Managing Behaviour

There are many alternatives to defining behaviour, and therefore defining behaviour is not straightforward (Department for Education, 2012). Many professionals state there is no clear definition due to the dependency of the social environment that they are in (Emerson, 2001; Cole and Knowles, 2011) DC40039302

It was reported by Kavale, Forness and Alpher (1986) over 30 years ago that over 50 terms had been used to define behaviour. This number is likely to continue to increase as new governments introduce different terminology to fit with their research aims. Variations within the definitions used generally reflect the professional background of the researcher (Connor, 2004; Munn & Lloyd 1988).  Papatheodorou (2005) argues that this can be a hinderance amongst professionals when communicating to one another about a child with a particular difficulty. As is stated in a report by Visser and Stoke (2003) that the term 'challenging behaviour' (Ofsted, 2005) has a lack of an agreed definition.  DC40037531 

However, although no definitive definition had been identified, there is a belief that children who display challenging behaviour or are identified by professionals as 'problematic' need fixing (Maguire, Ball, and Braun, 2010), DC40039302

Furthermore, behaviourism is a learning theory, and theorist place more emphasis on how we react to event or stimuli than they do the internal forces that drive behaviour. These theorists explained how the experience could influence one's behaviour ( Miller, Overstreet and Lang, 2022). DC40037471

Additionally, the perspectives of theorists on behaviour vary. In contrast, proponents of behaviour theory contend that behaviour is learned through rewards and consequences (Padgett, 2019; Skinner, 1953), and proponents of the cognitive theory claim that mental processes like perception, memory and thought are the source of behaviour (Feder, 2022; Vygotsky,1978b). Social learning theorists contend that what people do and see affects their behaviour (Online MSW Programs, 2020; Bandura, 1977).  Humanistic theorists' primary concerns are people's subjective experiences and how personal development affects behaviour (Western Governers University, 2020; Maslow). According to behaviourists, these fundamental learning principles explain all behaviour. DC40037471.

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