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Psychology of Communication: personality
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Psychology of Communication: personality
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Social learning theory is a mix of various approaches to psychology. Because it developed out of Behaviourism, it tends to be highly empirical and dependent on detailed observation. However, unlike Skinner and many other behaviourists, Bandura and his colleagues place considerable emphasis on mental processes.
Like the behaviourists, Bandura sees reinforcement as being essential for human behaviours, but he does not see reinforcement as being the only determinant of the development of those behaviours in the first place. He developed from his laboratory studies the idea of observational learning (or vicarious learning). We can learn by observing the consequences of others' behaviour and by imitating them.
External reinforcement is not the only determinant of behaviour. We also measure our performance according to our own internal standards. We constantly monitor and evaluate our behaviour in order to see how well we cope with situations in life according to our standards.
According to Bandura we do that because we need to maintain control of our own internal processes and of our environment.
Social learning theory
Psychoanalytic theories
Humanistic theories
Kelly's personal construct theory
Trait theories
Personality measurement
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