Albert Bandura, born in Canada in 1925, is a psychologist in the behavioral movement who has been referred to as a founder of the cognitivist movement because of his movement from strict behavioral psychologist to seeing personality as being formed by environment, behavior and the individual?s psychological processes. Bandura developed the idea of reciprocal determinism. He believed the pure behaviorist model of environment (variables that can be observed, measured and manipulated) cause behavior was too simplistic. He suggested behavior also causes elements in the environment, making the relationship of environment and behavior reciprocal, with elements of each interacting with one another. He called this phenomena reciprocal determinism. He later took this a step further, adding a cognitive element, one of imagery, moving him from the behaviorist movement into the foundation of the cognitive movement.
Bandura is best known for his study known as the Bobo Doll Studies. He made a film of a young woman, one of his students, attacking a Bobo doll (an inflatable clown that returns to an upright position when knocked down). In the film, she attacked it both verbally and physically. He showed the film to kindergartners. The children liked the film and were later let into a room to play. In the room was a Bobo doll. Observers noted the children mimicking what they had seen on the film, indicating observational learning. No requirements for rewards, punishments or approximations to learning the new behavior were needed for the behavior.
Bandura established steps involved in the modeling process for learning. Attention is required. If attention is limited, such as by illness, emotional state, physical state, or environmental limits, the ability to attend to what is modeled is limited and learning is hampered. If attention is enhanced, such as with drama, prestige, delivery (by credible or entertaining source) or like the subject, more attention is paid.
Retention is required for effective modeling. The individual must be able to remember what was seen or to what was attended. Imagery and verbal descriptions assist in bringing forth what is needed to duplicate it in behavior.
Reproduction is part of effective modeling. Prior to duplicating the behavior, the thoughts are not more than daydreaming. The images and language must be translated into action, which requires the individual to reproduce the behavior. If an individual watches the quarterback on a football, but is not able to throw a football, he has not engaged in reproduction. On the other hand, if he has thrown a football and has the basic skill set, he may improve his performance through imitation of what he observes in those who are more proficient that he is. Beyond observation of another performing a desired skill, one can imagine his or herself performing the desired skill in the mind?s eye before performing the skill and improve performance by the internal observation and practice of the performance in the arena of imagery or imagination.
Motivation is another element of modeling because without the will or desire to do the behavior, the individual will not do it. He may do it because of past reinforcement, promised reinforcement or vicarious reinforcement. Bandura holds that negative motivations are also reasons one may elect to do or not do a modeled behavior, such as past punishment, promised punishment or vicarious punishment.
Stepping out of a pure behavioral perspective, Bandura believed in self-regulation as the other element in human personality. He suggested three elements in this process. First, self-observation in which one looks at the self and behavior and monitors each. Second, judgment in which one compares the self with some standard, traditional, performance or another. Third, self-response in which if one does well with the set or desired standard, one is rewarded, or if done poorly, one is punished in some way. Rewards or punishments may be tangible (favorite meal) or covert (emotions of achievement, self-worth, shame). Out of this result, he believed those who struggle with poor self-esteem or self-concept elicit this from elements of self-regulation: self-observation (have an accurate reflection of self), standards (set reasonable ones) and self-response (use of self-reward and celebration of success without dwelling on failure).
