

physical health and also their mental health. A healthy way of anger expression needs to

formulate, for excessive anger results to inability to feel other emotions. Excessive anger also

needs to be changes since it also results to the destruction of relationships and families, and the

ability to make connections with other individuals is compromised since an individual will

constantly push others away.

 3.2. Operational definition of the behavior (S2)

My client’s excessive anger behavior is evident due to certain behaviors that are considered to

as excessive anger. One of the behaviors that have been observed is facial expressions which

indicate confusion, disgust and face making which shows evidence of negative emotion.

Another behavior that has also been observed is yelling, screaming and sometimes physical

contact which is negative that is hand grabbing. Another behavior includes aggressive

arguments, commanding and sometimes shutting down for days. All this behavior is observed

when a negative action is done towards my client and when they are facing various family issues

and stress.
 3.3. SORCK Diary Summary (S3)

Since my client decided to make a change in their behavior, she has been recording her

progress in the SORCK diary. On the first instance, my client wasted twenty six minutes on an

aggressive argument which she would have used to polish up her presentation. On the second

instance there was a great improvement although my client yelled and screamed at those

classmates that were making fun of her drastic weight loss, she was able to control her anger and

this time round she did not focus on negative and aggressive argument which would have

resulted to negative consequences. One the third instance, there was also a great improvement on

the behavior. My client could shut down for days but in this case, when the dad wanted to her to

take football instead of swimming, she decided to cool down first and the talk about her opinion

instead of shutting down. All this is an indication of decrease in the negative behavior.
 3.4. Motivation Theory (S4)

In the first instance my client realized that they had waste a lot of time in a destructive

argument, the time that was supposed to be used to polish up the presentation. My client realized

that her behavior also result to wastage of valuable time and this pushed her towards changing

her behavior and focusing only on what is important. Shutting down lead also to wastage of time

since my client could not operate to her full capacity. We can see that when she decides not to

shut down and instead she decided to communicate her opinion to her father, her father was

actually ready to consider her opinion which was a good thing. Shutting down also resulted to

inability to connect with others since my client constantly push people away. It is evident since

when my client decide not to shut down and instead talk to her dad about it, she was able to

connect with her dad and the dad promised to consider her opinion which was a good thing. My

client also realized that she used to engage in destructive argument which could sometimes result

to negative consequences such as further emotional damage. In the second instance she decides

to change that by focusing on positive thoughts which helped her to calm down and not to

engage in the destructive and aggressive argument which was a good thing to do.
 3.5. Treatment Plan (S5)

One of the treatment plans to deal with the excessive anger that worked for my client

was focusing on relaxation and positive thoughts. Focusing on relaxation included taking deep

breathes and going outside to the balcony to get some fresh air which is evident in the SORCK

diary. Focusing on positive thoughts and relaxation may feel ineffective at time but when my

client focused on it, it turn out to be one of the best strategies to manage anger. We can also

observe that positive thinking assisted my client to calm down, after her classmate made fun of

her drastic weight loss she focused on the positive side of her weight loss that is; the weight loss

was good to her health wise. Another strategy that can be used is taking time out. Taking time

out allows and individuals to relax first and think cognitively before speaking. It is evident in my

clients SORCK diary because when her father tells her to quit swimming and going football

instead, she walks away to the balcony where she cools down first and think about what to say,

then afterward she goes to discuss her opinion with her father who actually decides to consider

his daughter’s opinion. Another strategy that can be used to manage excessive anger is trying to

formulate possible solution strategies. This enables an individual to drift their focus from what

made them mad to how to solve the issue at hand. In the first instance my client would have

focused on cleaning the blouse instead of focusing on the classmate who poured soup on her

blouse. If she had done so she would have saved sometime and would have avoided unnecessary

drama. Focusing on finding the solution also assist and individual to realize that some matters are

out of hand. I the SORCK diary we can see that my client’s classmates made fun of her because

of the drastic weight loss, the drastic weight loss is not something that she would have fixed

meaning it was out of her control and she was not supposed to get mad about it.
4. Conclusion

In conclusion, anger is natural and can occur from our day to day activities. Anger should

also be expressed appropriately without causing chaos and aggressive and negative behaviors.

Anger management strategies should also be formulated and implemented.

5. REFERENCES

Lerner, J.S., & Keltner D. (2001) Fear, anger and risk. Journal of personality and social
psychology,81(1), 146-159

Potter-Efron, R.T. (2005). Handbook of anger management: individual, couple, family and
group approaches. Haworth press.