I had to think long and hard about a behavior to modify. I must have many bad habits but none came to mind. Then, a friend of mine pointed out to me that I had a very sarcastic personality, and I was startled to realize it was true. To tell the truth, I didn’t so much as want to change this behavior, but rather, I was intrigued enough to wonder if I was even capable of modifying this behavior. Therefore, I decided to see if I could cut down, and possibly eliminate, any sarcasm. By, sarcasm, I mean it in the general sense of the word. It quite simply means any comment that passes from my lips that takes the opposite meaning than the actual words. So, I enter this project with a healthy curiosity to see whether I could change this behavior pattern.

I recorded my data for an entire week (including Saturday and Sunday). I found that on Tuesday and Thursday, I made an average of twenty-five sarcastic comments. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the exhibition of the behavior was significantly higher. The average on those three days was around thirty-five comments a day. On Saturday and Sunday, the average was around thirty-one.

The recording of data was simple. I simply took out a piece of paper and wrote each of the dates I was doing my observations on the top. Then, every time I made a sardonic comment, I simply wrote a 1 under the appropriate date. Finally, I counted all my 1’s, and wrote down the total next to the date. I felt that the data was a pretty accurate measure of my sarcasm because most of the time I realized I had been sarcastic after I had already made the sarcastic comment.

As I began to evaluate my data, I noticed a pattern. MWF’s, the days with the highest number of comments, were the days I spent the most time with good friends and family. I eat lunch with five or six people, then I pick up my mother from work, and the family has dinner together.

On Saturday and Sunday, I concluded the reason it wasn’t as high as MWF was because I saw less of my family on Saturday and Sunday. My parents are usually in and out of the house and my brother sits in front of the computer, immersed in the exciting world of video games. On Saturday night, I am with friends, and my sarcastic comments increases again. On Sunday, it is pretty much the same, except that my parents are home Sunday afternoons, but I am not. I got to dance class during that time, so I am not talking as much.

On Tuesday and Thursday, though the satirical comments are still quite high, it is not as high as the other days. This is because I don’t have class till 2:00 on those two days, and therefore, I really didn’t talk to anyone till about 1:45 when I came into class and shared conversation with a friend. I didn’t see my family till I went home, and that is when the behavior escalated, as was expected.

Since goals are supposed to be challenging yet attainable, I thought perhaps in the light of my extreme sarcasm, complete elimination of the behavior was impossibility. Therefore, I decided to set my goal at ten sarcastic remarks a day. I felt that this was a realistic goal, because it reduced my sarcasm a lot but was also within reach. I thought with a bit of hard work and concentration, I would be successful.

However, I noticed the first week that I started the plan, the number of sarcastic comments I made went way down simply thinking about the punishment I will have to endure. I was at thirteen comments a day on the first day. Therefore, in the light of this new development, I decided that I could probably eliminate the behavior completely. If the thought of punishment could reduce the behavior by that much, the actual enforcement of the punishment would probably be even more effective.

After thinking about the types of stimulus conditions present, I decided that I couldn’t do anything to the actual conditions themselves, because that would involve my cutting myself off from my friends and family, and that would be a punishment.

However, I decided, that although I can’t necessarily alter the conditions, I could control how I reacted in those conditions. I decided that if a sarcastic comment came into my mind, I would try to count to ten and by that time, the conversation would probably have shifted a bit. Therefore, my comment would be irrelevant to the flow of conversation. However, though I tried to remember to count to ten, most of the time I forgot. Observing these reactions, I just decided not to count at all when I revised the plan (as will be mentioned in greater detail later on).

Since I had three weeks before the project was due, I felt I could experiment with this because I wasn’t sure of what I really wanted to use as punishers and reinforcers. First of all, I decided that I wouldn’t use reinforcers because I couldn’t think of anything that would really excite me that was within my control. Consequently, I had to start thinking of punishments. I went through two other punishments before I found one that produced the desired effect.

The first one I tried for first three days was punishing myself with five extra minutes in the language lab listening to the much detested tapes each time I was sarcastic. This wasn’t effective at all. I just kept procrastinating about it until I finally realized that I am just not going to go in there, no matter how much I tell myself I will.

Next, I tried coffee. I abhor coffee, and I couldn’t think of anything worse than cold, black, sugarless coffee. So, I took a huge gulp coffee each time I made a sarcastic comment. I did this on Thursday only. By the time it was evening, I had gotten used to the taste of coffee, so it didn’t seem so bad, and I was very caffienated. I had a lot of energy and it took me a while to get sleep that night. So, I threw that punishment out.

