Learning (Part 2)
•You are what you see. Discuss!
Social learning theory
•Albert Bandura
•Observational learning: It holds that human beings learn much of their behaviour by example or by watching other people’s behaviour.
–That is, we watch what others do and then we repeat/imitate/emulate their behaviour.
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•Modeling: We model our behaviour according to the behaviour we see in the environment rather than use “trial-and-error” approach.
•E.g., we don’t use “trial-and-error” in learning to swim, drive a car, pilot an aircraft.
•We acquire, maintain, and modify our behaviour through the emulation of models.
•Modeling:
–1. Model
–2. Observer
•Will the observer emulate every model?
•Answer: No, personality characteristics of observer play an important role.
•Gender of model and of observer determines whether the behaviour is emulated or not.
•E.g., males tend to emulate male models, and females tend to emulate female models.
•Research shows that observers imitate behaviour of competent models more rapidly than that of incompetent models.
•Rewards and punishments associated with the model’s behaviour influence the imitative process or the imitative behaviour of observers.
•Vicarious learning: It refers to the willingness to imitate the behaviour of a model after observing that the model’s behaviour was reinforced (rewarded or punished) for the behaviour.
–E.g., if a trotro driver drives on the kerb and gets away with it, other drivers imitate his behaviour.
Illustrating vicarious learning
•The Bobo doll experiment:
–Nursery school children were exposed to a 5-minute film in which an adult model behaved aggressively towards a large plastic doll (called Bobo doll).
•Action + verbalisation:
•Adult model asked Bobo to clear the way but Bobo didn’t respond.
–1st-Model pushed Bobo down and sat on it and punched its nose saying “pow, boom, boom”.
–2nd-Model used a mallet to hit Bobo on the head and said “sockeroo, stay down”.
–3rd-Model then kicked Bobo about the room and said “fly away”.
–4th-Model threw 3 rubber balls at Bobo and said “bang”.
•Three (3) groups of participants:
A.Control condition (Group 1): These children watched only the film but not the consequences the model received.
B.Reward condition (Group 2): These children saw the film and watched a second film in which the model was rewarded for her aggressive behaviour (i.e., model was given pop soda drink + candy).
C.Punishment condition (Group 3): These children saw the film and watched a second film in which the model was punished for her aggressive behaviour (i.e., model was spanked).
•Experiment:
–Children enter a separate room containing a Bobo doll, 3 balls, a mallet, plus other toys.
–Experimenter left the room and asked children to play.
–Observers watch children through one-way mirror.
•Results:
–Children who saw model rewarded behaved more aggressively.
–Children who saw model punished behaved less aggressively.
–Children who saw no consequences of the model’s behaviour behaved much less aggressively.
•Bandura has shown that aggression and violence in films, television, and video games produce aggressive behaviour in children.
–Indeed, to a large extent you are what you see.