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Title: Educational Psychology, Challenging Behaviour and the Attribution of Blame and Responsibility


1
Educational Psychology, Challenging Behaviour and
the Attribution of Blame and Responsibility
  • Andy Miller
  • School of Psychology
  • University of Nottingham
  • 12th March 2007

2
Learning outcomes
  • Knowledge and understanding of
  • Possible approaches to causation for
    challenging behaviour
  • Key concepts from systems theory
  • The contribution of attribution theory to
    professional work in this area

3
Key text
  • Miller, A (2003) Teachers, Parents and Classroom
    Behaviour. A Psychosocial Approach. Maidenhead.
    Open University Press.

4
What can psychology offer?
  • Applied behavioural analysis
  • Systems theory
  • Attribution theory
  • Interpersonal (consultative) skills


5
Types of causation
  • Predisposing
  • e.g. experiences in early life, uninspiring
    curriculum planning
  • Precipitating
  • e.g. a chance remark, a dispute among students
    over equipment
  • Prolonging
  • e.g. reaction of other students, having some
    temporary need met
  • Perpetuating
  • e.g. change in peer status, change in teachers
    class management style

6
Some properties of systems
7
Some properties of systems
  • parts are connected together in an organised
    (often very complex) way (e.g.cells in the brain)

8
Some properties of systems
  • parts are connected together in an organised
    (often very complex) way (e.g.cells in the
    brain)
  • parts of the system are affected by being within
    the system (eg heart in the body, child in a
    family)

9
Some properties of systems
  • parts are connected together in an organised
    (often very complex) way (e.g.cells in the
    brain)
  • parts of the system are affected by being within
    the system (eg heart in the body, child in a
    family)
  • causation is usually recursive rather than linear

10
Some properties of systems
  • parts are connected together in an organised
    (often very complex) way (e.g.cells in the
    brain)
  • parts of the system are affected by being within
    the system (eg heart in the body, child in a
    family)
  • causation is usually recursive rather than linear
  • homeostasis

11
Linear causation ?
12
.. or?
13
Circular (or recursive) causation
14
and so on
  • wheels within wheels eg
  • other staff at school
  • partner at home
  • headteacher at school
  • sibling at home
  • etc. etc

15
Homeostasis
  • analagous to the maintenance of room temperature
    at a constant level in a central heating system
    or a biological system.
  • parts of the system act together in a concerted
    way so that over a period of time the system
    displays regularity (implicit rules).
  • over time a system functions so as to maintain a
    dynamic equilibrium deviations from equilibrium
    are continually corrected (Dallos 1991)

16
The school as a psychosocial system (Miller and
Leyden 1999)
17
The Nottingham Psychology of Behaviour in School
Project
  • Sequence of studies with teachers and students
    (primary and secondary) and parents, including
  • studies of causal attributions for difficult
    behaviour in schools
  • various views of causation
  • studies of agents judged to be most likely to
    bring about improvement

18
Some studies (1)
  • Survey of 428 junior school teachers across 10
    LEAs seeking their explanations for difficult
    behaviour of any of their pupils
  • Croll, P. Moses, D. (1985) One in Five. The
    Assessment and Incidence of Special Educational
    Needs London. Routledge and Kegan Paul.
  • In-depth interviews with 24 primary teachers
    across 8 LEAs (The Successful Strategies Study)
  • Miller, A. (1995) Teachers Attributions Of
    Causality, Control And Responsibility In Respect
    Of Difficult Pupil Behaviour And Its Successful
    Management. Educational Psychology. 15(4)
    457-472.

19
Some studies (2)
  • 105 Yr 7 pupils from the same inner city
    secondary school.
  • Miller, A., Ferguson, E. Byrne, I. (2000)
    Pupils Causal Attributions For Difficult
    Classroom Behaviour. British Journal of
    Educational Psychology. 70, 85-96.
  • 144 parents (106 mothers and 38 fathers) from the
    same inner city primary school.
  • Miller, A., Ferguson, E. Moore, E. (2002)
    Parents and Pupils Causal Attributions For
    Difficult Classroom Behaviour . British Journal
    of Educational Psychology.72, 27 - 40

20
Adverse home circumstances as a cause of
difficult behaviour in schools

High
?
?
teachers parents
?
?
Yr 7 students
Low
21
Elton Report
  • Our evidence suggests that teachers picture of
    parents is generally very negative. Many teachers
    feel that parents are to blame for much
    misbehaviour in schools. We consider that, while
    this picture contains an element of truth, it is
    distorted
  • (Department for Education and Science 1989.
    p.133)

22
Teacher unfairness as a cause of difficult
behaviour in schools
?
High

?
Yr 7 students parents
?
?
teachers
Low
23
The contribution of Bernard Weiner
  • Weiner (1986, 2000) identified 3 dimensions
    along which most attributions were found to lie
  • Locus (whether the cause was internal or external
    to the person)
  • Stability (whether the cause is fixed or can
    vary)
  • Controllability (whether the person is able to
    control the cause)

