Social Learning and Learned Helplessness

Social Learning (Observational Learning)

  • Relies on observing and copying others' behavior; imitation depends on:
    • Prestige of the model
    • Likability and attractiveness of the model
    • Whether the model was rewarded or punished
  • Bobo doll experiment (Bandura):
    • Children who watched an aggressive model acted more aggressively towards the doll.
    • Children learn through observing.

Key Principles of Social Learning

  • Attention: Pay attention to the model's behavior and consequences.
  • Retention: Retain the observed response in memory.
  • Reproduction: Ability to reproduce the observed response.
  • Motivation: Motivation to reproduce the observed response (e.g., social approval).

Applications of Observational Learning

  • Survival advantage: Capuchin monkeys using rocks to crack nuts, copied by others.
  • Behavioral intervention programs: Big Brother/Big Sister programs.
  • Motor skill learning: Learning from YouTube videos.

Cognitive Social Theory

  • Form expectancies about behavior consequences.
  • Locus of control:
    • Internal: Actions determine fate.
    • External: Life governed by external forces.
    • External locus issue: Expectation of inability to escape aversive events.
  • Learned helplessness: Expectancy that one cannot escape adverse events.
    • Experiment: Dogs harnessed and given inescapable shocks eventually gave up trying to escape.
    • Revised theory: Pessimistic explanatory style increases the likelihood of developing learned helplessness.