At 320 pounds and 21 years of age, my life is difficult. It was in high school too, but not because I got picked on; because I was for the most part ignored. To maintain 320 pounds, folks, I must admit—I do quite a bit of eating that isn’t necessary, and I do less exercise than I should be doing.
As a psychology major with a likin’ for behaviorism, I can tell you it breaks down to a couple of things. I’ll define a couple of terms for you. Yeah, you’re getting educated. Learn to love it. Keep in mind, the examples are NOT going to be universal for everyone—they’re meant to clear it up a little.
Positive reinforcement: the addition of stimuli that increases the behavior immediately before it. (You put money in a vending machine. You push the buttons. You get your preferred treat. You are more likely to do this again the next time you are hungry.
Negative reinforcement: the removal of stimuli that decreases the behavior immediately before it. (You have a kid. The child is whining and whining about wanting something. You yell at the kid. The kid stops whining. You are now more likely to yell at the child.)
Positive Punishment—addition of a stimuli to decrease the behavior before. (A child is screaming. You smack them upside the back of the head. The addition of pain makes it less likely he’ll scream.)
Negative punishment—the removal of stimuli to decrease the behavior immediately before it. (You put your money in the vending machine. It gives you no food. You are less likely to use that vending machine.)
Now, there is WAY more to behaviorism than the things above. But those are some of the core concepts, and they are most effective when used consistently. Punishment is typically bad for learning productive behaviors, and reinforcement is typically the best way to learn new things.
So I’ve broken down some of my own behaviors regarding food. In a later post, I'll take some time and think up ways around these unhealthy habits.
1. I find comfort in food. It is something that has always been available to me, so when I’m uncertain about things, I eat.
2. There’s an immediate reinforcement when I eat. Ummm.. it tastes good.
3. Eating is something everyone does, so I use it as an excuse. If I’m at work, instead of just taking five minutes to myself and being like “Screw you,” I’ll typically eat something. They can’t get mad that I’m eating, right? Everybody eats!
4. I use food not only as a positive reinforcement, where it tastes good—I also use it as negative reinforcement. When I’m freaking out over something, I’ll eat because I don’t have to think about the negative things while I’m eating. There was a study done with bulimics where they were told to record their negative self thoughts on a recorder, and every time they went on a binge, they had to listen to it. I’m not sure that was really removing the negative reinforcement so much as adding positive punishment, but either way, the rates decreased rapidly. The title of the article is “Evaluation of
extinction as a functional treatment for binge eating” and can be found here: http://csaweb105v.csa.com/ids70/view_record.php?id=1&recnum=0&log=from_res&SID=28270a2luf5s3jjvrn9grr7rb4&mark_id=search%3A1%3A0%2C0%2C1
Fortunately, something is coming into play that is going to help me balance the scales a little bit. Exercise. I’m starting to feel energized immediately following exercise. Since I often feel tired, it’s a pretty good reinforcement.
So, you might be all like “Ok, that’s nice.” But I wanted to lay down some groundwork before I got into this next article that I read when I woke up this morning.
There has been a fourteen year old boy taken from his mother because he weighs 555 pounds. As an obese person, I can sympathize. As an advocate for healthy children and parents, I cannot. Because there is more going on there than a lack of vegetables. BECAUSE of my behavioral background, I feel pretty damn sure that a large part of what is going on is that she doesn’t have the time, and so he’s very literally eating his emotions.
But it’s not okay. I mean, I struggle at over 300 pounds. I can’t imagine being 14 at 500+. I think it was right for them to take the child away. The mother works several jobs, and was given a warning and some time to start getting his weight under control. She has claimed she couldn’t afford anything. That in itself makes me sad.
Why, in America, can we not be proactive without a product? Does it just not occur to our consumer-driven minds? He should be out walking. Even if it’s just a couple of blocks to start.
I don’t think she should be charged with neglect. I think that going to jail for neglecting a child is really stupid and silly in many cases—but the judicial system is a whole new topic for someone else to blog about.
What I DO think is that they should both be entered in counseling, free access to a local pool for exercise that's gentle on the joints, and a couple of trips to the dietitician. The mother needs to learn how to say no, what proper eating looks like, and how to motivate her kid.
And the kid is getting to an age where he needs to take some responsibility for his actions. Which is rough, but he’ll feel better in the long run. If you want to read the article, head over to: http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=should_mom_of_555lb_boy_be_charged_with_neglect
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