social cognitive theory

social cognitive theory

1. How do media affect us?

2. Why do people behave the way they do?

Assumption

People don’t just react to the world, They are also proactive

Traid of reciprocal causation

1. Behavioral

2. Environmental

3. Personal

Social cognitive theory definition

What cognitive factors determine how media affect our behavior?

1. We can learn from observing our social environment

4 distinctly human learning traits

1. Symbolizing capacity

2. Self-regulatory capacity

3. Self reflective capacity

4. Vicarious capacity

Symbolizing capacity

Symbols let us store process and transport our experiences

Ex. Emojis

Self-regulatory

We have self direct goals

Can evaluate & change our behavior

Self reflective capacity

We perform self checks

Is my behavior in line with my goals

Vicarious capacity

We can learn without direct experience

Social informational guides our behavior

These capacities

These traits allow us to learn from behaviors from the media we

Factors determining learning

1. Vicarious reinforcement

2. Identification

3. Self-efficacy

Vicarious reinforcement

• watching someone else model a behavior

• Is this person doing something good/bad and what’s going to happen to them

• Are they rewarded or punished for their behavior

The Bobo Doll Experiment

This early experiment was served as quite powerful evidence that children in particular might watch violence in the world around them and on TV and might reproduce it

1. Vicarious Reinforcement

• models get rewarded or punished for their behavior

Disinhibitory effects

When model is rewarded for an action, we are more likely to perform that same act

Previously learned restraints are removed (disinhibitory devices activated)

Inhibitory

When a model is punished for action we are less to perform that same act Previously

News restraints are added (inhibitory devices activated)

2. Identification

If you strongly identify w a model, learning is more likely to occur

3. Self efficacy

you have to believe you can actually perform a behavior to repeat it

The process of modeling

1. Attention

2. Retention

3. Motor reproduction

4. Motivation

Attention

• you have to be paying attention to observe others behaviors

• Selective focusing on stimuli

Retention

• do you remember the behavior

• Storing info in memory

Motor reproduction

• can you actually reproduce the behavior

• Putting behavior into action

Motivation

• are you motivated to reproduce the behavior

• Will putting goal into action be beneficial

Using SCT

• explains how people learn behaviors from the media based on cognitive factors

• Negative effects = violence and body image

• Positive effects= substance abuse , education

Research

Empirical

Goals of theory

Explain & predict

Evaluation

1. Utility

2. Herurism

3. Test of time

Critiques

1. Utility

2. Scope