Introduction
Observational learning refers to acquiring information and changing one’s behaviors as a consequence of having observed another’s behaviors. It is a major form of learning for humans and primates (hence the expression, “Monkey see, monkey do”). Humans can and do acquire the gamut of behaviors they are capable of performing through observational learning, including verbal and motor skills, attitudes, preferences, values, body language and mannerisms, and emotional responses such as fear. Whereas many behaviors can be learned through Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning, frequently they are acquired more quickly through observational learning. Moreover, it is doubtful that some behaviors, such as language skills, could be acquired without observational learning.
Observational learning requires two parties: a model who explicitly or implicitly demonstrates some behavior and an observer who is exposed to the demonstration. The components of the model’s behavior are known as modeling cues, which can be either live or symbolic. Live modeling occurs when the model is physically present; symbolic modeling occurs when the model is not physically present, as in movies, books, television, and any oral description of a person’s behaviors. For instance, myths and fairy tales provide archetypal models of roles (such as mother and hero) and values (such as loyalty and honesty) that constitute the fabric of human existence.
Stages
There are three sequential stages of observational learning: exposure, acquisition, and acceptance. First, the observer must be exposed to a model. Every day, people are exposed to countless models, but they pay attention to and remember only a small subset of those modeling cues. The second stage involves the observer’s learning (acquiring) the modeling cues and storing them in memory. If the second stage is reached, observational learning has taken place. However, this does not necessarily mean that the observer’s behaviors will change because of the acquired modeling cues. In fact, people act on relatively few of the modeling cues that they acquire.
If one’s behavior changes based on modeling cues one has acquired, this occurs in the third stage of observational learning, which is called acceptance because one accepts a model’s behaviors as a guide for one’s own. Acceptance can consist of imitation, which involves acting as the model has, or counterimitation, which involves acting differently than the model has. In each case, the outcome can be direct or indirect. Thus, acceptance can take one of four forms, illustrated by a child observing a parent putting coins in a street beggar’s cup.
In direct imitation, the observer copies or does virtually the same thing as the model has done (for example, the child puts change in a beggar’s cup). In direct counterimitation, the observer does virtually the opposite of what the model did (the child passes by a beggar without donating change). With indirect imitation, the observer generalizes the model’s behavior and acts in a similar, but not exactly the same, way (at school the child donates a toy to a fund for needy children). With indirect counterimitation, the observer generalizes from the model’s behavior and acts differently, but not exactly the opposite way (the child does not donate to the toy fund).
During exposure, observers are exposed not only to the model’s behavior but also to the consequences of the model’s behavior. These consequences influence the observer indirectly or vicariously, which is why they are known as vicarious consequences. Vicarious reinforcement refers to a positive or favorable outcome for the model’s behaviors, and vicarious punishment refers to a negative or unfavorable outcome. Vicarious consequences influence both the acquisition and acceptance stages of observational learning. By focusing the observer’s attention on the model’s actions, vicarious consequences enhance acquisition. In the acceptance stage, vicarious reinforcement increases the likelihood that the observer will imitate the model’s actions, whereas vicarious punishment increases the likelihood that the observer will counterimitate. These effects occur because observers believe that they are likely to receive similar consequences for imitating the model.
There are other factors than vicarious consequences that can influence acceptance. For example, in general, imitation is more likely to occur when observers perceive models to be similar to themselves, prestigious, competent, and attractive (factors that are well known to the advertising industry).
Scientific Research
The formal, scientific study of observational learning was begun in 1941 with the publication of Social Learning and Imitation by Yale University psychologist Neal E. Miller and sociologist John Dollard. However, their studies and theorizing essentially were restricted to direct imitation. It was psychologist Albert Bandura
at Stanford University who spearheaded the broad study of observational learning with the publication in 1963 of a small but highly influential book titled Social Learning and Personality Development (coauthored by Canadian psychologist Richard H. Walters).
Among Bandura’s most influential investigations is the now-classic
Bobo doll study. Nursery school boys and girls were shown a five-minute modeling film depicting an adult engaging in discrete, novel, aggressive acts toward an adult-sized inflated plastic Bobo doll (shaped like a bowling pin). The physically aggressive acts (for example, hitting Bobo with a mallet) were accompanied by verbal expressions of aggression (“Soceroo . . . stay down”). One group of children saw the model reinforced for her aggressive behaviors, a second group saw the model punished, and a third group saw her receive no consequences. Next, to ascertain the degree to which the children in each group would spontaneously imitate the model (a measure of acceptance), each child was left alone in a room with a Bobo doll and a variety of toys, including all those used by the model in her assault of Bobo. The child was observed unobtrusively from behind a one-way glass. Following this free-play period, the experimenter reentered the room and offered the child juice and stickers as incentives for showing the experimenter what the model had done (a measure of acquisition). The incentives were given to overcome any inhibitions the child might have had for acting aggressively (which is not socially acceptable behavior).
