The Premack Principle Can Make Confinement More Bearable

The Premack principle can make confinement more bearable for a number of reasons. The first, because we are going to discover an ideal psychological tool to improve our productivity and establish more desirable behaviors. The second, because we can apply it to innumerable areas of our life and even in that of the smallest of the house.

Let’s admit it, something that we are seeing these days and in this exceptional situation, is how many people strive to do a large number of tasks every day. In our social networks abound direct, videos and post of friends, acquaintances ei nfluencers hyperactive when they do sports, cooking and DIY when they do, they are studying a course.

It is clear that each of us handles the confinement situation in one way or another. Everyone fills the time as they wish and it is just as permissible and beneficial to rest, as redecorating the house five days a week.

Whatever our personality, character and way of dealing with the present context, making use of the Premack principle will be as interesting as it is beneficial. Let’s see why.

The Premack principle can make confinement more bearable

Before delving into the reasons why the Premack principle can make confinement more bearable, it is necessary to first clarify what this theory tells us and where it comes from. This approach has its origin in the operant or instrumental conditioning formulated by the psychologist B. F Skinner.

Its formulation starts from a simple idea: people and also animals establish behaviors or stop generating them based on some psychological dimension that motivates us or causes the extinction of that behavior.

An example: I have stopped studying German because it bores me or I find it very difficult. On the other hand, I am spending more and more time on certain streaming content platforms because I love series.

Well, something that the Premack principle seeks is to make those more motivating behaviors act as reinforcers of the less interesting behaviors to make the latter occur. In other words, I could use my love of series as a reward mechanism to study more hours a day of German.

This technique, although it may seem somewhat elementary, is frequently used to modify behaviors and even to treat addictions or phobias. However, let’s look at ways in which the Premack principle can make confinement more bearable.

Premack Principle for Organizing Time and Creating Routines

Well, a frequently repeated recommendation for managing lockdown is the need to establish routines. These must be organized in times where to carry out obligations and in turn enjoy moments of leisure and rest.

• The Premack principle can make confinement more bearable if we organize the schedule by interspersing motivational and positive tasks with others that we like less.
• For example, it is possible that as soon as we wake up we feel sadness or apathy. In this state, we can find it very discouraging to start doing housework.
• In this case, Premack’s theory would tell us that the ideal is to start with precisely the least motivating activity; but knowing that we will dedicate an hour and a half of time to that work and that later, we will be able to see a chapter of that series to which we are hooked.
• The same happens in the case that we do telework. We must start the day with our work responsibility, but taking into account  that in two hours, for example, we can take a short break to do something nice, no matter how small.

Premack Principle of Caring for Diet

A phenomenon that is appearing as a cause of confinement is pecking or neglecting good nutrition. We abuse snacks and those products that in essence relieve our anxiety but are not nutritious at all.

The Premack principle can make confinement more bearable and can be very beneficial in the food sector . How? We will give an example.

• Every time hunger strikes us or that whim between hours, we will do the following: we will take an apple and that product that we want to consume (French fries, a brownie, etc).
• We will consume first the least palatable (the apple) then the most desirable. In this case, and in view of the fact that the apple is a satiating food, it is very likely that we no longer want the snack so much .

The Premack principle can make confinement with children more bearable

This theory can also be very useful to us to organize the time of the little ones. The Premack Principle can make confinement with our children more bearable because it will allow them to do better on homework. How?

• Children have an attention span of about 40 to 45 minutes. 
• The ideal is to start the day with the tasks that cost them the most (such as math). Of course, they should start them knowing that after 45 minutes they will be able to take a break to do something fun for a few minutes. The ideal is to focus academic activities in the morning and leisure activities in the afternoon. However, between those morning hours of academic performance, we can introduce small activities that are attractive to them.

As we can see, this type of strategy is based exclusively on the introduction of positive reinforcers. Let’s think that at the end of the day, this is what we need most now. If they also help us to better organize our time, to be more productive and even to eat better, it is worth a try.