Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and human behavior. Human behavior is studied in an attempt to explain how and why humans function the way they do.

Human behavior is defined as:

Personality is the combination of traits that form a persons distinctive character. An individuals personality can indicate the behaviors that will likely show over time.

Many different personality assessments can be used to classify an individuals personality type. Each assessment categorizes patterns of human behavior in different ways. To benefit an instructor, the assessment should provide information about the students preferred learning style.

The mother-daughter team of Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers pioneered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test in 1962. The MBTI categorizes human behavior into 16 personality types, primarily based on the way individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.

The MBTI can be taken online, and optionally, a certified interpretation of the results can be obtained.

After determining the personality type with the MBTI, the preferred learning styles can be evaluated.

Human needs are the things that humans require for normal growth and development. These needs may be simple, such as the need for food and water. They can also be complex, such as the need for respect and acceptance.

The reward for meeting basic human needs is a feeling of satisfaction, also called satiation. For example, humans are motivated to eat so that they no longer feel hungry. When basic human needs are met, students can devote more attention to their studies.

More complex motivations, such as the desire for personal achievement, are rewarded by a rush of dopamine in the brain. Fulfillment of these needs can be a powerful motivation in complex learning situations.

Abraham Maslow developed a pyramid-style model which is useful for explaining human motivations. He organized human needs into a series of levels. Once the requirements of one level are satisfied, humans are motivated to reach the next level.

Note: After decades of refining his theory, Maslow proposed that the order in the hierarchy is not rigid.

Physiological (1): The need for air, food, water, and maintenance of the human body. Unless these needs are met, a person cannot concentrate fully on learning, self-expression, or other tasks.

Safety and Security (2): Once the physiological needs are met, the need for security becomes active. If a student does not feel safe, he or she cannot concentrate on learning.

Love and Belonging (3): When individuals are physically comfortable and do not feel threatened, they seek to satisfy their social needs of belonging. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection, and the sense of belonging.

Self-Esteem (4): When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the need for esteem can become dominant. Humans need a stable, high level of self-respect and respect from others.

Humans get esteem in two ways: internally or externally. Internally, a person judges himself or herself worthy by personally defined standards. High self-esteem results in achievement, competence, and knowledge. Most people seek external esteem through social approval and admiration from other people.

Self-Actualization (5): Maslow described self-actualization as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. Being self-actualized is not commonplace since most people are working to meet more pressing needs.

Self-actualized people are characterized by:

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. Abraham Maslow

Cognitive needs refer to the desire that humans have to understand what is going on around them. The brain even reinforces this need by giving a rush of dopamine whenever something is learned, which accounts for that satisfying eureka moment.

Aesthetic needs connect directly with human emotions, which are not universal in nature. When someone likes another person or an object, the reasons are not examined. He or she simply likes it. If an instructor does not like a student, this subtle feeling may affect the instructors ability to teach that student.

Cognitive and aesthetic needs were placed immediately before self-actualization (i.e., between 4 and 5 in the pyramid).

Transcendence needs are motivations that go beyond the personal self (e.g., service to others, the pursuit of science, or faith). Maslow placed transcendence needs at the top of the pyramid but noted that they could be reached from any level.

Human nature refers to the general psychological characteristics, feelings, and behavioral traits shared by all humans. Motivation is the reason one acts or behaves in a certain way and lies at the heart of goals. Because it is human nature to be motivated, the responsibility for discovering how to realize the potential of the student lies with the instructor.

Building on Maslows hierarchy of needs, social psychologist Douglas McGregor set out two opposing assumptions about human nature and motivation in 1960: Theory X and Theory Y.

Theory X assumptions:

McGregor believed these assumptions were false, that the role of managers (instructors) is to develop the potential in employees (students) and help them to release that potential toward common goals. This view of humans he termed Theory Y.

Theory Y assumptions:

Defense mechanisms are subconscious defenses against the realities of unpleasant situations. They soften feelings of failure, alleviate feelings of guilt, help an individual cope with reality, and protect ones self-image.

Defense mechanisms:

A perceptive instructor can identify defense mechanisms and help a student by discussing the problem. The main objective should be to restore motivation and self-confidence.

Biological defense mechanisms are a bodily response that protects or preserves organisms. An example is the fight or flight response that results from experiencing a danger or a threat.

Psychological defense mechanisms are unconscious mental process to protect oneself from anxiety or unpleasant emotions. People use these defenses to prevent unacceptable ideas or impulses from entering the conscience.

Denial is a refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening. It is the refusal to acknowledge what has happened, is happening, or will happen. It is a form of repression through which stressful thoughts are banned from memory.

Repression is the defense mechanism whereby a person places uncomfortable thoughts into inaccessible areas of the unconscious mind. Things a person is unable to cope with now are pushed away, to be dealt with at another time, or hopefully never because they faded away on their own accord.

Displacement results in an unconscious shift of emotion or desire from an object to a more acceptable, less threatening substitute. Displacement avoids unpleasant feelings and puts them somewhere other than where they belong.

Rationalization is a subconscious technique for justifying actions that otherwise would be unacceptable. For example, a student may justify a poor exam grade by claiming there was not enough time to learn the information.

Compensation is a process of psychologically counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other areas. Through compensation, students often attempt to disguise the presence of a weak or undesirable quality by emphasizing a more positive one.

Projection occurs when an individual blames his or her personal shortcomings, mistakes, and transgressions on someone else.

Reaction formation results when a person fakes a belief opposite to the actual belief because the actual belief causes anxiety. For example, a student who wants to fit in, but is not accepted by other class members may develop a who-cares-how-other-people-feel attitude to cover up feelings of loneliness and hunger for acceptance.

Fantasy occurs when a student engages in daydreams about how things should be rather than doing anything about how things are.

It is helpful for a flight instructor to learn how to analyze student behavior before and during each flight lesson. This ability helps a flight instructor develop and use appropriate techniques for instruction.

Stress is a term to describe the bodys nonspecific response to demands placed upon it. When a threat is perceived, the brain triggers the fight or flight response.

Normal individuals react to stress by:

Abnormal responses to stress include:

Anxiety is a reaction to stress that produces a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease. It results from fear, real or imagined, which threatens the person who experiences it and may inhibit the ability to learn from perceptions.

Anxiety is often a healthy emotion. Some people affected by anxiety react appropriately, adequately, and more rapidly than they would in the absence of threat. However, chronic anxiety impairs a persons ability to function.

Adverse responses to anxiety include:

Anxiety can be countered by:

A flight instructor who believes a student may be suffering from a serious psychological abnormality has a responsibility to refrain from instructing that student. Instructors should not enable such a person to continue flight training or become a certified pilot.

Signs of serious psychological abnormalities include:

If an instructor believes that a student may have a disqualifying psychological defect, arrangements should be made for another instructor, who is not acquainted with the student, to conduct an evaluation flight. If both instructors believe that the student has a psychological deficiency, endorsements and recommendations must be withheld.

Instructors should contact their local FSDO to report hazardous behaviors that affect airmen certification.

Note: The average age of a student pilot is 34.

As an individual matures, his or her mode of action moves from dependency to self-direction. Since the age of students can vary, the instructor needs to offer a curriculum that addresses the varying degrees of self-direction.

Adult learners:

When training adults, instructors should:

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Human Behavior - mycfibook.com