Social learning theory
Social learning theory is a perspective that states that people learn within a social context. It is facilitated through concepts such as modeling and observational learning.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Theory
According to Social Learning theory, models are an important source for learning new behaviors and for achieving behavioral change in institutionalized settings. [2] Social learning theory is derived from the work of Albert Bandura which proposed that observational learning can occur in relation to three models: [3]
• Live model – in which an actual person is demonstrating the desired behaviour
• Verbal instruction – in which an individual describes the desired behaviour in detail, and instructs the participant in how to engage in the behavior
• Symbolic – in which modeling occurs by means of the media, including movies, television, Internet, literature, and radio. This type of modeling involves a real or fictional character demonstrating the behaviour.
An important factor of Bandura’s social learning theory is the emphasis on reciprocal determinism. This notion states that an individual’s behaviour is influenced by the environment and characteristics of the person. In other words, a person’s behaviour, environment, and personal qualities all reciprocally influence each other.[3] Bandura proposed that the modeling process involves several steps:[3]
1. Attention – in order for an individual to learn something, they must pay attention to the features of the modeled behaviour.
2. Retention – humans need to be able to remember details of the behaviour in order to learn and later reproduce the behaviour.
3. Reproduction – in reproducing a behavior, an individual must organize his or her responses in accordance with the model behavior. This ability can improve with practice.
4. Motivation – there must be an incentive or motivation driving the individual’s reproduction of the behaviour. Even if all of the above factors are present, the person will not engage in the behaviour without motivation.
Bandura is known for his 1961-1963 experiments utilizing an inflatable clown known as a Bobo doll in order to test modeling behaviours in children. Children were divided into three groups – one of which was exposed to an aggressive adult model, one which was exposed to a passive adult model, and a control group, which was not exposed to an adult model. Adults in the aggressive group were asked to verbally and physically attack the doll, while those in the passive group were asked to play peacefully. Once the children were given the opportunity to play, results showed that those exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to imitate what they had seen, and to behave aggressively toward the doll. It was found that boys were four times more likely than girls to display physical aggression, but levels of verbal aggression were about the same. The results of Bandura’s studies provided support for the influence of modeling on learning. Further, a later study in 1965 showed that witnessing the model being punished for the aggressive behavior decreased the likelihood that children would imitate the behaviour.[4]
Julian Rotter moved away from theories based on psychosis and behaviourism, and developed a learning theory. In Social Learning and Clinical Psychology (1954), Rotter suggests that the effect of behaviour has an impact on the motivation of people to engage in that specific behaviour. People wish to avoid negative consequences, while desiring positive results or effects. If one expects a positive outcome from a behaviour, or thinks there is a high probability of a positive outcome, then they will be more likely to engage in that behaviour. The behavior is reinforced, with positive outcomes, leading a person to repeat the behaviour. This social learning theory suggests that behaviour is influenced by these environmental factors or stimuli, and not psychological factors alone.[5]
Albert Bandura[6] expanded on Rotter's idea, as well as earlier work by Miller & Dollard,[7] and is related to social learning theories of Vygotsky and Lave. This theory incorporates aspects of behavioral and cognitive learning. Behavioural learning assumes that people's environment (surroundings) cause people to behave in certain ways. Cognitive learning presumes that psychological factors are important for influencing how one behaves. Social learning suggests that a combination of environmental (social) and psychological factors influence behaviour. Social learning theory outlines three requirements for people to learn and model behaviour including attention: retention (remembering what one observed), reproduction (ability to reproduce the behaviour), and motivation (good reason) to want to adopt the behaviour.
[edit] Criminology
In criminology, Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess developed social learning theory to explain deviancy by combining variables which encouraged delinquency (e.g., the social pressure from delinquent peers) with variables that discouraged delinquency (e.g., the parental response to discovering delinquency in their children)[8].
