Behavioral and Social Learning
Behavioral and Social Learning
In this paper I will discuss the behavioral and social learning approaches to personality, review one of my bad habits, discuss the social learning theory, and decide which theory best describes me.
Behavioral and Social Learning Approach
Behaviorism, is the key approach in psychology, is based on the belief that people act the way they do because of conditioning. This means that there is no mental state of the individual and that the learning is based on the environment. It was believed that the way people behavied was because of conditioning. On way of conditioning was operant conditioning and that is “behavior is changed by its consequences” (Friedman, p. 198). This means that by shaping an individual by them knowing if they act a certain way there was a specific consequence for them acting that way. Classical conditioning is where a natural act is paired with a natural reponse. For example, when you walk into a bakery and smell all that fresh bread or pasteries then you immediately become hungry.
Socialism theory is based on people watching other people and learning from them. There are some basic models for observational learning; a live model, a verbal model, and a symbolic model. The live model is an actual person doing the behavior. A verbal model is someone describing the behavior. A symbolic model is real or fictional people on TV, films, programs doing the behavior. Using the social theory an individual must be; attentive, be able to retain the knowledge, reproduce what was learned, and be motivated.
These two behaviors are different in the way that they are learned by people. I agree the behaviorist approach uses the environmental influences to learn and that it people will learn from the consequences for them acting a certain way. Children are taught if they break the rules that they will be grounded. So hopefully they would learn from those consequences. Some of the limits with this theory, that I agree with, are
In this paper I will discuss the behavioral and social learning approaches to personality, review one of my bad habits, discuss the social learning theory, and decide which theory best describes me.
Behavioral and Social Learning Approach
Behaviorism, is the key approach in psychology, is based on the belief that people act the way they do because of conditioning. This means that there is no mental state of the individual and that the learning is based on the environment. It was believed that the way people behavied was because of conditioning. On way of conditioning was operant conditioning and that is “behavior is changed by its consequences” (Friedman, p. 198). This means that by shaping an individual by them knowing if they act a certain way there was a specific consequence for them acting that way. Classical conditioning is where a natural act is paired with a natural reponse. For example, when you walk into a bakery and smell all that fresh bread or pasteries then you immediately become hungry.
Socialism theory is based on people watching other people and learning from them. There are some basic models for observational learning; a live model, a verbal model, and a symbolic model. The live model is an actual person doing the behavior. A verbal model is someone describing the behavior. A symbolic model is real or fictional people on TV, films, programs doing the behavior. Using the social theory an individual must be; attentive, be able to retain the knowledge, reproduce what was learned, and be motivated.
These two behaviors are different in the way that they are learned by people. I agree the behaviorist approach uses the environmental influences to learn and that it people will learn from the consequences for them acting a certain way. Children are taught if they break the rules that they will be grounded. So hopefully they would learn from those consequences. Some of the limits with this theory, that I agree with, are
References: Friedman, H. & Schustack, M. (2009) Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research. 4th Edition. Psychology.about.com. (2010) Retreived on July 26, 2010 from http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/sociallearning