2020 is over.
I can’t even remember 2019.
And it’s now 2021?!?!
And, what does this mean?
It’s time for New Year’s Resolutions!
New Year’s Resolutions symbolize starting anew and improving one’s life. Great decisions, no doubt. But, they are arbitrary, and exist because of stimulus control.
New Year’s Resolutions and Stimulus Control
Stimulus control is a learning process as a result of antecedents, behaviors, and consequences. Over time, particular behaviors (making public statements about self-improvement) occur during a certain month (the antecedent) and is met with conditioned reinforcement (peer approval).
New Year’s Resolutions are learned. Our culture taught us about them.
Weak Versus Strong
We say that January 1st has a high degree of stimulus control when individuals reliably engage in New-Year’s-Resolutions-related-behaviors in the days and weeks ending one year and starting the next.
As each January comes and goes, stimulus control strengthens as more people make public statements, and the these actions are met with a conditioned reinforcer. January will lose stimulus control, or weaken over time, if these actions are met with fewer conditioned reinforcers.
January’s effect on our resolution behavior is only as strong as our learning history.
The Key To New Year’s Resolutions
Stimulus control only “works” if it signals that certain reinforcement is available.
If you talk about resolutions in late-December and early January, your behavior will be reinforced. I imagine that most people will not shoot down your resolutions in January (there’s plenty of social punishment available for that). However, announcing a resolution in mid-May may seem a bit odd. In a sense, May, June, and July do not signal that social reinforcement is available.
You will need to teach others, but saying “I’m starting my May Resolution” may be just as successful any New Year’s Resolution ever made.
