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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
VU
Lesson 32
ALBERT BANDURA'S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
Social Learning theorists explain behavior in terms of interaction between cognitive, behavioral and
environmental determinants. Bandura is a Social Learning theorist.
Bandura consider learning principles to be sufficient to explain and predict behavior and behavior change.
The focus is on interaction, between the external stimuli and internal cognitions in a social context.
1-Bandura suggests most human behavior is learned by observation. In Modeling we observe the behavior
of others and use the information as a guide for our own behavior.
2-Bandura and his colleagues have demonstrated that subjects allowed to observe a set of responses
performed by another individual (the model) tend to exhibit these same responses (model) when placed in a
similar setting.
Example: Our behavior develops as a result of observational learning. We observe the available models
and imitate these models. Such as our parents, teachers, politicians, film heroes, celebrities and even
fictional characters like Superman, Spiderman.
1- Biographical Sketch
2- Reconceptualization of Reinforcement
3-Principles of Observational Learning
i)
Attentional Process
ii)
Retention Processes
iii)
Production Process
iv)
4-Motivational Processes
4-Reciprocal Determinism
5-The Self-System
i)
Self-Observation
ii)
Judgmental Process
iii)
Self-Reaction
6-Applications to Therapy
7- Research
8- Summary
9-Evaluation
1-BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Bandura received his graduate training in clinical psychology at the University of Iowa, which awarded
him the Ph.D. in 1952. After a year of postdoctoral clinical training, Bandura accepted, in 1953, a position
at Stanford University, where he was professor of Social Science. He has served as chairman of the
Stanford Department of Psychology and in 1974 was elected to the presidency of the American
Psychological Association. Bandura has been the recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award of the
American Psychological Association's Division of Clinical Psychology, the Distinguished Scientific
Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, and the Distinguished Contribution
Award of the International Society for Research on Aggression.
Bandura has presented his theory in a series of books, with the late Richard Walters as junior author.
Bandura (1959) wrote Adolescent aggression, a detailed report of a field study in which social learning
principles were used to analyze the personality development of a group of middle-class delinquent boys,
followed by Social learning and personality development (1963), a volume in which he and Walters
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presented the social learning principles they had developed and the evidence on which the theory was
based. In 1969 Bandura published Principles of behavior modification, in which he outlined the application
of behavioral techniques based on learning principles to the modification of behavior, and in 1973, he
published Aggression: A social learning analysis. Social learning-theory (1977b).in which Bandura has
"attempted to provide a unified theoretical framework for analyzing human thought and behavior" (p. vi),
remains his clearest theoretical statement to date, although his Social foundations of thought and action
(1986) provides a more detailed treatment of the theory. In' addition to these theoretical statements,
Bandura and his students have contributed an extensive series of empirical articles.
In common with most learning theory approaches to personality, social learning theory is based on the
premise that human behavior is largely acquired and that the principles of learning are sufficient to account
for the development and maintenance of that behavior.
In the course of observing others behavior, individuals learn to imitate that behavior or in some way model
themselves after others. In their 1941book, Social leaning and imitation, Miller and Dollard had recognized
the significant role played by imitative processes in personality development and had sought to develop
explanations of certain kinds of imitative behavior. Bandura's 1974 article, "Behavior theories and the
models of man," provides a relatively summary of his point of view:
"Our theories have been incredibly slow in acknowledging that man can learn by observation as well as by
direct experience. . . . The rudimentary form of learning based on direct experience has been exhaustively
studied, whereas the more pervasive and powerful mode of learning by observation is largely ignored. A
shift of emphasis is needed. (p. 863)"
Bandura's career has been devoted to encouraging that shift.
2- Reconceptualization of Reinforcement
Bandura greatly broadens the definition of reinforcement. When people observe the outcomes of their own
behavior and the behavior of others, they develop hypotheses about the likely consequences of producing
that behavior in the future. This information then serves as a guide for subsequent behavior. Accurate
hypotheses produce successful performance, and inaccurate hypotheses lead to ineffective behavior.
