Models and Theories for Causes of Behavior

The decisions people make to manage children’s behavior depends on the beliefs, philosophies, and theories they have - on why children behave the way they do. If we understand different ways people think, then we will understand what they use as a belief system and knowledge base to make the decisions they do. Knowing this might help us to help them make better decisions.

Why it's important to know your philosophy and theory when making decisions - Theory quote and Donkey fable

A study of different personal beliefs, models, or theories, will find that most attribute behavior to a single cause and the number of causes can be classified into five general categories. Knowing these categories and understanding the beliefs and interventions related to each can help us understand how attempts are made to alter behavior. Five historical models chart and my Holistic Behavior Model.

To demonstrate how teachers might use different theories or models a set of six case studies was created based on the same student (Chris) with six fictitious teachers. I thought about placing the character into five parallel universes, but settle to clone Chris instead and drop Chris into five different classrooms.

The setting. A group of educational psychologists determined to conduct a ground breaking study selected a student with an identified behavior problem, Chris, 11 years old, made six clones, and sent them off to six very different school systems to start sixth grade. Each school system was selected to match one of the following: behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic, environmental, humanistic, and biophysical.

Study information

Notebook - Chris's history prior to sixth grade and before being experimentally cloned.

Case study for each clone placed in a different classroom setting.

Match each setting/case to a theory/point of view,...

Enjoy!