Marcus is a special educational needs (SEN) coordinator at a primary school. He is working with an eight-year-old boy, Leo, who experiences severe anxiety during class presentations. When asked to speak in front of others, Leo completely shuts down, refusing to make eye contact or putting his head on his desk.
Marcus decides to use behaviour shaping to help Leo. He plans to reinforce successive approximations of the target behaviour: first, reinforcing Leo for reading a short passage to Marcus alone in a quiet room; next, reading to Marcus and one close friend; then, presenting to a small group of four classmates; and finally, presenting to the entire class.
Explain one strength and one weakness of Marcus using behaviour shaping to encourage Leo to present to the class.
Practise Edexcel A Level Psychology Content with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 1,059 questions covering Bowlby's work on attachment, Ainsworth and the Strange Situation, Research into deprivation, Research into privation, Research into day care, Cross-cultural research into attachment, Autism, Individual differences, and Developmental psychology, matched to the Edexcel A Level Psychology (9PS0) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.
