Welcome to our session on Emotion and Behavior. To date, we have examined the brain itself, with its capacity to function in expected ways and to function with disabling factors impeding expected function. We have examined the importance of gaining language skills to further learning. We have looked at the characteristics of those whose learning is impacted by specific factors that make reading, writing, communicating, calculating, or articulating thoughts difficult or different. Finally, we have considered the ever present issue of medication and its function to assist in the learning process. Now we will examine the most basic component of functioning in a classroom or work setting – being aware of our emotional responses, and controlling our overt and not so overt responses to our environment.

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If I could give every teacher a tee shirt, it would say “Everything is Behavior.” People laugh, cry, scream, eat, sleep and show affection or anger. Other animals do many of the same things. We do this in response to our environment and experiences. Flowers and plants grow or die in response to the environment in which they are planted. A building will fall in response to an earthquake. Our environment provides the stimulus. We provide the response. The response is our behavior. The behavior is connected to our emotional investment in the experience. Those around us can only know how engaged and invested we are in what we are doing at any moment through our actions. This is because…Everything is Behavior. We put ourselves in a bad way in education, because when we say “behavior”, we usually mean “misbehavior”. A call to a parent to discuss a student’s behavior is not usually to discuss how punctual and cooperative he or she is. That is our fault as educators. We have an obligation to shape the compliant as well as the less compliant behaviors that are in our learning environments and to shift that balance for a more productive learning experience, measured by behaviors such as productivity, cooperative and collaborative learning activities, and feedback from students that indicates that they feel informed and included in instruction.

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Behavior is in the control of the individual or organism.

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Educators sometimes connect behavior to discipline, or even use the terms synonymously. From what this definition shows, discipline is in the control of the individual. It relates to behavior, and that is also in the control of the individual. In school settings, discipline is often connected to a school-wide behavior management system of rules, regulations, or policies about expected behaviors. Although it is sometimes seen as imposed on individuals, that is a misinterpretation. We cannot “discipline” any one. They have to do that themselves. We can only recognize when one’s self imposed discipline does not comport with the expectation of another individual.

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Emotion is the fuel that sets behavior in motion. It can be misunderstood. It is not always easy to know what the emotional stimulus was that caused someone to laugh, cry, curse, embrace, run away, or give a specific verbal response. The more the frontal lobes mature, there is a greater expectation for self regulation and control of emotional responses. We don’t expect a five year old to behave in the same way we expect a twenty-five year old to behave in response to not getting something they want. If a 25 year old acts like a five year old, we consider it aberrant. In this presentation, we will discuss the use of the term “emotional disturbance”, an often misunderstood and misused term in the school setting, as well as in society in general.

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Emotional responses are centered in the deepest portion of the brain. The closer to the core of the brain we look, the more like other animals we are. It is the cortex, or outer portion of the brain that distinguishes our humanness. Fear, anxiety, euphoria, contentment, and other feelings that are demonstrated as behaviors are centered here and are exhibited from the integration of neural stimulation of these areas and the determination of the physical manifestation from the hypothalamus. Memory is important to development In this area – our memory of the stimulus-response experiences we have had regarding reward and punishment for behaviors will lead us to a greater understanding of the value of self regulation and selection of responses demonstrated in various social situations. Maturity brings more memory. Memory applied maturely gives us our adaptive behavioral ability. We adapt to the social situations in which we find ourselves.

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As we mature, we change our behaviors to comport with the social demands of different experiences. We don’t party with our friends in the same we act in a job interview. We don’t offer our sympathy and condolences at a funeral in the same way we offer our congratulations or best wishes at a wedding – especially the one pictured here. In teaching, we often have the conflict of accepting or rejecting our status as a role model of behavior as we instruct or otherwise offer services to students. Classrooms and schools are special environments with special demands on those who are creating that environment.

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Whether an educator is offering daily instruction, administration, counseling, or any other service in a school, a range of emotion visits them every day. Joy, rage, admonition, contentment, stern determination, or just apathy. As the adult in the setting, however, how we control emotional responses will identify what will be considered our professional demeanor and behavior. This roller coaster ride is being experienced by every individual in the classroom every day. How does research and practice lead us to design appropriate interventions?

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Most of us have had at least one course in the psychologies that are related to teaching and learning. This is just a quick scan through some that have a great impact on the design of behavior management in schools. The principles of these theorists also influence many aspects of adult life…environmental design…advertisement…the forms of entertainment that we seek out…parenting…and work products. Let me clarify two terms at this point because they are often used synonymously, despite the fact that they are not synonyms. The first is BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT…the second is CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT. Behavior management is the management of people. Most teachers set up their classrooms with a clear set of expectations of appropriate behaviors. In many cases, the class itself helps to identify the goals of such a program. Some students in a school may have a Behavior Intervention Plan, or BIP. This document is created based on the results of a Functional Behavioral Analysis, a process by which an individual’s behavioral responses to the demands of the learning environment are analyzed in order to create a protocol that provides a positive system of handling any behaviors that deviate significantly from expectations. Classroom management is the management of an environment. It involves the organization of furniture, the décor of the learning environment, the way materials are

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displayed, and how student movement is controlled. Both of these concepts move into the adult world with the expectations of employers, social contacts, and with those with whom we have significant personal relationships.

