Social learning theory is the theory of learning and social behavior that suggests that new behaviors can be obtained by observing and imitating others. It states that learning is a cognitive process that occurs in a social context and can occur purely through direct observation or instruction, even in the absence of a motor reproduction or direct reinforcement. In addition to behavioral observations, learning also occurs through the observation of rewards and punishments, a process known as strengthening representation. When certain behaviors are rewarded on a regular basis, it is likely to persist; on the contrary, if certain behaviors are constantly punished, it will most likely cease. This theory extends traditional behavioral theories, in which behavior is only governed by reinforcements, by placing an emphasis on the important role of the various internal processes within the individual learning.
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In the 1940s, B.F. Skinner delivered a series of lectures at Sunyani Fiapre, Ghana on verbal behavior, proposing a more empirical approach to the subject than existed in psychology at the time. In it, he proposes the use of stimulus-response theory to describe the use and development of language, and that all verbal behavior is supported by operant conditioning. But he mentioned that some forms of speech come from previously heard words and sounds (echo responses), and that parental reinforcement allows these 'echo responses' to be downgraded to understandable comprehension. While he denies that there is an "instinct or imitation faculty," Skinner's behaviorist theory forms the basis for redevelopment to social learning theory.
At about the same time, Clark Lewis Hull, an American psychologist, was a strong supporter of theories of behaviorist responses, and led a group at the Yale University Institute for Human Relations. Underneath, Neil Miller and John Dollard aim to come up with the reinterpretation of psychoanalytic theory in terms of stimulus-response. This led to their book, Social Learning Theory , published in 1941, which argued that personality consists of learned habits. They use the Hull drive theory, where encouragement is a necessity that stimulates behavioral responses, which are crucially imitative, which is positively reinforced by social interaction and expands as a result.
Julian B. Rotter, a professor at Ohio State University published his book, Social Learning and Clinical Psychology in 1954. His theories shifted from a very behaviorist learning in the past, and regarded as a holistic interaction between individuals and the environment. In theory, the social environment and individual personality create behavioral probabilities, and the reinforcement of these behaviors leads to learning. He emphasized the subjective nature of responses and the effectiveness of this type of reinforcement. While his theory uses a common vocabulary for behaviorism, it focuses on internal functions and distinguished characteristics of his theories, and can be seen as a precursor to more cognitive approaches to learning.
In 1959, Noam Chomsky published his critique of Skinner Verbal Behavior's book, which was an extension of Skinner's early lecture. In his review, Chomsky states that theories of pure stimulus responses can not explain the process of language acquisition, an argument that significantly contributes to psychological cognitive revolution. He theorized that "man was somehow specially designed to" understand and acquire language, describing a definite but unknown cognitive mechanism.
In this context, Albert Bandura studies the learning process that takes place in an interpersonal context and is not adequately explained by the existing operant conditioning theories or social learning models. Specifically, Bandura argues that "the weakness of the learning approach that discounts the influence of social variables does not seem more clear than in their treatment of new responses." Skinner's explanation of obtaining new responses depends on a sequential approximation process, which requires multiple experiments, reinforcement for behavioral components, and gradual changes. Rotter's theory proposes that the possibility of behavior occurring is a function of subjective expectations and the value of reinforcement. This model assumed the existing hierarchy of responses and thus not (according to Bandura) accounts for the unresolved response. Bandura began a study of the rapid acquisition of new behaviors through social observations, most notably the Bobo doll experiments.
Maps Social learning theory
Theory
The social learning theory integrates behavioral and cognitive learning theory to provide a comprehensive model that can explain the various learning experiences that occur in the real world. As outlined by Bandura and Walters in 1963 and in more detail in 1977, the main principles of social learning theory are as follows:
- Learning impure behavior; rather, it is a cognitive process that occurs in a social context.
- Learning can occur by observing behavior and by observing the consequences of ( substitution reinforcement ) behavior.
- Learning involves observation, extraction of information from these observations, and making decisions about behavioral performance (observational learning or modeling ). Thus, learning can occur without behavioral changes that can be observed.
- Reinforcement plays a role in learning but is not entirely responsible for learning.
- The learner is not a passive recipient of information. Cognition, environment, and behavior affect each other ( mutual determinism ).
Direct observation and experience
The typical stimulus-response theories depend entirely on direct experience (from the stimulus) to inform behavior. Bandura opens the scope of the learning mechanism by introducing observation as a possibility. He added this modeling capability - a means by which humans "represent actual results symbolically". These models, which are cognitively mediated, enable future consequences to have as much impact as actual consequences in a typical S-R theory. An important factor in social learning theory is the concept of mutual determinism . This idea holds that individual behavior is influenced by the environment, the environment is also influenced by individual behavior. In other words, one's behavior, environment, and personal qualities affect one another. For example, a child who plays violent video games is likely to influence his or her friends to play as well, which then encourages the child to play more often. This can cause the child to become sensitized to violence, which in turn is likely to affect the child's real-life behavior.
