Home / Summaries / Learning theories / model-behaviour-models

Learning theories

39 important questions on Learning theories

What is vicarious extinction?

When they see a person not be rewarded for their behaviour, for example their friend not being rewarded for turning up late to class.

What is reciprocal determinism?

Bandura suggested that the environment was able to have an effect on an individual but also an individual could have an affect upon the environment.

What are the social learning stages?

Attention: the extent at which we are exposed to the behaviour.
Retention: How well it is remembered.
Reproduction:The ability to perform the behaviour that the model just did.
Motivation: The will to perform the behaviour.

What is the aim of Bandura's 1961 experiment?

To demonstrate that if children were passive witness to aggressive displays from adults then they would be likely to imitate the behaviour when given the opportunity.

What were the hypotheses for Bandura 1961?

1. Children who are exposed to aggressive acts will recreate these acts.
2. Children exposed to non-aggressive acts will reproduce less aggressive acts.
3. Children will imitate the behaviour of a same sex model more than they will a model of the opposite gender.
4. Boys will be more predisposed to be aggressive than girls.

What was the design for Bandura 1961?

Matched pairs, children were rated on their aggression before the experiment began, and then the children were matched based on their aggression.

What were the results of Bandura 1961?

1. Boys were more aggressive than girls.
2. Children in the aggressive model were more aggressive than those in the non-aggressive model.
3. Boys showed more aggression if their model was male.
4. The girls showed more verbal aggression if their model was a girl and more physical if their model was a man.
It confused the children to see a woman fighting because it did not fit the cultural norms at the time.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Bandura 1961?

Experiments are the only means by which cause and effect can be established, because everything except the IV's are controlled.
It allows for precise control of variables.
Experiments can be replicated, so they are much more reliable.
Weaknesses:
Lab experiments are criticised because they are seen as not being ecologically valid.
The demonstrations take place immediately, so they may not imitate things straight away.
Interpreting the behaviour towards the Bobo doll as aggression but it may not be.
It could be argued it was unethical,

What were the aims of Bandura, Ross and Ross 1963?

To build on previous studies they thought that:
Agression showed on film would be copied as it would be in live studies
Boys would be more aggressive than girls.
Those who watched aggression would become more violet when they were frustrated.
Those who were anxious about aggression would show less initiative aggression.

What was the procedure of Bandura, Ross and Ross 1963?

48 boys and 48 girls from Stanford university nursery. They were aged 3- nearly 6 years old. Models were male and female as they were in 1961. There were 3 experimental groups with 24 people in each:
Real life aggression
Same model but on film being aggressive
Cartoon character being aggressive.
Sub divided into sex again.
Matched pairs again.
3 IV's -
Aggression live human
Aggression human on TV
Aggression on cartoon.

What were the results of Bandura, Ross and Ross 1963?

240 acts per child were recorded. Mean total of real life aggression:83
Film: 92
Cartoon: 99
Control group: 54
Wilcoxon test showed it was significant.

What were the conclusions of Bandura, Ross and Ross 1963?

Human film model led to more aggression when other measures of aggression are taken into account.
The gender of the model was a significant factor.
-------------------
Observing filmed aggression will lead to aggressive acts in children.
Rejected Freud's explanation that aggression was cathartic.
Children in the experiment were not deviant in any way.

What were the strengths of Bandura 1963?

Tested inter rate reliability which means the results are thought to be reliable.
Variables are well controlled so it is thought to establish cause and effect, the IV is the only thing changed in each case which also gives the results scientific credibility.
Results have practical application with Bandura et al.

What were the weaknesses of Bandura et al 1963?

Validity - children were in an artificial setting and separated from their parents so this may not be their natural behaviour.
Generalisability - as with the 1961 study the children were from the university nursery and may not be correct to generalise the results to the general population.

What were the aims of Bandura 1965?

To see if the consequences to the model would affect the imitative acts.
To see if the boys performed more imitative acts than the girls.
To see if a direct reward to the subject would overrule the effect of punishment or reward over the model.

