Humans learn so much from their surroundings. I hate to say it, but all those bad habits my kids have pick up are definitely from other children, or at least that's what I'd like to think. How much of that have they learned from me as their mom? That's scary! I certainly hope I don't throw tantrums like my 4 year old, stick my tongue out like my 7 year old, or complain about homework like my 9 year old. Whoo, this blog just got real! Welcome to our world! From a development perspective, this type of learning is called observational learning and it is how the social learning theorists believe learning takes place.
Social Learning Theory has a lot of things going on, but I'm going to try to make it as simple as I can. There are two main theorists, Julian Rotter and Albert Bandura, each of whom are responsible for the discovery of various aspects of the Social Learning Theory. Here's the breakdown:
Julian Rotter:
Rotter states that life experiences, personal beliefs and behavior are all linked.
Rotter is also the founder of the concept of Locus of Control. This is how an individual sees the level of control they have in their life within the environment. Individuals who have an internal locus of control believe they control the events that happen in their life, but people with an external locus of control believe the environment controls the events in their life.
Albert Bandura:
Bandura adds the cognitive aspect to the Social Learning Theory with 5 concepts for how humans develop behavior:
Social Learning Theory has a lot of things going on, but I'm going to try to make it as simple as I can. There are two main theorists, Julian Rotter and Albert Bandura, each of whom are responsible for the discovery of various aspects of the Social Learning Theory. Here's the breakdown:
Julian Rotter:
Rotter states that life experiences, personal beliefs and behavior are all linked.
- Behavior potential: the odd that a certain response will happen at a given time
- Expectancy: the behavior demonstrated is based off past circumstances
- Reinforcement Value: the value that is given to specific outcomes
- Psychological Situations: how individuals process environmental situations and the conclusions they draw from them
Rotter is also the founder of the concept of Locus of Control. This is how an individual sees the level of control they have in their life within the environment. Individuals who have an internal locus of control believe they control the events that happen in their life, but people with an external locus of control believe the environment controls the events in their life.
Albert Bandura:
Bandura adds the cognitive aspect to the Social Learning Theory with 5 concepts for how humans develop behavior:
- Modeling: is imitation, but there are 4 important elements to modeling:
- attention- this is the belief that for anyone to learn, the individual must be attentive
- retention- refers to the ability to remember what is observed
- reproduction- the ability to demonstrate what was previously observed
- motivation- the individual's drive to repeat the observed behavior
- Observational Learning: behavior is changed due to observation of a modeled behavior
- Vicarious Learning: behavior that is learned by observing the actions and consequences of others
- Self-Efficacy: refers to an individual's belief in their own abilities. The beliefs are formed from 4 sources:
- mastery experience- the individual's past experience with failure or success in a certain area.
- vicarious experience- when an individual has little experience in a subject, observing others performing an action
- verbal persuasion- verbal encouragement or criticism an individual receives
- psychological state- one's emotional state, including level of anxiety
- Learning Contracts: agreement between a student and teacher for the student to take responsibility for their own actions.