24
Relationship between attribution, blaming and
help giving
  • .when teachers assume that student failure is
    attributable to forces beyond the students
    control, they tend to respond with sympathy and
    avoid giving punishments. If, however, the
    failures are attributed to a controllable factor,
    such as lack of effort, the teachers response is
    more likely to be anger retribution and
    punishments may follow (p203)
  • (Woolfolk Hoy and Weinstein (2006) summarising
    Weiners studies)

25
Attribution of controllability
  • Direction of high controllability attributions
    for cause of challenging behaviour made by 24
    teachers (from Miller 2003)

Attributions made to No of teachers
Parents 17
Teachers 12
Pupils 9
26
Changing attributions?
  • by explicit programmes - attribution retraining?
  • by more implicit means - consultative skills,
    modelling?

27
Attribution retraining
  • usually an attempt to help somebody move away
    from external and uncontrollable attributions and
    towards internal and controllable ones (an
    explicit component of cognitive behavioral
    therapy)
  • teaching students to attribute failure to their
    use of an ineffective strategy transfers their
    focus from themselves as failures to their
    specific actions and assures them that a change
    in strategy will produce better results (Porter
    2007)
  • National Institute for Clinical Excellence
    recommends CBT as treatment of choice for
    childhood depression (NICE 2005)

28
Attribution retraining (an example)
  • Attribution retraining to reduce peer directed
    aggression among 384 male 3rd - 6th grade
    students (Hudley et al. 1998)
  • moderate to strong effects for many students
  • no effects for some students
  • treatment effects generally diminished over time

29
Consultative skills
  • accessible reasoning
  • positive reframing
  • (e.g. hostile vs protective parent)
  • (in the context of full range of consultant
    skills - Miller 2003)

30
Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)





31
Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7




32
Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7
John himself 27.8 6.7



33
Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7
John himself 27.8 6.7
teacher 11.7 43.3


34
Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7
John himself 27.8 6.7
teacher 11.7 43.3
someone else 11.2 23.3

35
Who is most able to help make an improvement?
(Miller Black 2001)
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7
John himself 27.8 6.7
teacher 11.7 43.3
someone else 11.2 23.3
other pupils 10.7 0
36
Home-school tensions (getting uncaught in the
middle)
  • Sometimes, before meeting, parents or teachers
    proposed angry confrontations with each other ..
    Sometimes the teacher thought the school social
    worker was siding with the parents, while the
    parents thought the opposite
  • Kolvin et al 1981

37
References
  • Dallos, R. (1991) Family Belief Systems, Therapy
    and Change. Buckingham. Open Univerisy Press.
  • Dowling, E. Osborne, E. (1995) The Family and
    the School. A Joint Systems Approach to Problems
    with Children (2nd edition) London. Routledge.
  • Department of Education and Science (1989)
    Discipline in Schools (The Elton Report). London
    HMSO.
  • Hudley, C., Britsch, B., Wakefield, W. D., Smith,
    T., Demorat, M. Cho, S.-J. (1998) An
    attribution retraining program to reduce
    aggression in elementary school students
    Psychology in the Schools, 35, 3, 271-82
  • Miller, A. (2003) Teachers, Parents and Classroom
    Behaviour. A Psychosocial Approach. Milton
    Keynes. Open University Press.
  • Miller, A. Leyden, G. (1999) A Coherent
    Framework For The Application Of Psychology In
    Schools. British Educational Research Journal.
    25, 3, 389-400.
  • Miller, A., Ferguson, E. Byrne, I. (2000)
    Pupils Causal Attributions For Difficult
    Classroom Behaviour. British Journal of
    Educational Psychology. 70, 85-96.

38
References (contd)
  • Miller, A Black, L. (2001) Classroom Beliefs
    and Successful Behaviour Plans A Vignette Study
    of Primary School Pupils and Teachers.
    Educational Psychology in Practice. 17, 3, 245-62
  • Miller, A., Ferguson, E. Moore, E. (2002)
    Parents and Pupils Causal Attributions For
    Difficult Classroom Behaviour . British Journal
    of Educational Psychology.72, 27 - 40
  • Porter, L. (2007) Behaviour in Schools. Theory
    and Practice for Teachers. Open University Press.
  • Woolfolk Hoy, A. Weinstein, C. S. (2006).
    Student and teacher perspectives on classroom
    management. In Evertson, C. M. Weinstein, C. S.
    (Eds.) Handbook of classroom management
    research, practice and contemporary issues.
    London. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
  • Also, Learning Behaviour. The Report of The
    Practitioners Group on School Behaviour and
    Discipline (2005). Led by Sir Alan Steer.
    www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications (Search using
    the ref 1950-2005DOC-EN)
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