Social-Cognitive Learning Theories Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts, researchers, and experimental findings of Social-Cognitive Learning Theories as presented in the lecture notes.

Social-Cognitive Learning Theories

Theories developed by Rotter, Bandura, and Miller that focus on mental events and social aspects to explain personality and behavior.

Environmental conditions

One of three fundamental factors of personality development, including social, political, and cultural context as well as specific learning experiences.

Cognitive–personality factors

Determinants of personality that include beliefs, expectations, values, intentions, social roles, emotional states, and biological determinants.

Behavior (Determinant)

One of the fundamental factors of personality encompassing all actions, activities, and verbal expressions.

Social reinforcement

Learning based on approval (reinforcer) or disapproval (punisher) from others, such as attention, interest, smiles, hugs, or frowns.

Self-reinforcement

Reacting to one’s own behavior with internal approval or disapproval, also known as self-punishment.

Vicarious emotional arousal

The indirect experience of events through someone else, often referred to as empathy, which can create opportunities for vicarious emotional conditioning.

Vicarious reinforcement

Behavioral change occurring after witnessing someone else receive reinforcement or punishment, based on the inference of receiving the same outcome.

Expectancies

A mental model of the links between actions and outcomes that provides information on effective actions and future motivation through anticipation.

Efficacy expectancies

Also known as self-efficacy; the confidence in having the ability to perform a desired action, which serves as a basis for therapy and self-esteem.

Role of awareness

The principle that conditioning only occurs if the individual is aware of the correlation between behavior and reinforcers.

Behavioral potential

In Rotter's theory, the probability that a particular behavior will occur among many possible behaviors available in a given situation.

Internal Locus of Control

The belief that one is in control of their life and direction, characterized by the idea that hard work and passion determine the future.

External Locus of Control

The belief that factors like luck, fate, religion, or random chance control the future and that one's actions have little impact.

Reciprocal determinism

Bandura's concept that personal factors, the environment, and behavior mutually and continuously influence one another.

Symbolization

The representation of events and their relationships in symbolic form, such as language or mental imagery, to guide future thoughts and actions.

Observational learning

Learning that occurs when one person observes an action performed by another and acquires the ability to repeat it.

Generalization of semantic meaning

The process where stimuli similar in meaning to the original stimulus (e.g., divorce and alimony) elicit responses similar to the original response.

Symbolic modeling

Transmission of information about behavior and rewards through verbal or visual means involving non-real models like fairy-tale characters or norms.

Foresight / anticipation

The ability to anticipate the consequences of behavior and regulate present actions to reach desired future states.

Self-regulation

A process requiring self-observation, evaluation, and comparisons of behavior against personal standards and norms.

Self-reflection

The ability to evaluate one's own thinking and actions, compare thoughts with reality, and correct cognitive errors.

Imaginal coding

A retention strategy in observational learning that involves representing learned information through mental pictures.

Verbal coding

A retention strategy in observational learning that involves describing what was observed to represent it in memory.

Production (Variable)

The category of observational learning variables involving the observer's capacity and prior experience to translate learned information into actions.

Acquisition vs performance

The distinction showing that people learn more than they actually do, depending on the expected outcome of the performance.

Attention for Encoding

The set of variables influencing observational learning related to the characteristics of the model, the behavior, and the observer.

Outcome expectancy

Expectations regarding the environmental reinforcement that will result from a specific behavior.

Self-efficacy expectancy

A person’s belief about their own ability to perform the actions necessary to achieve a goal, answering the question 'Can I do it?'

Perceived Self-Efficacy

Beliefs about one's ability to perform actions; high levels lead to more effort and persistence, while low levels may lead to avoidance.

Previous personal experiences

A source of self-efficacy where past successes or failures at a task influence an individual's feeling of competence for similar tasks.

Vicarious experiences

A source of self-efficacy where observing others' performances allows an individual to compare their own competence with the model.

Social persuasion

A source of self-efficacy influenced by encouragement or discouragement from others regarding an individual's ability to perform.

Physiological and emotional states

A source of self-efficacy where sensations from the body and perceptions of emotional arousal influence beliefs of efficacy.

Bobo Doll experiment

A classic study by Bandura where children observed a model's aggressive behavior toward a doll under different reinforcement conditions.

Spontaneous performance

The phase in the Bobo Doll experiment where the child is left alone with the doll to see what behaviors they replicate without external incentive.

Skill deficits

Behavioral problems reflecting a lack of the necessary skills, often due to a lack of good models or poor observational learning.

Modeling-Based Therapy

A therapeutic approach where a model is placed in a situation where a client lacks a skill, encouraging the client to repeat the behavior.

Mastery model

A modeling type used in therapy for fear-based problems where the model shows no fear, leading to vicarious extinction for the observer.

Coping model

A model who initially shows fear but demonstrates the ability to handle the situation, helping the observer utilize cognitive coping strategies.

Participant modelling

A therapy technique where the model performs in front of the observer who then repeats it with verbalization and reassurance from the model.

Attitude formation

A process that can be explained by emotional conditioning, showing how preferences are established through mental associations.

Mental rehearsal

A retention strategy used to keep learned behaviors in memory for future production.

Consequences to the model

A performance variable in Bandura's theory determining if an observer will act based on whether the model was rewarded or punished.

Selection processes

The way self-efficacy beliefs influence the choice of environments, such as career decisions or social settings.

Overgeneralization of rules

An effect seen in language learning where instrumental conditioning rules are applied too broadly by learners.

Mental models

Cognitive representations of the links between actions and outcomes used to guide behavioral choices.

Cognitive-behavioral techniques

Simple and effective techniques derived from social-cognitive theories that are easily researchable and thoroughly tested.

Characteristics of the model

Factors such as attractiveness, power, or expertise that determine how much attention an observer pays during encoding.

Theory of behavior determinants

A criticism of the social-cognitive approach, suggesting it is too simplistic and describes factors of behavior rather than a full theory of personality.