What was the procedure of Bandura 1965?

33 boys, 33 girls, the same nursery as previous, same age as the ones from the previous two experiments.
Randomly assigned to each condition. 3 groups of 11.
(model rewarded, same model punished and same model no consequence)
Acts- mallet, verbal aggression and kicking.
Rewarded - adult gives the model drink and sweets and says they are a strong champion.
Punished - adult calls them a big bully, shook their finger at them and hit them with a rolled up newspaper.
No consequences - no reinforcement.

What were the results of Bandura 1965?

Positive incentive - the number of imitative responses was higher in all cases.
Without the incentive the highest aggression was shown in boys.
Lowest mean acts were shown when the model was punished.

What were the conclusions of Bandura 1965?

Many variations involved whether learning by observation is acquired or performed.
Variables include reward and punishment of the models.
The person also has to be motivated to carry out the acts.
Behaviour does not have to be rewarded or punished to be imitated.
Girls reluctant to display imitative aggression when rewards offered they were just as aggressive as boys.
Shows the effects of vicarious reinforcement.

What are phobias and why are they acquired?

Phobias develop when fear responses are either reinforced or punished.
Phobias are irrational fears that can be life limiting can lead to serious physical symptoms.
Complex phobias such as social anxiety and agoraphobia can be difficult to help.
Phobias can be acquired through classical/operant conditioning or even modelling.

Strengths of phobia explanation?

Classical conditioning evidence from Watson and Rayner (acquisition)
operant conditioning is often used for maintaining phobias such as Skinner.
Social learning theory explains how we learn things we are not directly experiencing.

Weaknesses of phobia explanation?

Animals are used - we cannot generalise because fear arises from cognition in humans.
Experiments can lack validity, cannot replicate phobias in a lab.

What are structured observations?

They are set up to record behaviours that may be difficult to observe using naturalistic observation. They allow researchers to sometime control variables due to the artificial environment.

What are participant observations?

Can be either covert or overt. Covert - is undercover, when they believe that the participant would change their behaviour if they knew they were being observed. Overt - out in the open.

What is non-participant observation?

A research technique where the researcher watches the participants with their knowledge but without taking part in their situation.

What are the aims of Watson and Rayner?

To demonstrate that classical conditioning could be used to create a fear response in a child to an innocous stimulus, hoping to show that human behaviour could be accounted for by the process of classical conditioning.

What were the results of Watson and Rayner?

In the first trial when the metal bar was struck Albert showed some distress, jumping violently and sticking his face into a mattress.
In the second trial LA was suspicious of the rat.
By the next session he leaned away from the rat.
When a rabbit was placed next to him he cried.
7 Weeks later he cried in response to a variety of stimuli and he showed fear to all of them, this was classed as stimulus generalisation.

What were the conclusions of Watson and Rayner?

It clearly showed that it was possible to create an emotional response in humans after only a few pairings of the stimuli. LA should have been deconditioned. Conditioned responses tend to decline with time and can become extinct. LA eventually stopped crying and played with the rabbit, but his fear response could be spontaneously recovered by repeating the original classical conditioning procedure a few times after extinction.

What were the aims of Capafons et al 1998?

To measure the effectiveness of systematic desensitisation as a treatment for fear of flying.

What were the measures of dependent variables for Capafons?

3 EMV scales:
Fear during the flights - contains 9 elements, related to situations that occur from the moment of acceleration to touchdown.
Fear of flight preliminary - includes 8 situations related to what happens before flights.
Fear without involvement - contains four elements related to flying in which there is no direct involvement personally.
The two EPAV - Catastrophic thoughts - 9 elements that contain highly disturbing thoughts, engines catching fire, fear of a wing falling off.
Physiological anxiety - 10 elements which refer to disagreeable psycho-physiological manifestations, HR, palm temp ect. During take off in the stimulation.

