Understanding How People Behave - Coursework Example

Understanding how people behave ID no: 18045 due: This case study is based on Tracy, whois ten years old and her family. The background information about Tracy is utilized to understand her behaviour. In addition, various theories are used to comprehend her development, intervention and assessment of her family and their situations. Furthermore, the scope of socio-cultural in which they work and live is identified and their repercussions for their behaviour. The essay discusses various behaviours the service users may exhibit in various situations and the reason they act in a particular manner. Moreover, the effect of discrimination at structural, personal and cultural level is elaborated to show its outcome on behaviour. In this assignment primary, secondary and tertiary sources are used for the research. A lingering question in regard to this case study is ‘does the environment that a person interacts with affect the behaviour of the particular individual?’ According to Eysenck (2014), for a psychologist to comprehend human behaviour one must know that the behaviour is caused by various elements (p.3). The various elements comprise of the recent encounters of a person, the particular stimuli accorded to an individual, the genetic inheritance, the psychological process, the social habitat, the cultural habitat, the previous life encounters that include childhood experiences, the personal qualities of a person which consist of mental health, intelligence and personality, and the cognitive process and this includes thoughts, memories and perceptions (Eysenck, 2014).All these elements are identified from the details of events in Tracy’s life for the duration of more than six years. The social identity theory is an essential strategy to the idea of self and self-esteem is an essential element of self-concept (Eysenck, 2014). Looking at Tracy’s life, there is a possibility of the girl growing up with low self-esteem. This may result to her getting involved with drugs or alcohol as a way of boosting her image which is wrong. Personal identity is founded on personal characteristics and relationships and involves the way we are different from other people (p. 422). As written by Mishra (2008), families vary in great extent to their structural design. This comprise the absence of parental figures nurturing by other relatives or governance are part of the essential family variables that influence the best development of intellectual capabilities, how big or small the family is, the gap between the siblings and the number and ratio of males and female in the family. In this case study Tracy is the first born in a family of four children. From her background information, Tracy is greatly affected by the birth of the other children. This is evident from her chronological information where at the age of five Tracy became withdrawn, isolated and not improving. The health visitor portrayed her mother as tired and pale which was a result of taking care of the new born baby. Tracy at the age of eight years appears to be too old for her age, and this shows that the child was undergoing through so much hardship which was too much for a child of her age. It is assumed that children in the middle positions are always fighting with both older and younger brothers and sisters. These conflicts contribute to them becoming more competitive, and this increases their intellectual ability indirectly (p.504). There is evidence of a negative relationship between the number of sisters or brothers and intelligence more specifically in low socio-economic class (p.504). This is because the more children in the family the poorest the accessible provisions required for enhancing intellectual capabilities (Mishra, 2008). Children in big families are denied many provisions, for example, poor educational chances, minimum money per child and denied proper diet. This explains why Tracy’s mother failed to collect her from school as she was tending to her younger sibling. This shows how much Tracy was denied the appropriate attention because of the other children. The family was also going through financial problems, and this is clear from the fact that Tracy was mostly very hungry at school; this means that food was not enough at home. Their home is in chaotic bad state, and the doors are not in good form and are nearly falling down and this describes the situation of poverty. In various families and societies of the same community, the traditional ways of raising children of different sexes vary and the parental belief towards the different sexes also varies sharply. Such variation result to negative of positive effects on the evolution of potentialities. Therefore, intelligence is influenced by the beliefs with which the children of different sexes are raised up, taken care of and protected (Tajfel, 2010). The ecological theory developed by Uri Bronfenbrenner is imperative in understanding the behaviour of different people. According to Watts, Cockcroft, & Duncan (2009), a person is the core aspect of the habitat (p.502). People can adjust their thinking to the limitation of the objective reality and even of restructuring their surrounding so that it well suited with their desires, abilities and needs. The theory states that the behaviour of a person is influenced by their surroundings. This theory helps one to understand Tracy’s aggressive behaviour. It is clear from words of a parent who witnessed Tracy pushing her baby brother one night as they went to the local shop. This kind of behaviour was caused by the environment at her home (Ungar, 2012).The ecological theory of development dictates that for a healthy growth of a child is influenced by the elements like role demand and stresses put on parents, the flexibility of the parents’ job timetable, the effectiveness of child-care