PSYCH 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Daniel Batson, Psy, Relational Aggression
Document Summary
The power of models to modify behaviour is a crucial tenet of albert bandura"s social learning theory: we learn from the example of others as well as from direct experience with rewards and punishments. Models influence the prosocial, helpful behaviour and also affect antisocial, aggressive behaviour: in a classic study, bandura observed the behaviour of mildly frustrated children. People can learn more than specific aggressive behaviours from aggressive models. They also develop more positive attitudes and beliefs about aggression in general as they process and incorporate the social information from their environment. When repeatedly seeing aggression modelling by parents, for example, children construct aggressive scripts that serve as guides for how to behave and solve social problems. These scripts can be activated automatically, leading to quick, often unthinking aggressive responses that follow the scripts we have been taught. Observing a non-aggressive response to a provoking situation teaches a peaceful alternative and strengthens existing restraints against aggression.
