KEYS TO EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

WINTER
 Health and Well-being
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 Behavior
 Health and Well-being

HEALTH
HEALTH HEALTH ISSUES
PROMOTION
 Well-being  Poverty
 Lifestyle
 Mind-body  HIV/AIDS
 Exercise
integration  Disease &
 Safety
 Health and illness
 Personal control
behavior  Disabilities
 Coping, life
 Health and  Learning
skills,
stress difficulties
coherence,
 Health and  Substance abuse
resilience, &
school  Mental health
hardiness
 Child abuse
 Stress
 Children as
management
 Social support caregivers
 Community
health and health
workers
 Behavior

Developmental Stages &

Communication

Aspects of Behavior

Categories of Behavior
Chapter 4

Health
&
Well-being
 HEALTH

Health : Not only the absence of disease, but also a

state of complete physical, mental,
and social well-being (WHO).

Health Psychology: The study of the way in which thought,

feeling, & behavior stem from, interact with
or cause physical or mental efficiency,
efficacy, comfort and well-being (Forshaw,
2002).

Key points : Well-being, Mind-body Integration, Health &

Behavior, Health & Stress, Health & School
 Health &
1
Behavior

Either strong intra-psychic constructs, or improved quality of life, or

harmony between mind and body.

Profile of Wellness person:

Cognition : life as meaningful and are generally satisfied persons.

Effect : more positive than negative feelings.
Behavior : high levels of control and perceive problems as
challenges.
Self-concept : happy with themselves.
Interpersonal relationships: experience sound human relationships at
work, in the family context and socially.
Symptoms: do not generally suffer from symptoms of mental
disorders, such as depression or anxiety.
 
2 Mind-body
Integration

'Healing will always be done by the mind-body system itself; the therapy
will merely reduce the excessive stress, strengthen the body, encourage
the patient to develop self-confidence and a positive mental attitude, and
generally create the environment most conducive to the healing.'

3
Health &
Behavior

Behaviors of individuals attempting to prevent disease

Determinants of health behaviour:
• Health behaviours differ between social groups.
• Health behaviours are influenced by social situations
• Health behaviours are influenced by perceived symptoms.
• A person's health behaviours are influenced by psychological factors,
both emotional and cognitive.

4Health & Stress

Stress can impair cognitive functioning and may lead to cognitive deficits

5
Health &
School
 HEALTH
PROMOTION
Key points : Lifestyle, Nutrition, Exercise, Safety, Personal
Control, Coping Life Skill Coherence
Resilience & Hardiness, Stress Management,
Social Support, Community Health & Health
Worker

1 Lifestyle

• Eat 3 meals/day • Limit alcohol intake

• Drink 8 glasses of water/day • Do not smoke
• Exercise 3 or 4 times/week • Sleep for 7 to 8 a night
• Maintain moderate body wight • Manage time effectively
2 Nutrition

Protein and calorie deficiency in early life (especially in the first six months)
can result in both anatomical and biochemical changes in the brain .

3 Exercise

People who exercise or are physically fit often report less anxiety, depression
and tension in their lives than those who do not exercise and are less fit.

4 Safety

Accidents are the cause of a high percentage of injuries in children.

 5
Personal
Control
Important not just for prevention of stress and disease – when people in control
fall ill or are injured, they tend to recover and heal quickly.

6
Coping, Life Skills, Coherence, Resilience &
Hardiness

7
Stress
Management
Increased social support, improved personal control, better time management,
exercise, proper preparation for stressful events, etc.
8
Social
Support
Makes people feel loved and accepted, supplies to us important information
about how to understand or cope with what is happening, assists us by
providing finance and resources, and gives companionship.

9
Community Health &
Health Worker
Focus aspects of prevention:
• Primary prevention consists of actions taken to avoid disease, injury or
stress.
• Secondary prevention refers to identifying and treating an illness, injury or
stressful event.
• Tertiary prevention attempts to decrease the long-term effects of
disabilities or diseases that already have clinical symptoms. It can include,
for instance, rehabilitation of a patient
 HEALTH ISSUES
Key points : Poverty, HIV/AIDS, Disabilities, Learning
Difficulties, Substance Abuse, Mental Health,
Child Abuse, Children as Caregivers

1 Poverty
Many children living in poverty have not been exposed to situations in which
coping skills could be developed to meet the needs of complex society.

2 HIV/AIDS
Children in South Africa are affected by HIV/AIDS to the extent that those
living in infected communities suffer from poor nutrition and ill health, and
show signs of failure to thrive.
3 Disabilities

Intrinsic barriers to development and learning:

• Physical barriers
• Sensory barriers
• Neurological barriers
• Mental barriers
• Chronic disease and infections
• Autism

4
Learning
Difficulties
Children with disability may also have some of these problems: mild
intellectual difficulties, communication difficulties, specific learning
difficulties, & emotional difficulties.
5
Substance
Abuse
This refers to the excessive use of a chemical substance, which results in the
impairment of an individual’s mental, physical or emotional state of well-
being.

6
Mental
Health
This influences a child's ability to learn, which in turn negatively affects the
grown child's ability to make healthy choices in areas such as sexual activity,
diet, exercise routine and decisions to seek medical care.
7 Child Abuse

'Behavior towards another person, which (a) is outside the norms of conduct
and (b) entails a substantial risk of causing physical or emotional harm.’

