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Unlock This CourseAlbert Bandura revolutionised psychology by showing that we don't just learn through direct experience - we also learn by watching others. His Social Learning Theory explains how people acquire new behaviours, attitudes and emotional reactions through observational learning. Whilst Bandura is famous for his Bobo doll experiments showing aggression, his theory equally applies to prosocial behaviour - the helpful, caring and cooperative actions that benefit others and society.
Prosocial behaviour includes acts like sharing, helping someone in need, volunteering, showing empathy and cooperating with others. According to Bandura, children and adults can learn these positive behaviours simply by observing prosocial models in their environment.
Key Definitions:
Unlike traditional learning theories that focused on rewards and punishments, Bandura showed that simply watching someone perform a behaviour can be enough to learn it. This means children can learn to be kind, helpful and cooperative just by seeing these behaviours demonstrated by others.
Bandura identified four essential cognitive processes that must occur for successful observational learning of prosocial behaviours. These processes work together to help people learn positive social behaviours from the models they observe.
The observer must pay attention to the model's prosocial behaviour. Factors like the model's attractiveness, status, or similarity to the observer can increase attention. A child is more likely to notice when their favourite teacher helps a struggling classmate.
The observer must remember the prosocial behaviour they witnessed. This involves storing the information in memory through mental rehearsal or verbal coding. A child might remember thinking "she shared her sweets with everyone" after seeing a classmate's generous act.
The observer must have the physical and mental ability to reproduce the prosocial behaviour. This includes having the necessary skills and confidence. A young child might need to develop the motor skills to help carry heavy objects before they can imitate helpful behaviour.
The fourth process, motivation, determines whether the observer will actually perform the prosocial behaviour they've learned. This depends on the expected outcomes - if the observer believes the behaviour will lead to positive consequences (like praise, feeling good, or social acceptance), they're more likely to imitate it.
A teenager sees their older sibling volunteering at a local charity and receiving praise from parents and feeling satisfied from helping others. The teenager pays attention (process 1), remembers the positive experience (process 2), has the ability to volunteer (process 3) and is motivated by the expected positive outcomes (process 4). They then start volunteering themselves.
Prosocial models can be found everywhere in our daily lives. Understanding the different types helps us recognise the many opportunities for learning positive behaviours through observation.
These are real people in the observer's environment demonstrating prosocial behaviour. Parents showing kindness to neighbours, teachers helping struggling students, or friends sharing resources are all live models. These tend to be very powerful because they're immediate and personal.
These include prosocial behaviours shown through media, books, films, or television programmes. Characters in children's programmes who demonstrate sharing, helping, or cooperation serve as symbolic models. These can reach large audiences and reinforce prosocial messages.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that children readily imitate prosocial behaviours they observe. This research provides strong evidence for Bandura's theory when applied to positive social behaviours.
Researchers have conducted various experiments to test prosocial imitation. In typical studies, children observe an adult model demonstrating helpful or generous behaviour, then are given opportunities to behave similarly.
In one famous study, children watched an adult play a game and win tokens. Some children saw the adult donate half their winnings to charity, whilst others saw the adult keep all the tokens. When the children later played the same game, those who had observed the generous model were significantly more likely to donate their own winnings to charity, even though they received no direct instruction to do so.
Not all prosocial models are equally effective. Several factors determine how likely someone is to imitate prosocial behaviour they observe.
Models who are perceived as similar, attractive, competent, or high in status are more likely to be imitated. Children are more likely to copy prosocial behaviour from someone they admire or identify with.
If the observer sees the model being rewarded for prosocial behaviour (through praise, gratitude, or social approval), they're more likely to imitate it. Conversely, if prosocial behaviour appears to be ignored or punished, imitation is less likely.
The observer's age, personality and current emotional state all influence imitation. Younger children may be more susceptible to modelling, whilst individuals with higher empathy may be more motivated to imitate prosocial behaviours.
Understanding prosocial modelling has important practical applications for parents, teachers and society as a whole. By strategically using positive models, we can encourage the development of prosocial behaviour in children and adults.
Schools can use prosocial modelling in various ways. Teachers can deliberately model helpful, cooperative and kind behaviours. Peer tutoring programmes allow students to observe and imitate prosocial academic helping behaviours. Character education programmes often use stories and examples of prosocial models to teach values.
Teachers can praise students who demonstrate prosocial behaviour, creating positive models for others to observe. They can also use literature, films and real-life examples to expose students to diverse prosocial models. Role-playing activities allow students to practice prosocial behaviours in safe environments.
Television programmes, films, books and online content can serve as powerful prosocial models. Research shows that children who watch programmes featuring prosocial content are more likely to engage in helpful and cooperative behaviours themselves.
Studies of educational children's programmes like "Sesame Street" have shown that regular viewers demonstrate increased prosocial behaviour compared to non-viewers. Children who watched episodes featuring sharing, helping and cooperation were more likely to exhibit these behaviours in their own interactions with peers.
Whilst prosocial modelling is powerful, it's important to understand its limitations. Not all observed prosocial behaviour is automatically imitated and individual differences play a significant role in determining outcomes.
People vary in their susceptibility to prosocial modelling based on personality traits, cultural background and personal experiences. Some individuals may be naturally more empathetic and therefore more likely to imitate prosocial behaviour, whilst others may require more explicit instruction or motivation.
Prosocial modelling works best when combined with other approaches like direct teaching, reinforcement and opportunities for practice. Simply exposing someone to prosocial models isn't always enough - the learning environment must support and encourage the application of observed behaviours.
Bandura's Social Learning Theory provides valuable insights into how prosocial behaviour can be learned through observation and imitation. By understanding the processes involved in observational learning and the factors that influence prosocial modelling, we can better promote positive social behaviours in educational settings, families and communities. The research evidence strongly supports the power of prosocial models in shaping behaviour, making this an important tool for creating more caring and cooperative societies.