Behaviorism.

1. Is Haley's fear of men most likely due to classical or operant conditioning? Justify your response (yes, it will all be hypothetical as we do not have enough information in this case) using terminology, definitions, and examples.

Haley's fear of men could most likely be due to classical conditioning. According to the text, "When stimuli produce negative emotional responses, they are called aversive stimuli." The neutral stimuli in Haley's case could have been all males. Assuming she had a very negative experience with one male, like her father, her fearful, traumatizing, negatively emotional experience with that one male created an aversive stimuli that was then generalized to all males. This generalization could explain why she refused to go to violin lessons with the male teacher. She paired those negative automatic responses to new similar stimuli.

2. How might you explain Meredith's aggressive behaviors from the perspective of operant conditioning?

According to the text, "behavior is controlled by its consequences; therefore operant conditioning is learning in which behavior changes in frequency or duration as the result of a consequence." Because Meredith had no undesirable consequence for her behavior, she continued it. The consequence she received was that she always got what she wanted after hitting or hurting the other person involved in each situation. "When consequences are rewarding, the likelihood that the organism will repeat the behavior in the future increases." Meredith will continue to repeat the behavior as she has because the rewards fulfill what she was originally setting out to do. She originally set out to wear rock star clothes to school, and when her mother opposed, she still wanted to wear them, so she hit her and was instantly rewarded with her desire being met. Also, Haley is helping in this conditioning process because every time Meredith wants something from Haley, she just pokes her or hurts her, and Meredith's reward is always satisfying what she originally desired.

3. What strategies from Behavioral theory might a teacher use in working with Haley? Be specific and describe how each strategy could be used.

Some behavioral strategies the teacher might use with Haley could be the following:

A Contingency Contract that is solely between the teacher and Haley. This will give her responsibility for her own actions and no one elses. This might help her be more aware of herself and have better self-esteem and maybe even self-efficacy in behaving well in the classroom or not being swayed by others desires.

Use intermittent reinforcement to allow Haley to come up with things that she likes to do. Previous to this type of reinforcement, there would need to be noticed by the teacher an activity or subject that Haley has high self-efficacy in and really enjoys doing. Then, after behaving well, according to the contingency contract, she would be allotted the thing that she personally enjoys doing the most. This may help her develop a more accurate sense of self.

A self-evaluating journal may be a great daily tool to help Haley recognize her behavior and improve.

She would need further help from maybe the school psychologist or counselors for the fear she has of men.

4. What strategies from Behavioral theory might a teacher use in working with Meredith? Be specific and describe how each strategy could be used.

Removal Punishment may be a good tool to use with Meredith if the teacher can find something Meredith really enjoys doing. If Meredith enjoys the token economy, her privileges of participating may be removed until she resumes a desirable behavior that would be clearly understood to Meredith from the teacher by a contract.

Logical Consequences may be the best way to help Meredith's behavior at school. When she wears inappropriate clothing to school that does not abide by the dress code, then she must change into clothes provided by the school that do agree with the dress code standards. If she is pushing or shoving children at recess, than she is no longer able to play with children at recess. If she is pushing Haley around and being bossy, than she can have her desk moved away from Haley and not be assigned to any of the same groups as Haley. I think these logical consequences will most likely be effective in the classroom because there will be a negative consequence to match the negative behavior. There will be a clear cause and effect relationship she will better be able to see.