NRS93004 Behavior Change Report: Aboriginal Aggression Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of aggression within the Aboriginal population of Australia, exploring the rationale behind the issue and proposing evidence-based behavior change interventions. It critically evaluates various theoretical viewpoints, such as family systems theory and developmental-ecology theory, to support interventions like family group meetings, anger management training, and counseling. The report also addresses potential barriers to intervention, including funding limitations and societal discrimination, and suggests solutions such as improved workplace culture and increased social support. The aim is to promote positive mental health and reduce violence within this community, offering a comprehensive overview of strategies for behavior change and highlighting the importance of addressing underlying social and systemic issues.

Running Head: Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
ASSESSMENT 2: BEHAVIOUR CHANGE REPORT

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
Executive summary
In the report, the main focus is given on analyzing the behavior of target population
and providing approaches that can help to change the behavior. Aggressiveness is the
behavior chosen for this assignment and target population are aborigines of Australia.
Rationale of the behavior change intervention is described in the first part of this assignment
by providing a brief of the target population. Theoretical perspectives of interventions are
critically evaluated in the next part, which can help to change the behavior. At the end,
different barriers to the intervention program and their solutions are discussed.

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
a) Rationale.............................................................................................................................4
b) Critical evaluation of theoretical viewpoints that support behavior change in aboriginals
................................................................................................................................................6
c) Potential barriers and solutions to mitigate barriers...........................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
Reference list............................................................................................................................13

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
Introduction
Risk of mental illness has increased among aboriginal people due to a range of
factors. This includes poverty, violence, psychological functioning and change in lifestyle.
Aboriginal Australians are one of the oldest living cultures, which firms 3% of the total
population. Mental illness can sometimes be related to aggressiveness or violence, which is
evident in aboriginal population. The violent behavior among this target population has
increased due to the loss of traditional economic base, loss of social structures and others. In
this report, a proposal for evidenced-based successful behavior change has been done and
different potential barriers to the change are discussed.
Discussion
a) Rationale
Violence is not acceptable and it is illegal as well. This behavioral change related to
mental health is very common in the community of aboriginals in Australia. As mentioned by
Ramamoorthi, Jayaraj, Notaras & Thomas (2014), intervention to violence is important for
protecting mental and physical health of people of this community. Preventing violence helps
to reduce death and diseases due to violence. Indigenous or aboriginal people are facing
social isolation and discrimination because of their different ethnicity (Aic.gov.au, 2020).
They are being exploited in the workplace and not getting respect and sufficient wages. Other
people of the Australian society are not accepting aboriginals as equal to them. Jarvis (2018)
has argued that discriminations are affecting the mental health of aboriginal people and their
behavior is changing to aggressions. They are getting involved in family violence and
harming each other. Additionally, it can be stated that aggressive behavior of aboriginals may
cause harm to other people surrounding them at their workplaces as well (Gallant et al.
2017). These people are getting involved in criminal activities and it is affecting the social

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
standards of Australia. Their violence or aggressive behavior can be controlled through
effective counseling and mental healthcare programs.
Recent studies on the violent behavior of aboriginal people have revealed that
approximately these people are experiencing violence two to five times more than people
from other communities as offenders or victims (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2017). Indigenous
women are facing physical and sexual abuse more frequently than any other Australian
woman. This aspect is causing them to suffer from physical illness and many of them are
dying at an early age. Gallant et al. (2017) have stated that these people are more than 35
times more likely to be hospitalized due to their injury caused by internal violence. A report
of the Australian Productivity Commission has revealed that the risk of death of aboriginal
people is twice more than other Australians (Betterhealth.vic.gov.au, 2017). It means that
mental healthcare units of this country need to be more attentive to figure out intervention of
this particular behavior of aboriginal community. On the other hand, Blagg et al. (2018) have
contradicted that society needs to show cooperation with the intervention approaches that
have been found by researchers. For example, it can be said that these people are eligible to
get equal respect and opportunities in every stage of their life.
Violence is negatively affecting the life of aboriginals as they are being cruel to their
family members. For example, it has been found that children of this community are being
out of home care after the age of nine. The reason behind this kind of incident is domestic
violence. According to Wilson et al. (2017), mental health of this population is not normal
and this issue must be taken seriously by the government of this country. Youth aboriginal
population is getting aggressive and it is affecting their professional career.
b) Critical evaluation of theoretical viewpoints that support behavior change in
aboriginals

