Helping, Cognitive Behavioral, Systems and Behavioral Theories in Human Resources Management - Essay Example

Helping theory refers to modalities developed to help therapists and scientists comprehend, predict and give details of human conduct. To predict how one will behave in future, a therapist may need to consider how such a person is acting presently or how they worked in the past. For instance to predict the performance of a machine in the future, we look at its fulfillment in the past, and if it had problems, we can almost be certain that it will have problems in the future. If, say, it had an oil leak that has not been repaired, it is almost a guarantee that the machine will have an oil leak in the coming days. Of course, presumptions are provisional in nature, and it is difficult to tell with absolute certainty if they are wrong or right. In the helping environment, an approach is, at its very best, likely than certain. It is recognized as compelling if it has facts to support it, or detailed inferences that explain given incident. Needless to say, there are varied explanations for the same behavior. For instance, Freudian therapist will interpret a child crying in one manner whereas a Behaviorist will construe the very phenomena in another different manner. It is therefore, be intricate to prove who is accurate or mistaken between them.

How then can we tell which theory to apply in a given situation? Our beliefs in humanity will inform our relations with the persons we are making an effort to counsel. All of us see humanity in a diverse light as well as have our experiences and our observations of other people. We may acknowledge it or not, but we have made decisions why we behaved in a given manner in a particular situation. If we accept as true that humans’ current actions are because of their past interactions, then we will tend towards a theory that highlights on the past experiences. Similarly, if we are interested in the present occurrences, then we will tend to focus on the methods that analyze behavior for the here and now.

My client is an adolescent who suffers from Anxiety Disorder Syndrome. This condition is disruptive and frequent and calls for effective management and treatment. I will use three theories, which have shown empirical support in their application in this kind of a condition. We can note that in spite of the interventions, a significant number of adolescents continue to exhibit post-treatment anxiety symptoms. There is a need to analyze and understand the distinct developmental attributes of the growing season in children when formulating and administering the intervention to improve its effectiveness. In my contribution, I will apply Behavioral Theory, Cognitive Behavioral Theory and Systems Theory. I employed the approaches in the three theories to leverage the strengths of each to formulate a mix, which would significantly reduce the post-treatment symptoms. I will discuss each of the theories below.

Behavioral Theory

It is easy to observe and measure behavior and from a science standpoint, such a scenario is valid. For adolescents with anxiety attacks, there are distinct observable behavioral trends. For instance, during the interview, my client was irritable, restless, had a challenge concentrating, was feeling tense and jumpy, was sweating and had a headache. Behavioral theory alludes that all behavior is because of learning. Proper treatment interventions can aid in eliminating willful conduct. Reinforcement and punishment can help mold humans into any desirable shape. The environment triggers behavior for persons with anxiety disorder. During the counseling sessions, it was apparent that my client was suffering anxiety attacks from violent crimes he witnessed in his neighborhood. This occurrence is a classic case of how the environment can trigger the symptoms. Loud thuds and noise especially made him shudder in fear.

By rewarding or punishing behavior, anxiety sufferers will learn to act in given ways to control their behavior. For the most part, meaningful incentives and reprimands are from things or people that represent something. For instance, if an unfamiliar person lectures one, the effect will not be as traumatic as when it is done by a parent or a close person. If one rewards good behavior or punishes bad behavior, both the approaches will help curb the bad behavior, which is the result of anxiety disorder. For the most part, feelings, values, and thoughts are overlooked because they cannot be measured. Behaviorists are however beginning to adopt findings, which show the usefulness of feelings and thoughts in ascertaining what populace does, and have come up with superior means of measuring these mostly abstract ideas. Given that all manners are learned, good and bad conduct are taught to kids. The fundamental thing about behavioral hypothesis is that it has the view of reinforcement. Reinforcement is the environmental occurrence that, when following a given conduct makes that behavior reoccur. Concrete support defines a circumstance where a definite object increases or decreases a behavior.

Social strengthening characterizes a state of affairs where conduct is controlled by such acts as smiles or hugs. Support is relatively easy, and interestingly, punishment can be a behavior reinforcement too as earlier noted. Positive reinforcement will increase a given behavior while negative reinforcement will decrease response. In the case of my client, we applied the positive reinforcement approach by giving him a gift voucher whenever he went a whole week without engaging in violent gang fights on the streets. Then we used negative reinforcement by having him serve time at a correctional facility by performing community work when he would fight at least twice in a week. One confusing thing though is that it is not all the time that positive reinforcement yields positive results. A classic example of a positive reinforcement encouraging a bad behavior is when a mother gives candy to her screaming child at a supermarket. This act will positively encourage bad behavior because, in future, the child will work in a similar fashion, if not worse, to get the sweets. Consequently, a mother that will not offer candy to her screaming child at the store will decrease his behavior of whining as the child may not try this tactic again. This mother will therefore negatively reinforce her child’s bad behavior. On the one hand, rewards are more often tied with promoting certain behaviors, and they are also effective in discouraging others to act badly. On the contrary, punishment may be used to encourage other actions. For instance grounding students for achieving low marks does not necessarily discourage them from studying.