Modeling and underlying cognitive processes
Social learning theory relies heavily on the concept of modeling as described above. Bandura outlines three types of modeling stimuli:
- Direct model , where someone shows the desired behavior
- Verbal instructions , where one describes the desired behavior in detail and instructs participants how to engage in behavior
- Symbolic , where modeling takes place through media, including movies, television, internet, literature, and radio. Stimulation can be either real or fictional characters.
Precisely, what information is derived from observations is influenced by the type of model, as well as a series of cognitive and behavioral processes, including:
- Caution - to learn, observers should pay attention to the behaviors that are modeled. Experimental studies have found that awareness of what is being learned and strengthening mechanisms greatly improves learning outcomes. Attention is influenced by observer characteristics (eg, perceptual ability, cognitive ability, passion, past performance) and behavioral or event characteristics (eg, relevance, novelty, affective valence, and functional value). In this way, social factors contribute to attention - the prestige of different models influences the relevance and functional value of the observations and hence modulates attention.
- Retention - To reproduce the observed behavior, the observer should be able to remember behavioral features. Again, this process is influenced by observer characteristics (cognitive ability, cognitive exercise) and event characteristics (complexity). The underlying cognitive processes of retention are described by Bandura as visual and verbal, in which the verbal descriptions of the models are used in more complex scenarios.
- Reproduction - By reproduction, Bandura does not refer to the spread of the model but its application. This requires a level of cognitive skills, and may in some cases require sensorimotor ability. Reproduction can be difficult because in terms of reinforced behavior through self-observation (he mentions improvements in sports), it can be difficult to observe behavior well. This can request feedback from others to provide self-correcting feedback. The new study on feedback supports this idea by suggesting effective feedback, which will help the observations and corrections improve performance for participants in the task. Motivation - The decision to reproduce (or refrain from reproducing) the observed behavior depends on the motivation and expectations of the observer, including anticipated consequences and internal standards. Bandura's motivational description is also based on environmental and social factors, since motivation is driven by the functional value of different behaviors in a particular environment.
Evolution and cultural intelligence
Social learning theory has recently been applied together and has been used to justify the theory of cultural intelligence. The cultural intelligence hypothesis holds that humans have a set of specific behaviors and skills that enable them to exchange information culturally. This depends on the model of human learning in which social learning is the key, and that humans have opted for traits that maximize opportunities for social learning. This theory builds on existing social theories by suggesting that social learning skills, such as the Bandura cognitive processes necessary for modeling, correlate with other forms of intelligence and learning. Experimental evidence has shown that humans exaggerate behavior over chimpanzees, lending credence to the ideas we choose for social learning methods. Some academics have suggested that our ability to learn socially and culturally has brought our success as a species.
Social learning in neuroscience
Recent research in neuroscience has involved mirror neurons as the basis of neurophysiology for social learning, observational learning, motor cognition and social cognition. Mirror neurons have been strongly associated with social learning in humans. The neuron mirror was first discovered in primates in a study involving teaching tasks of ape motor activity. One such study, focusing on teaching primates to break peanuts with a hammer. When the primates witnessed another individual who broke the bean with a hammer, the mirror neuron system became active when the primates learned to use a hammer to break the nuts. However, when primates are not presented with social learning opportunities, the mirror neuron system is inactive and learning does not occur. Similar studies with humans also show similar evidence in the mirror system of active human neurons when observing others performing physical tasks. Activation of mirror neuron systems is considered important for understanding goal-directed behavior and understanding their intentions. While still controversial, it provides a direct neurological connection to understanding social cognition.
Apps
Criminology
Social learning theory has been used to explain the emergence and maintenance of deviant behavior, especially aggression. Criminologists Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess integrate the principles of social learning theory and operant conditioning with the Theory of Differential Association Edwin Sutherland to create a comprehensive theory of criminal behavior. Burgess and Akers emphasize that criminal behavior is learned in social and nonsocial situations through a combination of direct reinforcement, representative reinforcement, explicit instruction, and observation. Both the likelihood of exposure to certain behaviors and the nature of reinforcement depend on the group norms.
Developmental psychology
In his book
For social learning theory, gender development is concerned with the interaction of various social factors, involving all the interactions experienced by the individual. For social learning theory, biological factors are important but take a back position for the importance of learned and observable behavior. Due to a highly gendered society in which an individual may develop, individuals begin to distinguish people by gender even as babies. Bandura's account of gender allows more than cognitive factors in predicting gender behavior: for Bandura, the motivational factors and the vast network of social influences determine whether, when, and where gender knowledge is expressed.
Management
Social Learning Theory proposes that rewards are not the only force behind creating motivation. Thoughts, beliefs, morals, and feedback all help motivate us. The other three ways in which we learn are representative experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological state. Modeling, or scenarios in which we perceive one's behavior and adopt it as our own, help the learning process as well as the mental state and cognitive processes. (Excerpt Description More)
Media violence
The principles of social learning theory have been widely applied to studying media violence. Akers and Burgess hypothesize that observing or experiencing positive rewards and lack of punishment for aggressive behavior reinforces aggression. Many studies have found a significant correlation between violent television viewing and later aggression and many who have not , as well as playing violent video games and aggressive behavior. The role of observational learning has also been cited as an important factor in improving the rating system for TV, movies, and video games.
