Describe and evaluate the social learning theory. Refer to evidence in your answer. The social learning theory believes the our behaviour is learnt through our environmement, and that it is the people around us that teach us our behaviour. Social learning theorist believe that behaviour is learnt in steps and that factors including reinforcement, motivation as well as mediating cognitive factors, effect whether the behaviour is repeated or not. Firstly, the child observes a model displaying a certain behaviour.
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory suggests that acts of aggression are learnt through the observation of role models. His original “Bobo Doll” study showed that when exposed to aggressive behaviour small children copied this behaviour, not just by being physically aggressive but even copying the verbally aggressive behaviour. However this study focuses on children who are supposed to learn in this manner, this doesn’t demonstrate that this would also be true in older children or adults who already have a set moral compass that would interfere with copying aggressive behaviours. However Bandura’s later study showed that if children saw someone get punished for aggressive behaviour they were less likely to be aggressive themselves when they were allowed to play with the bobo doll but if they saw someone get rewarded for this aggressive behaviour then they were much more likely to act aggressively themselves, this shows that vicarious reinforcement is important to the learning of aggression through the social learning theory, as receiving direct positive reinforcement leads to people having high self efficacy making them very likely to repeat the aggressive behaviour that they were rewarded for. In terms of aggression this reward could come in many forms such as acceptance from a violent gang they want to be a part of or just attention from a parent or teacher.
Praise and Punishment: The Effects on Children -Jessica Broome We cannot teach children how to be successful adults by simply finding ways to make them obedient. When children do what they are told simply because they will either be rewarded or punished, they are being “obedient”. We want children to practice good behavior even when we are not there to offer a reward or dole out a punishment. As suggested by “insufficient punishment”, children will only change their behavior temporarily when the punishment is severe. This is also true of rewards.
Outline one Social Psychological Theory of Aggression Aggression is the intent to harm someone through verbal or physical actions. Bandura was the founder of Social Learning Theory (SLT) which suggests that children learn aggressive behaviour by observing other’s acting aggressively. They learn through either direct reinforcement, where the individual themselves are rewarded or punished for their own behaviour, or through watching others being rewarded or punished for their aggressive acts, (vicarious reinforcement). As a result, aggressive behaviour may repeat if a child receives a reward or witnesses a role model getting positively reinforced after committing an aggressive act and consequently imitates this behaviour to also seek the reward. SLT is supported by Bandura et al (1963), who found that children who observed an adult role model behaving aggressively towards a Bobo doll were more likely to reproduce these behaviours when later allowed to interact with the doll alone, children even improvised their own violent methods towards the doll.
Being objective means children are not generalized or stereotyped, this is important as if children are labeled they live up to them and problems occur, e.g. if someone stereotypes a colored child because of their opinions on their race or culture then the child could potentially result in being exactly how you stereotyped them, whereas this could be changed if you didn’t. To get reliable results you can’t take the child’s family background, skin color, culture background etc into consideration as the results are then biased. As objectivity is proven to lead to reliable results where we can compare results with other studies and analyze the different views to make your results and conclusions stronger. Through observation we assess where children are in terms of developmental stages and therefore provide the best possible care for it in a scientific manner.
This method is wrong because it had bad consequences. Parents can use the correct method of education when the child baby. Many parents never learned from their own childhood that there are positive ways of relating to children. For example when punishment does not accomplish the desired goals, and if the parent is unaware of alternative methods, punishment can escalate to more frequent and dangerous actions against the child. Parents believe that beating is a means of discipline and kind of education.
Spanking may stop the child then and there, but there’s a cost emotionally and cognitively to a child, and over the long run, it doesn’t usually lead to the child learning not to repeat the behavior that resulted in the spanking in the first place. It can also lead to the child learning to behave because of fear, not because of respect. (Cantu) Spanking a child results in them being afraid, and that hitting is the way you handle conflict. Instead, send a message to your child such as, “I love you and I can’t let you do that.” Children can learn best by mimicking their parents’ ability to control themselves, and parents can be models by using calm, firm and neutral discipline” (Cantu). Spanking is a form of abuse that people tend to turn a blind eye to.
Reinforcement is used to help increase the probability that a specific behavior will occur in the future by delivering a stimulus immediately after a response or behavior is exhibited Each category has benefits when appropriately used, but can easy turn into abuse or neglect. Three major types of reinforcement are physical, verbal, and resource driven, each can be manipulated into positive or negative. In today’s society is it frowned upon to physically discipline your children, either spanking or smacking. It is viewed as a barbaric action. However unpopular it is, distinct differences can be observed between children who have been physically negatively reinforced and those who have not.
Lev Vygotsky’s theory was based on social/emotional development needs to show demonstration/imagination to allow a child to progress. His belief was based on the kinaesthetic technique as he believed that when children observe someone that is more advanced than them they learn from them and imitate their actions. Lev Vygotsky“...suggested that this silent inner speech and spoken social speech are connected...” (Meggitt et al, 2012. P.80). It is critical to link his theory to practice as it encourages/allows children to communicate with other children using their social skills which they have developed and allows children to build self-confidence.
Sorob Wadood p. 2 FRQ Rewrite A. Skinners Operant Conditioning is a type of learning in which an individuals behavior is modified by its consequences; the behavior may change in form, frequency, or strength. B. Banduras social learning theory is a perspective that stated people learn through social context. It is facilitated through concepts such as observational learning and modeling. People, especially children learn from environment and through influential models. C.Ainsworths attachment theory describes long term relationships between humans.