Question

Treena is a personable student in Mr. Jordan's math class. Mr. Jordan can see that Treena is popular with her peers. He regularly sees her conversing animatedly with her friends in the cafeteria and before and after school. She does well in class also. Her homework is always on time and is usually well done. Her scores on tests generally range from 85 to 100%. She regularly volunteers to work problems on the board or to answer questions in class. In short, Treena is a good student who does everything that is expected of her. One day Mr. Jordan asks for volunteers to complete a problem at the board. Treena's hand shoots up and Mr. Jordan calls on her, "Treena, have a go at it". Treena approaches the board and examines the problem. She looks puzzled but begins to work it. She makes an error that will severely impact the final answer. Several other students begin to snicker. "That's enough", warns Mr. Jordan, Let Treena finish in peace". Treena's heart begins to beat faster. Her skin becomes flushed. She begins to perspire. The other children in the class begin to fidget. Some begin snickering again. After several seconds of standing at the board, but doing nothing, Treena runs out of the room in tears. "I can't do this, Mr. Jordan, I just can't", she says through her tears as she leaves. Mr. Jordan follows Treena and manages to calm her down. He reassures her that all students make mistakes and that there is no shame in it. He then asks that she return to class, which she does. After this, Treena no longer participates in Mr. Jordan's class. Once in Ms. Crauser's class, she begins to answer a question and freezes. The information seems to vanish from her head as she begins to talk. After that she no longer participates in any of her classes. When asked to do so, she simply looks down at her desk, refusing to say a word. After reading the case, please answer the following questions: What are the issues in this case? Please be specific. Analyze this case from a classical conditioning perspective. Please be specific. Analyze this case from an operant conditioning perspective. Please be specific. Develop a plan to help Treena, using principles of both classical and operant conditioning and social cognitive theory. Please be specific.

Answer 1

Treena was considered to be a good student. However, one incident was more than enough for her to make a negative association between participation in the classroom and her classmates mocking her. This is a form of classical conditioning.

Classical Conditioning is a type of associative learning. A stimulus is associated with a response. There are four major elements of classical conditioning. An Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS), is a stimulus which produces a response without any kind of prior learning. An Unconditioned Response (USR), is an automatic response which is unlearned and is elicited on presentation of unconditioned stimulus. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) in classical conditioning is previously a neutral stimulus that eventually elicits the Conditioned Response(CR) after being paired with the Unconditioned Stimulus (US).

Operant conditioning on the other hand works on the principle of rewards and punishments. Treena's behaviour of participation in class led to negative punishment where she felt that she was looked down upon. Shame crept in. Operant conditioning emphasizes on reinforcing behaviour with rewards to increase desirable behaviour and punishments to decrease undesirable behaviour.

Treena must be helped with forgetting the negative association between participation and shame. This can be done through words of positive encouragement, treats and etcetera. This is likely to increase her behaviour of participation and decrease the shame and guilt felt.