The first two stages were used by Edwin Sutherland in his Differential Association Theory. Sutherland's model for learning in a social environment depends on the cultural conflict between different factions in a society over who has the power to determine what is deviant. But his ideas were difficult to put into operation and measure quantitatively. Burgess, a behavioral sociologist, and Akers revised Sutherland's theory and included the idea of reinforcement, which increases or decreases the strength of a behavior, and applied the principles of operant psychology, which holds that behavior is a function of its consequences and can be really bad in some cases [9]
Functionalism had been the dominant paradigm but, in the 1960s, there was a shift towards Social Control Theories, conflict criminology, and labeling theories that tried to explain the emerging and more radical social environment. Moreover, people believed that they could observe behavior and see the process of social learning, e.g., parents watched their own children and saw the influence of other children on their own; they could also see what kind of effect they had on their own children, i.e., the processes of differential association and reinforcement. The conservative political parties were advocating an increase in punishment to deter crime. Unlike labeling theory, social learning theory actually supports the use of punishment which translates into longer sentences for those convicted, and helps to explain the increase in the prison population that began in the early 1970s (Livingston, 1996).[full citation needed]
Unlike situational crime prevention, the theory ignores the opportunistic nature of crime (Jeffery, 1990: 261–2).[full citation needed] To learn one must first observe criminal behavior, but where was this behavior learned? The theory does explain how criminal behavior is "transmitted" from one person to another, which can explain increases in types of crimes, but it does not consider how criminal acting can be prevented (Jeffery, 1990: 252)[full citation needed] although it may be fairly assumed that the processes of learning behaviors can be changed.
There is also a definite problem. What may be reinforcement for one person may not be for another. Also, reinforcements can be both social involving attention and behavior between more than one person, and non-social reinforcement which would not involve this interaction (Burgess & Akers: 1966).[full citation needed] Social learning theory has been used in mentoring programs that should, in theory, prevent some future criminal behavior. The idea behind mentoring programs is that an adult is paired with a child, who supposedly learns from the behavior of the adult and is positively reinforced for good behavior (Jones-Brown, 1997).[full citation needed] In the classroom, a teacher may use the theory by changing the seating arrangements to pair a behaving child and a misbehaving child, but the outcome may be that the behaving child begins behaving badly.
We can explain attachment in terms of the principles of classic conditioning. The food-giver then becomes a source of pleasure.
"Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation."
[edit] Serial murder and social learning theory
Hale[10] applied the social learning theory to serial murder using Amsel's frustration theory. In frustration theory, humiliation is the result of a nonreward situation, which is a reward that is not given when a reward had been given in the past. When an individual is conditioned to be rewarded they anticipate it to happen in the future, but when they are presented with a nonreward situation this creates an unconditioned frustration response, otherwise called humiliation. Signs associated with the humiliating experience form a conditioned anticipatory frustration response, which triggers specific internal stimuli. These stimuli prevent an individual from future humiliation. During childhood, serial killers experience many humiliating situations and with unbalanced nonreward situations and no reward situations, they perceive all situations as nonreward and develop the inability to distinguish between the two. They anticipate humiliation in every encounter that they come across. When it comes to choosing their victims serial killers do not go back to the person who caused the humiliation. According to Dollard and (1939, 1950)} theory of learning, the individual is "instigated" toward a behavior, which is some antecedent condition of which the predicted response is the consequences. For a serial killer, frustration gets in the way of an instigated goal and their built up aggression must be released. Their behavior is seen as a delayed and indirect release of aggression. They are unable to release their aggression on their source of frustration and are forced to choose more vulnerable individuals to act on.[11] The child learns to expect humiliation or a negative situation from the past, which then causes frustration or aggression. Jerome Henry Brudos felt he was never accepted by his mother. Brudos transferred his hatred for his mother to other women through his mutilation of their bodies. For Brudos, the murder of strange women served as a catharsis for the humiliation he endured through his mother's rejection.[12] In all of these instances the serial killer was presented with some form of humiliation as a child, and learned to vent their anger through aggression.
[edit] Applications
The applications of social learning theory have been important in the history of education policies in the United States. The zone of proximal development is used as a basis for early intervention programs such as Head Start. Social learning theory can also be seen in the TV and movie rating system that is used in the United States. The rating system is designed to let all parents know what the programs that their children are watching contain. The ratings are based on age appropriate material to help parents decide if certain content is appropriate for their child to watch. Some content may be harmful to children who do not have the cognitive ability to process certain content, however the child may model the behaviors seen on TV.
Locus of control is an important consideration when helping students in higher education environments perform better academically. Cassandra B. Whyte indicated in the 1970s and 1980s that by encouraging students to accept personal responsibility for their educational outcomes, better academic performance will usually be forthcoming if ability levels are present. More frequent successful academic performance will result as thoughts and belief in the need for personal effort toward the academic task is rewarded. As successful experiences increase in frequency, the student usually incorporates the confidence that hard work often can be rewarded with positive academic outcomes.[13][14]
Guided participation is seen in schools across the United States and all around the world in language classes when the teacher says a phrase and asks the class to repeat the phrase. An extension of guided participation is reciprocal learning in which both student and teacher share responsibility in leading discussions.[15] The other part to guided participation is when the student goes home and practices on their own. Guided participation is also seen with parents who are trying to teach their own children how to speak.
