Single Subject Design Environment and Human Development Impact

SOCIOLOGY

Sociology: Single Subject Design

Environment and Human Development Impact

Identification of the Developmental Stage of the Client

The 12-year-old Black/ African American young male is currently going through the hyperactive-impulsive stage of ADHD. In this stage, the client cannot stay still, causing severe problems in being attentive in class (Watson, 2020). He is constantly seen fidgeting and restless. One of the major signs of his unease is his increase in anger, which is interpreted to be an impulsive reaction to certain surrounding stimuli. The aggressive behavior is causing social interactions to suffer at school and home with his grandmother. The impulsivity and inattentiveness could be attributed to distorted family relations or rejection from his close caregiver, his mother, since she is not with him to take care of him (Stanborough, 2021).

Parents are the primary caregivers of a child since childhood; this is the developmental life stage of a child when he feels comforted, secure, and protected. However, in the client’s case, this is not the situation, and the rejection has transformed him into a restless and aggressive individual during his school-going life stage (Cherkasova et al., 2013). This signifies the second stage of ADHD as his constant talkative behavior and interruptions during class cause irritation for other students and the teacher (Watson, 2020). When he is ignored or not answered well by the teacher, he instantly becomes aggressive.

One task required in his stage is preventing to talk unduly in the class and causing stoppages during the lesson. The teacher wants him to stay quiet sometimes so that she can finish her lesson. Although she is quite supportive and often accommodates him well, there are certain instances when other students want to speak, and the 12-year-old wants his attention. Since his self-control is weak at the current stage of ADHD, his impulsive intent to talk is difficult to curb sometimes. The teacher has set physical cues that might help him stop when he is talking excessively, such as putting a hand on his shoulder; however, recently, this is not working.

Ecomap for the Client

Eco-map Key:

Important, strong, or positive

Tenuous or weak

Stressful

Direction or flow of resources, energy, or interest

Summary of patterns

The client’s relationship with his grandmother is the strongest since she lives with him day and night and is his guardian. The bold lines, therefore, show a strong relation. The dotted lines for the client’s relationship with his mother, schoolmates, or neighborhood friends are weak since his excessive talkative nature hinders him from bringing friends to close. Children his age do not like when he does not let them talk or keep talking about what he wants to with an impulse of being heard all the time. Family disturbances, his mother, being in jail, and the social exclusion that he experiences due to his condition are some of the stressors that cause a distorted pattern in his life. The crossed line depicts the same disorder in the ecomap. The directional lines show the flow of resources as he obtains knowledge from his teacher and speaks his heart out with the school counselor. He can communicate with them, open up about his troubles, and struggles that he had to face due to ADHD, and gain knowledge about the world from his teacher. The communication is two-way; thus, the ecomap shows the same directional flow. 

It appears that the only strong relation in the client’s life is his grandmother and the weak relations are children of his age, who could be from his school or neighborhood, along with his mother, who is in jail at the moment. 

Human Behavior Theory for Assessing and Understanding the Client’s Behaviors 

One of the most suitable human behavior theories that could be used to assess and understand the client’s behavior is the Health Belief Model (HBM). This theory states that a person is more likely to form a shell around himself if he believes his health risks outweigh the benefits (Jones et al., 2015). Hence, the behavior change, such as bringing change for talking less and being less aggressive in the client’s case, could be beneficial only if his barriers, self-efficacy, and control are addressed. 

Six constructs of the theory could be utilized to analyze the client’s condition with deep scrutiny: risk susceptibility, the severity of the health risk, benefits, barriers, self-efficacy, and signals for action (Jones et al., 2015). It is deduced that if the client perceives that the severity of the ADHD condition would make him more susceptible to social exclusion or weak relations, he is more likely to have the potential treatment and adhere more to medications or counseling therapy. He would be motivated to work on his behavior change so that less talking could win him friends and become likable to his surrounding community. He would be more willing to work on his control over aggression so that his weak relations become the most desirable ones.