Week 8

I summarized my result below:

Week 1: planed to cook 4 days a week.
Week 2: Cook Day/ Total of days = 1/4
Week 3: Cook Day/ Total of days = 0/4 (changed plan to 2 days a week.)
Week 4: Cook Day/ Total of days = 0/2 (add punishment)
Week 5: Cook Day/ Total of days = 2/2
Week 6: Cook Day/ Total of days = 1/2
Week 7: Cook Day/ Total of days = 2/2
Week 8: Cook Day/ Total of days = 2/2

From the summary, I can see my behavior did change. I felt fun at week 2 which just started and sound interesting to me, but I got lazy after it. I did nothing during week 3 and 4, so I added a punishment which made a big change! When I found some excuses to not cook, such as week 6, I received the punishment from my sister immediately. That made me keep going for week 7 and 8.

I think the punishment work the best on me. I love dessert, but I am ok without it. For the punishment, it is an additive work for me. I feel so bad that my sister is watching TV and relaxing when I do the house work. That motivates me to cook every week.

When the blog started, I pay attention to my behavior most of time. I thought about going home at lunchtime and dinnertime. I felt guilty when I ate outside. I start changing my behavior when I know what I am doing.
If I want the change to be long-term, I believe that the main thing is keeping punishment and reinforcement. Many people lack of self discipline, so the best way is to let other people administer the punishments and reinforcements as Winston said. It may sounds like parents teach children, but company also use it. Employee gets promotion if they work hard, and they are hired if they don’t go to work.

The most challenging aspect of this assignment is tracking my behavior. I forgot about it sometimes because it’s eight weeks assignment. I list it as least important in my calendar, so I often ignored it even if I was aware for my behavior at the beginning weeks.

The most valuable thing of this assignment is that I change my behavior. I eat healthy at home now. My sister also change her behavior with me. I hope we can keep going and make it be a long-term change. During these weeks, I had very good time with cooking. My sister and I always argued about dishes washing after cooking, so we always played games, such as cards and wii, to decide. That is interesting and exciting.

Week 7

This week is a good week for me. I made some stew beef soup, so I can use it to make variable foods, such as beef soup noodles, beef soup rice, and hot pot for next few days. I started cooking something that can change to different dishes, so I would not feel tired of it. I lost appetite if I eat the same thing every single day…

On Sunday, Mothers’ Day, my family went to restaurant for lunch. We did not go for dinner because there would be a lot of people at night. My sister and I decide to cook the dinner for my mother. We made some salads, steam fish, miso soup, and fried rice noodle.

The operant condition works well on me. I feel I need to do something on Thursday and Sunday now. I bought myself a cheese cake (positive reinforcement) as reward on Monday. That encouraged me a lot.

I think the operant conditioning theory is like a dog training. People punish dogs when they bite, and people give them a cookie when they do a trick. I believe that opereant condition can work on both animal and human.

Week 6

I did not cook on Thursday since I was busy and lazy. As the result, I receive a positive punishment from my sister. My sister happily asked me to clean the rooms for a week. I can feel that she is very satisfied with my program. I also had negative punishment, convenience. I could not get my meal in few minutes. I need to go out and buy it.

I did not want to get another house work for another week, so I made a fried rice on Sunday with my sister. http://chinesefood.about.com/od/ricefried/r/friedrice.htm Fried rice is an easy dish, and it did not take long time to make it.

I want to change my program again because I realize that if I do not cook for a week, I need to do house work for next two week. For example, I did not cook on Thursday, so I needed to clean rooms till next Thursday. If I also not cooked on Sunday, I needed to do another thing till next Sunday. It is confusing sometimes. Therefore, I want the positive punishment do a little change. My sister will ask me to do the housework until I cooked again. That means I need to cook something, or the punishment would not end. > <

Hope this will work well.