Scaffolding is another technique that is used widely across the United States.[citation needed] Most academic subjects take advantage of scaffolding, however mathematics is one of the best examples. As students move through their education they learn skills in mathematics that they will build on throughout their scholastic careers. A student who has never taken a basic math class and does not understand the principles of addition and subtraction will not be able to understand algebra. The process of learning math is a scaffolding technique because the knowledge builds on itself over time.[citation needed]
Another important application of social learning theory has been in the treatment and conceptualization of anxiety disorders. The classical conditioning approach to anxiety disorder, which spurred the development of behavioral therapy and is considered by some to be the first modern theory of anxiety[16], began to lose steam in the late 1970s as researchers began to question its underlying assumptions. For example, the classical conditioning approach holds that pathological fear and anxiety are developed through direct learning; however, many people with anxiety disorders cannot recall a traumatic conditioning event, in which the feared stimulus was experienced in close temporal and spatial contiguity with an intrinsically aversive stimulus.[17][18] Social learning theory helped salvage learning approaches to anxiety disorders by providing additional mechanisms beyond classical conditioning that could account for the acquisition of fear. For example, social learning theory suggests that a child could acquire a fear of snakes, for example, by observing a family remember express fear in response to snakes. Alternatively, the child could learn the associations between snakes and unpleasant bites through direct experience, without developing excessive fear, but could later learn from others that snakes can have deadly venom, leading to a re-evaluation of the dangerousness of snake bites, and accordingly, a more exaggerated fear response to snakes[19] (see 19, for a discussion of similar US re-evaluation effects).
[edit] References
- ^ Ormrod, J.E. (1999). Human learning (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall
- ^ Henry P Sims Jr. & Charles C Manz (1982): Social Learning Theory, Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 3:4, 55-63.
- ^ a b c Mae Sincero, S. (Retrieved 2011, Dec 09). What is social learning theory. Retrieved from http://www.experiment-resources.com/social-learning-theory.html.
- ^ Shuttleworth, M. (Retrieved 2011, Dec 09). Bobo doll experiment. Retrieved from http://www.experiment-resources.com/bobo-doll-experiment.html
- ^ Rotter, J.B. (1954). Social Learning and Clinical Psychology. Prentice-Hall.
- ^ Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. General Learning Press.
- ^ Miller, N. & Dollard, J. (1941). Social Learning and Imitation. Yale University Press.
- ^ Burgess, R., & Akers, R. A Differential Association-Reinforcement Theory of Criminal Behavior. Social Problems, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Autumn, 1966), pp. 128-147
- ^ Pfohl, S. J. Images of deviance and social control: A sociological history, New York: McGraw-Hill 1994, pp. 1-16,301-303
- ^ Hale, R. (1998). The Application of Learning Theory to Serial Murder, or "You Too can Learn to Be a Serial Killer". In R.M. Holmes, & S.T. Holmes, Contemporary Perspectives on Serial Murder (pp. 75-84).
- ^ Hensley, C. & Singer, S. (2004). Applying Social Learning Theory to Childhood and Adolescent Firesetting: Can it Lead to Serial Murder? International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. Vol 48 (4), 461–476.
- ^ Hale, Robert. (1993) The Application of Learning Theory to Serial Murder. Mississippi. Vol 17(2), 37–45.
- ^ Lauridsen, Kurt, ed. & Whyte, Cassandra. (1980) Learning Assistance Centers. New Directions Sourcebook. Jossey-Bass,Inc.
- ^ Whyte, Cassandra. (1978). Effective Counseling Methods for High-Risk College Freshmen, Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance. 6 (4). 198–200.
- ^ Kumpulainen, K., Wray, D. (2002). Classroom Interaction and Social Learning: From Theory to Practice. New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer.
- ^ Rachman, S. (1991). Neo-conditioning and the classical theory of fear acquisition. Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 155–173.
- ^ Mathews, A., Gelder, M. & Johnston, D. (1981). Agoraphobia: Xature L3 Treatment. New York: Guilford Press.
- ^ Ost, L.G., & Hugdahl, K. (1981). Acquisition of phobias and anxiety response patterns in clinical patients. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 19, 439-447.
- ^ Mineka, S., & Zinbarg, R. (2006). A contemporary learning theory perspective on the etiology of anxiety disorders: It's not what you thought it was. American Psychologist, 61, 10-26.
