In today’s contemporary society, learning principles can be applied to improve conditions in everyday life. This is possible through the work of popular psychologists like Ivan Pavlov and B.F Skinner, who developed various learning principles through their works in classical and operant conditioning. As a result, such principles have been used to improve conditions in daily human lives, like improving athletic performance, motivating workers, and even training children to use the toilet. Most importantly, learning principles can be used to change behaviors in humans and animals. The specific behavior that I wish to change is nail-biting among children and young adults. Ultimately, this paper seeks to change nail-biting behavior through an experiment using the operant conditioning principle of reinforcements on a fifteen-year-old teenage boy.

Nail Biting behavior

Nail biting, also called “onychophagia,” is a common behavior among kids and young adults. According to a conducted research, “out of 339 participants, the majority of subjects (92.2%) described nail-biting as an automatic behavior. Tension before nail-biting was reported by 65.7% of nail biters, and feelings of pleasure after a nail biting by 42%” (Pacan et al. par.1). Generally, nail biting is a behavior that entails biting and chewing of nails. Dr. Nicola Williams affirms that, “it is a type of self-grooming behavior involving biting and chewing the nails, including the toenails” (Williams par.2). Most people who bite theirs nail to do so when anxious, bored or when in stressful situations. In most cases, the behavior manifests itself in a person when they are still young, intensifies as they grow older, and disappears as they age. Among young adults, nail biting can be inherited from early childhood behavior like thumb sucking. Psychologically, “nail biting is a chronic condition that is repetitive and compulsive in nature. Multiple factors play a role in the development of nail-biting, ranging from genetic components to underlying psychiatric conditions” (Baghchechi et al. 310). Notably, most people who bite their nails use the behavior as a reflex to anxiety or stressful situation as it helps relieve fear and stress. On the other hand, people who bite their nails do so unconsciously or deliberately as a focused behavior. Nail biting can harm health as it can damage the nails, cause fungal infections, and even damage the skin. Also, swallowed nails can cause stomach illness and even intestinal complications as they can be carriers of bacteria. Therefore, I wish to change nail-biting behavior for health purposes and help those struggling with it to overcome the behavior. Before the intervention, the behavior involved biting nails when in stressful, dangerous, and boring situations. Also, the individual biting their nails is oblivious of the behavior and hence does it unaware. After the intervention, I hope the behavior will stop and the person engaging in the behavior becomes conscious of the behavior. 

1. Experiment

Given the nature of the behavior, nail biting is best changed using the operant conditioning principle of reinforcements.  Thus, the experiment’s choice of learning principle is B.F. Skinner’s principle of reinforcement. The participant is a fifteen-year-old boy who bites his nails in a stressful situation. In this principle, Skinner argues that “an observable response (e.g., a behavior), will change because of a consequence, such as the use of reinforcement or punishment” (Leeder 28). In this case, I will apply both negative and positive reinforcement. Reinforcement is suitable for changing nail-biting behavior as its primary principle is strengthening a behavior. Similarly, the principle entails positive and negative reinforcers that help strengthen the behavior. Therefore, in this case, if the participant shows signs of stopping nail biting, I would reward him. Failure to do this, I would apply the negative reinforcement principle, like removing an unfavorable event like screen time, hence motivating him to change his behavior. Rewarding a person for a positive change works best in strengthening a behavior; hence reinforcement is suitable for changing nail-biting behavior positively.

• Modifying the behavior using reinforcements.

Step 1. Identifying nail-biting triggers.

Generally, the first step to changing or stopping something is finding its root causes. Therefore, I will first identify what makes the participant bite his nails. This could include varying physical triggers like the presence of danger, tension, boredom, and anxiety that reinforce the behavior. By identifying these triggers, I can determine how to change the behavior or use the triggers to reinforce change. Identifying the triggers can also help the participant know what drives him into the behavior, hence can modify his environment to avoid the triggers.

Step 2. Increasing awareness of nail Biting,

As mentioned above, many people who bite their nails are oblivious that they are doing so. Therefore, the second step is to make the participant aware of the behavior. This can be through verbal communication or by using code words to notify the participant when he is repeating the behavior. Also, this can be through putting something on their nails like bitter nail polish or covering them to alert them when they try to engage in the behavior.

Step 3. Replacement behavior

Once aware of his nail biting, I will introduce other alternative behaviors to replace the nail-biting. For instance, I will introduce fidgeting with a pen as an alternative when the participant feels like biting their nails. Also, the participant can engage in other behaviors like playing with a ball and fidget toys to keep him busy whenever he feels like biting his nails.

Step 4. Reinforcement.

 In this step, I will focus on positive and negative reinforcers to change the behavior. I will develop a sticker chart where I will keep a daily record of when the participant repeats the behavior or manage to avoid it. Once the participant manages to stop biting his nails, I will reward him by buying him movie tickets or using verbal words to praise him. On the contrary, if the participant repeats the behavior, I would apply negative reinforcers by taking away unpleasant stimuli, like screen time. These negative and positive reinforcers will help keep the participant in check, motivate him, and slowly avoid biting his nails. The reinforcement will be reduced as the behavior is strengthened with time.

• Specific outcomes expected

From the experiment, I expect the fifteen-year-old will become aware of what triggers him to engage in nail-biting behavior. By learning this, I expect he will apply this knowledge to modify his environment to avoid such stressful situations, hence avoiding the behavior. I also expect the participant to become more aware of when he bites his nails. By being conscious when engaging in the behavior, I expect the boy will control himself to avoid repeating the behavior. Most importantly, I expect the boy will stop biting his nails. Primarily, I expect the behavior will change. On the contrary, I expect the participant to learn to adopt other replacement behaviors, like fidgeting whenever he feels the urge to bite his nails in stressful situations.

•  Actual outcomes

By evaluating the experiment, the actual outcome is that the boy managed to change his nail-biting behavior completely. Over time, the participant showed a significant improvement in avoiding biting his nails whenever he was in stressful situations. Although the process was slow, the participant managed to change his behavior and stopped biting his nails. To know if the intervention succeeded, the participant has to change his behavior entirely. In this case, the participant must stop biting his nails and adopt other replacement behaviors instead. To know if the intervention failed, the participant has to show no signs of behavior change. In this case, it would mean that the participant did not stop biting his nails. Therefore, in this experiment, the intervention was a success as the fifteen-year-old boy managed to change his behavior of nail biting by stopping it.

Conclusion

To sum up, it is evident that nail biting is a psychological disorder involving chewing and biting nails whenever someone is in stressful situations. It is also evident that it is a behavior associated with children and young adults and disappears as a person ages. Despite being used as a psychological defense mechanism, nail biting can lead to health complications; hence it is essential to change the behavior. It is clear that nail-biting behavior can be changed through B.F. Skinners’ principle of reinforcements. Basically, this principle is suitable for this experiment as it strengthens a behavior through its use of positive and negative reinforcers. However, to modify the behavior, step-by-step intervention is necessary for it to succeed. These steps include; identifying nail-biting triggers, increasing awareness of nail-biting, replacement behavior, and applying reinforcement. The expected outcome of the experiment is to stop nail biting and for the persons engaging in the behavior to be conscious of the behavior. The actual outcome, however, is that the participant managed to stop biting his nails. The experiment was a success as the experiment’s objective was achieved.