Albert Bandura: Modeling Theory - Essay Example

? Albert Bandura: Modeling Theory al Affiliation Albert Bandura: Modeling Theory Albert Bandura’s social learning theory has emerged as one of the most influencing theories of learning and development. Whereas Bendura’s theory was based on the basic concepts of traditional learning, he strongly believed that direct reinforcement is not responsible for all forms of learning. It is then that he added the social element to his theory, asserting that individuals can learn new things and behaviors by merely watching other people (Bandura, 1986). This theory can be of great help in understanding, changing and predicting human behavior. Bandura’s modeling theory is based on three major principles. The first principle holds that individuals learning through observation. Bandura was able to prove this principle in his experiment christened ‘Bobo doll experiment’ where he observed that children learn and imitate what they others around them do (Bandura, 1986). This implies that, if a child observes one behaving well, the child will learn to behave well. However, if the child is exposed to bad behaviors, he or she will learn and imitate such bad behaviors. For instance, in his experiment, he observed that when the children who were exposed to seeing an adult act violently toward a Bobo doll, would later imitate the aggressive actions they observed in the adults, noted Bandura (2006). The second principle of the theory posits that the internal mental states play an important role in learning. In his experiment, Bandura observed that external environmental reinforcements were not the only factors that influence learning and behavior. Instead, he noted that intrinsic reinforcements are also influence learning and behavior (Bandura, 2006). The intrinsic reinforcements, according to Bandura include satisfaction, pride and a feeling of accomplishment. Lastly, the theory acknowledges that the fact that someone learns something does not necessarily result in a change in behavior (Bandura, 1986). Even though behaviorists believed that learning results in a permanent change in behavior, Bandura’s school of thought believed otherwise. In his theory, he believed that observational learning only shows that people are able to learn new things, without necessarily resulting in a change in behavior. Ways in which the theory address differences in gender and culture The modeling theory is regarded as being among the few theories that attempts to address gender and cultural differences. The theory considers gender identity and role as a set of behaviors that people learn from the environment. The theory posits that gender and cultural behavior is learned through observational learning (Bussey and Bandura, 1999). In this regard, children observe people who are around them behaving in some ways, which relates to gender and culture. Since children are very curious, they tend to watch the behaviors of some of these people and end up encoding the behaviors. They will then try to imitate the behaviors, which they have been observing. Bussey and Bandura (1999) noted that the children would imitate the behaviors, regardless of whether the behaviors are ‘gender and culture appropriate’ or not. However, several processes make it highly probable that a child will produce the behavior that its society considers appropriate for its sex. To begin with, it is highly likely that a child will attend to and imitate those individuals it considers as similar to itself. At the same time, a child is highly likely to imitate behaviors by people of the same sex as his or hers (Bussey and Bandura, 1999). This also applies to culture. The behaviors are then reinforced by people to ensure that the child learns appropriate gender and cultural behaviors. This assists in explaining why cultural and gender differences exist in the contemporary society. Does the theory present a comprehensive explanation of how personality develops? If so, how does it do this, if not, what is not explained? Personality development is one of the areas that have received considerable interest among theorists. Initially people were not able to tell how personality develops. However, this is no longer the case today, as many theories have been put forward from which we can learn how personality develops. One such theory is the modeling theory put forward by Albert Bandura. In his modeling theory, Bandura came up with the concept of observational learning as one of its core principle. This theory provides a comprehensive explanation of how personality develops. In his theory, Bandura claimed that reinforcement is the key mechanism and is responsible for the provision of information of the next reinforcement to be availed once a particular behavior is repeated. This helps in explain how personality in developed during an individual’s lifetime. In fact, Bandura noted that in order for a person to repeat an acceptable behavior, he or she must incorporate his or her intellectual process. This is contrary to Skiner’s school of thought, which posited that thinking only takes place inside a ‘black box.’ In this regard, Bandura did agree that whereas environment can cause behavior, the same also applies to behavior, which is also capable of causing behavior. This principle in his modeling theory is what is called reciprocal determinism (Sincero, 2012). This situation provides a good means of gleaning Bandura’s personality development. Take for example a situation where an adolescent depicts her aggressive personality train after being physically abused by her peers. When the individual expresses her personal anger by acting violently, this can elicit a higher level of fear inside the minds of his peers, thus resulting in a change in his environment (Sincero, 2012). After theorizing that an individual’s personality is revealed in the manner an individual behaves and that the environment belongs to a two-way process, Bandura went on to propose that a third element normally exist that must be taken into consideration in such kind of interaction. In this regard, Bandura proposed the psychological processes of an individual as a factor that need to be taken into consideration in personality development (Bandura (2006). Bandura argued that an individual’s ability to process images and languages and other sensory stimuli influences how an individual behaves, develop personality trait, thus, how we influence the environment. As such, it can be concluded with certainty that Bandura’s modeling theory provides a comprehensive explanation of how personality develops. In fact, Bandura has since been included among the cognitive behaviorists in the field of psychology. My thinking of the theory I truly agree with the theory, particularly in the way it explains how people learn new information. As aforementioned, the modeling theory by Bandura holds that we learn by watching what others around us do. In addition, it posits that human thought processes are critical to understanding personality. This is very true in the sense that we often see children learn by imitating what they see other people do around them. For example, a child who is exposed to violent behaviors during childhood is likely to exhibit such behaviors in the future. This is because they will consider behaving violently as an acceptable behavior, thus try to imitate. Bunda, the notorious serious killer, for example, once confessed of having acquired the violent behavior by imitating what he used to see in movies and the kind of life he was exposed to during his childhood. The same applies to a child who is exposed to good behaviors. In this regard, research has shown that a child who is well molded by parent during childhood is likely to posses’ good behaviors in the future. This is because they imitate and learn by observing what they parents do and say. This theory also provides a comprehensive explanation as regards how personality is developed. The theory posits that the ability of an individual to translate images and languages in the minds influences personality development. For example, a child learns a language by trying to imitate what he or she hears the people around speak. This explains why most children speak a language spoken by their parents. References Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. Hoboken, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Bandura, A. (2006). Psychological modeling: Conflicting theories. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Bussey, K., & Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation. Psychological Review, 106, 676-713. Sincero, S. M. (2012). Social cognitive theories of personality. Retrieved from http://explorable.com/social-cognitive-theories-of-personality. Read More