Behaviorism and social learning theory are examples of two mechanistic theories that focus on explaining children’s behavior. Social learning theory emphasizes observational learning and imitation. On the other hand, behaviorism is rooted in focusing on how the environment impacts development. The environment shapes the child’s development as the child strives to adapt to the environment. Both theories deal with explaining behavior and consist of similarities, but are composed of different elements of explaining behavior.
While social learning theory emphasizes observational learning and imitation, behaviorism focuses on how the environment impacts development. Socialization, gender roles, and imitation are a few key elements that make up the social learning theory, while classical conditioning and operant conditioning are some key factors in behaviorism. One key element between both theories is that they both consist of reinforcement and punishment mechanisms in order to explain behavior. For social learning theory, children may be exposed to an aggressive environment, such as in the Bobo doll study, where they see an adult punching or engaging in aggressive behavior. If the adult is reinforced, the child will want to perform the behavior. If the adult is punished, the child will most likely not engage in the behavior. In behaviorism, however, behaviors may be reinforced or punished using operant conditioning, which will be explained later. Both the social learning
The Behaviourist approach believe that human beings are able to learn all types of behaviours through the environment they grow up in, its believes that we learn these behaviours through using theories, such as, Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning and Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s Operant Conditioning.
In contrast, behaviourism looks at environment contingencies surrounding learning rather than mental processes as opposed to psychodynamics which looks at things happening in the mind
The behaviourist theory focuses on the study of observed behaviours and learning theories the three theories are; classical conditioning, operant conditioning and the social learning theory. Within the behaviourist approach there are three different theorists these are; Skinner, Bandura and Pavlov.
Humanism and Behaviorism both promote learning and provide an explanation for behaviors in their own ways. Both theories have document success in the learning
Behaviorism is one of the most used theories in education. Due to it can fit in both a classroom setting and at home. Educators had sought out the reason why for many years. But due to each child learns a different way so should the educator. Behaviorism was study by many great Psychologists over the years. Just to name some that had done work and publish books on the subject are, John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, Clark Hull, and B.F. Skinner.
Behaviorism assumes that we are born as a blank slate and so equal at birth. The theorists believe that it is the environmental factors that shape our behaviour rather than genetic or biological differences. Behaviorism very much represents the nurture aspect of the nature-nurture
The Behavioral Perspective: This perspective is based on environmental rewards and punishers to encourage or discourage behaviors. This is usually notes through direct observation of the particular act in the specific environment. Social cognitive learning is used to further explain values, expectations, and intentions of the individual. This theory was the main stream behaviorist theory for over 50 years, as it focuses on precision and objectivity. It is thought to have advanced science as a whole and has given psychology some of the most accurate and detailed finding to date.
“Behaviorism is predominantly concerned with evident and measurable aspects of human behavior. In defining behaviour, behaviourist-learning theories emphasise changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response links made by the learner. Behaviour is directed by stimuli. An individual selects one response instead
Akers and Sellers (2013) has stated that social learning theory is an expanded theory of differential association processes and improves it with differential reinforcement and other principles of the behavior theory. They added classical conditioning (the sharpening of involuntary reflex behavior); discriminative stimuli (internal stimuli that lead to signals for behavior); schedules of reinforcement (rewards and punishment ratio following behavioral feedback); and other theories of behavior (Akers & Sellers, 2013).
The Behavioural approach (also called the learning theory) focuses on the belief that our environment, e.g. people, experiences and learning, influences the development and behaviour of an individual whilst thinking the internal functions, such as thoughts and cognition, are impossible to observe, so they are not apart of the scientific approach to psychology. This theory is also based on the concept of ‘explaining behaviour through observation. Behaviourists assume individuals are born as a blank state (tabula rasa), meaning they do not think biology and cognitive functions influence our behaviour, only our environment does. A large idea that the theory hold is that behaviour can be broken down into stimulus-response units. Stimuli are anything environmental that triggers an individuals’ senses, for example, a student being asked to complete an assignment (stimulus) would respond by completing the assignment. Stimulus-response theories form the basis of classical or operant conditioning, which suggests animals and humans can learn through the relation of a response to any certain stimuli.
Because behaviorism and social cognitive theory both examine changes in behavior. Social cognitive theory has its historical roots in behaviorism, but, as the name implies, it has evolved over the years into a more cognitive perspective (Kim & Baylor, 2006). Even today, many authors continue to include aspects of social cognitive theory in books focusing on behavioral principles (Baldwin & Baldwin, 2001). In addition, behaviorism and social cognitive theory are similar in three ways: They focus on experience as an important cause of learning (and an important principle of cognitive theory is that learning and development depend on learners’ experience). They include the concepts of reinforcement and punishment in their explanations of learning. They target feedback as an important aspect of the learning process. Three important differences exist between the two, however. First, they define learning differently, and second, social cognitive theory emphasizes the role of cognitive processes beliefs, perceptions, and expectations in learning. Third, social cognitive theory suggests that the environment, personal factors, and behavior are interdependent, a concept called reciprocal causation.
The definition of the social learning theory is People learn through observing others’ behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. “Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” (Learning Theories Knowledgebase ). Most people learn through watching other. As a child, we learn by mocking what we have observed repeatedly. This is how we learn to walk, talk,
The Behavioral Learning Theory believes that behavior is learned from either the environment, the people in the individual's life, the media, or society as a whole. This theory contradicts the Biological theory, which states that criminals are "born to be bad" and that criminal behavior is inherited. The behavioral theory looks at the environment as well as society's impact on how an individual acts which might be the reason for criminal behavior. This theory blames the environment as well as the individual by saying it is a learned behavior and that it also was a choice they made. A basic assumption is that behavior is learned and modeled by individuals, groups, the media, and society as a whole.
Behaviorism is the point of view where learning and behavior are described and explained in terms
Behavioral Learning Theories Most theorists agree that learning occurs when experience causes a change in a person's knowledge or behavior . Behaviorists emphasize the role of environmental stimuli in learning and focus on the behavior, i.e., an observable response. Behavioral theories are based on contiguity, classical and operant conditioning, applied behavior analysis, social learning theory and self-regulation/cognitive behavior modification. Early views of learning were contiguity and classical conditioning.