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Good old Burrhus Frederic Skinner left us with a way of looking at behavior that has influenced not only the management of people, but many pet owners use his principles as well. We’ll just concern ourselves with people today. The essential message of Skinnerian theory is that behavior that is reinforced will recur. Once stimulated, and individual responds in some way. Expectations must be clear. When the individual learns that a particular behavior elicits a positive or rewarding experience, the process of making the reinforcement intermittent begins and the individual will continue to elicit the behavior whether directly reinforced or not. Successive approximation provides the learner with the opportunity to practice a behavior, moving it closer to expectation each time. The reinforcement provided gives them the feedback they need to shape the behavior into an acceptable one. Ignoring behaviors that are not compliant, in other words, not providing feedback as reinforcement, hopefully leads to the extinguishing of that behavior. Although not designed with school settings in mind…in fact Skinner’s methods were very clinical…much of Skinner’s work can be seen in the way teachers and others who work with children design the environments in which those children behave. It offers a continuous learning curve to build an acceptable repertoire of responses, and provides a positive (or rewarding) setting for learning rather than a negative (or punishment centered) setting.

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Some critics site the idea of rewarding children for acceptable behavior as bribing them, rather than creating an intrinsic desire in them to behave appropriately. The fact is that most adults work for a reward – in most cases it comes into our bank accounts.

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William Glasser created a way of looking at behavior known as Choice Theory. The essential message is that we behave in response to our personal motivation to attain our basic needs for personal relationships, personal power, personal freedom and autonomy, personal contentment and fun, and survival. He offers the theory that these basic needs are part of our genetic endowment. The other basic belief in Glasser’s work is that the only behavior that we can control is our own. We can let others know our willingness to conform to their expectations, but the teacher cannot actually control the student…the parent cannot actually control the child…the employer cannot actually control the employee. We see this issue of control emerge often as children move into adolescence, and want to demonstrate their personal control with slow compliance, modified compliance, non-compliance, defiance, or risk taking behaviors. In the learning environment, giving students choice in how they meet expectations, within a structure of choice that relates to curricular demands can produce not only greater compliance with teacher expectation, but also gives a wider scope of product from the student…a written product, a product created on a computer, or a product delivered orally.

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Whether one has heard of any other theorist, those in education and psychology have heard of Abraham Maslow. Maslow’s theory, expressed in his paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”, describes a progression of motivating factors that lead to the highest level of motivation, that is self-actualization. Although not a part of his original theory, he later expressed his belief that the first four levels were inter-related and continual, rather than an ascending set of personal accomplishments. He referred to the lower four levels as the “deficiency needs” – that is, without meeting these levels of need, an individual may not have a desire to strive for the highest level…the need to feel that they have attained their personal goals above those of feeling secure and loved. In the decade after his initial paper, he explained the highest level of motivation with the thought that “What a man can be, he must be”. Today, we think of this statement as “Be all that you can be” thanks to media presentations and advertisement. A brand of the armed services uses that line in their recruitment program. One criticism of Maslow’s theory is that, although essentially accepted as a theory of motivation, he only concerned himself with the top performing 1% of the population. He dismissed those with disabilities as unlikely to attain higher levels of personal satisfaction. Additionally, it should be noted that Maslow himself never depicted the theory as the pyramid we so often see. Over time, his theory has been examined in terms of its relevance to those in areas of

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the world where there is conflict, and with varied age groups and cultures. This research continues.

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Fritz Redl and William Wattenberg are concerned with the individual acting in a group. Their theory is that individuals behave differently in groups than they behave when alone. Teachers need to address the behavior of the group as well as seeing the behaviors of individuals. For this reason, teachers need to continually take the “temperature” of the group as instruction progresses to see if they are sensing any confusion, hidden agendas, pressures or needs that are growing that need early attention or intervention before they grow into a large issue requiring action. Teachers who can use eye contact, proximity, humor, encouragement or planned ignoring as they provide instruction and guidance throughout a lesson, usually have the group working on task. When things escalate to a point of loss of control, teachers also need to know when to decide on action that keeps group members safe. Groups have members, and the members fulfill roles needed by the group. They include leader, clown, fall guy, instigator, and monitor. There is usually an individual or small group that leads activities in a group and the class clown is a staple of most classrooms. Someone may be the one who most often gets

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disruption or cooperation started, and there is usually a scapegoat or a fall guy who gets the blame for whatever disrupts activity in the classroom. There is even the one who likes to report the “who’s who” and the “who did what” to the teacher. Such reporting on the group is usually limited by the response of the group to that individual – rejection of the so-called “tattle tale” or “snitch” follows.

