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.
205 exam-style questions on Edexcel A Level Psychology Content, covering Main features of classical conditioning, Pavlov (1927) salivation in dogs, Main features of operant conditioning, Properties of reinforcement, Behaviour modification and shaping, Main features of social learning theory, Social learning stages, Bandura (1961, 1963) Bobo doll experiments, Bandura (1965) vicarious reinforcement, Learning theories and phobias, Treatments for phobias, Individual differences, and Developmental psychology. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.