Social Learning theory

From modeling toSelf efficacy

ALBERT BANDURA

“What people think, believe and feel affects how they behave. The natural and extrinsic effects of their actions, in turn, partly determine their thought patterns and affective reactions.”

“What people think, believe and feel affects how they behave. The natural and extrinsic effects of their actions, in turn, partly determine their thought patterns and affective reactions.”

SKINNER Environmental Determinism

BANDURAReciprocal Determinism

Some Basic Premises of Social Learning Theory

Some Basic Premises of Social Learning Theory

• The primary focus is on learning that occurs within a social context

• Reinforcement plays a role in learning but is not entirely responsible for learning.

• Cognitive processes play a crucial role in learning.

• People can learn through observation• Learning can occur without a change in

behavior.

RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM

Human development reflects an interaction among an “active” (thinking) person, behavior, and the environment.

A person is not solely shaped by the environment. The links among these are BIDIRECTIONAL. Any one can influence the other.

PERSON

BEHAVIOR ENVIRONMENT

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

• Modeling ( including one trial learning)

• Vicarious Learning (reinforcement and punishment)

Modeling: Learning through observation. The importance of Modeling is that it teaches new behaviors.

Vicarious experience. People’s belief in their ability is influenced by watching others succeed or fail.

MODELINGThe process of learning by watching and repeating a behavior.

This explains the learning of complex behavior in one or a few trials.

This process implies cognition since we must remember what we saw and then repeat it.

Four Conditions for Effective Modeling to Occur

• Attention• Retention• Motor Reproduction• motivation

• Attention • The observer must

attend to the relevant characteristics of the model.

• Retention • The observer must

encode verbal and/or visual representations of the model.

• Motor Reproduction • The observer must be

physically able to reproduce the behavior of the model.

• Motivation • The observer must want

to perform the observed behavior.

Types of Models• Live A real person in the

presence of the observer

• Symbolic An “image” of a real person (TV, movies, etc) or character (Superman, Harry Potter, etc) (Bobo doll experiments)

• Verbal Written instructions or descriptions of how to act

Characteristics of Effective Models

CompetencePrestige and Power Gender-Appropriate behaviorRelevanceIdentification with the Model

Competence An effective model is perceived by the observer to be competent in that which he/she is modeling.

Prestige and Power The observer needs to perceive these characteristics in the model.

Gender-Appropriate behavior

Relevance Behaviors to be reproduced by the observer need to have some functional value.

Identification with the Model Observer views the model as being similar to her/himself in a relevant way.

Competence An effective model is

perceived by the observer to be competent in that which he/she is modeling.

Prestige and Power The observer needs to

perceive these characteristics in the model.

Gender-Appropriate behavior Relevance

Behaviors to be reproduced by the observer need to have some functional value.

Identification with the Model

Observer views the model as being similar to her/himself in a relevant way.

VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT

AND PUNISHMENTThe learner watches the consequences of behaviors engaged in by others. This influences her/his behavior in the future.

The person can decide to act or NOT to act based upon observing others. A person’s belief in her/his ability can also be influenced by watching others succeed or fail.

THUS….THUS….

1. Clearly, cognitive processes are implied since we remember what we saw and decide how to act in the same situation in the future. We also draw conclusions about our own abilities by watching others.

2. Behavior is NOT the same as learning since, based upon what he/she has observed, the person can decide NOT to engage in a certain behavior or not to try to learn in the future.

SELF-EFFICACY

Children's feelings about their abilities are a better predictor of success than are their actual abilities.

Self efficacy Beliefs

• Choice behavior• Effort expenditure and persistence• Thought patterns and emotional reactions• Humans as producers rather than simply

fortellers of behavior

Mastery experience:

• Simply put, individuals gauge the effects of their actions, and their interpretations of these effects help create their efficacy beliefs.◦

• Success raises self-efficacy; failure lowers it.

Mastery

• "Children cannot be fooled by empty praise and condescending encouragement. They may have to accept artificial bolstering of their self-esteem in lieu of something better, but what I call their accruing ego identity gains real strength only from wholehearted and consistent recognition of real accomplishment, that is, achievement that has meaning in their culture."

Vicarious experience

• Dale Schunk, a prominent self-efficacy theorist and researcher:

• the effects of models are particularly relevant in this context.

• A significant model in one's life can help instill self-beliefs that will influence the course and direction that life will take

• Students are likely to develop the belief that "I can do that" when a highly regarded teacher models excellence in an academic endeavor or activity.

Vicarious experience

• Part of one's vicarious experience also involves the social comparisons made with others.

• Here is where peer groups and peer pressure can come into play.

• What peers value, what is honored, and how they behave are of major importance to preteens and teenagers who wish to fit in with the peer reference group.

• Social comparisons and peer modeling are powerful influences on developing self-perceptions of competence.

Social Persuasions

• These persuasions can involve exposure to the verbal judgments of others and is a weaker source of efficacy information than mastery or vicarious experience, but persuaders can play an important part in the development of an individual's self-beliefs.

• Most adults can recall something that was said to them (or done to/for them) during their childhood that had a profound effect on their confidence throughout the rest of their life.

• Bandura cautioned that effective persuasions should not be confused with knee-jerk praise or empty inspirational homilies.

Social Persuasions

• "a weak ego is not strengthened by being persistently flattered and that "children cannot be fooled by empty praise and condescending encouragement." In fact, "a strong ego, secured in its identity by a strong society, does not need, and in fact is immune to any attempt at artificial inflation."

• Physiological State

• Such as anxiety, stress, arousal, fatigue, and mood states also provide information about efficacy beliefs.

• Physiological State

• capability to alter their own thinking, self-efficacy beliefs, in turn, also powerfully influence the physiological states themselves.

• Physiological State

• Bandura has observed that people live with psychic environments that are primarily of their own making.

• It is often said that people can "read" themselves, and so this reading comes to be a realization of the thoughts and emotional states that individuals have themselves created.

• Physiological State

• Often, they can gauge their confidence by the emotional state they experience as they contemplate an action.

• In part, negative physiological states provide cues that something is amiss, even when one is unaware that such is the case.

• Students who approach public speaking with dread likely lack confidence in their public speaking skills.

Experience is unique

• Planes, Trains, Automobiles

Rewarding Experiences