Actively Caring For People In Schools

Seven research-based lessons from psychology—the science of human experience—inspire the development of an actively caring for people (AC4P) culture. The education/training purpose: to enhance long-term positive and sustainable relations between teachers, students, school administrators, and SROs, and in turn cultivate an optimal teaching/learning climate and prevent interpersonal conflict and bullying behavior. Both education and training are provided. Each research-based principle for AC4P intervention is explained and followed by questions or scenarios to facilitate group discussion. Behavioral exercises are given to practice each principle and receive supportive and corrective feedback for continuous improvement.

Can you imagine? An educational culture free of illicit drugs, interpersonal conflict and bullying. Self-motivated learning inspired by state-of-the-art teaching. Students and teachers looking forward to attending class with an optimistic, achievement-focused, and cooperative mindset. This is a vision of the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) Movement. This book reveals how to make this vision a reality through evidence-based principles and practical interventions. Real-world applications with compelling stories teach you how to cultivate and sustain an AC4P culture at your school. As a Professor of Psychology at Virginia Tech for 44 years, E. Scott Geller enthusiastically combines teaching, research, and scholarship to optimize the educational experience for thousands of university students - from undergraduates in large-lecture classes to Ph.D. students in one-on-one mentoring sessions. His credo: Tell them and they'll forget; Demonstrate and they'll remember, Involve them and they'll understand.

The lead character in this realistic story, a safety professional for a large manufacturing company, is bullied by her boss, and she searches to find the courage to confront him. In her search she learns from Dr. Pitz ("Doc") the five person-states that influence one’s propensity to actively care for the safety, health, or welfare of other people. With her coworker, Jeff, Joanne entertains ways to enhance these five person- states: self-esteem, self-efficacy, optimism, belongingness, and personal control. With this profound knowledge she eventually confronts her boss and teaches him how to be an actively caring for people leader.

This refreshing teaching/learning narrative, based on actual life events and research-supported principles, begins with the lead character (Joanne Cruse) losing her job as the Safety Director for a large manufacturing company. Subsequently, her former psychology professor, Dr. Pitz ("Doc"), invites her to try out for a position as leadership consultant with his firm, Make-A-Difference, Inc. (MAD) that helps companies cultivate a self-motivated and personally-engaged workforce. Throughout her probationary period, Joanne travels with the top consultant at MAD (Mickey Vasquez) to visit a number of organizations struggling with various occupational issues related to the human dynamics of self-motivation (i.e., working to accomplish an organization's milestone from a self-directed or self-accountability mindset). The interpersonal and group interactions Joanne experiences at diverse organizations, accompanied by Mickey’s professional coaching, reveal twenty practical and profound leadership lessons to nurture an actively caring for people work culture in which employees put forth their best efforts on behalf of their company's mission.

Integrating humanism and behaviorism, this volume presents evidence-based techniques for improving health, safety, and well-being in all walks of life.

Practical solutions to stop the culture of bullying. We’ve all seen bullies in action. Many of us have been the victims. Some of us have been the perpetrator. But thanks to all the attention being focused on bullies and the issues that surround them, awareness is growing of the damage bullying can do. Whether we’re raising children in this culture or we’re part of the village that helps, we also need some effective and user-friendly tools to go up against the bully. We need some very specific and action-oriented strategies to help every child feel welcomed and valued. This book offers a smart, useful guide for parents, teachers, counselors, and anyone who cares about putting an end to abusive behavior.

This volume demonstrates how readers can become more effective parents, teachers, students, coaches, managers, or work supervisors, while also gaining practical skills to enhance their self-motivation, communication skills, and intervention acumen. The first eight chapters explain evidence-based principles from applied behavioral science (ABS) that can be used to improve the human dynamics of any situation involving behavior. Fundamentals from humanism are integrated strategically to show how an ABS intervention can be more acceptable, influential, and sustainable. The following twelve chapters detail the deployment of ABS interventions to optimize performance in a wide variety of fields, including occupational and transportation safety, quantity and quality of organizational work behavior, healthcare, athletic coaching, parenting, pre-school and college education, environmental sustainability, and the control of obesity and alcohol abuse. Applied Psychology provides a thorough review of the latest research in relation to these domains and explores issues for future investigation.