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Behavior Theory


            A distraught mother comes into the clinic and has a concerning problem with her five year old son Johnny. The young boy has a problem with unruly behavior at home and at his school. The mother has tried everything from punishment to ignoring the inappropriate behavior but so far nothing has worked. Johnny has showed increased aggression towards his father as well as with the children at school. Johnny's mother is starting to feel that it is her parenting that is to blame. As a last result, Johnny's mother comes to me for help. She wants to know what the cause of Johnny's unruly behavior is and how can she help to diminish it. .
             I am a Psychologist. I am going to explain to Johnny's mother what may be causing this behavior in her son and what she can do to help. Here are some possible causes and remedies to Johnny's problem. .
             Behavioral Theory.
             I feel that this theory is the most appropriate and may best explain the unruly behavior. The behavioral theory suggests that behavior is learned through other people's examples. Observational learning is simply done by imitating others which is called modeling. In Johnny's case, he may be imitating the behavior of a parent, a peer or another influential person in his life. Bandura's bobo doll experiment explains just that. A child sees an adult kicking and punching the doll when frustrated and the child ultimately imitates the same behavior when frustrated or angry. Johnny may have seen this aggressive behavior at home or at school and has assumed that this is correct behavior. His behavior might also be reflecting that of a television character or television show that he may repeatedly watch. Since parents are such powerful models to a child, this behavior can be reversed if the parent is persistent with correcting it. So if Johnny is imitating the behavior of a parent at home, the parent must also change their behavior. If Johnny is learning the behavior at school, he must be taught the correct behavior so he knows what the correct behavior is.


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