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
Behavior of the target community can be changed by applying appropriate
interventions. Different articles and reports show that aggressive behavior among people
arises from family issues. As said by Spangaro, Herring, Koziol-McLain, Rutherford & Zwi
(2019), it is essential to devise family-focused intervention for mitigating the risk of violence
and improving mental health. Family group meetings are a great intervention, which can be
done weekly. Different good practices like discipline in the family, monitoring violent
behavior and improving parent-child relationships can be done in these meetings. As
contradicted by Ingram (2016), communication, support, and cohesion are essential between
family members that help to improve mental health and reduce the chance of violence.
Neurophysiological results show that a program of emotional regulation can act as a driver
that impact on behavior. A collaborative team will be formed, which will contain
representatives from health department of the country, family investigator, counselor, and
others. The main purpose of this intervention could be to monitor the current behavior of the
aboriginal families, drivers of violent behavior, measuring cohesion among family members
and improvising disciplined practices (Day, Tamatea, Casey & Geia, 2018). This intervention
can help to reduce violent behavior among aboriginal youths. This is because after
improvising this intervention, they can achieve proper care and development opportunities.
This can be explained through the developmental-ecology theory. As opined by
Hamdullahpur, Jacobs & Gill (2017), this theory focuses mainly on helping families to
manage their children. The process of child-rearing is facilitated by this theory within the
opportunities and constraints of social contexts. Hence, parental practice can be controlled,
which can help to reduce violent behavior and aggressiveness of youths.
The aggressive behavior in a family can be described as family systems theory.
According to this theory, problems in a family occur, if the boundaries between members are
broken (Day, Tamatea, Casey & Geia, 2018). This puts them in a harsh situation, which can

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
harm them and cause different abuse like child abuse and spousal abuse. The intervention of
family group meetings can be used to remove the risk of family boundary violations. For
example, alcohol consumption behavior among parents can be controlled, which results in
traumatizing children (Hart & Gilbertson, 2018). Family problems like divorce create
aggressive behavior among parents and children. These types of problems can be sorted by
conducting meetings through the help of open and effective communication. Parents can be
taught the value of disciplined parenting and its impact on their children (Aifs.gov.au, 2020).
Another intervention can be applied to reduce aggression or violence of aboriginal
youths. According to a neurophysiology basis, aggression and violence are evolutionarily
conserved behavior in human society (Day, Tamatea, Casey & Geia, 2018). A plan can be
created regarding prevention and handling outbursts for youths. This plan can help them
to calm down during harsh situations. Adults can be taught this plan, which can help them to
anticipate potential problems among children or youth and help them in anger management.
As said by Wilson et al.(2017), it is a skill to teach youths how to calm down, which can
serve their whole life. A family plan can be made regarding how to control anger or
outbursts. This can be done by conducting open communication with target community
members. For example, youths can be taught through communication on how to handle a
situation if someone hurts their feelings within family or society. The next step of this plan is
a description of each step that happens due to anger and what could have happened if anger
was controlled. This step can help youths to analyze a particular violent situation by breaking
it into steps (Humanrights.gov.au, 2016). Different steps can be stated regarding what has
happened actually like 1. John gets angry 2. John hits Adams 3. Adams gets hurt. After that, a
news story can be stated in steps regarding what could have happened if anger was
controlled. For example, 1. John gets angry 2. John takes a deep breath 3. John puts his hands
down 4. John sought help from adults 5. Adults helped John 6. Both John and Adam feel

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
happy. These easy steps and simple stories can be told to the target population youths to help
them understand the bad impacts of anger or violence.
Another action of this plan is providing in the moment coaching that needs to be
provided when a problem arises. The adults need to talk with the children about the problem
and apply the plan to calm them down. Moreover, both adults and youths of an aboriginal
family can be instructed to spend time daily to improve the plan and work on it. As said by
Riel, Languedoc, Brown & Gerrits (2016), working on a plan regularly helps in the
improvement of the plan and thus the objective of the plan can be achieved properly.
Identifying and reducing the cause of stress can be considered as another
intervention to prevent aggressive behavior. According to Clark, Augoustinos & Malin
(2016), daily life stressors cause aggression of youth. For example, if a person gets
discriminated at the workplace, he or she may show aggression in their personal life as well.
It is done through the provision of group therapy. As per the present theoretical information,
healthcare professionals communicate with groups of individuals to understand the causes of
their aggression and help them to employ the best method to control emotional outbursts
(Williams & Kelly, 2017). Another intervention method for this behavior is training in
anger management skills. Generally, this kind of training is provided to a group of people
who are suffering from aggressive behavioral changes. As mentioned by Goulet, Lorenzetti,
Walsh, Wells & Claussen (2016), in this kind of training program, concerned organizations
train about the coping method, guided imagery and different types of relaxation activities.
These training programs can be considered helpful to the aboriginal population that is
experiencing behavioral change due to increased aggressiveness.
According to the culture of violence theory, the existence of the systems of society
influences a person to become violent. Aboriginals are facing different social barriers and due
to this reason, they are becoming aggressive in their personal lives (Williams & Kelly, 2017).

