Albert Bandura's Behaviorism

Albert Bandura, often called a "'father' of the cognitivist movement" who is known mostly for his work on behaviorism, was born in Canada on December 4, 1925. He attended the University of British Columbia and received his bachelor's degree in Psychology in 1949. He then attended the University of Iowa in 1952 where he got his PhD in Psychology. While teaching at Stanford University in 1959, he worked with a graduate student on his first book, Adolescent Aggression. Bandura is still currently doing research and studies at Stanford.

Bandura's theory deals with behaviorism by influencing one variable. He would then test how it would affect the other. His theory basically states that a person's surroundings and environment influences their behavior. Bandura thought that if a person's surroundings can influence their behavior then their behavior can also influence their surroundings. He called this theory reciprocal determination. Simply stated, "The world and a person's behavior cause each other." Bandura then took this theory even further when he began looking at three interactions: the environment, a person's psychological processes, and their behavior.

Bandura is most known for his Bobo doll studies in which he came up with the social learning theory. In this study, Bandura had a Bobo doll in a room where a woman entered the room hitting and screaming at the doll; Bandura then had children watch the person doing this to the doll. The children were allowed into the room with the doll where they imitated exactly what they had seen the woman doing to the doll earlier. He called this observational learning or modeling.

I agree with Bandura's theory about modeling and how people learn from watching others. This can be applied to the classroom as the teacher actually models the correct behavior that they expect from their students. If I show my students what is expected of them through my behavior then they will most likely behave in the same way.

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