What were the conclusions of Capafons et al?

No significant differences between the control group and treatment group prior to treatment. The treatment group showed significant improvement to their fear than the control group which suggests that it could have been an effective treatment for the fear of flying.

How many people in Britain have eating disorders?

60,000 and 9 out of 10 cases are female.

What does the British medical association say regarding role models influence and anorexia?

That the media's obsession with painfully thin fashion models has contributed to the growth of eating disorders among young girls. Many models and actresses in the 1990's commonly had fat levels as low as 10% and the average for a healthy woman is 22-26%.

How do actresses and models influence young people?

When someone is in the public eye as a model, actress ect. they become a role model, and impressionable young teens can think that the way these role models look is how they should look, and this includes models who are dangerously thin.

How serious is anorexia?

Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that can cause significant damage. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of all psychiatric conditions which causes serious issues.

What is the concept of observation? - key q

Social learning theory would say that teenagers are reading magazines and watching TV where these people appear and they are observing their behaviour. They are being exposed to the skinny models and their eating habits.

What is the concept of modelling - key q?

SLT suggests that the models and actresses are significant role models and the teenagers are observing them and waiting for the right time to model their behaviour to try and reach the same status as them because they only difference they can see between them is the weight, because they are often similar in age and of the same gender.

What is the concept of imitation - key q?

SLT says that people learn behaviour by imitating it so they watch models barely eating anything and they imitate this behaviour and by doing so they reduce their calorie intake and then get anorexia.

What is the concept of vicarious reinforcement - key q?

If the young teenagers behaviour is reinforced then they are more likely to do it, so the role models are rewarded for being size zero by getting modelling contracts and earning lots of money this makes young girls link being stick thin to fame and fortune so they are likely to model the behaviour.

What is the concept of role models - key q?

If role models were punished for their behaviour for example size zero models are now banned then it may push young girls to not imitate them because they see that nothing good will come of it. Also more plus sized/healthy sized models being used in the media also helps to reinforce that it is okay for young girls not to be stick thin.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Learning theories

View summary

A unique study and practice tool
Never study anything twice again
Get the grades you hope for
100% sure, 100% understanding

Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.

Learning theories

39 important questions on Learning theories

What is vicarious extinction?

What is reciprocal determinism?

What are the social learning stages?

What is the aim of Bandura's 1961 experiment?

What were the hypotheses for Bandura 1961?

What was the design for Bandura 1961?

What were the results of Bandura 1961?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Bandura 1961?

What were the aims of Bandura, Ross and Ross 1963?

What was the procedure of Bandura, Ross and Ross 1963?

What were the results of Bandura, Ross and Ross 1963?

What were the conclusions of Bandura, Ross and Ross 1963?

What were the strengths of Bandura 1963?

What were the weaknesses of Bandura et al 1963?

What were the aims of Bandura 1965?

What was the procedure of Bandura 1965?

What were the results of Bandura 1965?

What were the conclusions of Bandura 1965?

What are phobias and why are they acquired?

Strengths of phobia explanation?

Weaknesses of phobia explanation?

What are structured observations?

What are participant observations?

What is non-participant observation?

What are the aims of Watson and Rayner?

What were the results of Watson and Rayner?

What were the conclusions of Watson and Rayner?

What were the aims of Capafons et al 1998?

What were the measures of dependent variables for Capafons?

What were the conclusions of Capafons et al?

How many people in Britain have eating disorders?

What does the British medical association say regarding role models influence and anorexia?

How do actresses and models influence young people?

How serious is anorexia?

What is the concept of observation? - key q

What is the concept of modelling - key q?

What is the concept of imitation - key q?

What is the concept of vicarious reinforcement - key q?

What is the concept of role models - key q?

Summaries related to Learning theories

Learning theories

Cognitive

Social

USA

Virtue Ethics

Biological

Kantian Ethics

India

Natural Moral Law

British Experience of Warfare

Dates throughout History

Health