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
Hence, improving the living standard of aboriginals may be considered as one of the main
interventions to their aggressive behavior. Campaigns are being initiated to request social
people to treat aboriginals equally. Koh (2019) has stated that the government of Australia
and other government authorities are influencing businessmen to improve their workplace
culture and providing equal opportunities to aboriginal people. Positive attitude of the society
towards people from the aboriginal population may prevent the negative behavioral change of
them (Jain, Sharma, Prajna & Jain, 2018). They may get peaceful lives and it may help them
to avoid getting involved in violent activities.
Counseling is another effective intervention that has been mentioned by many of the
previous researchers. According to Ingram (2016), effective communication with people who
have experienced violence as an offender may help to understand the causes behind this
behavioral change. Psychiatrists can help this kind of people to understand the processes of
managing anger and controlling emotions (Williams & Kelly, 2017). This technique of
intervention can be called individuals therapy as one-to-one communication takes place in
these cases.
c) Potential barriers and solutions to mitigate barriers
There are different barriers, which can be faced while during the process of
improvising intervention for behavior change. At an organizational level, a potential barrier
is a lack of funds. As stated by Spangaro et al. (2019), lack of funds can delay or suspend any
social project. Funds are required to arrange meetings with the target population and provide
them support in changing behavior. Hence, to address this issue, it is essential for the
concerned department to arrange funds before initiation of intervention program. This can be
done by preparing a budget and a report that will consist of the activities of intervention
program.

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
Lack of collaboration can also be included as a barrier at the interpersonal level. It is
essential to work collaboratively for addressing behavior issues. Collaboration between
different members of the team is essential to achieve desired objectives of the behavior
change intervention program. As said by Koh (2019), working collaboratively increases the
ability of problem-solving and helps to implement strategies easily. The barrier of lack of
collaboration can be solved by facilitating communication between them (Stubbs &
Wangmann, 2017). Arrangement of general meetings and influencing them to maintain
communication can help them to cooperate and collaborate. Moreover, Jarvis (2018)
contradicted that providing specific roles and responsibilities of each team member also helps
to eliminate the risk of interpersonal conflict.
However, another barrier can be seen from the interpersonal level, which included a
lack of emotional attachment and concern with the family or group members. As mentioned
by Blagg et al. (2018), aboriginal family members are not strongly connected with each other
by emotional attachment and this aspect may prevent this population to respond immediately
to the intervention programs. For eradicating aggression or violence from the life of
aboriginal people, it is important for them to work collaboratively on this matter (Stubbs &
Wangmann, 2017). These people must be encouraged to spend more time with their friends
and families after completing professional works to develop good bonding between them.
At the neurophysiological level, managing the aggressive behavior of target
population individuals is a great challenge. During implementation of intervention strategies
like conducting family meetings, some individuals may get violent. This needs to be solved
efficiently by the intervention team. Solution of this problem is training to the team members
and providing them knowledge about neurophysiology and its control (Filby et al. 2010).
Clear idea about neurophysiology can help team members to manage individuals with mental
health issues like violence and depression. Moreover, in the training session for team

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
members, a lesson about different aspects of aboriginal society needs to be provided. This can
help them to gain knowledge about their problems, lifestyle, and beliefs (Senior, Helmer &
Chenhall, 2017). Hence, it will be easier for the team members to gain confidence in the
target population and mental health issues can be addressed to change behavior.
On the other hand, at the individual level, reluctance of target population to join the
intervention program is another barrier. Many individuals can ignore this intervention
program as they have less knowledge about violent behavior and its impact on family
especially children and youths (Clark, Augoustinos & Malin, 2016). Reluctance from
individuals can be mitigated through effective communication. Concerned authorities need to
make them understand that they may build a good career and they can lead a better life if they
successfully control their anger and its outburst. Strong promotional activities for intervention
programs may help to engage individuals from aboriginal population, who are suffering from
extreme aggressiveness (Hoffart & Jones, 2018). Both online and offline promotional
methods are being used to promote intervention programs.
Conclusion
From the entire discussion of this report, it can be concluded that a person shows
aggression to express their anger and it is the ultimate behavioral change due to extreme
anger. Aboriginal people are facing social barriers in their daily lives and this fact is
preventing them from controlling their emotions. As a result, they are getting involved in
certain violent activities and harming others. Theoretical approaches to interventions have
been developed based on the findings of certain researchers.

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Assessment 2: Behavior Change Report
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