Forms of Learning the Human - Essay Example

Learning
Human behaviors often depend upon the experiences that they go through with the passage of time as people grow up. This is the reason why some people develop a liking for something that they used to dislike earlier and vice versa (Singh, Sharma & Upadhya, pp.230-232, 2008). Considering this simple example, we will proceed with explaining different theories that revolve around this concept.

For instance, if a person practices something in response of which, s/he gets an awarding response; this acts as a healthy motivating factor. It also makes the person repeat the same behavior multiple times in order to receive some kind of constructive response. Gradually, the person gets into the habit of integrating the same in daily life. This theory is widely known as habituation. In the same way, according to the theory, if something does not prove rewarding, there are genuine possibilities of humans quitting that practice because it is a human instinct to chase motivation and patting in order to move on (Rather, pp.149-150. 2007).

One of the other simpler forms of learning is through imitation. The gist of the theory states that when human beings are exposed to a novel environment, possibly confusing and difficult to handle, to which they do not have any idea about how to get through it; they start experimenting.

These experimentations are collectively known as trial and error in which multiple trials are made to get through the scenario in a drive to analyze and judge (Rather, pp. 150-152, 2007), which one proves to be constructive. Since usually, many of the experiments implicated over human beings are physically tested over animals like rats, cats, etc., having similar attributes, Thorndike did the same. Upon experimenting, it was proved that when factors like drive to strive, presence of the desired goal, obstacles are present animals have the instinct of thriving and taking chances in the hope to make one successful move, at the least. Thus, he explains that learning is when we come across multiple failures while we are thriving for something with strong purposes and with a goal to achieve success. The errors thus, teach humans not to repeat the same practice to avoid having further failures.

Considering the stances of Albert Bandura (Shaffer, pp. 45-50, 2009) on the same concept, we realize that contradicting many theorists who believe in adjusting results of experiments made on animals to that of humans; he contradicts it. He proposes that since human beings are cognitive beings; they have the power to reason, think, analyze and make decisions, thus, they are likely to make relationships between what they do and what results they get. Their cognitions are developed according to the reasons they start believing in since their childhood and think of them as valid. These cognitions are also dependent on the possible prejudices that they develop on the basis of their family background and culture. Thus, confronting a situation a person acts according to the cognition he has developed over time; influenced by his education, reasons, and prejudices. Moreover, observational processes that propose that humans learn by observing also cannot be active unless cognition is put to work.

Bandura’s social learning theory (Shaffer, pp. 45-50, 2009) suggests that people learn from the environment they live in. Therefore, their behavior reflects what is appreciated and acknowledged by the people who live in their surroundings. For instance, a person holding a kind of high esteem in the eyes of people among whom he lives; his behavior would reflect what is appreciable by others. In the struggle to develop himself according to those people, he will become habitual of certain traits and would leave the ones that might bring down his reputation and persona (Shaffer, pp. 45-50, 2009).

With the passage of time there two major factors influence the behaviors of humans; are motivation and success. Motivation covers both the domains; intrinsic and extrinsic. A drive and an effort could only be worthy of the person making it desires to do that.