Behaviour Modification
A Self-Control Program for Smoking Cessation
Christine Chambers
Trent University

Introduction
The behaviour modified for this self-directed behaviour change project is smoking. Smoking was selected as the behaviour I wish to change because it is known that tobacco use is the leading cause of premature, preventable death and disease (Edwards, Bondy, Callaghan, & Mann, 2014). Smoking is a behaviour that has been recently initiated; I started smoking occasionally in August 2013 (one cigarette a few times a week) and intended to buy only the one pack. However over a period of several months, my smoking has increased. The rationale for this choosing this target behaviour is that it is still a relatively
This approach was supported by a study by Foxx & Brown (1979), which compared four treatment approaches for smoking and found that at 18-month follow up, nicotine-fading/self-monitoring was most successful. During the third week of intervention (at the second criterion level), it was discovered that the reward schedule was not salient enough to maintain adherence to the intervention. At this point, the contingency management program was altered. Instead, a deposit of sixty dollars was made and this amount would be reimbursed at the end of the intervention to be spent on an item of choice that was not cigarettes. As well, a response cost was introduced of two dollars for every cigarette smoked above the criterion level. This procedure was used in a study by Singh & Leung (1988) where six of seven subjects maintained smoking abstinence at two years follow up. This procedure also included self-recording and cigarette-fading. An additional incentive was included where a favoured Starbuck’s beverage could be purchased for every seven consecutive days where smoking remained at or below criterion level. During the intervention phase, self-management strategies were incorporated. The self-management strategies included continued self-recording of smoking, functionally derived self-management strategies to