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Observational Learning
Unit 6
 Learning

A relatively permanent change in an organism’s
behavior due to experience.
 Types

Associative Learning



of Learning
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Observational Learning
 Observational


Learning
Learning by observing others.
Also called social learning.
 Modeling

The process of observing and imitating a specific
behavior.
 Experiment

A research method in which an investigator
manipulates one or more factors to observe the
effect on some behavior or mental process.
 Guinness
 Mirror
Book of World Records Video Clip
Neurons Video Clip Part I
 Mirror Neurons Video Clip Part II
 Major
Contributions

self-efficacy

reciprocal
determinism

Bobo Doll
Experiment
 Bobo

Doll Experiment
Children exposed to the model, imitated the
same acts and words they observed in the model.
 Bobo
Doll Experiment Video Clip
 Prosocial
Effects

Positive and helpful models can promote similar
behavior in others.

Examples:



Reading to children
Nonviolent action - Gandhi and MLK, Jr.
European Christians who risked their lives to rescue
Jews from the Nazis usually had a close relationship
with at least one parent who modeled strong moral or
humanitarian concern.
 Consistency

Models are most effective when their actions and
words are consistent.
 Hypocrisy


Many models use the “Do as I say, not as I do”
principle.
Children will tend to imitate the hypocrisy by
doing what the model did and saying what the
model said.
 Antisocial

Nature & Nurture


Effects
Aggression can be genetic, but it is environmental.
Television


Models bullying, sex without consequences, men are
tough, women are gentle, etc.
Reflects culture’s mythology not its reality.
 During
the late twentieth century, the
average child viewed 8000 TV murders and
100,000 other acts of violence before
finishing elementary school.

Does not include cable programming or video
rentals.
 In
an analysis of more than 3000 network and
cable programs aired in the 1996-97 season:





Nearly 6 in 10 featured violence
74% of the violence went unpunished
58% did not show victim’s pain
Nearly half the incidents involved “justified”
violence
Nearly half involved an attractive perpetrator
 In
the U.S. and Canada, homicide rates
doubled between 1957 and 1974, just when
TV was introduced and spreading.
 White
South Africans were first introduced to
TV in 1975. A similar near-doubling of the
homicide rate began after 1975.

Elementary
school
children with
heavy
exposure to
media
violence (via
TV, videos,
and
videogames)
also tend to
get into more
fights.
What can we conclude about TV, video
games, and other media?
 Correlation

A measure of the extent to which two factors
vary together, and thus how well either factor
predicts the other.
As “A”
Increases
“B”
Increases
As “A”
Increases
“B”
Decreases

We see a pattern or a relationship between
viewing violence and acting violently, but we
cannot determine that one causes the other.
Viewing
Violent TV
Increases
Violent
Behavior
Increases
Violent
Behavior
Increases
Viewing
Violent TV
Increases