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;void(0)) I remember when it cost 15 cents to ride the New York City subway. That fare was set sometime in 1953. One of the people responsible for the fare’s demise was a fellow by the name of Mike Quill, the head of the transit workers’ union during the mid-Sixties. I remember the name because his name was always in the news headlines at that time. His image was synonymous with some sense of impending doom to guys like my father who relied upon the subways to get to work. For most of us in my age group who relied on the subways to get to school he was like Santa Claus. A strike to us meant no school, or enough chaos to preclude the usual routine of having to get to school on time. At some point the transit workers voted to go on strike at the most inopportune time for the city - during the New Years celebrations of 1966 - while revelers were stuck down on Times Square. The strike went on for about two weeks into the year before the union and the City came to an agreement. Since that major strike the fare slowly but surely crept its way up, by a nickel or a dime at a time. Each time that there was talk of a fare hike New Yorkers – myself included – resisted verbally and threatened all types of civil disobedience. However, after a few days of grumbling, we adjusted ourselves to accommodate this assault on our wallets. Mr. Quill taught me something about we humans. We are very creative and can adjust to most minor shifts in our environment. Outside of the 1966 strike I can hardly recall the subsequent fare hikes that followed even though I, like so many others felt that each rise was a major catastrophe at the time. That’s because I, like so many others that were effected by the major strike and subsequent increases in the fare eventually adjusted to what we thought we would never be able to deal with. Through control over their own behaviors (organizing and going on strike) the transit workers controlled our behaviors (paying more for a subway ride). Behavior modification is simply a matter of making adjustments in our lives to get some type of immediate or long-term reward. These are some of the basic principles of the process: 1.) Baseline: This is the period of close self-observation. Apparently the transit union and its advisors had been observing certain discrepancies in the system for some time so they sat down and observed their workers’ well-being in relation to the amount of work they were doing. I’m sure they took notes and kept plenty of records to justify their argument when they decided to take it to the City Fathers. 2.) Frequency: They observed the pattern of these discrepancies and analyzed them to determine what exactly would have to be changed in order to rectify the situation. When a person comes to me and says that he wants to stop smoking it’s always important to get a sense of what the Baseline is: How long has he been smoking? How often (frequency) does he smoke? How strong is his commitment? It is also important to start out by working on another -“easier”- habit that is somehow related to the smoking pattern. It could be coffee drinking or watching too much T.V. Through accomplishing this modification he would have better confidence in his ability to follow through with the main habit. Sometimes it may be wise to use index cards or even a frequency distribution chart. Next month we will discuss some other elements of behavior modification. Newsletter Directory The Aton Project - Home Page Tony VanSluytman info Tony VanSluytman - the Author | Return Home | The BOOK DOCTOR | The BANYON NETWORK | The Banyon Buzz Newsletters | The Aton Project Newsletters | Contact Us | |
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