Behavioral vs Psychodynamic Essay Example

must be a goal if this is to be considered a success. That goal must be precise.One must be very clear if one is to expect a behavioral change.

There must also be a way to monitor the behavior you are looking to see change in. There must also be an open line of communication that allows for both positive and negative feedback. There must also be an effective behavior to deal with stress or anger . The treatment plan must be passed on to the student and the actions are in the hands of the student.

The most common techniques are modeling, shaping, coaching, feedback and information giving. After these steps can a student be evaluated objectively.This is the step that is dependant on behavior and student. If there was a timeline set up for a students behavior to change then that must be looked at as well. The lines for clear positive and negative communication must be open.

This way both the student and the leader can learn most from the therapy. The basic idea behind the Psychodynamic views is that behavior is directed by forces within ones personality, often hidden or unconscious. In general psychodynamics is the study of the interrelationship between various parts of the mind.Here the goal is to restructure the students character and personality system. It emphasizes internal impulses, desires, and conflicts mostly that are unconscious.

Key concepts of the Psychodynamic approach are the issues of the past and their effect on current personality functioning. The first six years of life are seen as the root of conflicts within the individual. A common misconception is that it is merely

focusing on past events, when it really tries to weave in past and present events for concurrent behaviors.It is important to understand the relationship between past and present as opposed to getting lost in the past. The Unconscious is where Freud made his most significant contributions to understanding behavior. Freud believed that most we are motivated by forces outside the conscious experience.

He says our choices are not freely made but rather determined by forces within us. He equated the unconscious to an iceberg, the greater part that is underwater and unseen, perhaps a lurking danger. Anxiety is a feeling we all know too well, it’s that feeling of fear.This fear of uncertainness is often triggered by something in the environment. Our Ego- Defense mechanism protects us from threatening feelings of anxiety. Several ego defenses are manifested, repression, denial, regression, projection displacement and rationalization.

There must be a safe atmosphere and unconditional positive regard for a student in order to move forward through negative or unwanted behavior. To obtain an environment that is this safe in a classroom setting is no easy task. Students are often very hard on each other and the students ego might interfere.This is an implication for educators is to supply an accepting classroom environment so that students can work through his or her emotional conflicts. Psychodynamic theorists suggest that gaining insight into unconscious motivations will enable students to become better students and be productive in school settings.

The time it takes to get students together and work through issues they may face is consuming and sometimes unproductive. The most important theme that psychodynamic theories has is talking to students.If we

were to address and explain the disruptive behavior of a student in the classroom through both the behavioral and psychodynamic approaches we would see distinct differences. If we were to define disruptive behavior as being tardy to class frequently then the behavioral model would begin by assessing the situation of tardiness. Explain what being tardy is, why being tardy everyday to class is disruptive and pointing out specific dates when the student was tardy. There you are setting the table for what is unacceptable behavior.

This will make way for a goal for new behavior.Next would be to formulate a specific treatment, perhaps purchasing a watch, or setting the watch forward 10 minutes so they have some cushion. Getting the students feedback can help the situation along. Opening the lines of communication and letting the student understand what is needed. Finally there comes time to objectively evaluate the outcome.

In this case with a student one could look at the attendance record of the student for the 2 weeks after a goal was set. Looking from a psychodynamic model the goal would be to restructure the students personality.We would look if they have a history of being tardy, finding out if it has been a problem for them for a while. We would then talk to them see if any shadows of the past are haunting them. In the psychodynamic model the therapeutic process would be to recreate, analyze, discuss and interpret data while talking about past experiences.

This could take a great deal longer to do depending on the scope of problems that are discovered. Being tardy is not the best example for the

use of the psychodynamic model. For this we will look to a more obtrusive behavior such as verbal abuse to other students.The best environment to get a student to talk is one that is calm, relaxing, stress free. Where there might not be any distractions from thinking about the past. As a teacher is would be best to write down what is being said, what transpires in the conversation.

To awaken the unconscious is the key to understanding the problems of behaviors. Through this therapeutic process we can explore anxiety and see what life experiences have caused a student to want negative attention form his peers. The data we find here in the unconscious drives the next stages of working through.There is also dream analysis and free association. As you can imagine this process can be longer and a little more intrusive that is necessary for a teacher to do in a school setting.

Freud believed that our libido drives who we are and what we achieve. Talking about sex might not be the best idea for teachers as well. This process also takes a lot of time, planning, and digging around that it might scare off some teachers. When talking with female students who are acting out this theory doesn’t take into account women. Freud worked mostly with men while working on his theories.

Psychodynamic theory is less interested with solving short term personality disorders and more focused on long term strategies. To its credit the Psychodynamic theory makes the best use of internal conflicts to explain the manifested behavior. From here one can refer the student out if the situation warrants the outcome. The

Behavioral approach is not without its shortcoming either, problems can occur due to a skills deficit, adaptive behaviors are a difficult set to adopt right away. Students might acquire coping habits that could be detrimental. One that could be worse than the behavior to be fixed.

We assume by teaching this behavior technique that the student can then transpose that onto other parts of their lives easily. This is not always the case. Both theories can work well depending on the behavior or situation that is going to be dealt with. They both require a care and an open line of communication between the student and the teacher, which is the cornerstone to a classroom experience where students can achieve. Much like Skinners rats or Pavlov's Dogs behavior can be learned especially when a student knows the importance of that new behavior.