arrangements, standard health and services, existence of neighbours and family friends and community safety (Watts, Cockcroft, & Duncan, 2009). Tracy’s father is under stress, and this prompts him to be aggressive towards everyone. The mother confirms that the father has a hot temper. The health visitor also notices Tracy’s father yelling at the mother because the house is well organised. Tracy’s teacher also sees the father push her roughly through the school gate and swearing to her in the playground. This environment could have caused Tracy to react violently towards her siblings and other children at school. The integration of culture and environment give a way to comprehend resilience. From an ecological perspective resilience proposes a complicated relationship of person-environment integration (Masten, 2001). The resilience concept is used to enhance positive development in young children (Brownlee et al., 2013). Resilience is the category of behaviours over time that display the relationship between people and their habitat, in specific the chances for individual development that are accessible and available (Ungar, 2012). Resilience differentiates between strengths in the community and the function strengths perform when people, communities and families are going through stress. Tracy was not able to adjust to the changes that happened in the family, and this contributed to the negative development. The term resilience is employed to report on three features of change that take place in an ecosystem over duration of time (Gunderson, Allen & Holling, 2009). The first feature is the persistence of correlations within a system and the capability of the systems to take in the changes of state factors, pushing factors and parameters and still remain. From the information about her, the first time the health visitor realizes Tracy’s father had become addicted to alcohol because of stress from work, the dad is referred to an appropriate resource and the drinking problem is solved. The results are superb because Tracy’s behaviour changed and was no longer an issue. Nevertheless, with more children coming into the family the stress was too much, and the father developed uncontrolled temper. Both parents are also involved in drug abuse, and this contributes to the unstable condition of the guardians and this affects Tracy in a great way because she also develops anger which she directs to other children (Gunderson, Allen & Holling, 2009).The second feature identifies the event of multiple and alternative conditions in contrary to the speculation of a sole equilibrium and international strength therefore, resilience is the size of a firm area or the quantity of disruption a system can handle before it moves to different arrangement. The third feature is the unexpected and interrupted character of change (Gunderson, Allen & Holling, 2009). The way Tracy’s father treats her mother and the language he uses when addressing her and the other members of the family can be seen in Tracy’s several choice swear words she uses in the playground which is an indication of unexpected change in character. The attachment theory implemented by John Bowlby can explain how the parent-child relationship negotiates and affect the way of development (Davies, 2010). This theory tries to comprehend separation distress in little children. The theory states that an attachment has an intense emotional bond to a particular individual that enhances a young child’s feeling of security. The theory has discovered that a young child requires stable relationship with a specific individual for them to flourish and grow (p.7). The aim of attachment is to sustain the infants’ sense of security. During the time, the infant is distressed the mother and the infant act to reinstate the feeling of security. The mother picks up the baby and calms down the baby with her voice (Davies, 2010). The baby keeps on crying, then sticks to the mother’s body, keeps quiet and then regularly breathes and slowly suggesting a reduction in arousal, and the feeling of security is reinstated. The children who do not have the attachment bond as they grow old tend to experience the mercy of intense emotions and impulses. These children have behaviour difficulties because they have not developed valuable internal methods of controlling their response to stressful stimuli (p.9). This attachment bond helps the children to grow up as confident people. An individual who is confident is well prepared to handle all situations in life (Dowling, 2005). From the events that happened in Tracy’s life the effect of the broken bond is evident from the withdrawal, isolation of the child and lack of progress at school. This means Tracy felt lonely, and that is why she kept to herself. This could also explain why she never spoke about her home life she was avoiding to feel strong emotions which were mostly negative because there was no peace at home (Dowling, 2005). In this case study Tracy’s mother makes an effort to make attachment bonds with her children when they are young despite the circumstances (Davies, 2010). When a parent or care giver reacts negatively to the child’s expression of distress, the young one learns that for them to sustain the attachment they must discourage intense feelings in particular negative ones. This is evident in the scene where the mother goes to the Family Centre to report about her husband’s temper, and the staffs notices the way she reacts delicately to her baby’s cry and the way she holds and talks to her in warmth (Davies, 2010). Tracy’s mother loves her children and is proud of them. Tracy and her siblings experience attachment with their mother when they are young, but this is broken suddenly after the mother becomes pregnant again. When the family professional recognizes the need for early intervention, particular interventions