MAMAY P's Pinoy Halu-Halo: Social Cognitive Theory

Sunday, June 23, 2013

How Big Albert Teach Me To Learn

Albert Bandura integrates behaviorism and cognition in the learning process arguing that not all behaviors are the products of reinforcement or punishment. He contends that the individual, behavior, and environment are continuously influencing each other resulting to what we call reciprocal causation. He suggests that the individual can influence the behavior of other people and vice versa. He also proposes that behavior can be strengthened, modified and extinguished by the interplay of the environment with the individual’s thoughts, beliefs and feelings, in the same way that the individual’s cognitive processes can also influence the way he or she acts in a given situation.

The social cognitive theory of learning of Albert Bandura can be best exemplified in advertising, films, and online media. This is because some individuals imitate what they have observed from their favorite actors and superheroes. My son is no exception. When he was only four years old, he used to play Super Mario in his Nintendo. He was so fascinated with this fictitious character that he asked my wife to buy him Mario’s customs, cap and some plastic carpentry tools. After the video game, he used to play carpentry with his cousin.

Observational learning or modeling is in the center of Bandura’s social learning theory. He suggests that individual tends to copy the behavior of another person who shares the same belief, motivation and goals of the observer. He further asserts that the individual is more likely to imitate the other person’s way if the observer sees that the behavior of the one being observed is rewarded. I am guilty of this view. It was not at all envy when I decided to work overseas when I found out that my “kababata” was earning much when he decided to work abroad.

Another application of Bandura’s learning theory is in language formation and understanding. I remembered asking my son when he was still one and half year old to mimic the sound of the animals in our barangay. In one occasion, I asked him to identify the animals that I was sounding. In another, he was sounding the animal that I was telling him to mimic.