A woman is keeping her New Year's resolution. Every morning she makes a list of what she is going to do that day. Then, she performs the tasks in order of their appeal to her, doing the least appealing thing first and the most appealing thing last. The woman is applying

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The woman is applying response deprivation theory, which suggests that behaviors can become more or less probable based on the restrictions placed on them relative to their baseline levels of occurrence. By doing the least appealing tasks first and saving the most appealing for last, she's essentially using the more appealing activities as a reward for completing the less appealing ones, thereby making it more likely she'll complete her tasks.  When we are deprived of an activity to a level that is below its normal inclusion in our lives, the behavior becomes more reinforcing. To overcome the deprivation of the most preferred activity, the woman will work on the other activities. The most preferred activity becomes a reinforcer for the less desirable activities, which will be done to get to the more desirable one.

A Woman Is Keeping Her New Year's Resolution