Albert Bandura 2g6g2

ALBERT BANDURA

Born:

Nationality: Fields: Institutions: Alma mater: Known for:

December 4, 1925 (age 91) Mundare, Alberta, Canada Canadian/American Psychology, Philosophy of Action/American Stanford University University of British Columbia University of Iowa Social cognitive theory Self-efficacy Social learning theory

Bobo doll experiment Human agency Reciprocal determinism Influences:

Robert Sears, Clark Hull, Kenneth Spence, Arthur Benton. Neal Miller

Influenced:

Cognitive psychology, Social psychology

EARLY LIFE Born in Mundare, in Alberta, an open town of roughly four hundred inhabitants, as the youngest child, and only son, in a family of six. Bandura is of Ukrainian descent. His parents were immigrants from Poland who emphasized the value of education. Bandura's parents were a key influence in encouraging him to seek ventures out of the small hamlet they resided in. The summer after finishing high school, Bandura worked in the Yukon to protect the Alaska Highway against sinking. Bandura later credited his work in the northern tundra as the origin of his interest in human psychopathology.

It was in this experience in the Yukon, where he was exposed to a subculture of drinking and gambling, which helped broaden his perspective and scope of views on life. Bandura arrived in the US in 1949 and was naturalized in 1956. He married Virginia Varns (1921–2011) in 1952, and they raised two daughters, Carol and Mary.

EDUCATION AND ACADEMIC CAREER Bandura graduated in three years, in 1949, with a B.A. from the University of British Columbia, winning the Bolocan Award in psychology.

Bandura then moved to the then-epicenter of theoretical psychology, the University of Iowa, from where he obtained his M.A. in 1951 and Ph.D. in 1952. Bandura came to a style of psychology which sought to investigate psychological phenomena through repeatable, experimental testing.

POST-DOCTORAL WORK Upon graduation, he completed his postdoctoral internship at the Wichita Guidance Center. The following year, 1953, he accepted a teaching position at Stanford University, which he holds to this day. In 1974, he was elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA), which is the world's largest association of psychologists.

RESEARCH Bandura was initially influenced by Robert Sears' work on familial antecedents of social behavior and identificatory learning. In collaboration with Richard Walters, his first doctoral student, he engaged in studies of social learning and aggression. Their t efforts illustrated the critical role of modeling in human behavior and led to a program of research into the determinants and mechanisms of observational learning.

MODELING: THE BASIS OF OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING Modeling - A behavior modification technique that involves observing the behavior of others (the models) and participating with them in performing the desired behavior. Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways. This is illustrated during the famous Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961). Individuals that are observed are called models. In society, children are surrounded by many influential models, such as parents within the family, characters on children’s TV, friends within their peer group and teachers at school.

Theses models provide examples of behavior to observe and imitate, e.g. masculine and feminine, pro and anti-social etc. Children pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode their behavior. At a later time they may imitate (i.e. copy) the behavior they have observed. They may do this regardless of whether the behavior is ‘gender appropriate’ or not, but there are a number of processes that make it more likely that a child will reproduce the behavior that its society deems appropriate for its sex.

MODELING: THE BASIS OF OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as similar to itself. Consequently, it is more likely to imitate behavior modeled by people of the same sex. Second, the people around the child will respond to the behavior it imitates with either reinforcement or punishment. If a child imitates a model’s behavior and the consequences are rewarding, the child is likely to continue performing the behavior. If parent sees a little girl consoling her teddy bear and says “what a kind girl you are”, this is rewarding for the child and makes it more likely that she will repeat the behavior. Her behavior has been reinforced (i.e. strengthened).

BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT Through modeling, by observing the behavior of a model and repeating the behavior ourselves, it is possible to acquire responses that we have never performed or displayed previously and to strengthen or weaken existing responses. The subjects in the initial studies were preschool children who watched an adult hit and kick Bobo. When the children were left alone with the doll, they modeled their behavior after the example they had just witnessed. Their behavior was compared with that of a control group of children who had not seen the model attack the Bobo doll. The experimental group was found to be twice as aggressive as the control group.

BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT The intensity of the aggressive behavior remained the same in the experimental subjects whether the model was seen live, on television, or as a cartoon character. The effect of the model in all three media was to elicit aggressive behavior, actions that were not displayed with the same strength by children who had not observed the models.

OTHER MODELING STUDIES Bandura compared the behavior of parents of two groups of children (Bandura & Walters, 1963). One group consisted of highly aggressive children, the other of more inhibited children. According to Bandura’s theory, the children’s behavior should reflect their parents’ behavior. The research showed that the parents of the inhibited children were inhibited, and the parents of the aggressive children were aggressive. Verbal modeling can induce certain behaviors, as long as the activities involved are fully and adequately explained. Verbal modeling is often used to provide instructions, a technique applicable to teaching such skills as driving a car. Verbal instructions are usually supplemented by behavioral demonstrations, such as when a driving instructor serves as a model performing the behaviors involved in driving.

DISINHIBITION Disinhibition - The weakening of inhibitions or constraints by observing the behavior of a model. Research has shown that behaviors a person usually suppresses or inhibits maybe performed more readily under the influence of a model (Bandura, 1973, 1986). For example, people in a crowd may start a riot, breaking windows and shouting, exhibiting physical and verbal behaviors they would never perform when alone. They are more likely to discard their inhibitions against aggressive behavior if they see other people doing so.

EFFECTS OF SOCIETY’S MODELS Bandura concluded that much behavior—good and bad, normal and abnormal—is learned by imitating the behavior of other people. Beginning with parents as models, we learn their language and become socialized by the culture’s customs and acceptable behaviors. People who deviate from cultural norms have learned their behavior the same way as everyone else. The difference is that deviant persons have followed models the rest of society considers undesirable.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MODELING SITUATION Bandura and his associates (Bandura, 1977, 1986) investigated three factors found to influence modeling: the characteristics of the models, the characteristics of the observers, and the reward consequences associated with the behaviors.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MODELS The characteristics of the models affect our tendency to imitate them. In real life, we may be more influenced by someone who appears to be similar to us than by someone who differs from us in obvious and significant ways. Other characteristics of the model that affect imitation are age and sex. We are more likely to model our behavior after a person of the same sex than a person of the opposite sex. Also, we are more likely to be influenced by models our own age. Peers who appear to have successfully solved the problems we are facing are highly influential models. Status and prestige are also important factors. The type of behavior the model performs affects the extent of imitation. Highly complex behaviors are not imitated as quickly and readily as simpler behaviors. Hostile and aggressive behaviors tend to be strongly imitated, especially by children.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OBSERVERS The attributes of the observers also determine the effectiveness of observational learning. People who are low in self-confidence and self-esteem are much more likely to imitate a model’s behavior than are people high in self-confidence and self-esteem. A person who has been reinforced for imitating a behavior—for example, a child rewarded for behaving like an older sibling—is more susceptible to the influence of models.

THE REWARD CONSEQUENCES ASSOCIATED WITH THE BEHAVIORS The reward consequences linked to a particular behavior can affect the extent of the modeling and even override the impact of the models’ and observers’ characteristics. A high-status model may lead us to imitate a certain behavior, but if the rewards are not meaningful to us, we will discontinue the behavior and be less likely to be influenced by that model in the future.

Seeing a model being rewarded or punished for displaying a particular behavior affects imitation.

REFERENCES •

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-815614-X

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Bandura, A. (2006). "Toward a Psychology of Human Agency". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 1: 2. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00011.x.

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Benight, C.C.; Bandura, A. (2004). "Social cognitive theory of posttraumatic recovery:The role of perceived self-efficacy". Behaviour Research and Therapy. 42 (10): 1129–1148. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2003.08.008.

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Caprara, G.; Fida, R.; Vecchione, M.; Del Bove, G.; Vecchio, G.; Barabaranelli, C.; Bandura, A. (2008). "Longitudinal analysis of the role of perceived self-efficacy for self-regulatory learning in academic continuance an achievement". Journal of Educational Psychology. 100 (3): 525–534. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.100.3.525.

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Bandura, A. (2002). "Selective moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency". Journal of Moral Education. 31 (2): 101–119. doi:10.1080/0305724022014322.