Name Surname:
SSME 210
Homework
A Behavioral Case Study
Due March 20, 2019
Suggest strategies to help the situation described below from a behaviorist point of view.
How can you reduce Gamze’s undesirable behaviors using behavioristic principles?
Gamze flusters and irritates her teacher by playing the role of the “dumb, slow student.”
Gamze constantly asks questions to which the answers are evident. For example, after the
teacher had given the pages of an assignment out loud, and written them on the board,
Gamze asked what pages the assignment was on. She also manipulated her teacher to give
her a negative, flustered response by pretending not to be able to do an assignment in which
she has been previously successful. This behavior was exemplified by her reading
assignment. Gamze was called upon to read some words, she read them very well, and the
teacher praised her reading. The other students did not do nearly as well, so for the next
day’s assignment, the class was to study the words and be able to read them correctly. The
next day, when Gamze was called on to read the same words, she faltered and pretended
that she could not read the words. The teacher, certain that Gamze knew the words, became
irritated and reassigned them as homework.