Beginning after the midpoint of the twentieth century, a group of theorists who came to be known as the social-learning theorists proposed that environmental stimuli provide an inadequate basis from which to account for human behaviour. These theorists argue, interaction can only be understood in terms of a reciprocal interaction between situations guide behaviour and self regulatory processes permit people to exert control over their own behaviour.
Thus, psychological function is best understood in terms of a continuous reciprocal interaction among behavioural, cognitive and environmental influences. Behaviour is influenced by the environment but people also play a role in creating the social milieu and other circumstances that arise in their daily transactions. This social-learning perspective of behaviour is best illustrated by the work of Albert Bandura, who also emphasizes the role of observational learning in behavioural acquisition.
Bandura received his graduate training in clinical psychology at the University of Iowa, which awarded him the Ph.D in 1952. After a year of post doctoral clinical training, Bandura accepted, in 1953, a position at Stanford University, where his is now (1998) David Star gordan professor of social sciences. He has served as chairman of the Stanford Dept of Psychology & in 1974 was elected to the presidency of the American Psychological Association. Bandura has been the recipient of the Distinguished scientist award of the American Psychological Association's Division of Clinical Psychology, the Distinguished scientific contribution award from the American psychological association, and the Distinguished contribution award of the International society for Research on Aggression.
In common with most of the learning theory approaches to personality, social learning theory is based on the premise that human behaviour is largely acquired, and the principles of learning are sufficient to account for the development and maintenance of that behaviour.
Accurate hypotheses produce successful performance, and inaccurate hypothesis lead in ineffective behaviour. That is, reinforcers provide information about what a person must do in order to see the desired outcomes, and avoid punishing outcomes. As a consequence, reinforcement only occur when a person is aware of the contingencies and anticipates that they will apply to future behaviour.
A behaviour cannot be reproduced unless one has remembered it by coding it in symbolic form. Retention of observed behaviour depends mainly upon mental images and verbal representations. Memory can be enhanced by organization of the material and by rehearsal. The material that is retained is often transformed to correspond to some existing knowledge or expectation on the part of the learner.
The capacity to perform novel responses observed sometime before but never actually practiced is made possible by the human's cognitive abilities. The stimuli provided by the model are transformed into images, and verbal symbols of what the model said, did or looked like that can later be recalled. These, symbolic, cognitive skills also allow individuals to transform what they have learned or combine what they have observed in a number of models into new pattern of behaviour. Thus, by observing others. one may develop novel, innovative solutions and not merely slanish imitations. Exposure to models, in addition to leading to the acquisition of novel behaviour, has two other types of effects. First, a model's behaviour may simply serve to elicit the performance of similar responses already in the observer's repertoire. Second, when the model is performing socially prescribed or deviant behaviour. The observer's inhibitions about performing the behaviour may be strengthened or weakened by watching the model, depending on whether the models behaviour has been punished or rewarded.
Bandura has pointed out to another kind of learning bsed on the observation of a model that is crucial in social learning theory namely the vicarious acquisition of classically conditioned emotional responses. Observers exposed to the emotional reaction of a model experience similar reactions, and also begin to respond emotionally to stimuli that produced these reactions in the model. In an illustrative experiment, Bandura and Rosenthall (1966) had each subject watch a model, introduced as an actual subject, was presented with a series of buzzer signals. Following each occurrence of the buzzer, the model simulated a variety of pain reactions that the subject was falsely told were elicited by an intense shock delivered immediately after the buzzer. As indicated by a physiological measure of emotional responsivity, the subjects came to exhibit a conditioned emotional response to the buzzer, even when the model was absent and despite the fact that they never directly experienced the painful unconditioned stimulus supposedly administered to the model.
A self-system is a set of cognitive structures that provide reference mechanisms and to a set of sub functions for the perceptions, evaluation, and regulation of behaviour. There are three component processes involved in self-regulation of behaviour, through the activation of self-prescribed contingencies. Taken as a set, these processes define the self-system and provide the bases for self-reinforcement of behaviour. These three components are: self-observation, judgemental proccess, self-reaction.
What the individuals come to reward and punish in themselves may reflect the reactions that their behaviour has elicited form others. Parents, peers and other socializing agents set behavioural standards, rewarding the individual for living up to them and expressing their displeasure when the person falls. These externally imposed norms may be taken over by the individual and form the basis for later self-reinforcement systems. Extensive evidence indicates that self-evaluates standards can also be acquired vicariously by observing others.
The component of the self-system do not function as autonomous regulators of behaviour, rather they play a role in the reciprocal determination of behaviour. External factors affect these self regulatory processes in at least three ways. First, the internal standards against which behaviour is judged are extracted from one's own experiences. Second, environmental influences may alter the manner in which behaviour is judged. Third there are external factors that promote the 'selective activation and disengagement of self-reactive influences.
