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Beyond Behaviorism
The Role of Cognitions
Modern Social-Cognitive Theory
• Latent Learning - Tolman et al
• Observational Learning - Bandura et al
• Perceptions and Interpretations of events Eron, Anderson and Dill
• Motivating Beliefs - goals, expectations
confidence, doubt etc. - Rotter, Bandura…
Latent Learning
• Tolman and Honzik
(1930) conducted their
experiments with the
rats.
• Group 3 demonstrated
latent learning.
• Much of our learning
remains latent until
circumstances allow or
require it to be
expressed.
Observational Learning
• Albert Bandura
• Observational
Learning
• Emphasizes the
knowledge that results
when a person sees a
model behave in a
certain way.
An Example
• In January of 1996
Cynthia Sikes a
instrumental teacher
and Alto Saxophone
jazz musician told the
NY Times that little
girls are asking to play
the saxophone
Observational Learning in Children
• Elizabeth Hanna and Andrew Meltzoff (1993) worked with
toddlers using specially designed toys.
• They found babies who observed other babies play with
the toys learned faster than those who did not.
So what does it all mean?
• According to social-cognitive learning
theory, what we learn in observational
learning, as in latent learning, is not a
specific response, but knowledge about
responses and consequences.
• This knowledge allows us to be creative and
flexible in reaching goals.
The Power of Perceptions
• Social-cognitive learning theory also emphasize
the importance of people’s perceptions and what
they learn or how they behave.
• There is abundant evidence that movies and
television programs are powerful in shaping
values, attitudes, and beliefs.
• “there is absolutely no doubt that higher levels of
viewing violence on television are correlated with
increased acceptance of aggressive attitudes and
increased aggressive behavior” (APA
Commission on Violence and Youth, 1993)
TV Violence and Aggressive
Behavior.
• Leonard Eron (1995) has
conducted longitudinal
research on the issue of
television and violence.
• TV violence seems to lead
to later violence by
establishing, attitudes,
norms of behavior and
aggressive solutions to
problems.
Violence and Video Games
• Craig Anderson and Karen Dill (2000) look
at violence in video games and determine
they also have an impact.
• “The games, they note, provide a complete
social-cognitive “learning environment” for
aggression: violent models, reinforcement,
and the opportunity to rehearse aggressive
behavior…”
Delinquency and Video Games
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Anderson and Dill
(2000)
Questions?
• Other psychologists believe the relationship
between media and violence and real
violence is not as strong as it would appear.
(Bushman, 1995 and Freedman, 1988)
• First, Children watch many different
programs and movies.
• Critics believe that cause and effect work in
the opposite direction.
Motivating Beliefs
• Motivation - in psychology it is any process that
causes a person or animal to move toward a goal
or away from an unpleasant situation.
• Behaviorists would say that motivation is just a
result of reinforcers.
• Social-cognitive theory would believe that
motivation is because of internalized and selfdirected forces.
Locus of Control
• Julian Rotter (1966, 1982, 1990)
• Clients of Rotter’s had troubling emotions
and irrational beliefs which led to
entrenched attitudes affecting decisions.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy - the persons
expectations lead to behavior that makes the
prediction come true.
Locus of Control
• Predictive Formula. Behavior
Potential (BP), Expectancy (E)
and Reinforcement Value (RV)
can be combined into a
predictive formula for behavior:
• BP = f(E & RV)
• behavior potential (BP) is a
function () of expectancy (E)
and reinforcement value(RV).
• Internal vs. External Locus of
Control
Explanatory Style
• Martin Seligman (1991)
• Optimistic or Pessimistic Explanatory Style.
• Depends on the following:
Pessimistic Explanatory
Style
•Internal (It’s my
fault)
•Stable (This is going
to last forever)
•Global ( It effects
everything I do)
Optimistic Explanatory
Style
•External (I couldn’t
have done anything)
•Unstable (Things will
improve)
•Limited (This is only
one thing in my life.)
Optimism vs. Pessimism
• Optimism is a
tremendous predictor
of success.
• Optimists focus on
what they can do not
what they feel.
• Optimism is a
predictor of stress
recovery (Hurricane
Andrew)
Self-Efficacy
• Albert Bandura
• Self-efficacy is the conviction that you can
successfully accomplish what you set out to do.
• Research in North America, Europe and Russia
found it effects the following:







How well tasks are performed
Level of persistence in pursuit of goals
Career choice
Solution to complex problems
Health habits
Athletic performance
Overall response to stress.
Moral Reasoning
Is it the same as moral behavior?
Kohlberg and Piaget
• Kohlberg and by attribution, Piaget believed
that children are born ‘amoral’ or without
morals
• Kohlberg believes moral reasoning is
developed in a predictable way.
• Kohlberg believed there are predictable,
specific and identifiable stages. (relates to
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development)
Kohlberg - Piaget
•
Level I; Preconventional/
Premoral
 Stage 1 Obedience and punishment
orientation
 Stage 2 Naively egoistic
orientation
•
Level II: Conventional/Role
conformity
 Stage 3 Good-boy/good-girl
orientation
 Stage 4 Authority and social-ordermaintaining orientation
•
Level III: Postconventional/SelfAccepted Moral Principles


Stage 5 contractual/legalistic orientation
Stage 6 The morality of individual
principles of conscience.
“The child can internalize the moral values of
his parents and culture and make them his
own only as he comes to relate to these
values to a comprehended social order and to
his own goals as a social self.”
Kohlberg (1964)
Kohlberg - morality is acquired in developmental
stages (These stages are precise and formal)
Kohlberg on Stages
Kohlberg - “structural moral stages in childhood and
adolescence”
1. Each stage is a uniquely different kind of moral
thinking- not just an increased understanding of an adult
concept of morality;
2. The stages always occur in the same step by step
sequence so that no stage is ever skipped and there is
never a backward ‘progression’ (regression)
3. The stages are prepotent, meaning children comprehend
all the stages below their own and possibly some
understanding of no more than one stage above.
Kohlberg
• “Children are incapable of understanding
higher stages, regardless of encouragement,
teaching or practice. The prefer to function
at the highest stage they have reached.”