The results of the experiment showed that all of the children learned more aggressive behaviors than they spontaneously performed, and this was especially true for the children exposed to vicarious punishment. Bandura’s study supported the critical distinction between the behaviors one learns from models (acquisition) and the behaviors one subsequently engages in (acceptance). Moreover, one of the most remarkable findings of the study was that many of the children engaged in precisely the behaviors they observed the model perform (direct imitation). Subsequently, the effects of violence in television programs on the aggressive behaviors of children and adolescents have been studied extensively. Not surprisingly, the general findings have been that viewing television violence is related to and can be the cause of aggressive behaviors.
Prosocial behaviors also are influenced by modeling. For example, psychologists James Bryan and Mary Ann Test demonstrated that exposure to a model engaging in altruistic behavior in a naturalistic setting would increase imitation for people who observe the model. In one study titled “Lady in Distress: A Flat Tire Study,” a college-aged woman stood beside her Ford Mustang that had a flat left rear tire and a spare tire leaning against the car. In the modeling period, a quarter of a mile before reaching the disabled Mustang, motorists passed another car with a flat tire and a man changing the tire as a woman looked on. In the control period, the modeling scene was absent. The presence of the model significantly increased the number of motorists who stopped to offer assistance. In another of Bryan and Test’s naturalistic experiments titled “Coins in the Kettle,” once every sixty seconds a man approached a Salvation Army kettle outside a large department store and donated money. The first twenty seconds after the model made his donation was considered the modeling period and the third twenty-second period after the modeling sequence was considered the no-modeling period. Donations occurred significantly more often in the modeling periods than in the no-modeling periods.
Modeling Therapies
A major practical application of modeling theory and principles has been to provide psychotherapy and remediation for psychiatric disorders and other problem behaviors. Modeling therapies have primarily been used for two problems: to alleviate skill deficits that are associated with psychiatric disorders and to treat fear and anxiety. Modeling also is employed extensively in training psychotherapists.
Treatment of Skill Deficits
Modeling is a major component of skills training; other components include direct instruction, behavior rehearsal, feedback, prompting (providing cues as to how to perform a behavior), and shaping (being reinforced for closer and closer approximations of a behavior). Modeling often is essential, because direct instruction may not convey the subtleties of complex skills (“seeing” the behavior may be necessary) and prompting and shaping may not be adequate. One of the earliest applications of skills training was in teaching language and other social skills to children who completely lacked these skills. In the eighteenth century, Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard attempted to socialize the Wild Boy of Aveyron, a child who grew up without human contact. More recently, in the 1960s, psychologist Ivar Lovaas pioneered the most successful treatment yet developed for ameliorating some of the massive social skills deficits shown by children with autism. Modeling has played an essential role in this treatment, although children with autism often have not learned to imitate in the course of their development. Accordingly, they must first be taught to imitate, which is accomplished through prompting and shaping. Other clinical populations that have serious social skill deficits and have benefited from skills training include children who rarely interact with peers or interact inappropriately (for example, only aggressively); children and adolescents with physical and language disabilities; people of all ages who are not acting assertively in their lives; hospitalized adults with schizophrenia; and the elderly in nursing homes.
Self-modeling is a unique technique in which clients serve as their own models of adaptive behaviors. Self-modeling capitalizes on the similarity of the model and the observer, which enhances imitation. Developed by psychologist Peter Dowrick, the technique involves preparing a videotape of the client performing the desired behavior (such as appropriately approaching peers and asking them to play a game) and then having the client watch the videotape. Because the client is having difficulty performing the behavior, various “tricks” are used to create the videotape. For instance, clients may be assisted in performing the behavior by the therapist’s prompting and modeling the behaviors off-camera, but the final video does not show the assistance. When sustaining a behavior is the problem, brief segments of the client engaging in the behavior are taped and then strung together so that the final videotape shows the client performing the behavior for an extended period.
Treatment of Fear and Anxiety
Fear or anxiety
may consist of an emotional component and a behavioral component; the former involves anticipation of negative consequences (such as getting into an accident while driving in traffic) while the latter involves a skill deficit (not knowing how to drive in traffic). Both of these issues can be dealt with when a model performs a feared behavior (such as demonstrating how to drive in traffic) with no negative consequences occurring (the model does not have an accident). This process, known as vicarious extinction, is facilitated by a coping model who, like the observer, is initially fearful and incompetent. The coping model engages in the fear-evoking behavior and gradually becomes less fearful and more competent. Both live and symbolic models are suitable.