When people engage in reprehensible behaviour that should give rise to self-condemnation, they may be able to disengage themselves in a manner that protects them from self-criticism. At the level of the behaviour itself, reprehensible behaviour may be rendered acceptable by misperceiving it as occurring in the service of a moral cause. Displacement of responsibility, and distorting the consequences of the act can also be used to dissociate oneself form capability by creating the illusion that one is not personally responsible.
Personal History
Albert Bandura shares the view that learning principles are sufficient to explain and predict behaviour and behaviour change. He reminds us that human are capable of thought and self-regulation that permit them to control their environment as well as to be shaped by it. Furthermore, many aspects of personality functioning involve the interaction of the individual with others so that an adequate theory of personality must take into account the social contest is behaviour is originally acquired and continues to be maintained. Bandura's intent has therefore been to extend and modify traditional learning theory by developing principles of social learning.Bandura received his graduate training in clinical psychology at the University of Iowa, which awarded him the Ph.D in 1952. After a year of post doctoral clinical training, Bandura accepted, in 1953, a position at Stanford University, where his is now (1998) David Star gordan professor of social sciences. He has served as chairman of the Stanford Dept of Psychology & in 1974 was elected to the presidency of the American Psychological Association. Bandura has been the recipient of the Distinguished scientist award of the American Psychological Association's Division of Clinical Psychology, the Distinguished scientific contribution award from the American psychological association, and the Distinguished contribution award of the International society for Research on Aggression.
In common with most of the learning theory approaches to personality, social learning theory is based on the premise that human behaviour is largely acquired, and the principles of learning are sufficient to account for the development and maintenance of that behaviour.
Reconceptualization of Reinforcement
Bandura greatly broadens the definition of reinforcement. Rather than functioning in a mechanistic manner, behavioural consequences alter subsequent behaviour by providing information. When people observe the outcomes of their own behaviour and the behaviour of others, they develop hypotheses about the likely consequences of producing that behaviour in the future. This information serves as a guide for subsequent behaviour.Accurate hypotheses produce successful performance, and inaccurate hypothesis lead in ineffective behaviour. That is, reinforcers provide information about what a person must do in order to see the desired outcomes, and avoid punishing outcomes. As a consequence, reinforcement only occur when a person is aware of the contingencies and anticipates that they will apply to future behaviour.
Principles of Observational Learning
Attentional processes
People cannot learn anything unless they pay attention to and accurately perceive significant features of the to be modeled behaviour. They are most likely to pay attention to behaviours that are salient, simple and promise to have some functional value. As a consequence, a model that is vivid, attractive, competent and seem repeatedly is more likely to catch their attention. In addition, what a person notices is influenced by his or her knowledge base and current orientation. The characteristics of the observer also determine how much imitative behaviour takes place in a given situation. The characteristic of both model and observer often jointly determine what will occur. A particularly informative study showing the interplay of model and observer was performed by Hetherington and Frankle (1967). They found that children of both sexes were likely to imitate a warm, nurturing parent than a cool or punitive one.Retention processes
A behaviour cannot be reproduced unless one has remembered it by coding it in symbolic form. Retention of observed behaviour depends mainly upon mental images and verbal representations. Memory can be enhanced by organization of the material and by rehearsal. The material that is retained is often transformed to correspond to some existing knowledge or expectation on the part of the learner.
Production processes
The learner must be able to reproduce the behaviour that has been observed. An observed behaviour, no matter how well it has been retained, cannot be enacted without the necessary skills and abilities. Sometimes the production problem stems from a lack of feedback about what he or she actually is doing. This is true with many athletic skills, but it also is a frequent problem with social behaviours. It can be extremely informative or unneruing to see one's own behaviour. Trail and error, practice and feedback all contribute to what is often a gradual process of translating knowledge into action.Motivational processes
Performance of observed behaviour is influenced by 3 kinds of incentives: direct, vicarious and self-administered. A learned behaviour will be enacted if it leads directly to a desired outcome, if it has been observed to be effective for the model, or if it is self-satisfying. A person is likely to produce a behaviour if he r she believes that it is in his or her best interest to do so. Bandura and his colleagues have demonstrated that subjects allowed to observe on unusual set of responses performed by another individual tend to exhibit these same responses when placed in a similar setting. They illustrated that children can learn novel response merely by observing others. It also showed that learning can take place without the children having had the opportunity to make the response themselves and without either the model or themselves having been rewarded or reinforced for the behaviour.The capacity to perform novel responses observed sometime before but never actually practiced is made possible by the human's cognitive abilities. The stimuli provided by the model are transformed into images, and verbal symbols of what the model said, did or looked like that can later be recalled. These, symbolic, cognitive skills also allow individuals to transform what they have learned or combine what they have observed in a number of models into new pattern of behaviour. Thus, by observing others. one may develop novel, innovative solutions and not merely slanish imitations. Exposure to models, in addition to leading to the acquisition of novel behaviour, has two other types of effects. First, a model's behaviour may simply serve to elicit the performance of similar responses already in the observer's repertoire. Second, when the model is performing socially prescribed or deviant behaviour. The observer's inhibitions about performing the behaviour may be strengthened or weakened by watching the model, depending on whether the models behaviour has been punished or rewarded.
