SAMPLE 3 - ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

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1 SAMPLE 3 - ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND LEARNING OUTCOMES PSYCHOLOGY Behaviourism and social learning theory are two perspectives of psychology; discuss how they explain learning: PK1/3/AA/11G ( VERSION) Learning Outcomes The learner will: 2. Understand different psychological perspectives 3. Understand the work of prominent psychologists Assessment Criteria The learner can: 2.1 Explain two psychological perspectives of a given situation. 2.2 Critically discuss the limitations of psychological perspectives. 3.1 Critically discuss the work of two prominent psychologists. 3.2 Evaluate the contribution of one named psychologist to the understanding of human behaviour.

2 SAMPLE 3 GRADING DESCRIPTORS AND COMPONENTS GD1 UNDERSTANDING OF THE SUBJECT Merit a. Demonstrates a very good grasp of the relevant knowledge base. c. Demonstrates very good understanding of the different perspectives or approaches associated with the area of study. Distinction a. Demonstrates an excellent grasp of the relevant knowledge base. c. Demonstrates excellent understanding of the different perspectives or approaches associated with the area of study. GD5 COMMUNICATION AND PRESENTATION Merit Shows very good command of format structure use of images language (including technical or specialist language) syntax spelling punctuation referencing Distinction Shows excellent command of format structure use of images language (including technical or specialist language) syntax spelling punctuation referencing GD7 QUALITY Merit a. is structured in a way that is generally logical and fluent Distinction a. is structured in a way that is consistently logical and fluent

3 The aim of this essay is to discuss two perspectives of psychology, these being Behaviourism and Social learning theory. The main focus is an analysis of how they explain learning. Behaviourism and social learning theory are both theories that consider how individuals learn. The two main theorists are Ivan Pavlov around behaviourism and Albert Bandura that believed in the theory around social learning. This will develop into a critical discussion on the limitation of both theories and will conclude by looking in more detail at how Banduras theories and impacted on the understanding of behaviour. The two main approaches to learning and how we understand learning are behaviourism and social learning. Behaviourists believe that we learn from responding to some form of stimuli in the environment, for example, in learning the stimuli can be the teacher giving verbal praise or the student receiving a good mark, behaviourists say this will positively encourage the student to excel, this is called positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement can also be used. Using punishment as reinforcement shows which behaviour is not acceptable and will depress unsavoury behaviour. Behaviourists use a range of research methods, predominantly made up from experiments and observations. (learning approaches, n.d.) Social learning theorists believe that we learn from school influences, for example a child would learn from watching their parents, this could be from a mother pulling silly faces and the child copying to table manners, how to use a knife and fork and as the child grows up influenced by the culture around them. The child takes noticed of their social environment and learns from it. If imitation of the model is possible, this will help the reinforcement process (e.g. if the child can copy the parent s actions, the learning will be reinforced). (learning approaches, n.d.) Models in society are influential on children these can be, parents, characters on children s television, peers/friends at school and teachers. Children take note of their models behaviour and in later life imitate this behaviour, they are more likely to imitate models of the same sex. People around are either going to reinforce behaviour or punish, if this is reinforced or been rewarded the child is more likely to continue the behaviour, however if punishment is given they are likely to stop this behaviour and replace it with acceptable behaviour. Children also take note of what happens around them, consequently if they see somebody being rewarded for their behaviour they are likely to copy, similarly if they see somebody being punished they won t imitate them, this is called vicarious reinforcement. (McLeod, 2011) Ivan Pavlov the Russian psychologist is one of the main theorists who studied behaviourism. In the 1890s Pavlov looked at salivation on dogs in response to being fed, this is known as stimuli response. Pavlov proved the existence of the unconditioned response (salivate) by having a lab assistant present the dog with food (unconditioned stimulus) and measuring it salivary secretions. The lab assistant was originally a neutral stimulus, the dog eventually started to associate the lab assistant with receiving food, the dog did not initially do this therefore this was a change in behaviour which had been learnt. Pavlov used a bell as his neutral stimuli, he rang this bell when food was produced, after repeating this when he rang the bell alone the dog s salivation increased, because this had been learnt. This changed the bell into a conditioned stimulus. Between Pavlov s study of classical conditioning became famous, this was the first systematic study of basic laws of studying learning. (McLeod, 2007)

