Case Study #4

The Case of Barb

1. What type of locus of control does Barb seem to have? Provide evidence to support your
answer.

Locus of control is the perception of one’s person that events are determined by outside
forces or own behavior. Barb seems to have an internal locus of control. Internal locus of control
is attributing outcomes or events in life due to own behavior. It is the generalized expectancy of
one that their actions will lead them to their desired outcome. This means that Barb perceives
that she has the control in her life especially in her weight loss journey. 

Barb has an internal locus of control because she believes that her hard work, and
striving will help her to achieve her goal of losing weight. She decided to take this journey upon
herself by, first, discussing with her physician about a weight loss program. With this, she
decided to start walking regularly and to cut back on eating junk food. After a year, she also
went to a nutritionist to discuss her eating habits and develop a diet plan. With this, she decided
to take the alternatives of her overeating as advised by the nutritionist. These actions of Barb
shows that she wants to take action in her own hands in order to achieve her goal. She went to
professionals to guide her. She applied these pieces of advice in her everyday routine. She
believes that her actions help her in achieving her goal. I think that she does not believe that her
outside forces like chance primarily help her in losing weight. In addition, Barb had a slow start,
and she lost three pounds at first. This still helped her get motivated and stay with the weight
loss plan. These lost weight at the beginning helped her perceive that she can do this weight
loss program since there is some sort of progress. Her generalized expectancy of achieving her
goal due to her action went up because of the progress she felt. With this generalized
expectancy, she strived more in achieving her goal. After a while, she lost twelve pounds in
which her peers reacted positively. These things made her believe that it is because of her
hardwork and determination in losing weight that helped her achieve this goal. At the end, she
perceives that she is the master of her fate especially in her weight loss journey.

2. Use Rotter’s psychological needs and concept of freedom of movement to explain

Needs are defined as sets of behavior that people see as indicating them to the direction
of a goal. Barb’s need to lose weight and feel attractive again serves as an indication to the
direction of her goal. Barb’s goal is to get healthy as part of her New Year’s resolution. With this,
she has sets of behaviors that guide her towards her goal. This need is on Barb and not on her
environment. 

This need for Barb stems from her need for physical comfort. The need for physical
comfort includes behaviors towards physical security, securing food, and good health. A person
with strong physical comfort will try to eat healthy food and exercise for good health. For Barb,
the behaviors she does in order to meet this need are aimed at having good health and well-
being. The behaviors that Barb does include having check-ups with a physician and nutritionist,
walking regularly, and cutting back on eating junk food. These sets of behaviors are perceived
by Barb that can move her towards her goal of getting healthy. It is mentioned that the need for
physical comfort is the most basic need as other needs, such as love and affection, are learned
from it. With this, the need of Barb also stems from the need for love and affection. This need is
learned from the need for physical comfort. The need for love and affection is acceptance by
others. In the case study, Barb getting healthy and feeling attractive again becomes a need
since her peers will comment positively in terms of appearance. She will be more accepted by
her mother since she was told by her mother that people react positively to an attractive woman.
This need also explains Barb's behaviors of walking regularly and cutting back on junk foods
since these behaviors are towards the need for love and affection. 

Barb’s need to lose weight and feel attractive again can also be explained by freedom of
movement. Freedom of movement is a person’s overall expectation of reinforcements for
performing the behaviors directed toward satisfying some general need. In the case study, Barb
can behave in many ways in order to satisfy her need for physical comfort. In order to satisfy
this need, she can undergo surgeries, do crossfit, or walk regularly and have a diet, which is
exactly what she did. With the loss program she is in at the moment, it can be said that she has
an expectancy being reinforced after walking regularly and having a diet. This is because of the
history of her friends reacting positively to her after losing three pounds with these behaviors.
The positive reactions from her friends, her feeling attractive, and the avoidance of a disease
are the reinforcements she had with these behaviors. Thus, she has her average expectancy
that these behaviors directed toward physical comfort, and love and affection are reinforced.

This need for Barb to lose weight and feel attractive again can help us to predict her
behavior. With the help of the freedom of movement and need value, we can predict, and now
explain the sets of behavior she did in order to go towards the direction of her goal, which is to
get healthy. As mentioned earlier, she has an expectation that the behaviors towards her goal
are reinforced, and she puts her need for physical comfort as valuable to her. Thus, she
performs the behaviors directed to her goal, which are having appointments with a doctor and
nutritionist, walking regularly, and cutting back on junk foods.

3. Use Rotter’s concept of behavior potential and his views on situational factors to explain
Barb’s eating habits when watching television, when she is stressed, and at parties.

Barb’s eating habits when watching television, when she is stressed, and at parties can
be explained by the concept of behavioral potential. Rotter’s behavior potential is the possibility
that a response will happen at a particular time and place. For Barb, she may have different
behavior potentials when watching television. She may have chitchats with her family, may read
the newspaper, or may eat junk foods, which is the case. When stressed, she may go out with
friends, may take a walk, or may eat sweets, which is the case. There are different behavior
potentials during a specific time or event. In order to determine what behavior Barb does, it is
important to determine the expectancy and reinforcement value. Rotter stated that behavior
potential is a function of both expectancy and reinforcement value in any psychological
situation. Expectancy is one’s expectation that a reinforcement will occur in a situation while
reinforcement value is the preference of that reinforcement. 

When stressed, eating a dessert and drinking coffee gives her comfort. She uses food
as comfort in stressful situations. Eating food when stressed is reinforced by having the reward
of a sense of comfort for her. Her response during stressful situations has a positive
reinforcement. This makes her have a general expectancy that this behavior gives her comfort
with her past experiences. Holding the other possible behaviors constant in terms of
reinforcement value, having desserts and coffee is the most likely behavior of Barb when
stressed. She tends to overeat every now and then as she has a lot of stressful situations; thus,
more comfort sessions for her. When she is watching television, she also eats because she may
hold the reinforcement value of eating highly. The positive reinforcements of eating while
watching television may be satisfaction from food and television, and may be more focused on
the television show. She might put a higher reinforcement value on this behavior than other
behaviors when watching television such as reading a newspaper or having chitchats. Thus, it is
more likely that she eats while watching television with the value she puts on the
reinforcements. When at parties, she eats food, especially high-calorie food because of social
eating. She might want to be a part of the party through eating. If she does not eat at parties
and everyone is, she might be an outcast of some sort. There might be an expectancy of
positive reinforcement like being able to socialize with food and sharing a moment with her
peers. She, then, holds this reinforcement at a high value. Thus, the behavior will likely occur
during parties.

Moreover, Rotter’s social learning theory assumes that humans have interactions with
meaningful environments. People react to situational factors depending on the meaning or
importance of that event. In the case study, Barb’s reaction when stressed depends on how she
gives meaning to it. Since she wants to lessen the stress, she tends to eat as comfort. The
comfort as a positive reinforcement may be deemed as important to Barb. She believes that this
reinforcement makes her stress lifted. In other situations, eating has its positive reinforcements
that may be deemed as important to Barb. The satisfaction of eating while watching television,
and the ability to socialize while eating at parties may be important to her. Thus, she does a
certain behavior in order to have the important reinforcements.  The meaning of the
reinforcements are due to one’s cognitive capacity. Afterall, human behavior is because of the
interaction of the environmental and personal factors. This can be seen in Barb as the
environment like stress or parties, and her cognition specifically in giving meaning to the
reinforcements interact to determine her behavior, which is eating.