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How individuals control or don’t control emotion leads directly to their behaviors in all environments. In education, we design the environment for learning from the pre-school years through the university. As mentioned in earlier sessions, we have only a short span of time in which to demonstrate, model and reinforce appropriate and acceptable behaviors. We also compete with the other environments in the lives of students. If one has a disorder that impacts the performance of the limbic region of the brain, it will likely come out as a behavior that is noticed by others as different or even aberrant. How well differences are tolerated by a group will dictate where the individual will function within that group. Acceptance and accommodation will keep the individual more in the center of things. Fear, intolerance, or impatience will place the individual on the periphery of the group. In the school setting, individuals whose behaviors are disruptive or aggressive and don’t respond to a behavior management system, are often removed from the learning environment through suspension or expulsion. It is unfortunate that many students who merely require accommodation are often referred to special education, where it may be perceived that they will behave differently. This is a myth…in a specialized educational setting it is probably more likely that the individual’s behaviors and emotional responses will be addressed with different interventions, but there are many students in special education who would be well served in a general education setting if only the accommodations were provided there. Social skills develop in social settings – social settings with no diversity don’t promote

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diverse social skills…that is, learning to adjust and adapt to others. We bloom where we are planted and if that learning environment or work setting is fertile, we bloom more. It explains why so many students are reported to have totally different behaviors in different settings of their lives. The “social soil” changes.

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There is a large number of students identified as having emotional and behavioral issues so significant that they cannot derive benefit from the general curriculum. These problems are not necessarily so disruptive to learning that they have to be in special classes or special schools. Unfortunately, many feel that the code “ED” is the designation of a bully, a troubled youth, or a trouble maker. It is also the code that denotes the student with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and phobias. Many educators use the term disorder rather than disturbance because the latter term is an alarming and negative characterization of a multifaceted individual. Neither term is a pleasant one. The estimate pictured here is just that…an estimate. It only reflects the students who have been officially identified and provided with IEPs. The statistic about adults comes from the 2012 Report on Serious Mental Illness by the National Institute of Mental Health, known as NIMH.

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When I look at the criteria for this disorder, I often think that I know a lot of emotionally disturbed people….including some teachers. That is a joke, but it does make me think that we need a better description of this if we are to assemble the means to assist students whose difficulties in this area impede learning. This is an area of function that crosses a neurological line. We don’t have a gene or synapse that we can pinpoint that helps us know what medication will help. The mists of mental health and mental illness are dense, and they need clarity from mental health professionals to be clearly identified for intervention. Emotional disturbance is generally viewed as an internalized disorder. Social maladjustment is an externalized set of behaviors, most often seen as aggression. It is often seen as the behavior of gang members and bullies. Social media has complicated this characterization by putting the aggressor at a keyboard and inflating him or her with the illusion of anonymity. Unfortunately, the distinctions of these disorders is not always made in schools and that makes intervention and treatment difficult. It also inflates the numbers of emotionally disordered individuals referred into more isolated forms of special education. These students are difficult…they embody risk. The risks include the potential for explosive acting out, but they also include the risk of potential suicide. This is why school teams need to work together…teachers cannot do this alone.

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Remember that Emotional Disturbance is a legal term, not a medical diagnosis. The conditions listed here are those that a psychiatrist, psychologist, or neuropsychologist would identify from use of the newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, currently the fifth edition. It is also important to remember that emotional characteristics are part of other conditions that impact learning… learning disabilities, autism, communication disorders, TBI and orthopedic disabilities. Because everything is behavior, we can also say that everyone has emotions. These emotions are activated by every experience we have. When challenged to perform a task that we accomplish…we may experience euphoria (those endorphins are great). But challenged to do something that makes us fail or struggle, and we may activate adrenalin as we panic or develop stress. The brain is a chemical factory. Everything that pertains to the student with emotional disorders equally applies to adults in the community and the workplace.

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This just reiterates the two types of behavior patterns that emerge in life situations.

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As mentioned earlier, what we do know in school settings is that collaboration among those with expertise in this area is essential. The parent should be included on the team if possible and the student, as well. Teams can include consultants with expertise in the behaviors being observed. Data should be collected to document what is seen, how often, and with what results. The team needs to have an ongoing mode of communication to discuss their ongoing views of the student and the impact of the interventions tried.

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As mentioned earlier, what we do know in school settings is that collaboration among those with expertise in this area is essential. The parent should be included on the team if possible and the student, as well. Teams can include consultants with expertise in the behaviors being observed. Data should be collected to document what is seen, how often, and with what results. The team needs to have an ongoing mode of communication to discuss their ongoing views of the student and the impact of the interventions tried.

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Like other disorders seen in school, there is not clear etiology for emotional and behavioral disorders. There is ongoing research to whether there are genetic patterns with a family that might evidence a common set of behaviors when stimulated in a specific way. There seems to be a lot of information that connects home life and community stressors to behaviors. Let’s look at some of them.

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Students who experience any of these stressors will respond to them with some form of behavior. It is important to note that none of these is strictly the domain of those who live in poverty. All of these examples of maltreatment can occur anywhere, at any age, and in any community.

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Poverty does sometimes have a role, but an important factor is who takes the responsibility for accepting the parental role. Foster care is a growing industry, and it is no substitute for an intact family. Needless to say, schools that don’t recognize learning needs with well designed and accommodating instructional design may see increases in behaviors that indicate that the student’s needs are not being met. It is here that knowledge of the brain, brain function and dysfunction, and developmental milestone attainment needs to be part of the training of educators.

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