BEHV2005 Human Learning Assignment 2: Report
Psychology and Community Service
14th Jul 2025
2
Team/Individual task: Individual
Word/time limit: 1250 words (+/- 10%)
Weighting: 30%
Due date: 5pm AEST Monday 14 July (Week 9)
After you have read this information, head over to the Assignment 2 Q&A discussion board to ask any questions and see what your peers are saying about this assignment.
To pass this subject of study, you must achieve an aggregated grade of at least 50%. Although this assignment is not a mandatory submission, completing this assignment will give you the best chance of achieving this minimum requirement.
A large part of the work of professional psychologists involves implementing programs to help others change their problematic behaviours. This assignment involves changing a behaviour that is a problem of self-control. In order for you to gain an appreciation of how difficult it can be to modify someone’s behaviour, even when they themselves wish to modify it, you will first be attempting to modify your own.
Written in the form of a psychological report—with an abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and reference sections—the aim of this assignment is to provide you with the opportunity to develop, implement and evaluate your own behaviour management strategy.
This assignment supports Subject Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.
In this assessment task, you will not be able to meet the learning outcomes related to satisfactory demonstration of understanding of the learning materials by using generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Working with another person or technology in order to gain an unfair advantage in assessment or improperly obtaining answers from a third party, including generative AI, to questions in an examination or other form of assessment may lead to sanctions under the Student Misconduct Rule (Western Sydney University, 2023). Use of generative AI tools may be detected. More information is available on the Library web page Turnitin's AI writing detector (Library Study Smart, 2023).
If your studies have been adversely affected by circumstances beyond your control, you may request an extension using the following options.
Note: A request must be made within 48 hours of the assignment due date.
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Read through the following steps to understand and meet the requirements of this assignment:
Step 1: Setting the objective and recording a baseline
You will begin by selecting a particular behaviour that you are seeking to change
Step 2: Behaviour management strategy
Having completed your baseline, you will implement a behaviour management strategy, recording the frequency of when the behaviour occurs.
Step 3: Writing the report
The outcomes of your behaviour management program are to be written up as an empirical research report using a single case design. The report should be approximately 1,250 words in length. Reminder: The title, abstract and references are not included in the word count. Your references should be formatted according to the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style guide (PDF 756 KB) (Western Sydney University Library, 2020).
Your report should begin with a brief theoretical discussion that describes why the problematic behaviour may have arisen and the principles that you will employ in your behaviour management program. It is important to note that while you may not be able to locate any research on the specific behaviour that you are seeking to modify, you will find theoretical and empirical research on issues such as strategies for the successful modification of behaviour. Issues can include things such as the use of reinforcers; contingency contracts; continuous reinforcement strategies; and the modification of antecedents.
In the case of this research report, your research question (hypothesis) will relate to the expectation that the behaviour will be modified, following the implementation of the strategies that you discuss as part of your introduction.
In your discussion, you should consider the implications of the results that you obtained, in terms of the theoretical principles that you described in your introduction and the reinforcement properties that were present before the intervention was implemented. You should moreover recommend any modifications that might be necessary to improve the success of the program or allow it to be generalised to others.
Important note: An Assignment 2 student exemplar has been provided for you in the 'Supporting resources' section of this assignment. Use this as a guide to help structure your final report.
The participant
The participant, in this case, is yourself. In your method section, include a ‘participants’ section, a description of the behaviour to be modified, how you measured this behaviour, and a description of the type of intervention that you implemented. You don’t need to undertake inferential statistical analyses in the present study. It is best if you represent the two stages of the study (baseline, intervention) as two separate sections of the one figure. This enables a visual comparison to be made quickly and accurately.
Developing your behaviour management strategy
It is important that as you begin and work through your assignment, that you refer to and use the Behaviour management strategy: Stages of your program resource. This resource has been designed as a step-by-step guide that outlines how you can develop, implement, and evaluate your behaviour management strategy for the purpose of this assignment. We have included a number of suggested Apps in the 'Supporting resources' section that you might use to assist you in recording your behaviour and/or changing your behaviour.
Important note: Module 5.6 Assignment 2: Report - Self-control: Measuring your own behaviour is dedicated to unpacking this assignment further, with additional instruction and resources to support you in implementing your behaviour management program and producing your report.
Note: Title, abstract and references excluded from word count.
View the marking guide under 'Assignment criteria' to see a detailed breakdown of how your work will be assessed. This is an excellent place to start your preparations for this assignment.
Refer back to the marking guide frequently to make sure you are meeting the requirements.
Supporting documents
Exemplars
The following exemplar has been provided to support you in completing your assignments. You are not permitted to copy/reproduce any part of exemplars.
Assignment 2: Report exemplar (PDF 444 KB). (Weidemann, 2018)
In order to maintain your academic integrity, you should not copy the exemplar in whole or in part. A high Turnitin similarity report would lead to a breach of academic misconduct.
Supporting resources
▢ Apps that assist with recording behaviour and/or changing behaviour.
▢ Contingency contract example (DOC 24 KB)
▢ APA 7th Edition referencing style
▢ 'How To Make a line graph In Excel - The simple way! (The Organic Chemistry Tutor, 2017).
This assignment will be submitted through Canvas. When you are ready to submit your assignment, select the 'Start Assignment' button at the top of this page. You will be taken to the 'File Upload' tab where you can choose your file or submit your URL.
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Title and abstract.
Introduction.
Method.
Results.
Discussion.
References.
There are a number of iPad and iPhone Apps that can allow you to keep track of the behaviour that you wish to modify. Below are a few that you might choose to explore and possibly use for your assignment.
▢ Calorie King Australia allows you to monitor your daily food intake and manage your exercise requirements. Price: Free.
▢ Health (Apple) can help the user keep track of how many steps they take or distance that they walk or run. Price: Free.
▢ Water your body allows the user to keep track of their daily water consumption. Users choose the amount that they drink by picking an icon or entering the amount manually. Price: $1.29.
▢ Runkeeper utilises the user’s phone’s GPS to track course on a map. It stores the distance run as well as calories burned. The user can also listen to music while they run (other similar apps don’t allow you to run music simultaneously). Price: Free.
The following list provides other suggestions of Apps that can help you in recording your behaviour or changing your behaviour.
▢ Map my fitness (Free; android, iOS).
▢ Workout trainer (Free; android, iOS).
▢ Yoga studio ($3.99, android, iOS).
▢ Lose it! (Free; android, iOS).
▢ Australian Calorie Counter – Easy diet diary (Free; PC, iOS).
▢ Self control—A study App that allows you to block certain websites for a set amount of time (Free, iOS).
▢ Alarmy (Sleep if U can)—requires you to solve maths problems to turn off the alarm (Free; android, iOS).
▢ Sleep cycle alarm clock (Free but with in-app purchases; android, iOS).
▢ Eat This, Not That! The Game (Free but with in-app purchases; iOS).
▢ Level Money – budgeting app (Free; android, iOS).
▢ Mint – personal finance software (Free; android).
▢ Lift (Free; android, iOS).
Important note: Please note to gain access to these Apps you will need to visit the Apple Store if you are an iPhone or iPad user; or the Google Play store if you are an Andriod user.