The definition of Psychodynamic behavior theory was “developed by John Dollard and Neal Miller in the late 1940’s to integrate some of the fundamental ideas of psychoanalytic theory with the concepts and methods of experimental research on behavior and learning” (Mischel, Shoda, & Ayduk, 2008). This paper I will give a brief analysis of Lourdes's maladaptive behaviors of overeating and test anxiety, I will take Lourdes’s overeating and make a behavior modification plan using the concepts or theories from Chapters ten or eleven, and I will also do the same for test anxiety.
The first part of this paper will be about talk about behavioral conditioning level theory application and how it pertains to Lourdes’s overeating and test anxiety. I feel that Lourdes falls under Skinners’ theory. “Skinner believed that we do have such a thing as a mind, but that it is simply more productive to study observable behavior rather than internal mental events” (McLeod, 2007). Lourdes had her own mind and once she started thinking that no one liked her, her grades feel and she started eating more. She gained weight because that was her way to deal with everything that was going on in her life at that moment in her life. I feel that if Lourdes’s had some positive reinforcements during all of this she would have done things differently. “Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding” (McLeod, 2007). As far as her test anxiety she didn’t start having problems until she lost her friends. Lourdes’s grades feel and she really didn’t do anything to prevent it from happening it’s like she gave up. “Skinner’s commitment to his methods of studying behavior was absolute” (Mischel, Shoda, & Ayduk, 2008). This was his life’s focus he even applied his findings on himself.
The next part of this paper will talk about a behavior modification plan using the concepts or theories from chapter ten or eleven. I feel that Lourdes went through...