The results also challenged the prevailing theory that watching violence on television alleviated aggressive impulses in children. As a result, the Federal Trade Commission passed new standards for televised advertising and depictions of children performing certain activities were no longer allowed on television.
Later in his career, Bandura explored other ways his research findings might be applied. This was a real turning point — and we are still reaping the benefits of his insights today. In a way my psychological theory is founded on human agency, which means that people have a hand in determining the course their lives take, and in many respects my theory is really a reflection of my life path.
Bandura received 19 honorary degrees and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in In , he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Image credit: Ryan K. Sometimes that guidance came with a side of humor. I will so miss my mentor, colleague and friend. We were relieved when we heard a door slam, thinking that there was at least one, but instead, we saw Al, walking out of his office.
He was so full of energy and ideas, and he talked to us for another 30 minutes before saying good night. Bandura was born on December 4, , in the immigrant farming community of Mundare in Alberta, Canada. Neither parent spoke English or had a formal education, yet they instilled the love of learning in Albert, the youngest of seven children.
If, on the other hand, you find yourself forever failing to meet your standards and punishing yourself, you will have a poor self-concept low self-esteem. Recall that behaviorists generally view reinforcement as effective, and punishment as fraught with problems.
The same goes for self-punishment. Bandura sees three likely results of excessive self-punishment:. These have some resemblance to the unhealthy personalities Adler and Horney talk about: an aggressive type, a compliant type, and an avoidant type respectively.
Regarding self-observation -- know thyself! Make sure you have an accurate picture of your behavior. Standards that are too low, on the other hand, are meaningless. Regarding self-response -- use self-rewards, not self-punishments. The ideas behind self-regulation have been incorporated into a therapy technique called self-control therapy. It has been quite successful with relatively simple problems of habit, such as smoking, overeating, and study habits.
Behavioral charts. Self-observation requires that you keep close tabs on your behavior, both before you begin changes and after. This can involve something as simple as counting how many cigarettes you smoke in a day to complex behavioral diaries. With the diary approach, you keep track of the details, the when and where of your habit. This lets you get a grip on what kinds of cues are associated with the habit: Do you smoke more after meals, with coffee, with certain friends, in certain locations?
Environmental planning. Taking your lead from your behavioral charts and diaries, you can begin to alter your environment. For example, you can remove or avoid some of those cues that lead to your bad behaviors: Put away the ashtrays, drink tea instead of coffee, divorce that smoking partner You can find the time and place best suited for the good alternative behaviors: When and where do you find you study best?
And so on. Finally, you arrange to reward yourself when you adhere to your plan, and possibly punish yourself when you do not. I will do paperwork instead if I do not. Beware, however: This can be murder on your relationships, as you bite their heads off for trying to do what you told them to do!
The therapy Bandura is most famous for, however, is modeling therapy. The theory is that, if you can get someone with a psychological disorder to observe someone dealing with the same issues in a more productive fashion, the first person will learn by modeling the second. The client would be lead to a window looking in on a lab room. In that room is nothing but a chair, a table, a cage on the table with a locked latch, and a snake clearly visible in the cage.
The client then watches another person -- an actor -- go through a slow and painful approach to the snake. He acts terrified at first, but shakes himself out of it, tells himself to relax and breathe normally and take one step at a time towards the snake. He may stop in the middle, retreat in panic, and start all over.
Ultimately, he gets to the point where he opens the cage, removes the snake, sits down on the chair, and drapes it over his neck, all the while giving himself calming instructions. After the client has seen all this no doubt with his mouth hanging open the whole time , he is invited to try it himself.
Mind you, he knows that the other person is an actor -- there is no deception involved here, only modeling! There is some thought prior to imitation, and this consideration is called mediational processes. This occurs between observing the behavior stimulus and imitating it or not response. Much of social learning is not immediate, so this process is especially vital in those cases. Even if the behavior is reproduced shortly after seeing it, there needs to be a memory to refer to.
This influences our decisions whether to try and imitate it or not. Imagine the scenario of a year-old-lady who struggles to walk watching Dancing on Ice. She may appreciate that the skill is a desirable one, but she will not attempt to imitate it because she physically cannot do it. The social learning approach takes thought processes into account and acknowledges the role that they play in deciding if a behavior is to be imitated or not. As such, SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognizing the role of mediational processes.
For example, Social Learning Theory is able to explain many more complex social behaviors such as gender roles and moral behavior than models of learning based on simple reinforcement. However, although it can explain some quite complex behavior, it cannot adequately account for how we develop a whole range of behavior including thoughts and feelings.
We have a lot of cognitive control over our behavior and just because we have had experiences of violence does not mean we have to reproduce such behavior. It is for this reason that Bandura modified his theory and in renamed his Social Learning Theory, Social Cognitive Theory SCT , as a better description of how we learn from our social experiences. Some criticisms of social learning theory arise from their commitment to the environment as the chief influence on behavior.
It is limiting to describe behavior solely in terms of either nature or nurture and attempts to do this underestimate the complexity of human behavior. It is more likely that behavior is due to an interaction between nature biology and nurture environment. Social learning theory is not a full explanation for all behavior. The discovery of mirror neurons has lent biological support to the theory of social learning.
Although research is in its infancy the recent discovery of "mirror neurons" in primates may constitute a neurological basis for imitation. These are neurons which fire both if the animal does something itself, and if it observes the action being done by another.
McLeod, S. Bandura - social learning theory.
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