School as Social System

The Social-Learning Approach (Albert Bandura) * The Social-Learning Approach to personality, represented in this section by the work of ALBERT BANDURA. * Like Skinner, Bandura focuses on overt behavior rather than on needs, traits, drives, or defense mechanisms. * He observed the behavior of human research participants in social settings, whereas Skinner dealt with animal subjects in individual settings. * He argues that we cannot expect data from experiments that involve no social interaction to be relevant to the everyday world, because few people truly function in social isolation. * He also stresses that virtually all forms of behavior can be learned without directly experiencing any reinforcement.

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING - Learning new responses by observing the behavior of other people.

VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT – Learning or strengthening a behavior by observing the behavior of others.

Modelling: The basis of Observational Learning “ Learning can occur through observation or example rather than a solely by direct reinforcement.”

MODELLING – A behavior modification technique that involves observing the behavior of others (the models) and participating with them in performing the desired behavior.

In Bobo doll studies, children exhibited aggressive behavior after observing an aggressive model.

DISINHIBITION - The weakening of inhibitons or constraints by observing the behavior of a model.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MODELLING SITUATION * The characteristics of the models * The characteristics of the observers * The reward consequences associated with the behaviors
Characteristics of the models. The characteristics of the models affect our tendency to imitate them. Other characteristics of the model that affect imitation are AGE and SEX.

Characteristics of the observers. The attributes of the observers also determine the effectiveness of observational learning.
The reward consequences associated with