Understanding and Supporting Behavior

Running head: UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORTING BEHAVIOR 1
Understanding and Supporting Behavior
Name
Institution

UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORTING BEHAVIOR 2
UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORTING BEHAVIOR
Introduction:
In this essay, I seek to interrogate the quote by Humphrey & Wigelsworth, (2012, p. 339)
"Children’s experience within school is crucial in determining their likelihood of experiencing
MHD (Mental Health Disorders), but this experience is clearly individual in nature and
individual differences in competencies, such as self-regulation and social success help to explain
why children in similar environments may experience different levels of well-being.” I have
chosen to focus on this quote for my essay because it does not seem to use a blanket approach
towards the effects of a child’s experiences within school, but it recognizes that outside
influences are playing a central role in the determination of the outcome of these experiences and
how each individual child would handle the same or similar situations differently from each
other. To align with this quote, I have chosen the Ecological Systems Theory as it analyses the
child’s surrounding levels of environment to determine how the child will develop.
Based on this theory (EST), I intend to reflect on what behavior is by discussing different
behaviors portrayed by students in learning environment (school) and formulating the reasons
with example using the above chosen ecological system theory. To effectively approach the
analysis of the above quote, it remains imperative for me to examine both the implications of
mental health discussed in the quote and present possible ramifications of mental health
escalations. The topic of resilience and positive psychology becomes a useful resource in
informing my response and connection to the theory of ecological system.
Define Behavior Based On the Theory You Have Chosen (EST)
Ecological System Theory (EST) also known as Human Ecology Theory (HET) posit that
human development is dictated by the different kinds of environmental systems (the

UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORTING BEHAVIOR 3
microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem). EST is helpful in
understanding why people might differently behave when compared to our behavior in face of
our family alongside our behaviors at school. EST is valuable based on the manner of examining
individuals and impacts of various environmental system encountered by individuals (Lane &
Oakes, 2015). This theory has since become an important theory which is the foundation of the
theorists’ work. According to EST, it is believed that an individual’s development is affected by
everything in their environment/surrounding environment. Thus behavior is defined as
“observable activity of an organism; anything an organism does that involves action/or response
to stimulation
Understanding Behavior as a Socio-Cultural Construct
Behavior examination is based on a social constructionist viewpoint. The constructionism
is initially defined and compared with a generic positive science image and then view the
behavior from both perspective. The behavior analysis is more of positivist than constructionist
perception (Skinner, 2012). The alignment between behavior examination and positivism arises
more evidently where positivist and constructionist viewpoints are contrasted on relation
between music and science. The behavior has been shown to anchor the environmental
surrounding of an individual which dictates the social interactions.
Thus behavior is influenced by everything in the surrounding which can be well
understood by the EST five phases that influence the behavior. For example, the microsystems
outline all people or social agents that dictate that behavior of the people whereas the
macrosystem entails the real culture a persons has to conform to as he socially and culturally
interact with fellow social agents. Thus, to understand the behavior of a person, like in this case,
children, we need to comprehend this based on a given setting, school in the present case.