Page 220 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

These models can be found in other chapters of this book and include the Transtheoretical Model or Stages of
Change Model and motivational interviewing in Chapters 5 and 6, behavior modification in Chapter 7, and
social cognitive theory in Chapter 8. All of these can be applied to nutrition interventions. The educator must
select the most appropriate strategies and methods for each situation.

CASE ANALYSIS 1

Identify the types of questions you would plan to ask Mr. Richards before educating him on the dietary
changes he needs to make.

Behavioral Learning Theories

Behavioral learning theories are explanations of learning that are limited almost exclusively to observable
changes in behavior, with emphasis on the effects of external events on the individual.2 Theorists are
interested in the way in which pleasurable or painful consequences of behavior may change the person’s
behavior over time. This approach is based on the belief that what we learn has readily identifiable parts and
that identifiable rewards and punishments can be given to produce the learning.6 The teacher’s role is to
arrange the external environment to elicit the desired response.7

Behavioral learning theories evolved from the research of several individuals, including Ivan Pavlov on
classical conditioning; Edward Thorndike, who noted that the connections between stimuli and subsequent
responses or behaviors are strengthened or weakened by the consequences of behavior; and B.F. Skinner’s
work on operant conditioning.2 Other information on their research may be found in Chapter 7.

Based on the Pavlovian approach, association theory suggests that a stimulus event cues or elicits a response
in the learner. Teaching or conditioning, therefore, involves arranging the stimulus and response events. This
is a teacher-centered approach with passive learners.

Skinner’s work focused on the relationship between behavior and its consequences. Skinner believed that
many human behaviors are operants, not merely respondents. The use of pleasant and unpleasant
consequences following a particular behavior is often referred to as operant conditioning.2 Learning involves
three related events: the stimulus, a response, and a reinforcer. The teacher must manage all three events. The
desired target behavior must be followed by reinforcement for the behavior to continue. Thus, reinforcers,
such as small objects, must be identified and given if the desired response is present. This is also a teacher-
centered approach with a passive learner. Behaviorism does not explain every kind of learning as it disregards
the activities of the mind.

In the following sections, four consequences of a behavior are discussed: positive reinforcement, negative
reinforcement or escape, punishers, and extinction. In addition, shaping and the timing of reinforcement are
examined.

Positive Reinforcers

One of the most important principles of behavioral learning theory is that behavior changes according to its
immediate consequences. Pleasurable consequences are called “positive reinforcers” or rewards and may be

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