(Notice the similarity to George Kelly's point about "construing replications) In other words, reinforcers
provide information about what a person must do in order to secure desired outcomes and to avoid
punishing outcomes. As a consequence, reinforcement can only occur when a person is aware of the
contingencies and anticipates that they will apply to future behavior. Humans' ability to anticipate outcomes
also accounts for the incentive value of reinforcers: "By representing foreseeable outcomes symbolically,
people can convert future consequences into current motivators of behavior. Most actions are thus largely
under anticipatory control" (Bandura, 1977b, p; 18). For Bandura, then, a reinforcer functions primarily as
"an informative and motivational operation rather than as a mechanical response strengthener" (1977b, p.
21). As a consequence, Bandura considers "regulation" to be a more appropriate term than "reinforcement."
Bandura also rejects the Skinnerian understanding of how reinforcement functions. In observational
learning, reinforcement serves as "an antecedent" rather than a "consequent" influence. That is, anticipated
reinforcement is one of several factors that can influence a person to pay attention to a model, and it can
also encourage a person to rehearse the behavior that has been observed.  From Bandura's point of view
reinforcement facilitates learning in an anticipatory manner by encouraging the observer to pay attention
and to rehearse the observed behavior. Bandura even proposes that direct reinforcement is not necessary in
order for learning to occur.
Bandura adds two other types of reinforcement to the classical concept of "direct reinforcement" as a
stimulus whose presence increases the frequency of occurrence for a behavior with which it is paired. First,
"self-reinforcement" occurs when an individual compares his or her own behavior to internal standard. If
the behavior meets those standards, the person may experience satisfaction, or pride, but if the behavior
violates or falls short of those standards the person responds with guilt, shame, or dissatisfaction.
Bandura is suggesting that any behavior produces two sets of consequences: self-evaluations and external
outcomes. External consequences have the greatest effect on behavior when they are compatible with self
generated consequences. Behavior is maintained by its consequences, but those consequences are not only
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externally applied.
As a second new type of reinforcement, Bandura suggests that "vicarious reinforcement" occurs when an
individual witnesses someone else experience reinforcing or punishing consequences for a behavior, and
that individual anticipates similar consequences if she or he produces the same behavior, Thus, an
individual may be reinforced without producing a behavior or experiencing a consequence. "Observed
consequences can change behavior in much the same manner as directly experienced consequences". Much
as Skinner had suggested that Thorndike's trial-and-error learning was an inefficient and unlikely way to
acquire complex behaviors, so Bandura suggests that Skinner's operant conditioning is an Impractical and
dangerous means for humans to acquire many behaviors. In contrast, most human behavior is learned
observationally by modeling: We observe the behavior of others and use the information as a guide for our
own subsequent behavior. We turn now to Bandura's description of modeling.
3- Principles of Observational Learning
Bandura (1962, 1977b, 1986) proposes that a fundamental way humans acquire skills and behaviors is by
observing the behavior of others. Such observational learning, or modeling, is governed by four constituent
processes: attention, retention, production, and motivation .
i- Attentional Process
People cannot learn anything unless they pay attention to and accurately perceive significant features of the
to-be-modeled behavior. We are most likely to pay attention to behaviors that are salient, simple, and
promise to have some functional value. As a consequence, a model that is vivid, attractive, competent, and
seen repeatedly is more likely to catch our attention. In addition, what a person notices is influenced by his
or her knowledge base and current orientation. The characteristics of the observers also determine how
much imitative behavior takes place in a given situation.
The characteristics of both the model and observer often jointly determine what will occur? A particularly
informative study showing the interplay of model and observer was performed by Hetherington and
Frankie (1967) with young children and their parents. The Investigators first determined by observing the
parents the degree of warmth and nurturance each expressed toward the child and which parent was
dominant in matters of child care. Subsequently, the child watched each parent play with toys and games
supplied by the investigator, following which the child was allowed to play with the same materials and the
amount of his or her Imitative behavior recorded. Children of both sexes were much more likely to imitate
a warm, nurturant parent than a cool or punitive one, but the largest effect was found with girls whose
mothers were warm. By and large, the dominant parent also commanded more Imitative behavior, although
when the father was dominant, girls imitated the mother somewhat more than the father.
ii-Retention Processes
A behavior cannot be reproduced unless we have remembered it by coding it in symbolic form. Retention
of observed behavior depends mainly upon mental Images and verbal representations. Memory can be
enhanced by organization of the material and by rehearsal. The material that is retained often is transformed
to correspond to some existing knowledge or expectation on the part of the learner.
iii-Production Process
The learner must be able to reproduce the behavior that has been observed. An observed behavior, no
matter how well it has been retained, cannot be enacted without the necessary skills and abilities.