4 Albert Bandura (1961) conducted a study to investigate social behaviours and if they can be developed by imitation and observation. Banduras study involved 36 boys and 36 girls all aged between 3-6 years old who attended the Stanford University Nursery School. The children were tested to see how aggressive they originally were and split into groups of 24 based on the result. Each group were shown different models, them being an aggressive model, a non-aggressive model and the last group were not shown a model at all. The children observed the models with a blow up doll called Bobo doll each of the groups models treat the dolls differently ranging from aggressive, hitting and shouting to not being aggressive and finally the last group didn t have a model. The results from this concluded that children that witnessed aggressive behaviour were more imitative than the nonaggressive group and the controlled group, this supports Bandura s (1977) social learning theory proving that children learn through the process of observation. (McLeod.S., Bobo Doll Experiment; 2011) Pavlov s study on salivating dogs, although this experiment is reliable the study wasn t generalizable to humans as dogs were used, dogs have different thinking processes to humans and different brains this study may have shown different results if humans had been used. While Pavlov s dogs played a crucial role in the discovery of classical conditioning was anything put in place for them? In the 21 st century tying dogs up would be seen as animal cruelty and would not be allowed to be encouraged. Hall (2015). Bandura s Bobo dolls study seems to provide reliable evidence proving the theory behind social learning. However, Bandura should have argued this theory in different ways. The study could have been investigated on adults as well as children, would the result have been different? Do adults learn similarly to children? Secondly, was anything put in place for the children used in the study? Was aggression a trait that the children kept throughout their lives? It could have been argued that the study was unethical, there is always the question of did the children suffer long term effects. (McLeod S.,Bobo Doll Experiment 2011.) If Bandura was to have used a different personality for example, treating the Bobo doll pleasantly would the children still imitated the model? Hall (2015). It has been proven that children that had not played with a Bobo doll before were five times more likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour and perhaps it was the novelty value of the doll having a influence on how the children treated the doll. (Cumberbatch, 1990) Bandura has impacted on the understanding of behaviour massively Banduras theory on learning through imitation served a guide to considerable research, investigating the impacts of television and movies on viewers. Albert Bandura s theory, n.d) Social learning is the theory in psychology which is easiest to relate to, when looking at social learning this has had a huge impact on the understanding of behaviour. Bandura has proved that behaviour is learnt through imitation of models and with a model being anything that can be imitated this leaves a broad range to investigate. A model can be a person a child looks up to in the media, there has been lots of research since Banduras theory into children and the way they look at celebrities. It has been proven that social learning can also influence what products the public buy, if a celebrity was advertising a diet plan on the television the public would be more likely to buy this if the model was slim, likewise with make-up and anything in the media. Models are not always a good thing if you were to see more over weight models in the media children and young adults would not feel as pressured to lose weight this would help drop the statistics in eating disorders. Social learning has implications for all society due to negative influences. This weighs up how social learning has impacted on behaviour and

5 how it has been made very simple for anybody to understand vision and movies on viewers. Hall (2015) After thoroughly investigating both the theories, behaviourism and social learning it is proven that both theories have relevant results to prove that they both contribute towards learning. Both theories can be looked at critically and have faults found that could help towards the limitations of their theories. Although both theories have weaknesses there are also a lot of strength found to argue the experiments were completed following standard scientific methodology proving that they have an impact on learning in behaviour.

6 Bibliography Albert Bandura s theory. (n.d) Retrieved from Learning Theory Fundamentals: http// Bandura (1977). Bandura Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from Simply Psychology: Cumberbatch (1990) Bobo doll experiment. Retrieved from Simply Psychology: -doll.html Hall, C (2015) Class Notes, Darlington College Learning approaches. (n.d.) Retrieved from skills we need: McLeod, S (2007). Pavlovs dogs. Retrieved from simply psychology: McLeod, S (2011). Bandura Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from simply psychology: McLeod, S (2011). Bobo Doll Experiment. Retrieved from simply psychology:

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