How do we understand people? Understanding what complex mechanisms, gears and subtleties trigger behavior or competition has always been one of the goals of psychology. Albert Bandura introduced the theory of social learning, taking a qualitative leap to talk for the first time about this interaction between the mind of the apprentice and the environment around him.
We must admit that most of us do not know how and how our children learn certain things, there are those who continue to see the teaching or acquisition of a certain skill as a result of the classical behavioral approach, based on imitations, conditionings and reinforcements that establish or correct a concept or behavior.
- “Learning is two-way: we learn from the environment and the environment learns and changes through our actions.
- -Albert Bandura-.
However, nothing is as complicated, complex and, at the same time, fascinating as an apprentice’s mind, a child’s brain or even an adult’s willingness to create a life. behavior or acquire some learning. Because none of us are just an empty box to fill based on external pressures and conditioning. People observe, imitate, develop in a particular social environment and, at the same time, have certain mental states that favor or hinder learning.
Albert Bandura, a Canadian psychologist and professor at Stanford University, addressed all these issues to formulate what we now call social learning theory, an approach in which behavioral and cognitive also find their perfect point of confluence so that we can deeply understand our own behavior.
Bandura’s theory of social learning is also known as observational or modeling learning. To better position ourselves, we must remember that we are in the 1960s, a time when the weight of behaviorism remained of particular importance and when learning was more designed as a simple shipment of information kits between a specialist and an apprentice. One sent and the other received, the specialist was the active nucleus and the apprentice the passive nucleus.
Albert Bandura, in turn, concentrated his interest and studies beyond this behavioral reductionism towards the social field, as did Lev Vygotsky himself with his sociocultural theory. What the famous Canadian psychologist was very clear about is that there were children who were taking certain lessons quickly. , without going through the classic trial and error phase. If this happened, it was because of something very simple and obvious: because of the observation and its social environment.
The experience of the Joo Bobo doll is one of the best known in the world of psychology. Throughout 1961 and 1963, Bandura and her team tried to demonstrate the importance of observational learning in children and how to imitate a model?An adult is more relevant to the little ones than simply offering or taking a booster to establish a behavior, an apprenticeship.
On the other hand, what Albert Bandura was also able to demonstrate with this experiment is that there are 3 forms of observational learning:
Social learning theory is often described as a ”bridge” between traditional learning theory (i. e. behavior) and cognitive focus. Bandura, unlike Skinner, has always given importance to mental (cognitive) factors in learning, defining “apprentices” as active subjects when processing information and assessing the relationship between their behavior and possible consequences.
“People who have little confidence in them believe that their achievements are due to external factors without their own abilities or abilities. -Albert Bandura-
Therefore, we should not make the mistake of thinking that people imitate everything they see and that absolutely all children will behave aggressively simply when watching violent scenes at home or on television, thoughts happen before imitation and there are mediators who promote imitation or an alternative response. .
Here are some of the mediators
Our society is neither egalitarian nor homogeneous, but it is constituted and produces, in turn, the most varied environments and scenarios, there are some more favorable, more positive and others more oppressive, let’s look at an example. Carlos is 11 years old and this year he has a new music teacher who teaches children to play the violin.
At first, Carlos was fascinated with this instrument, did he want to have one, know more? However, when he got home, a deconstructed and uncomfortable house, his father quickly came up with the idea. He yelled at the boy. Since then, Carlos has become disinterested in the violin.
For a behavior to be imitated, it must capture our attention, somehow awakening our interest and that of our mirror neurons. In our daily lives we observe many behaviors, but are they not all worthy of our interest?
Motivation is the driving force, it is the desire to achieve certain behaviors that we see in other people.
In conclusion, the theory of social learning has been one of the most interesting qualitative leaps in the field of psychology, so as not to make mistakes in stating that Albert Bandura remains, at 91, one of the most recognized, appreciated and award-winning personalities in this field.
Through it, we understand a little more how we acquire knowledge and perform certain behaviors, in which the external, the social, relates to our internal cognitive processes, and from which we also serve as a model for other people among us, often without realizing it.
References
Bandura, Albert, (1987)? Theory of social learning ?, Espasa Books
Bandura, Albert and Walters, Ruchards, (2004)?Social learning and personality development ?, Paidas.