8
Children as
Caregivers
In their 'Child to child' programme, Werner and Bower (1995) found that
children could be helped to improve the wellbeing of their younger brothers
and sisters more effectively than doctors and health workers.
Chapter 5

Behavior
 BEHAVIOR

Behave : To 'bear oneself in a particular way‘ (Concise

Oxford Dictionary).

In order for us to effectively decode (understand) children's behavioral

messages, we must have knowledge of the child
as a developing person and of the context in
which the behavior occurs.

Key Points : Developmental Stages and Communication,

Aspects of Behavior, Categories of Behavior
 1
Developmental Stages
and Communication

Developmental areas influencing behavior:

• Physical development ; growth, functioning, structure, hormonal

changes and coordination.
• Intellectual development ; cognitive abilities
• Social development ; ability to relate to other people and the
development of appropriate interaction patterns
• Moral development ; growing awareness of the differences
between right and wrong.
• Emotional development; own feelings and the development of
suitable behaviour in response to those
Figure 5.1. A Behavioral Model
 Stages of development and behavior

3. Late middle childhood (8-12 years)

1. Infancy and early childhood
Behavior displaying greater
A child needs the close experience
responsibility and independence is expected
of attachment with a primary
of the child in this phase. The important
caregiver.
developmental challenges that the child
faces are self- control, social competence
and the emergence of an elaborated self-
concept.
2. Early school years (4-7 years)
The child experiences contact with
extra-familial contacts on entry to 4. Adolescence
kindergarten or school. The child will An adolescent experiences social and
indicate through his actions that he is physical changes that influence his
experiencing challenges to his view of himself and his environment.
personal development. The central task in this phase is to
form a self-identity. The adolescent's
cognitive capacity for higher order
thinking helps him to cope with this
developmental task.
 2 Aspects of Behavior
a
Stimulus and
Response

A stimulus : any object, item or action that directly or indirectly

contributes to a change in one or more aspects of perceptible or
imperceptible behavior.
Response : perceptible or imperceptible behavior.

'fight-or-flight response' : characterized by the body's attempt to

maintain homeostasis or balance.
Thoughts, feelings and beliefs: As the building blocks of a child's
behavior, these influence the physiological responses that take place in
the body.
 Children’s expression of feelings:

• Bodily behavior
• Facial expressions
• Voice-related behavior
• Observable autonomic physiological responses
b
Attitude

Attitudes : beliefs and opinions that can predispose individuals to

behave in certain ways.

Attitudes can be acquired through social learning, which involves :

• Classical conditioning
• Instrumental conditioning
• Modelling
c
Attribute

Attribution : the process through which we seek to identify the

causes of another person's behavior in order to gain knowledge of their
traits and dispositions.
d
Choice

Children are capable of adopting self-responsibility, and behave as they

choose.
e Observation &
Intervention
Attitudes can be acquired through social learning, which involves :
• Classical conditioning
• Instrumental conditioning
• Modelling
e Observation &
Intervention

Intervention must aim to:

• Involve the child
• Guide the child towards identifying the behavior that is causing him unease
help the child to identify his needs and assets
• Assess the child's behavior by asking whether the child thinks his behavior is
effective
• Encourage the child to find other ways of meeting his needs and mobilizing
his assets
• Guide the child in taking responsibility for his behavior
• Commit to formulating a plan of new behavior
• Evaluate whether the plan is working
• Understand the child (Porter, 2000).
 Protective factors can include:

• Personal characteristics and traits: emotional intelligence and

competencies
• The child's environment: characterized by a strong bond with at least
one caring adult, adequate parenting, involvement in constructive
activities and access to good schools

f • The instinct theory

Motivation • The drive theory
• The expectancy theory

Core assumptions of human behavior:

• Behavior is orientated towards the achievement of some purpose or
goal.
• As people we are active rather than passive in pursuing our desired
outcomes.
• Behavior is social and takes place within a given cultural context.
• Behavior is developmental and changes as we mature.
• Cognition is important, especially the creative and imaginative
behavior we display.
 3 Categories of Behavior

Categories of child’s behavior (Rutter, 1987) :

• Appropriateness of age and sex
• Persistence
• Life circumstances
• Sociocultural setting
• Extent
• Type Behavior categories that needs an urgent
• Severity and frequency response (Porter, 2000):
• Situation specificity
• Behavioral excesses
• Behavioral combinations
• Mistimed, behaviors
• Depression • Attention deficit
• Withdrawal • Hyperactivity
• Anxiety • Eating disorder
- obsessions - bulimia nervosa
- compulsions Problems of
behavior - anorexia nervosa
- fear - overeating
- phobia • Substance abuse
- post-traumatic stress • Pervasive
• Somatic complaints
developmental
problems
- autism
• Schizophrenia

• Elective mutism
• Tourette's syndrome and • Conduct disorders
problematic behavior - aggression to people
• Learning problems
• Regression or animals
- reading - deceitfulness or theft
- writing - thumb-sucking
- nail-biting - destruction of
- maths property
- enuresis
- encopresis - serious violations of
• Negativism rules
 WINTER
Thank You . . .
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