are designed and applied (Keilty, 2010).Early intervention assists children with delayed developmental milestones and disability feel accepted in the community setting (p.115). According to The Scottish Government (2012), the concept of getting it right for every child requires that the concerned authorities should ensure that the children and their families are aware of specific places where they can find help when in need (p.3). It is a fact that children are brought up in families, and the families reside in communities. Communities can be described as rural towns, suburb neighbourhoods and city blocks (p.109). Early intervention happens during the time the family-professional partnership work together to fulfil the children and family results. During the visits, the family-professional partnership can determine what the family can utilize and be comfortable. Strategies are designed to encourage child education and address the priorities of families (p.107). Task centred practice is widely used in intervention. Social work theories are used to direct the way the intervention is implemented. There are various theories, and an individual social worker chooses a theory according to their intellectual inclinations, emotional personality and emotional compassion (Howe, 2009). Early intervention is necessary for safeguarding young children from harm that result from dangerous, poor or lack of proper attention from parents (Blyth & Solomon, 2012). The early intervention program is founded on the proposition that the prime protection of children is facilitated through approach to high-quality comprehensive services. Social work professionals are used to assess the data on possible harm to children and in helping other services to manage and comprehend risk and to recognize those children who are vulnerable and at risk of harm and need a professional child protection reply. There are several aspects that are considered to determine the vulnerability of children (Hughes & Owen, 2009). In the intervention procedure, it is important for social work professionals to categorise universal tasks into particular operational duties and implement them before the next therapy session. Motivations for task achievement are normally recognized. For example, the social worker can motivate a client through giving praise or material prizes (Tolson, Reid & Garvin, 2003). The actions to be implemented by the task force are practiced. The task-centred method is employed in families, groups and individual persons (Zastrow, 2010). In our case this concept can be used to see if Tracy’s mother can stop drinking and taking drugs. Money can be used as a source of motivation to encourage her to attain her goals. Intervention is normally a short term plan where it is anticipated that the client can manage and solve their problems throughout the sessions. In the intervention, the social work professional focuses on specific difficulties and duties in measurable and operational word. To identify the difficulties the social worker and the client need to communicate and listen to each other in order to come into consensus about the problems and the solutions (Tolson, Reid & Garvin, 2003). Therefore, the client and social work professional know the specific areas that need attention, and they monitor the progress that is achieved in solving the difficulties during the intervention process. In the intervention process straightforward contracts which specify the difficulties, goals and the duties to be implemented in the intervention procedure. The agreement is designed during the first or second meeting with the client and directs the intervention procedure (p.524). The agreement is written or oral form and can be changed when both parties agree. In this case study Tracy and her family ought to be involved in the intervention process. Both Tracy’s mother and father need to attend the sessions to see if they can find help with their difficulties and be assisted to achieve their objectives. Tracy’s mother needs to be helped to get her life in order (Tolson, Reid & Garvin, 2003). The fact that the mother has multiple relationships is an indication of degrading morals. To make matters worse, the men she is involved with suffer from drug and alcohol problems which expose the children to risk of harm. On the other hand, Tracy and her siblings are vulnerable (Keilty, 2010). Her brother is disabled and does not receive the right treatment and therapy which is evident from the fact that their mother rejects help from a local voluntary agency and insist that she is stable which is not true. According to Brown, Westlake & Ward (2012), parents whose parenting ability has been impaired through substance misuse mean that children growing up in such homes are at risk of maltreatment. In this case, Tracy’s parents are suffering from alcoholism and drug addiction, and this explains why the children are not given the right care, and their well-being is compromised. Moreover, Tracy and her siblings should be rescued from their family. This is because these children lack a figure which can offer them security. To avoid more impact of neglect on the children they should be put in foster homes where they can receive care and have a chance to recover from previous maltreatment (The Scottish Government, 2012). The social worker professional makes the decision whether or not the children should be separated from their parents and put for adoption based on the evidence gathered during the visits to the family (Brown, Westlake & Ward, 2012). In the society people get discriminated because of their colour, their economic status and on their behaviour which is contrary to the conduct of a common society (Wilson, 2012). Social structures also have an effect on a person’s psychological personality. Social structures include urbanisation, societal