What is Behavioral Control?
When behavioral control is mentioned, most people think about how someone controls another person’s behavior. Interestingly, we seldom think about controlling our own behavior. In addition to who it is that controls the behavior, people likely think about how the behavior is controlled. This process generally involves some kind of response that makes the person whose behavior is being controlled fearful to some extend. We tend to associate “control” with “aggression” of some kind, no matter how tempered. Aggression towards another person will have effects upon that person’s behavior; we call such effects aversive and are often thought of as punishments. Punishments are one way of controlling behavior, but often the least effective. There are many more ways to control behavior that don’t have the negative, emotional side effects that punishments do. It is these means of positive, behavioral control that you want to use with your child. These are the procedures that will produce healthy growth in your child’s development.
Types of Behavioral Control
There are at least three types of behavioral control: 1) reactive control; 2) systematic control; and 3) natural environmental control. Reactive control refers to when the control procedure is applied. This always occurs after the behavior has occurred. Systematic control refers to the planning of the type of control to be used. Systematic control involves specific plans that address specific characteristics of the behavior. Lastly, natural environmental control involves the ways a particular environment controls a particular behavior. In our effort to understand our behavior, knowledge of natural control is always a main goal for us.
Reactive Control
Parents most likely use reactive control more than the other two types. That is, parents often wait until a child has done something and then they respond to what was done. A parent’s response to a child’s behavior is considered reactive if it occurs after the child’s behavior occurs. That is, the parent is responding to the child’s behavior. The parent has not done anything before the child’s behavior occurred to manage the behavior in some way. Reactive responses are not the most effective type of response, however, they necessarily occur. When you child engages in an undesirable behavior, you don’t want to always just ignore it.
Reactive control occurs every day. A simple example occurs when you are at a movie with your child, and your child begins to talk too loud while the movie is playing. You quietly give your child a shush to be quiet. Other means of controlling the behavior of talking too loud at a movie are possible. For example, you could have made a contract with your child before entering the movie that if you do not have to tell him to be quiet one time he will get some favored reward. Of course you can’t make a contract for everything your child does, so reactive responses such as telling your child to be quiet are common.
The major characteristics of reactive controls are that they are not planned, they may or may not fit the requirements of the environment in which they are given, and they occur after the antecedent-response-consequence. Each of these characteristics has a disadvantage. When you are merely responding to your child’s behavior, you response without planning your response, your response is probably more or less adequate but may not address specific behavioral needs your child has. This lack of planning likely will fail to met the behavioral demands of the environment in which the behavior is occurring. For example, the parent in the movie theatre example is doing the thing he is asking the child to not do, being noisy during the movie. Finally, the prompt to be quiet comes after the antecedent-response-consequence occurs. The problem here is that the parent is interacting with the child. Human beings are social creatures, and we are reinforced by social interaction, even negative interactions. Thus, even when you are reprimanding your child, you are reinforcing her to some extent. For this reason, a reactive response will provide at least some reinforcement to the behavior to which it is responding. Unless we want that behavior to increase, we always want to avoid reinforcing it.
Systematic Control
In systematic control, you have planned ahead for what you will do in such a situation as you are encountering. You have relied upon your experience in such situations and have considered the expectations and demands of the environment. When the behavior arises, you are ready to respond in a way that gives your child a way to learn from the experience. Because you have a behavioral plan for the situation, you respond from your understanding of how behavior works and not from your emotions.
One thing you will learn about human behavior is that it is very consistent. Your child’s behavior really will not provide you with many surprises. Because you know your child’s behavior, you will know the antecedent-response-consequence of his behavior. You will know exactly what you need to do. When you systematically manage your child’s behavior, your child also learns what to expect from you. You will be surprised how your child’s knowledge of your response to her behavior will help you in your management. Your behavior management will provide no opportunities for your child to manipulate the situation. You will not be emotionally engaged, and your child will not be responding to your emotions. You will not have the added problems created by your own emotional engagement. Essentially, there will be less behavior created; you will feel less exposed to the gaze of others.
Natural Environmental Control
The natural environment contains very complex behavioral controls. It is involved with all behavior; all behavior is instigated by the environment. We like to think that we are in control of our own behavior. This is an illusion. We can control our behavior, but it is done by controlling our environment. However, the natural environment into which you bring your child at any time may not elicit exactly the behavior you want your child to exhibit. The natural environment has many resources, and you can use those resources to help you manage your environment. Using those resources requires that you know what they are and that you have planned for their use. How you use the natural environment matters much for the success of your behavior management.
As an example, let’s take the situation I described in another blog of a mother who had her daughter with her grocery shopping and the daughter wanted a candy bar. The mother told the daughter that she could not get the candy bar, as they had not come to buy candy. The daughter began screaming and yelling, “Yes!” In the blog, the solution we gave was that instead of telling the daughter she could not buy the candy bar, the mother made a contract with the daughter that she could buy the candy bar if she helped her find the food items they had come to purchase and do so without screaming and crying. The daughter was then allowed to carry the candy bar through the checkout line with a credit card that the daughter used to purchase her candy bar.
The part of the environment that controlled the daughter’s behavior was the candy bar. The candy bar had strong control over the daughter’s behavior. The mother could have fought the behavioral control exerted by the candy bar, or she could use it to help her manage her daughter’s behavior. The tendency of parents is often to fight the powerful behavioral control exerted by the environment. This just creates many emotional problems and makes life miserable. We can live our lives the hard way or we can live them the easy and enjoyable way. It’s up to us and the knowledge we bring to our lives.
Using Behavioral Control
Behavioral control is complex, and you will always be learning more about it. Behavioral control is the major task that we encounter in our lives. The more you understand it and the more skillful you get at implementing the ideas you learn, the easier your life will be. You will be able to avoid many of the problems that result from ignorance of how your behavior works. The three methods of behavioral control weren’t meant to be a hierarchy with one method better than another. They all three occur in different behavioral situations, and they meet the behavioral needs created by those situations.