APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

Applied Psychology



Applied Psychology

Question 1: Bandura states that four factors are central in observational learning. List each factor, explain it, and give an original example.

Bandura has identified four steps from which there is learning by observation:

Attention

Retention

Motor Play

Motivation

Attention

If you learn something, you need to be paying attention. Similarly, all that put a halt to the attention will result in a detriment to learning, including learning by observation. If, for example, you are sleepy, drugged, sick, nervous, or even "hyper", you will learn less well. The same happens if you're distracted by a competitive stimulus (Bandura, 1986).

Retention

Second, we must be able to retain (remember) that to which we have paid attention. Here is where the imagination and language come into play: keep doing what we've seen the model in the form of mental images or verbal descriptions. Once "archived", we can revive the image or description so we can play them with our own behavior (Donaldson, Berger, & Pezdek, 2006).

Motor Play

At this point, we are there at daydreaming. We must translate the images or descriptions to current behavior. Therefore, the first thing is we should be able to reproduce the behavior. I can spend all day watching an Olympic skater doing their job and not being able to reproduce their jumps, since I know nothing about skating. Another important issue with respect to reproduction is that our ability to imitate improves with practice of the behaviors involved in the task. Another thing: our skills improve even imagine the mere fact of making the behavior. Many athletes, for example, imagine the act that will do before taking him out.

Motivation

Even with all this, yet will not do anything unless we are motivated to imitate, that is, unless we have good reason to do so. Bandura mentions a number of reasons:

Reinforcement past, traditional or classic behaviorism.

Promised reinforcements (incentives) we can imagine.

Vicarious reinforcement, the ability to perceive and recall the model as a reinforce.

Note that these motives have been traditionally considered as those things that "cause" learning. Bandura says that these are not as responsible as samples of what we have learned.

Original Example

For this purpose, children were divided into three groups. The children were shown a film in which a man showed aggressive behavior toward a doll. The first group got to see the version of the film, in which the perpetrator was a reward for his behavior. The second group, however, saw the film with the end that the adult was punished for his behavior. The third and last group was presented a variant in which the crime took no consequence to themselves (Bandura & Ross, 1961).

Immediately after the film were the children of the different groups to play the doll from the movie. As expected, the children of the first group behaved very aggressively, as are the third group. Only the second group behaved more peaceful. The children were then instructed to reproduce the behavior of the film ...