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Operant Conditioning and Social Cognitive Theory

The document discusses and compares operant conditioning and social cognitive theories of learning. Operant conditioning focuses on how behavior is influenced by consequences, while social cognitive theory emphasizes how learning occurs through observation of others. Both theories can explain how behavior is learned and changed, but they differ in their core concepts and when they emerged. The document argues that social cognitive theory may be more applicable for explaining human learning as it considers cognitive processes and social influences, in addition to consequences of behavior.

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Iryna Dribko
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209 views2 pages

Operant Conditioning and Social Cognitive Theory

The document discusses and compares operant conditioning and social cognitive theories of learning. Operant conditioning focuses on how behavior is influenced by consequences, while social cognitive theory emphasizes how learning occurs through observation of others. Both theories can explain how behavior is learned and changed, but they differ in their core concepts and when they emerged. The document argues that social cognitive theory may be more applicable for explaining human learning as it considers cognitive processes and social influences, in addition to consequences of behavior.

Uploaded by

Iryna Dribko
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Operant Conditioning and Social Cognitive Theory are both focusing on the

explanation of how creatures learn and whether their obtained behavior patterns
could be altered or adjusted. Though these two theories have certain things in
common, they appeared at different times and they vary according to the main
concepts and features.

The crux of the Operant Conditioning theory lies in the belief that learning is a
process that depends on the behavior followed by a consequence, either positive or
negative, whereas Social Learning Theory is based on the idea that learning occurs
during observing other people. Operant Conditioning Theory suggests that if the
behavior is followed by the negative consequence, it is less likely to be repeated
again. Therefore, it implies that if there is reinforcement to the positive behavior, it
will be repeated later in order to receive a reward, while not reinforced behavior
will die out. Unlike this theory, Social Learning theory suggests that learning can
occur when a person observes someone and imitates their actions, if they see that
such actions have been rewarded, they are likely to repeat them.

Operant Conditioning has several benefits as it is easy to implement in practice both


with humans and animals. For instance, dogs are trained to obey commands using
the features of this theory – every time an animal does what it has been ordered to
do, they receive a treat. Admittedly, despite the simplicity in practical usage, this
theory omits attention to hereditary factors and cognitive ones as well,
oversimplifying the idea of what influences the behavioral patterns in general.
Needless to say that, as this theory has primarily been experimented on animals, it
may not always be possible to put it into practice with people.

In my opinion, Social Learning Theory has more benefits regardless the fact that it
may be more difficult to put into practice and to make it work with children. Firstly,
this theory seems more appealing as it focuses on the cognitive processes, and is
often used to describe more difficult patterns of behavior. For instance, it is clear
that humans are able to process data and acknowledge the relationship between
their actions and consequences that would follow. Moreover, humans usually tend
to think before they start imitating some other person’s behavior. The discovery of
mirror neurons definitely proves the link between natural behavior and nurtured
behavior; therefore, the link between natural factors and cognitive ones becomes
even more credible. At present time, social influences on the development of a
personality cannot be disregarded. Among the examples to illustrate this link are
cases when children raised in malfunctioning families repeat their parents’ mistakes
and build their own families according to a familiar pattern.
When it comes to school training policy, one good reason why Social Learning
Theory should be studied as a part of school training is due to the fact that children
will be exposed to their peers at school and certainly the influence of the peer group
cannot be avoided. Another reason why it is better not to rely solely on Operant
Conditioning theory is because, according to the research, when children are being
punished for their misbehavior, they do not forget this behavioral pattern.
Furthermore, frequent punishments may cause terror, stress, or may even lead to
aggression. Another point is that punishment for bad behavior does not always lead
to good behavior, so it might be pointless in certain situations. The same situation is
true when it comes to rewards – once the child learns they are practically bribed for
their good behavior they might expect this reward every single time and if the
rewarding process doesn’t occur, they may feel betrayed, let down and their
behavior could possibly worsen. By observing and imitating children learn social
norms and make their own logical assumptions on which behavior is proper and
which is disregarded without feeling the pressure of being punished or only being
motivated by a reward.

Social Learning Theory may be used in the classroom in a number of ways during the
lessons and in between. At preschool learners have already been exposed to
observational learning at home when they imitated actions of their parents, and at
this point they are starting to recognize the patterns of social norms in the
classroom and at school. The first example could be connected to acting properly in
the classroom and completing tasks given by the teacher. For instance, a teacher
can organize pair work by pairing students and asking them to perform a simple
task, like putting their things on the desks in order; those, finishing first should be
given a reward, later, the teacher may ask to perform a similar task. The child who
did not get a reward is likely to follow the actions of the child who did, therefore
completing a task. Another way of using observation method is for teaching children
how to dance a simple dancing routine, like “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” or do
another exercise, similar to this one. Teacher, by modeling and touching their parts
of the body sets an example, children repeat, later, after a few tries, children are
able to repeat the moves when they hear the music without teacher’s model.

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