This behavioral approach proved instrumental in helping my client to manage and eventually treat his condition through rewards and punishments as the situation demanded. This method increased good behavior and decreased undesirable behavior ultimately treating his anxiety attacks and growing his self-esteem.

Cognitive Behavioral Theory

Cognitive Behavioral Theory has the same features as Behavioral Theory as they hold the school of thought that behavior is learned. However, the cognitive behavioral theory goes further to explore how humans learn to think. It considers the person’s feelings and thoughts, not just their actions. The surroundings of a person are not the only factor that affects conduct, but also a thinking pattern, as opposed to a response to a stimulus only. Conduct crisis is the result of miscalculations in judgment. By changing their thought process, a person can change their belief system and hence their behavior.

There are two therapies developed from cognitive behavioral theory namely the Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) and the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). These treatments focus on how an individual thinks about a particular state or how he reasons in a given condition. According to RET, people are born with the ability for a straight and crooked line of thoughts. As we mature, we build up a technique of thinking concerning our environment and our position in it. As we advance, we have an interface in our behaviors, opinions, and outlook. These three components interrelate to form our general view on issues. In the case of my client, fighting against a rival gang got nasty and he would often be injured severely. I employed RET provisions to sensitize his thought process so that he considers the physical pain fighting causes him. This line of thinking decreases his violent behavior significantly. Caution must be exercised, however because useful as it is, this therapy could trigger irrational thinking that could degenerate into phobias in the individual. From a cognitive-behavioral standpoint, phobias are a result of errors in thinking as opposed to learned impulses and are known to cause terrible anxiety attacks. Applying the RET therapy, I allow my client to illustrate what goes on and what his viewpoint is about fighting the rival gang, and challenged him to formulate an alternate explanation of why he does not need to be involved in fighting. I also helped him to produce evidence that it is in his best interest not to fight for his gang because this only hurt him, thereby creating in him a new belief system.

CBT is comparable to RET, but it focuses on emotional disarray for instance depression. The focus on CBT is how unconstructive thoughts cause cumulative harmful thoughts in a downward swirl kind of way. Despair causes distress and often reality is distorted based on logical systematic miscalculations. Some of logical errors are arbitrary inference, overgeneralization, magnification or minimization and personalization. In all these logical errors, the sufferer believes that he is always at fault and is inadequate. Poor behavior exhibited by my client is a result of poor thinking. To get him out of depression and looking down on himself, who triggered his anxiety attacks, I helped him to analyze his gang situation and to think about it rationally.

Systems Theory

This theory focuses on the individual concerning the other individuals he is in contact (Dessler, 2000). The interaction affects the behavior. According to the systems theory, the individual’s problem cannot be tackled without considering the environment he is in and the other people with whom he interacts. This aggregate consideration helps in getting the clear picture of the problem thus formulating a plan of action to deal with the problem. A systematic therapist looks at the relationship of all the parts and how that relationship ultimately fuels the trouble. For a systematic therapist, there is a common school of thought that “the whole is larger than the sum total of the individual components”. This means that merely placing objects together may not give the complete picture but analyzing how the various components work together gives a clearer view. This conjecture holds that a problem is not simply a problem in itself but a symptom of a bigger problem. For example, the involvement of my client in gangs is a result of his parents fighting. To improve my client’s fighting situation and eventually his panic attacks, I had to go further and help to restore the parental relationship.

Systems theory holds that alteration in one element of the scheme has the potential to change other regions of the system. The theory holds true the concept of circular causality. This scenario is true in a situation where there is a mutual connection between origin and consequence. Things do not occur in seclusion, as there is always a connection to conduct. In the case of my client, the parents fight. Then out of frustration, my client is involved in gang fights and he comes home injured. The folks think my client is an unruly child, and my client feels his parents are violent, and the cycle goes on. Using the systematic theory, I sought an audience with my client’s patents. I endeavored to change the pattern of their interaction. I gave them practical ways of handling their differences amicably and work on restoring their relationship. It was interesting to note that the restored relationship between the parents helped my client to shun fighting which was the trigger for his anxiety attack. Combining the three theories had the advantage of helping my client to recover from his anxiety disorder faster. I believe this was the case because of the synergy created by each of the theories as leveraged towards helping my client’s situation.