COMM 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Carl Hovland, Motor Learning, Advantageous
Social (Observational) Learning Theory
Learning a new behavior involves observing and imitating that behavior being performed by another
person
• The model could be a real person, a filmed person, or even a fictitious character
Individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if :
• The model is similar to the observer (shared traits, history, background)
• The model has admired status (someone you look up to)
• The model is rewarded (cracking a joke and everyone laughs)
• The behavior has functional value (the ones who study get good grades compared to the
ones who don’t)
Kids pick up the positives and the negatives
Social Cognitive Theory
In 1977, Bandura’s book identified that a key element was missing from social learning theories: self-
beliefs.
- He assigned cognition a central role in human behavior…
- Social Cognitive theory: people are not just reactive organisms shaped and shepherded by
environmental events or inner forces, but self organizing, proactive, self reflective and self regulating.
• Triadic Reciprocal Causation: thought and behavior are determined by three factors that
influence each other with variable strength at the same or different times. Much more
realistic, dynamic and complicated than magic bullet theory
Distinct Cognitive Traits:
• Symbolizing capacity: symbols, such as words and letters, are utilized to represent specific
objects, thoughts or ideas. Symbols are the vehicles of thought. Allows people to store,
process and transform experiences for mental processes that will guide them in future actions
and decisions.
• Self-reflective capacity: the process of thought verification. People perform a self-check to
make sure his or her thinking is correct. People make sense of their experiences, explore own
cognitions and self-beliefs, and alter their thinking accordingly.
o Enactive
o Vicarious
o Social
o Logical
• Self-regulatory capacity: People have the ability to motivate themselves to achieve certain
goals. Adopted standard and perceived performance
o People evaluate their own behavior and respond accordingly
o The capacity provides the potential to self directed changes in behavior.
A duel control process:
Discrepancy reduction: you want to be a marathon runner; you can do things to reduce
discrepancy between who you are now and who you want to be
Discrepancy production: you can create discrepancy by stopping smoking.
• Vicarious capacity: people learn by observing the behavior of others without directly
experiencing it. Emphasizes potential contributions of mass media messages, positive: learn
beneficial things. Negative: learn antisocial behaviors.
Observational Learning/Modeling/Social Learning
A person observes other people’s actions and the consequences of those actions, and learns from
what has been observed. Concerns long-term effects. Most commonly invoked theory to explain
televisions effects on learning behaviors.
Bandura’s Bobo Doll Studies
• Studies what happens between observations and behaviors
• How lady models beating the doll created violent behavior. Exposure to aggressive modeling
made young ids violent.
• In defense, violent video games would say that kids can take out their aggression on games
rather than real life, but Bandura’s experiment proved this wrong.
Four component processes to Modeling:
• Attention: individuals cannot learn much by observation unless they perceive and attend to
the significant features of the modeled behavior. Attention depends on
o Message characteristics: salience and attractiveness
o Perceived functional value of the action
o Ones goals and interests
o Ones cognitive skills
• Retention: modeled behavior must be remembered or retained in order to be used again.
Understand and remember. Retention involved:
o Cognitive rehearsal
o Elaboration: comparing the action to already existing thoughts relevant to the action
o Filing the behavior into long-term memory
• Motor Reproduction: natural athletic ability or superior motor memory of beginner
determines length of time until master. Learning a behavior does not lead automatically to
replicating it.
o Self efficacy- belief that one can enact the behavior before the attempt
Document Summary
Learning a new behavior involves observing and imitating that behavior being performed by another person. The model could be a real person, a filmed person, or even a fictitious character. Individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if : The model is similar to the observer (shared traits, history, background) The model has admired status (someone you look up to) The model is rewarded (cracking a joke and everyone laughs) The behavior has functional value (the ones who study get good grades compared to the ones who don"t) Kids pick up the positives and the negatives. In 19 , bandura"s book identified that a key element was missing from social learning theories: self- beliefs. He assigned cognition a central role in human behavior . Social cognitive theory: people are not just reactive organisms shaped and shepherded by environmental events or inner forces, but self organizing, proactive, self reflective and self regulating.
