Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Describe your personal development through the lifespan. Include:
The major developmental theory you chose, it’s theorist, and the tenets of the theory;
Social Learning Theory – Albert Bandura
- People learn from one another via observation, imitation and modeling
- Bridge between behaviorist and cognitive theories
- Encompasses attention, memory and motivation
- Continuous reciprocal action between cognitive, environmental and behavioral influences
- Conditions for effective modeling:
- Attention
- Retention
- Reproduction
- Motivation
- Reciprocate Determinism –the world, and a person’s behavior cause each other
- Personality considered as an interaction between the environment, behavior and one’s psychological processes
- Related to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
- The applicability of the theory, as it relates, to your own development paying attention to different stages of development;
- ATTENTION
- I was very interested in reading. A variety of subjects and a readily available source of books kept my interest. My father made sure that we were members of various children’s book clubs so I had new books monthly
- RETENTION
- I was always relatively gifted in remembering things I had read or heard, particularly phone numbers and song lyrics. I stored useful information from books to draw upon later, and can remember the exact moment I read it as a child or adolescent.
- REPRODUCTION
- I was raised primarily in a single-parent home by my father who was an avid reader.
- I enjoyed reading and was skilled at it, therefore I was motivated to reproduce the behavior.
- MOTIVATION
- Motivated early on through phonics programs that rewarded correct answers and skill acquisition
- Motivated in school through incentive programs aimed at the encouragement of reading. One particular program offered free pizza vouchers per 10 books read.
- In addition, general recognition by peers and teachers created a sense of accomplishment further motivating me to continue the activity
- Current/former people/events that profoundly influenced your developmental processes;
- Single father, very stern but very smart. Ph.D in psychology. Gone often. From 5 years old I attended his dissertation presentation and flew to school and business trips with him often. I sat by myself in the audience, and around 7 I stayed in the hotels by myself and played at the pool. I was able to order food from the restaurant. This all made me overly mature for my age. I did not spend much time with peers, so I acted like a small adult. This was considered ideal by my father, who encouraged maturity and utilizing very advanced levels of vocabulary in every day speech. This created problems in social situations with other children my age.
- Include current research examples that: support or refute your assertions; attempt to further clarify or refine it; use the theory in practical clinical approaches
Why and how you feel the theory is practical or useful in counseling today
Anything else you think might be useful to the reader
