Applying Social Learning Theory to a Character Analysis

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Applying Social Learning Theory To A Character Analysis The Canadian social theorist Albert Bandura maintains that the origins of complex thinking generates from social interaction, and coins the terms observational learning, modeling, and self-efficacy in the learning process (Bandura, Grusec, & Menlove, 1966). Boyd and Bee (2006) described Bandura’s three types of social learning behaviors. First, observational learning is watching someone else perform some action (The student watches the teacher). Second, modeling is performing some action for someone else (The teacher shows the student). Third, self-efficacy is acquiring expectations about what we can and cannot do. In the novel, The Color Purple, the main character, Celie, learns from her sister Nettie. Although, forbidden to do so, Nettie secretly teaches Celie to read and write. It is through strength and endurance that Celie is able to achieve self-sufficiency. Observational learning, modeling, and self-efficacy explain Celie’s motivation, learning process, and decision-making from an andragogical point of view. Celie The Color Purple reveals the harsh life of Celie, a 14 year old African American girl growing up in rural Georgia, from 1909 to 1949. In a series of letters to God and to her sister Nettie, Celie tells the story of her life, ranging from the trauma of sexual abuse as a child to her success and wealth as an adult. Celie’s Motivation to Learn Knowles, Horton, and Swanson (2005) described the need for a better quality of life and the opportunity to self-actualize as factors of andragogical motivation (p. 294-295). Celie, living in a male dominated society that does not value a female except as a sexual object and a laborer, has a need for a better quality of life. She is denied an education and is expected to stay home and take care of the father and house, while Nettie
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