Ch. 9 Case Study - Elementary
Instructions: Read the following case study and then answer the questions that follow it on your blog. Your response should demonstrate critical thinking and thorough understanding of the subject matter, using proper terminology.
Case:
I teach first grade at a small private school just outside of New York City. Most of the children who attend the school come from very wealthy families; many have full-time nannies and one or more live-in servants at home. A lot of my kids have "issues." It's clear that money doesn't necessarily solve life's problems.
Take Haley, for instance. She's terribly afraid of men. She gets hysterical if a strange man walks into the classroom. And she won't go to my class's weekly violin lesson because the school's violin teacher is male.
Another thing about Haley is that she lives in the shadow of her older sister, Heidi, who's a third grader at our school. Mom dresses the two girls alike each day. She thinks Heidi is perfect and often tells Haley to "be more like your sister." When Haley gets upset, she asks if she can go see Heidi, and when Heidi stays home sick, Haley cries all day. As you can see, the sisters are very close. Too close, in fact. When I ask my students to write about themselves, Haley usually writes about Heidi instead. And once when I asked the kids to draw self-portraits, Haley drew a picture of Heidi!
Haley has one good friend in class and seems lost if this friend isn't there. Her name is Meredith, and she often carpools with Haley and Heidi. She's very smart. She's also very aggressive. One day she pushed a girl down the stairs. Another time she shoved a chair leg into a boy's foot. Haley looks to Meredith for clues about how to behave and obeys Meredith's every command, partly because Meredith pinches or punches her if she doesn't. Meredith treats her own mother this way. One day Meredith wanted to come to school dressed like a pop star--you know, with a miniskirt and a tight, skimpy top that showed her navel. Mom tried to discourage the outfit, but Meredith hit her, and so we had a pop star in class that day.
No one except me ever holds Meredith accountable for her behavior. At home she constantly has servants and her nanny waiting on her while her mother goes shopping or works out at the gym. Here's a 6-year-old who doesn't know how to dress herself! She can't even zip up her jacket or tie her shoes!
Questions:
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).
Haley's fear of men is most likely classical conditioning. Possible something happened to her with a male figure and now she interprets all male figures to be the same.
2. How might you explain Meredith's aggressive behaviors from the perspective of operant conditioning? Meredith's aggressive behavior gets a reaction from people or gets her the things she wants. This is a sign of operant conditioning because her response is strengthened every time she acts aggressively.
3. What strategies from Chapter 9 might a teacher use in working with Haley? Be specific and describe how each strategy could be used. As a teacher you would want to make Haley feel special and important. You would want to use secondary reinforcement such as praise. This would help give her confidence. Effective reinforcement with Haley would work by making her feel needed in class, such as helping the teacher out. This also would help to make her feel special and needed. If you can help make her feel special and important she is more apt to want to be in class and it will help her with her identity, separating her from her sister.
4. What strategies from Chapter 9 might a teacher use in working with Meredith? Be specific and describe how each strategy could be used. It appears that Meredith acts the way she does to get attention and get what she wants. As a teacher, you would need to know Meredith well and know what consequences for misbehaving would be the beneficial. For example, if Meredith is just looking for attention when she misbehaves the teacher and class can just ignore her behaviors and she may become bored and lessen her aggressive behavior. A process called extinction. You could also use incompatible behaviors with Meredith. Maybe have Meredith in charge of classroom ethics, and have her help set up the rules as to how classmates should treat one another. A process called reinforcing incompatible behaviors.

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