size, complexity, social institutions, the stratification system and integration. Putting discrimination into consideration the social worker professional must take into account the feature of life encounter’s as the core of discussion and consideration to recognize the dehumanising factor of daily life and this forms the foundation for transformation (Springett, 2010). A social worker professional can identify the areas of discrimination from the narratives given by the client. The professional is also supposed to identify the situations that may result to demining welfare for young children and to consider the structural inequalities that result to disadvantage in the society (Hayes, Humphries & Cohen, 2004). Discrimination affects young children that results from their gender, social background, level of ability, culture and race. The young children absorb what they hear and develop an inferiority complex and which may result to lack of progress in school (Roberts, 2006). To handle discrimination the social worker professional may use anti-discriminatory theory developed by Thompson that recognises empowerment occurring in three stages; social or structural, personal or psychological and cultural level (Dalrymple & Burke, 2006). In this case study there is no indication that Tracy and her siblings were discriminated. The teachers are concerned when they notice that Tracey is withdrawn. Billy’s classroom assistant gave information that he could not get to the toilet at night because his wheelchair is broken. From this, we see that the community in specific the school cared for the children therefore we can conclude that Tracy and her siblings were treated well at school (Dalrymple & Burke, 2006). At a personal level, the social worker professional assist persons to gain more authority in their lives. From a cultural perspective the professional dispute stereotypes and assumptions based on values and culture of the supreme group. The two levels are rooted in the structural level. To implement empowerment at the structural level, there is a need to take away structured inequalities through social movement (Kay, 2002). In conclusion, the environment in which a person lives in determines the outcome of a person later in life as an adult. If children are given a safe home and are showed, love will become responsible and loving adults. Children who are ill-treated at a tender age become violent and hate the world, and this makes them get involved in substance misuse and is always in trouble with the law. Early intervention may eliminate the possibility of children turning out to be violent members of the society. References Brown, R., Westlake, D., & Ward, H. (2012). Safeguarding Babies and Very Young Children from Abuse and Neglect. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. UK Blyth, M., & Solomon, E. (2012). Effective safeguarding for children and young people: What next after Munro?. Bristol: Policy Press. Brownlee, Keith; Rawana, Jennine; Franks, Jessica; Harper, Julie; Bajwa, Jasmine; OBrien, Erin; Clarkson, Ashley. (October 2013). A Systematic Review of Strengths and Resilience Outcome Literature Relevant to Children and Adolescents. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal ;2013, Vol. 30 Issue 5, p435. Accessed online at http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/90245218/systematic-review-strengths-resilience-outcome-literature-relevant-children-adolescents. Accession number: 90245218 Dowling, M. (2005). Young childrens personal, social and emotional development. London: Paul Chapman. Dalrymple, J., & Burke, B. (2006). Anti-oppressive practice: Social care and the law. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Davies, D. (2010). Child development: A practitioners guide. New York: Guilford. Eysenck, M. (2014). Fundamentals of psychology. Psychology Press. Gunderson, L. H., Allen, C. R., & Holling, C. S. (2009). Foundations of ecological resilience. Washington, DC: Island Press. Hayes, D., Humphries, B., & Cohen, S. (2004). Social work, immigration and asylum: Debates, dilemmas and ethical issues for social work and social care practice. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Hughes, L., & Owen, H. (2009). Good practice in safeguarding children: Working effectively in child protection. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Howe, D. (2009). A brief introduction to social work theory. Palgrave Macmillan. Kay, J. (2002). Teaching assistants handbook. London: Continuum. Keilty, B. (2010). The early intervention guidebook for families and professionals: Partnering for success. New York: Teachers College Press. Mishra, B. K. (2008). Psychology: The Study of Human Behaviour. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American psychologist, 56(3), 227. Roberts, R. (2006). Self-esteem and early learning: Key people from birth to school. London: Paul Chapman Pub. Springett, J. (2010). Participatory practice: Community-based action for transformative change. Policy Press. The Scottish Government. (2012, June ). A guide to Getting it right for every child. Retrieved November 12, 2014, from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/resource/0042/00423979.pdf Tolson, E. R., Reid, W. J., & Garvin, C. D. (2003). Generalist practice: A task-centered approach. New York: Columbia University Press. Tajfel, H. (Ed.). (2010). Social identity and intergroup relations (Vol. 7). Cambridge University Press. Ungar, M. (2012). The social ecology of resilience: A handbook of theory and practice. New York: Springer. Watts, J., Cockcroft, K., & Duncan, N. (2009). Developmental psychology. Cape Town, South Africa: UCT Press. Wilson, W. J. (2012). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. University of Chicago Press. Zastrow, C. (2010). The practice of social work: A comprehensive worktext. Belmont, Ca: Brooks/Cole. Read More