This article throws light upon the six important principles of social learning. The principles are: 1. Imitation 2. Role-Play 3. Identification 4. Observational Learning 5. Vicarious Conditioning 6. Sympathy & Empathy.
Principle # 1. Imitation:
One of the earliest concepts employed to explain social learning was imitation. Gabriel Trade held that the human being has an innate tendency to imitate others and that much of our social learning takes place through this mechanism. Later psychologists, however, discarded the ‘instinctive’ concept of imitation suggested by Trade but retained the concept of imitation.
Among those who advocated the operation of the process of imitation were Dollard and Miller. The young child imitates the others especially the parents and teachers. Young people imitate film stars and sports heroes. According to social learning theorists the operation of imitation can be explained on the basis that a stimulus (behaviour of others) tends to produce in the individual a response which is identical to the stimulus itself.
It is obvious that a considerable amount of learning in social situations takes place through imitation. Thus a child who sees a parent scolding a servant, also does the same. Imitation lies at the root many forms of prejudiced behaviour. An ancient Indian saying goes as follows – “As the king is, so will be the subjects.”
Principle # 2. Role-Play:
Another process which is involved in social learning is role- play. As children, all of us have played, acting like mothers to our dolls, bus conductor, doctor, policeman, etc. Here we imagine ourselves as various others. In the concept of our various interactions, we play various roles.
Such role-play enables one to imagine and feel how others think, feel, etc.. As one grows such role-play becomes complex. A young student who aspires to be a doctor or an engineer imagines himself or herself in the role of a doctor or an engineer or a soldier. Such role-plays are a major contribution to social learning.
The reader here may ask the question what is the difference between imitation and role-play. Imitation is a mere mechanical process of acting out or repeating what another person does and generally takes place in response to a stimulus in the form of similar behaviour by others involving only a part of the body.
Role-play on the other hand involves the entire process. In role play, we behave like others which involves not only action, but feeling emotions, etc. Role- play is imaginary and involves abstract thinking, elaborating and similar process which is not the case with imitating.
If one may say so, in role-playing, a person ceases to be oneself while playing the role of some other persons. There is a temporary substitution of identity. Further while even higher animals and very young children are capable of imitation, this is not true of role-play.
Principle # 3. Identification:
A third mechanism which is involved in social learning is identification. In fact, in a way it is identification which makes the difference between role-play and imitation. The process of role-play involves, for a short time, the individual identifying himself or herself with some other persons.
The process of identification was assigned a major role by psychoanalytic theory on its role both in normal and abnormal development. But, other psychologists like Bandura and Sears who are more inclined towards a behavioural approach have also used the term identification with a meaning totally different from that was given to the term by psychoanalytic theory. The difference between role-play and identification is that while the former is temporary the latter is more enduring and can have a much greater and lasting effect.
Principle # 4. Observational Learning:
Observation of others plays a very crucial role in our learning, particularly social learning. Bandura, a leading social learning theorist and researcher through his research work demonstrated the occurrence of observational learning among children.
In one study involving dolls, he showed that children who watched a film with a person being punished for ill-treating a doll, played much less with the doll than those who did not watch such a situation. In other studies, it was shown that children who had watched adults being aggressive towards some dolls, themselves later on tended to be more aggressive towards others. Children tended to behave in the same way as adults do.
This can be considered either as observational learning or as imitation. Studies have shown that the effects of observational learning are very strong and long-lasting. Studies by Bryan, Mussen & Eisenbag and many others have shown that children who have learnt certain forms of behaviour by observing others tend to retain these for a long time and such observationally learnt behaviour tends to reappear after months of gap.
The importance of observational learning has been clearly brought out by a number of investigators on the impact of television programmes particularly on violence and aggressive behaviour. There is very strong experimental evidence to show that children learn many things particularly aggression and violence because of indiscriminate exposure to television programmes.
According to Bandura observational learning involves four components. The first one is attention. This means observational learning can take place only if the observer is closely attending to what is being observed. Having attended, the person has to retain.
Thus retention is the second component. Further it is not enough if one attends and retains but should be able to reproduce. Reproduction is thus the third component. One should be capable of reproducing. Finally, above all is the factor motivation. One does not retain or reproduce or perhaps even attend unless there is a strong motive to do so.
Principle # 5. Vicarious Conditioning:
The concept of vicarious conditioning is essentially based on the concept of stimulus response or situation-behaviour associations. Thus if a school boy sees a classmate being punished by the teacher for abusing a classmate, he will learn not to abuse anybody. Similarly seeing another child rewarded for a particular action can also result in learning a similar behaviour.
Such learning is called “learning by vicarious conditioning”. It is called vicarious because the learner is not the subject of the experience. The learning takes place by watching or observing the experience of others. It is generally believed that if criminals are punished and if this is made public, others are likely to desist from committing crimes.
This is believed in many countries. Vicarious conditioning can be either through classical conditioning or instrumental conditioning. The occurrence of vicarious conditioning has been demonstrated in a number of experiments by Bandura and others. But one can again ask whether this can also not be described as observational learning.
Principle # 6. Sympathy & Empathy:
Two other psychological processes are also involved in the process of social learning. The first is known as ‘sympathy’. Sympathy is the tendency of the individual where very often he or she is able to feel like others.
Thus if we see a person suffering from serious pain and illness, we often almost appear to share his pain and discomfort. Dedicated personalities like Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa and many others were able to sympathies with the poor, the downtrodden, the underprivileged and the suffering.
Sympathy plays a crucial role in the development of altruism, helping attitude and behaviour and many noble and human qualities. Another tendency is known as empathy. Empathy is more total and at that moment, the individual loses his entire identity.
For example, if you are watching a football match, where a member of your favorite side is about to shoot the ball into the opposite side’s goal, you also go through the act of shooting the ball and perhaps end up kicking the person sitting next to you. Empathy and sympathy are thus two other processes which play a role in the process of social learning. Both of them are emotionally loaded unlike imitation or observational learning.
The reader probably now has an idea of the completion of the process of social learning, the various processes and mechanisms which come into operation and are varyingly effective at different stages. Thus imitation plays a very crucial role in the earliest years followed by role-play, identification and observational learning. Internalisation is more operative during late childhood and adolescent years. Social learning is a continuous process and is almost lifelong. In contemporary society, it is essential that every individual continues to socially learn.
In this section an attempt has been made to present some of the ways through which social learning has been found to occur. In addition to the above certain other terms have also been employed. A term which is frequently employed is internalisation.
Internalisation means a mechanism by which an individual internalizes or makes a part of his psychological makeup, some of the attitudes, values and even behaviour which are dominant in the culture. Sometimes an individual may also internalise the behavioural attributes of a particular model, ideal or hero. Such internalised characteristics are very strong, have a strong emotional component and are difficult to change.