PY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Observational Learning, Social Forces
Document Summary
Generate examples of observational learning, modeling and vicarious learning. Lab-reared monkeys not afraid of snakes the way wild monkeys are; they were not around monkeys who were afraid. Animals" fears can be learned through observation. Social forces play a role in fear learning in humans too: phobias: interfere with a person"s life, fears: are livable with. Two groups of preschoolers watched a women interact with this bobo doll. One group watched her act aggressive towards it and fight with it while the other group watched her calmly interact with it. The group who watched the aggressive video attacked very hostile towards the doll by punching and kicking and hitting it. The group who watched her calmly interact with the doll did not show aggressiveness to the doll. The imitation of behavior through observational learning: modeling is effective only if the observer is physically capable of imitating the behavior, more effective: attractive, high status and similar to self.