Suddenly, I remembered the research on good punishments and the discussion in class about it. The research stated that effective punishers had to be immediate and appropriate to the crime. I realized the reason the language lab punishment didn’t work was because it was not immediate and it had nothing to do with the "crime." The coffee, though immediate, was inappropriate and had unforeseen circumstances, like me getting used to the taste.

Taking those two factors into consideration, I decided that the only punishment for me was to not talk for three whole minutes. Since I have difficulty restraining my speech, I thought not talking would be a perfect punisher because I would hate this even more than going to the language lab and drinking coffee. It was immediate, because I can’t talk immediately after the comment was made. It was also appropriate because since I am saying something that I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t be allowed to talk. I also decided upon a contingency plan. I created punisher "for the punisher". That is, if I talked within that three minutes, not only would I have to keep quiet for the next five minutes, but also have to give a dollar to each person with me at the time.

The first thing I decided upon when designing a program was what type of schedule to use. I decided to do a fixed ratio schedule, at first. I decided to punish myself for every third sarcastic comment because I thought that since I exhibited the behavior so many times, a continuos schedule would be too harsh (I was using the language lab punishment at this time). However, I found that to be ineffective (and not just because of the impotent punisher I was using). I figured that the reason the fixed-ratio schedule didn’t work was because I was not getting punished often enough, because as I mentioned earlier, my behavior drastically reduced simply imagining the punishment. Since, I made only about thirteen sarcastic comments a day, I only had to go to the language lab for twelve extra minutes. It wasn’t a very big deal going in there for such a short time. Thus, I decided to not only change my punisher, but also with my schedule, because I decided that both the schedule and the punisher were ineffective.

For the coffee punisher, I used a continuos schedule, but I had to throw it out for the reasons mentioned earlier. The third punisher, not talking for three minutes, was enforced on a continuos schedule for the next two weeks. I thought about tapering it out into a partial schedule, but I figured that would probably yield the same results as earlier. So, I went through the project with a continuos schedule, and an effective punisher.

My friends and my family were only too glad to help me and watch my struggle not to talk. On the first Monday of this new plan, I informed everyone. Most of my friends were constantly trying to goad me into making a sarcastic remark. The first day, they were quite successful. My friends and family also made sure I would not talk for three minutes after a sarcastic remark, and made sure I would give them a dollar if I did talk during that period.

My friends would also goad me into talking when I under punishment. They were quite subtle in this manipulation. For example, that first day, my friend Veronica tricked me into saying something when I was supposed to be quiet. She had been studying the menu, when she suddenly asked me if I wanted any fries since she was getting up to get some food anyway. Without thinking, I replied, "No thanks." They all pounced on me for their dollar. I lost six dollars in that luncheon alone, in addition to spending most of that time writing down what I wanted to say. I lost another six dollars that night at home.

The next day was easier. Not only was it a Tuesday, a day that I make fewer wisecracks anyway, but I also lost only three dollars, and that was at home. On Wednesday, and for the remaining duration of the project, I lost no money at all. I was still punishing myself quite a lot by being quiet, but I didn’t allow myself to get goaded into saying something when I was being punished.

Towards the last couple of days, I had developed sufficient control of my unruly tongue. I had almost reached my goal. I was only spending nine to twelve minutes not talking. The end of the program surprised most of my friends because I was able to hold a conversation with them without making a sarcastic comment. Of course, the first thought in my head was still sarcastic, but as the days progressed, I voiced my sarcastic comments less often.

I was not completely successful. I was still making three or four sarcastic comments a day. However, I do feel quite proud of myself. I actually was able to curb my sarcastic impulses most of the time, at least for those two weeks. Honestly, I was really, really glad when the program was over. I felt quite liberated after it. However, I was surprised to note that even after the project was over, I still thought twice before saying something sarcastic. It is getting easier now to be sarcastic, and I probably will go back to the level I was before, but the thing that surprised me was that I didn’t immediately jump to the level but am slowly moving back towards that level. On the whole, however, I think this was a fun project (even for me!) and I did provide hours of entertainment for my friends and family. I also now know a way to change my behavior if I needed to change one again. I thought this was a good experience for me, and though I spent a lot of time frustrated, I had fun.