Human Behavior
Needs, motivation, and reaction to stress
Human behavior questions reward a clean grasp of needs, motivation, and the reactions learners show when they feel frustrated or threatened. Know Maslow's hierarchy in order: physiological, safety, social (belonging), esteem, self-actualization. Lower needs dominate until satisfied, so a tired, hungry, or frightened learner cannot focus on higher-order goals. When an instructor misreads an unmet need as low motivation, the fix is wrong.
Motivation is positive (praise, desire to succeed, rewards) or negative (fear of failure, punishment). Positive motivation generally lasts longer. Defense mechanisms appear when anxiety or frustration becomes uncomfortable: rationalization (inventing acceptable excuses), flight (withdrawing, daydreaming, quitting), aggression (arguing, blaming), resignation (apathy, giving up), repression (subconsciously burying the threat), compensation (excelling elsewhere to mask a weakness), and displacement (redirecting feelings at a safer target). Anxiety can be normal and motivating or abnormal and debilitating.
Traps: questions describe a behavior and ask which mechanism explains it, so separate flight (active avoidance) from resignation (surrender). Expect ordered lists for Maslow and "which need must be met first" items.
Worked example: a learner fails a stage check and says the examiner was unfair and the airplane was poorly maintained. That is rationalization. Rule of thumb: before attacking a performance problem, ask whether a lower-level need is unmet; fix the need before you try to fix the behavior.