preview

The Models For Observational Learning

Good Essays

According to Bandura (Wortley, 2011), people acquire behaviour through a process of observation and imitation called modelling. There are three main models for observational learning: familiar models in which a person imitates the behaviour of a family member, subculture models in which a person imitates the behaviour of a member of one’s subculture, and symbolic models where an individual imitates the behaviour represented symbolically through words and pictures such as television. Furthermore, Bandura claimed that there were four factors required for the success of modelling: attention, retention, reproduction, and reinforcement. First, an individual must show attention to a model. The more attention shown depends on the frequency the …show more content…

Wortley (2011) proposes that children who are raised in abusive households are more likely to engage in criminal activity. Familiar modelling also plays apart in Marys criminal behaviour. By the time Mary ran away from home she was already shop lifting, carrying out petty thefts and engaging in prostitution which concluded with her arrest for murder. Felson and Lane (2009) suggests that children who have been physically or sexually abused learn to use violence as an acceptable way to resolve their problems through modelling. Furthermore, Felson and Lane (2009) suggest that sexually abused children are more likely to engage in prostitution and that physically abused children were more likely to commit offences such as assault, murder, and robbery. In Marys case she was both physically and sexually abused and did engage in prostitution as well as commit robbery and murder. Marys criminal behaviour as well as her alcohol and drug abuse is mainly the result of the modelling influences of her family and peers. The Social Cognitive Learning Theory argues that behaviour occurs not only as a result of the environment but because of an individual’s cognitive representation of that environment, known as the S-O-R model (stimulus-organism-response). Wortley (2011) states that The Social

Get Access