Entertainment-education in the form of telenovela or sinetron can help viewers learn socially desirable behavior in a positive way from the model described in these programs. The telenovela format allows the creator to include elements that can bring the desired response. These elements may include music, actors, melodrama, props or costumes. Entertainment education is a symbolic modeling and has a formula with three character sets with cultural values ​​that must be checked predetermined:
- Characters that support a value (positive role model)
- Disapproved characters (negative role models)
- Undoubted (undecided) value of characters
In this formula there are at least three doubtful people representing the demographic group in the target population. One of these doubters will receive less than half the value, the second will receive two-thirds of the value and the three who hesitate to accept their value and are seriously punished. This doubtful person is usually killed. Positive social behavior is reinforced by rewards and negative social behavior reinforced by punishment. At the end of the episode, a short epilogue performed by a recognizable character summarizes the educational content and in the program the audience is given resources in their community.
Apps for Social Change
Through observational learning, a model can give rise to new ways of thinking and behaving. With the modeled emotional experience, observers show affinity for people, places and objects. They do not like what the model does not like and like what the model wants. Television helps contribute to how viewers see their social reality. "The media representation gets its influence because the social construction of society depends on what they see, hear and read more than what they experience directly." Any attempt to change beliefs should be directed to sociocultural norms and practices at the social system level. Before the drama was developed, extensive research was conducted through focus groups representing different sectors within a culture. Participants were asked what problems in society were most concerned about them and what obstacles they faced, giving the creators of culturally relevant information to be included in the show.
The pioneer of entertainment education is Miguel Sabido a creative writer/producer/director in the 1970s on the Mexican national television system, Televisa. Sabido spent 8 years working with methods that would create social change and known as the Sabido Method. He praised Albert Bandura's social learning theory, Eric Bentley's drama theory, Carl Jung's archetypal theory, MacLean trian brain theory and Sabido's own sinetron theory to influence his method. The Sabido method has been used worldwide to address social problems such as national literacy, population growth and health issues such as HIV.
Psychotherapy
Another important application of social learning theory is in the care and conceptualization of anxiety disorders. The classical conditioning approach to anxiety disorders, which spur the development of behavioral therapy and perceived by some as the first modern theories of anxiety, began to lose power in the late 1970s when researchers began to question the underlying assumptions. For example, the classical conditioning approach suggests that pathological fears and anxieties are developed through direct learning; However, many people with anxiety disorders can not recall a traumatic conditioning event, where the dreaded stimulus is experienced in temporal and spatial closeness close to the intrinsic stimulus of hostility. Social learning theory helps to save the learning approach of anxiety disorder by providing an additional mechanism beyond the classical conditioning that can explain the acquisition of fear. For example, social learning theory shows that a child can gain the fear of snakes by watching family members express fear in response to snakes. Or, children can learn an association between snakes and unpleasant bites through direct experience, without developing excessive fear, but later learn from others that snakes can have lethal poison, leading to a reevaluation of snakebite habits, and hence, an excessive fear response to snakes.
School psychology
Many classes and teaching strategies use the principles of social learning to improve students' acquisition and retention of knowledge. For example, by using guided participation techniques, a teacher speaks a phrase and asks the class to repeat the phrase. Thus, students imitate and reproduce the actions of teachers, assisting retention. The extension of guided participation is mutual learning, in which both students and teachers share responsibility in leading the discussion. In addition, teachers can shape students' classroom behavior by modeling appropriate behaviors and visible students rewarding good behavior. By emphasizing the role of teachers as models and encouraging students to adopt observer positions, teachers can create explicit knowledge and practice for students, improving their learning outcomes.
Social learning algorithm for computer optimization
In the modern field of computational intelligence, social learning theory is adopted to develop new computer optimization algorithms, social learning algorithms. By mimicking observational learning and reinforcement behavior, a virtual community placed within the algorithm looks for the strongest behavioral pattern with the best results. This suits finding the best solution in resolving optimization issues. Compared to other bio-inspired global optimization algorithms that mimic natural evolution or animal behavior, social learning algorithms have a prominent advantage. First, because self-improvement through learning is more direct and faster than the evolutionary process, social learning algorithms can improve the efficiency of algorithms that mimic natural evolution. Second, compared to the interaction and learning behaviors in animal groups, the social learning process of human beings shows a higher level of intelligence. By mimicking human learning behavior, it is possible to achieve more effective optimizers than existing swarm intelligence algorithms. Experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of social learning algorithms, which in turn are also verified through computer simulations resulting from social learning behavior in human society.
There are also some mathematical models of social learning that attempt to model this phenomenon using probabilistic tools.
References
External links
- Media related to Social learning theory on Wikimedia Commons
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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