Sometimes the production problem stems from a lack of the requisite cognitive or motor skills, but often It
reflects the performer's lack of feedback about what she or he actually is doing. This is true in learning
many athletic skills, but it also is a frequent problem with social behaviors. "It can be extremely
informative, and unnerving, to see or hear tapes of our own behavior. Trial and error, practice, and
feedback all contribute to what is often a gradual process of translating knowledge Into action.
iv- Motivational Processes
Bandura's social learning theory emphasizes the distinction between acquisition and performance because
people do not enact everything they learn. Performance of observed behavior is influenced by three kinds
of Incentives: direct, vicarious, and self-administered. A learned behavior will be enacted if it leads directly
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to a desired outcome, if it has been observed to be effective for the model, or if it is self-satisfying. In other
words, we are likely to produce a behavior if we believe that it is in our best interest to do so.
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Table of Contents:
  1. THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY THEORY:Objectives of Personality Psychology
  2. PERSONALITY MEASUREMENT:Observational Procedures, Rating Scales
  3. MAIN PERSPECTIVES:Psychometrics, observation, Behavioral Coding Systems
  4. SIGMUND FREUD: A PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY
  5. INSTINCT: WHAT MOTIVATES HUMAN BEHAVIOR?, The Oral Stage
  6. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF SIGMUND FREUD:The Ego, Free association
  7. THEORY OF CARL JUNG:Biographical Sketch, Principles of Opposites, The Persona
  8. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES:Childhood, Young Adulthood, Middle Ages
  9. ALFRED ADLER:Biographical Sketch, Individual Psychology, Feeling of Inferiority
  10. INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY:Fictional Finalism, Social Interest, Mistaken Styles of Life
  11. KAREN HORNEY:Adjustment to Basic Anxiety, Adjustment Techniques
  12. ADJUSTMENT TO BASIC ANXIETY:Moving Towards People, Moving Against People
  13. ERIK ERIKSON:Anatomy and Destiny, Ego Psychology, Goal of Psychotherapy
  14. ERIK ERIKSON:Human Development, Goal of Psychotherapy
  15. SULLIVAN’S INTERPERSONAL THEORY:Core Concepts, The Self-System
  16. SULLIVAN’S INTERPERSONAL THEORY:Cognitive Process, Tension
  17. CONSTITUTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY:The Structure of Physique, Evaluation
  18. SHELDON’S SOMATOTYPE THEORY:The Structure of Physique
  19. MASLOW’S THEORY:Self-Actualizers Aren't Angels, Biographical Sketch
  20. MASLOW’S THEORY:Basic Concepts of Humanistic Psychology, Problem Centering
  21. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Humanistic, Actualizing tendency
  22. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Fully functioning person
  23. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Client Centered Therapy,
  24. KELLY’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY THEORY:Biographical Sketch
  25. CORE CONCEPTS OF GEORGE KELLY’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY
  26. GORDON ALLPORT: A TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Personality as a
  27. GORDON ALLPORT: A TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Secondary Traits
  28. FACTOR ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY:Factor Analysis, The Nature of Personality
  29. FACTOR ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY:The Specification Equation, Research Methods
  30. HENRY MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY:Need, Levels of Analysis, Thema
  31. HENRY MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY (CONTINUED)
  32. ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
  33. ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:Reciprocal Determinism
  34. THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Core Concepts
  35. THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Innate Equipment
  36. SKINNER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Biographical Sketch, Books
  37. SKINNER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Positive Reinforcement, Generalization
  38. ALBERT ELLIS THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Biographical Sketch, Social Factors
  39. THE GRAND PERFECT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Genes and Biology
  40. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY:Dispositional
  41. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
  42. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY:Need
  43. THE GRAND THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Psychosexual Stages of Development
  44. PERSONALITY APPRAISAL:Issues in Personality Assessment
  45. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY: NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE DISCIPLINE