Download Albert Bandura Paper

Marie Lahm
July 17, 2016
Psychology of Learning
Albert Bandura Project
Albert Bandura was born December 4, 1925 in Mundare, Canada, (McLeod). He
was one of six kids, the youngest, and grew up in a very small town. The town was so
small that there were only two teachers and children really had to want to learn. “The
students had to take charge of their own education,” (Bandura). In 1949 Bandura
graduated from the University of British Colombia with a degree in Psychology and he
was awarded the Bolocan Award which was an annual award for the best student in
Psychology, (McLeod). This school was home to other great Psychology leaders like
Clark Hull and Kurt Lewin. By 1952 Bandura was receiving his Ph.D. in clinical
psychology from the University of Iowa. This was just the beginning to Bandura’s long
career in Psychology. He would go on to become a great teacher, writer, and leader in
his findings of a new learning theory.
Albert Bandura went on to teach at Stanford University shortly after earning his
Ph.D., (McLeod). He became chairman for the psychology department and continues to
work at Stanford to this day, (McLeod). Bandura not only teaches his students day in
and day out, but has gone on to teach the world about learning. His findings on social
learning are still being taught today because they are so important and impact
everyone.
Bandura’s social learning theory, “stressed the importance of observational
learning, imitation, and modeling,” (McLeod). His theory is based on a continuous
interaction between behaviors, cognitions, and the environment, (McLeod). Bandura
stated, “learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous if people
had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do,”
(Bandura 1977). He believed that our behavior is learned from our environment through
the process of observation. His theory strays away from Skinners because Bandura
believed that as humans, “we think about the consequences of our behavior before we
do it,” (McLeod). “Bandura believes that humans are active processors and think about
the relationship between their behavior and its consequences,” (McLeod). We cannot
observe unless our cognitive processes are working.
This theory was evidenced with Bandura’s famous bobo doll experiment in 1961.
In this experiment thirty-six boys and thirty-six girls were the test subjects. The children
observed were all between the ages of three to six. These children were watched before
the video to see how initially aggressive they were and were rated on a scale from zero
to five, (McLeod). The children were shown a video of a woman acting extremely
aggressive towards a bobo doll. The woman was cursing and hitting the doll, (McLeod).
The children were then placed in a room that contained a bobo doll and immediately
they proceeded to imitate the woman’s actions from the video. The children were
aggressive, cursing and hitting, (McLeod). None of these kids were coerced or told do
this they were all just imitating what they had observed. The results of this experiment
showed that children imitate, that boys imitated more physically aggressive than girls,
and that boys were more likely to imitate same sex models than girls, (McLeod).
The bobo doll experiment supported Bandura’s social learning theory. It proved
that the process of observational learning is through watching the behavior of another
person. Bandura believes that children imitate models or, “individuals that are
observed,” (McLeod). There are many models for children while they’re growing up.
Children are influenced by their parents, peers, teachers, and characters on television.
These models influence a child’s behavior that they will proceed to imitate.
A child will most likely imitate an individual they perceive to be most similar to
itself. For example a boy would be more likely to imitate his father or another male
figure in his life. The child will then imitate the models behavior and see how it is
received by his audience, (McLeod). If the behavior is received with reinforcement than
the child will continue to imitate this behavior and if the behavior is met with punishment
than the behavior will stop and not be continued, (McLeod). The next factor the child will
take into consideration when imitating is, “what will happen to other people when
deciding whether or not to copy someone’s actions,” (McLeod). This thought process of
whether or not your actions will hurt someone else is called vicarious reinforcement.
“Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling, from
observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are formed, and on a later
occasion this coded information serves as a guide for action,” (Bandura). Bandura
believes for effective modeling their needs to be four conditions involved. Attention is
the first condition and how much attention was paid. Retention or how much you
remember from what you paid attention to which requires cognitive organization,
(McLeod). The next condition is reproduction or your ability to reproduce the image, and
last condition is your motivation, (McLeod). Do you have a good reason to imitate the
behavior?
Bandura’s social learning theory is extremely important because it proves that
not all learning is through the result of conditioning. His theory shows that you can learn
simply by observing the actions of others. His theory added a new social element known
as observational learning. He showed that intrinsic reinforcement such as pride
“connects learning theories to cognitive developmental theories,” (McLeod). He also
proved that learning does not always lead to a change in behavior. Other behaviorist’s
believed that conditioning leads to a permanent change in behavior. “Observational
learning demonstrates that people can learn new information without demonstrating
new behaviors,” (McLeod).
Bandura is a leader in proving that behaviors are not simplistic. That it is a
complex process that involves observation. His theory is still discussed and used today.
It proved to us that as adults we greatly influence our children. If nothing else Bandura
has proven that if a child grows up with aggression they will be aggressive. How we act
as adults is crucial to how our kids act. We are not simply just being watched, we are
being observed, and indirectly teaching our children how to behave and handle certain
situations. It is our responsibility to serve as a good role model and to protect our kids
from the constant violence on the television because it will have a great impact on a
child’s future. Bandura’s social learning theory will never be forgotten and has taught us
a great deal of our actions. Teachers and parents actions are more important than we
even know.
Works Cited
McLeod, S.A. (2014).Bobo Doll Experiment. Retrieved from
www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html.