The use of a live coping model is illustrated by participant modeling in which the therapist first demonstrates the fear-evoking behavior for the client and then encourages and physically guides the client in performing it. One case involved a forty-nine-year-old woman who had been intensely afraid of crossing streets for ten years and, as a consequence, had withdrawn from social interactions almost completely. The therapist first crossed a street with little traffic while the woman watched. Then, in graduated steps, the therapist, with her arm around the woman’s waist, walked with the woman across the street. This was repeated until the woman felt comfortable. With each crossing, the therapist decreased the amount of physical contact with the client until the therapist just walked beside and then behind the woman. Finally, the therapist gradually reduced the distance she accompanied the woman across the street until the woman was able to cross on her own.
Film and Video Modeling
Although live modeling can be customized to the client and can be highly efficacious, it may not be cost-effective in terms of therapist time. Symbolic modeling in the form of films and videos, once they are made, can be shown to many people with little or no therapist time required. A major application of film or video modeling has been in the prevention and treatment of fear of medical and dental procedures.
This work was begun by psychologist Barbara Melamed in the 1970s with her modeling film Ethan Has an Operation. The sixteen-minute film depicts the experiences of a seven-year-old boy who is about to have surgery to repair a hernia. In its fifteen scenes, the film shows all of the events children who undergo elective surgery are likely to encounter, from admission to discharge. These included Ethan having blood samples taken; the surgeon and anesthesiologist’s preoperation consultation with Ethan; Ethan being separated from his mother when wheeled to the operating room; the operating room with all its potentially frightening machines; and Ethan being in the recovery room. Ethan serves as a coping model who initially exhibits apprehension and fear and then gradually copes with these emotions and successfully goes through each stage of the surgical process. The film has been demonstrated to reduce children’s anxiety as well as behavioral problems related to surgery.
Ethan Has an Operation has been widely distributed, and in one survey it was estimated that one-third of all pediatric hospitals in the United States use modeling films to prepare children for surgery and related medical procedures. Other specific modeling films for children, adolescents, and adults have been designed to target fear and distress related to specific medical procedures ranging in severity from receiving an injection to undergoing a bone marrow transplant. Similar films have been produced to help children and adults cope with dental procedures, such as having one’s teeth cleaned for the first time. Other, less expensive forms of symbolic modeling, such as coloring books that depict children undergoing medical and dental procedures, have been published. In all cases, coping models are used.
Evaluation
In general, modeling therapies have been shown to be at least as effective as alternative treatments with which they have been compared; in some cases, such as in reducing children’s fears, they are more effective. Modeling therapies are very efficient interventions and sometimes can result in significant changes after only one or two exposures to appropriate models. A number of factors may account for this. Modeling is simultaneously able to teach clients adaptive behaviors, prompt and motivate their performing them, and reduce anxiety clients have about engaging in the adaptive behaviors (such as fear of being rebuffed when acting assertively). Reinforcement need not be administered, because observational learning can occur without reinforcement. Standard symbolic modeling in the form of films or videos and pamphlets can be used with many clients, thereby rendering such interventions highly cost-effective once they have been produced. Nonprofessional change agents, such as parents, can easily be trained to administer modeling treatments at home. Finally, therapists can instruct clients to expose themselves, on their own, to natural models, people in their everyday environments who would serve as good exemplars because they exhibit the adaptive behaviors that would benefit the clients.
Clients consider modeling therapies to be an acceptable form of treatment. Because modeling is inherently subtle and unintrusive, clients do not feel manipulated or coerced, as they might in more directive forms of therapy. When clients feel freer and in control of their treatment, they are more likely to change.
Bibliography
Bandura, Albert. Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1986. Print.
Bandura, Albert, and Richard H. Walters. Social Learning and Personality Development. New York: Holt, 1963. Print.
Fryling, Mitch J., Cristin Johnston, and Linda J. Hayes. "Understanding Observational Learning: An Interbehavioral Approach." Analysis of Verbal Behavior 27.1 (2011): 191–203. Print.
Hearold, Susan. “A Synthesis of 1,043 Effects of Television on Social Behavior.” Public Communication and Behavior. Ed. George Comstock. New York: Academic, 1986. Print.
Hoppitt, William. Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2013. Print.
Hughes, Claire. Social Understanding and Social Lives. New York: Psychology, 2011. Print.
Lovaas, O. Ivar. The Autistic Child: Language Development through Behavior Modification. New York: Irvington, 1980. Print.
Striefel, Sebastian. How to Teach through Modeling and Imitation. 2nd ed. Austin: Pro-Ed, 1998. Print.
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