Bandura has pointed out to another kind of learning bsed on the observation of a model that is crucial in social learning theory namely the vicarious acquisition of classically conditioned emotional responses. Observers exposed to the emotional reaction of a model experience similar reactions, and also begin to respond emotionally to stimuli that produced these reactions in the model. In an illustrative experiment, Bandura and Rosenthall (1966) had each subject watch a model, introduced as an actual subject, was presented with a series of buzzer signals. Following each occurrence of the buzzer, the model simulated a variety of pain reactions that the subject was falsely told were elicited by an intense shock delivered immediately after the buzzer. As indicated by a physiological measure of emotional responsivity, the subjects came to exhibit a conditioned emotional response to the buzzer, even when the model was absent and despite the fact that they never directly experienced the painful unconditioned stimulus supposedly administered to the model.
Reciprocal Determinism
Social learning theory conceptualizes behaviour in terms of reciprocal determinism; that is, personal influences, environmental forces, and behaviour itself function as interdependent rather than autonomous determinants. The effect of each of the three components is conditional on the others. Bandura is suggesting, in part, that people do not simply react to the external environment, rather external factors influence behaviour only through the mediation of a person's cognitive processes. By altering their environment or by creating conditional self-inducements, people influence the stimuli to which they respond. Thus, in the view of reciprocal determinism, behaviour, environmental forces and personal characteristics all functions as 'interlocking determinants of each other'. In addition reciprocal determinism requires that we dispense with the fiction that any event can only be understood as a stimulus or a response or a reinforcer. Bandura says, because people's conceptions, their behaviour, and their environments are reciprocal determinants of each other.The Self System
Bandura discusses the personal determinants of behaviour in terms of the self-system and the individual's self-efficacyA self-system is a set of cognitive structures that provide reference mechanisms and to a set of sub functions for the perceptions, evaluation, and regulation of behaviour. There are three component processes involved in self-regulation of behaviour, through the activation of self-prescribed contingencies. Taken as a set, these processes define the self-system and provide the bases for self-reinforcement of behaviour. These three components are: self-observation, judgemental proccess, self-reaction.
Self-Observation
Any person continually observes one's own behaviour, nothing such factors as the quality, quantity and originality of what one does. The more complex the behaviour being observed, and the more infricate the setting in which it is observed, the more likely that self-observation will include some inaccuracies. Temporary mood states and motivation for change also can influence how one's performances are monitored and processed.Judgemental processes
Behaviour generates a self-reaction through judgements about the correspondence between that behaviour and personal standards. One may define personal adequacy by reference to past behaviour and knowledge of norms or by social comparison processes. The choice of the targets for comparison obviously influences the judgments that will be reached: self-jugments are enhanced when others of lesser ability are chosen for the comparison. Judgments also vary depending on the importance of the activity being judged as well as individual attributions as to the determinants of the behaviour. An individual is more critical of behaviour that are important and for which one holds one's self to be responsible.Self-Reaction
The self-appraisals produced through the operation of the first two component set the stage for the individual to render an evaluation of the behaviour. Favorable appraisals generate rewarding self-reactions and unfavourable judgments active punishing self-responses. Behaviours that are viewed as having no personal significance do no generate any reaction. The self-reactions produced at this stage after subsequent behaviour primarily by motivating people to generate the eforrt needed to attain some desired outcome.What the individuals come to reward and punish in themselves may reflect the reactions that their behaviour has elicited form others. Parents, peers and other socializing agents set behavioural standards, rewarding the individual for living up to them and expressing their displeasure when the person falls. These externally imposed norms may be taken over by the individual and form the basis for later self-reinforcement systems. Extensive evidence indicates that self-evaluates standards can also be acquired vicariously by observing others.
The component of the self-system do not function as autonomous regulators of behaviour, rather they play a role in the reciprocal determination of behaviour. External factors affect these self regulatory processes in at least three ways. First, the internal standards against which behaviour is judged are extracted from one's own experiences. Second, environmental influences may alter the manner in which behaviour is judged. Third there are external factors that promote the 'selective activation and disengagement of self-reactive influences.
When people engage in reprehensible behaviour that should give rise to self-condemnation, they may be able to disengage themselves in a manner that protects them from self-criticism. At the level of the behaviour itself, reprehensible behaviour may be rendered acceptable by misperceiving it as occurring in the service of a moral cause. Displacement of responsibility, and distorting the consequences of the act can also be used to dissociate oneself form capability by creating the illusion that one is not personally responsible.
