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FAA-H-8083-9B, Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Human Behavior

How motivation, human needs, defense mechanisms, emotional reactions, and adult learning traits shape the way learners respond to instruction.

Read the chapter in the FAA PDFGo to the quiz

Chapter summary

Chapter 2 explains how human behavior affects learning. Learning is the acquisition of knowledge or understanding of a subject or skill through education, experience, practice, or study. An effective instructor uses knowledge of human behavior, basic human needs, the defense mechanisms that prevent learning, and how adults learn to organize productive lessons. The chapter notes that personality type influences both how a person learns and how an instructor teaches, and that an instructor who recognizes a mismatch can take steps to bridge it, as Derek does by building a scenario around his thrill-seeking learner's interests.

Motivation is the reason one acts or behaves in a certain way, and it is probably the dominant force governing a learner's progress. Positive motivation, based on the promise or achievement of rewards, is essential to true learning; negative motivation should be avoided with all but the most overconfident and impulsive learners. Learners respond to personal comfort and security, group approval, a favorable self-image, and tangible rewards. To keep motivation up, instructors ask about goals, reward incremental successes, present new challenges, remind learners of their stated goals, and assure them that learning plateaus are normal.

The chapter reviews Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (physiological, security, belonging, esteem, cognitive and aesthetic, and self-actualization) while noting later research found the order of needs is not universal. What matters is that most of a learner's needs are met so the instructor can focus the learner's perceptions on the lesson, which a thorough pre-assessment helps verify. Daniel Kahneman's two systems of thought, fast and automatic System 1 and slow and deliberate System 2, help instructors spot pitfalls such as treating a complex problem as a simple one.

Defense mechanisms often appear unconsciously and distort reality to reduce anxiety. Repression and denial are the two primary mechanisms; others include compensation, projection, rationalization, reaction formation, fantasy, and displacement. They relieve symptoms, not causes. The chapter then covers learner emotional reactions: anxiety, impatience, worry or lack of interest, physical discomfort, airsickness, acute and chronic fatigue, dehydration and heatstroke, and apathy caused by inadequate instruction. It distinguishes normal from abnormal reactions to stress and describes what an instructor should do when a learner may have a serious psychological abnormality.

The chapter closes with Malcolm Knowles's traits of adult learners. Adults learn because they have a use for the knowledge, are self-directed, draw on life experience, and are goal and relevancy oriented. Instructors should provide a clear syllabus, connect new ideas to what learners already know, recognize the learner's need to control pace, use scenario-based training, avoid spoon-feeding, and create a cooperative climate with mutual planning.

Main topics

  • Definitions of human behavior and the instructor and learner relationship
  • Personality type and teaching style
  • Positive and negative motivation, and maintaining motivation
  • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the law of readiness
  • Kahneman's System 1 and System 2 thinking
  • Defense mechanisms and how to respond to them
  • Learner emotional reactions: anxiety, impatience, worry, fatigue, airsickness
  • Normal and abnormal reactions to stress
  • Instructor actions regarding seriously abnormal learners
  • Teaching the adult learner

Key terms

Learning
The acquisition of knowledge or understanding of a subject or skill through education, experience, practice, or study.
Motivation
The reason one acts or behaves in a certain way; it lies at the heart of goals and is probably the dominant force governing a learner's progress. It may be positive or negative, tangible or intangible.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
A model of human needs ranging from physiological needs through security, belonging, esteem, cognitive and aesthetic needs, to self-actualization. Later research found the order is not universal; instructors should verify that most needs are met so the learner can focus on the lesson.
Self-actualization
In Maslow's model, a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." Self-actualized people are problem-focused, appreciate life, care about personal growth, and can have peak experiences.
System 1 and System 2
Daniel Kahneman's two systems of thought. System 1 (fast) is the automatic, emotion-based reaction built from memory and experience; System 2 (slow) relies on logic and reasoning and requires conscious effort.
Ego defense mechanism
An unconscious mental process to protect oneself from anxiety or unpleasant emotions, or to provide a refuge from a situation the person cannot currently cope with. Defense mechanisms often appear unconsciously and tend to distort reality.
Repression
A defense mechanism in which a person places uncomfortable thoughts into inaccessible areas of the unconscious mind, for example a repressed fear of flying that inhibits learning.
Denial
A refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening; the refusal to acknowledge what has happened, is happening, or will happen. Minimization, accepting what happened in a diluted form, is related.
Compensation
Psychologically counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other areas, often to disguise a weak or undesirable quality.
Projection
Placing one's own unacceptable impulses onto someone else, such as blaming personal shortcomings on others. Example: "I failed because I had a poor examiner."
Rationalization
A subconscious technique for justifying actions that otherwise would be unacceptable; the person sincerely believes the plausible excuses.
Reaction formation
Faking a belief opposite to the true belief because the true belief causes anxiety, such as adopting a who-cares attitude to cover loneliness and a hunger for acceptance.
Displacement
An unconscious shift of emotion, affect, or desire from the original object to a more acceptable, less threatening substitute.
Anxiety
A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, often about something with an uncertain outcome. The handbook calls it probably the most significant psychological factor affecting flight instruction.
Acute fatigue
Short-term tiredness felt after long periods of physical and mental strain. It is characterized by inattention, distractibility, errors in timing, neglect of secondary tasks, loss of accuracy and control, lack of awareness of error accumulation, and irritability.
Chronic fatigue
Long-term fatigue that occurs when there is not enough time for full recovery from repeated episodes of acute fatigue. Its cause is generally not rest-related, so rest alone may not resolve it.

Revision quiz

10 questions. Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why.

Answered 0 of 10
  1. 1.What does the handbook say about negative motivation?
  2. 2.A learner is frustrated after several lessons with no visible improvement. What is the first line of defense the handbook recommends?
  3. 3.How can an instructor verify that a learner's needs have been met so the learner is ready to learn?
  4. 4.A learner quickly applies the solution from a recent task to a new task that looks similar but is more complex. Which of Kahneman's systems of thought is most likely at work?
  5. 5.After failing a practical test, a learner says, "I failed because I had a poor examiner." Which defense mechanism does this illustrate?
  6. 6.An avionics learner is angry with the instructor over a grade but, fearing consequences, directs the anger toward something unrelated to the class. Which defense mechanism is this?
  7. 7.Which two properties does the handbook say all defense mechanisms share?
  8. 8.Which approach does the handbook describe as an effective technique for countering learner anxiety?
  9. 9.An instructor believes a learner may have a disqualifying psychological defect. What step does the handbook recommend first?
  10. 10.A motivated learner keeps pushing to solo before mastering the basic elements of flight. How does the handbook say an instructor can correct this impatience?

This page is a study aid written from Aviation Instructor's Handbook (FAA-H-8083-9B), Chapter 2. The handbook is the authoritative source; read the full chapter in the official FAA PDF.

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