Learning Theory Flashcards
What biographical and historic information is relevant for the development of TLT and SLT?
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Explain the key concepts associated with TLT and SLT.
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Compare and contrast TLT and SLT, including causal models, beliefs about acquired behavior, beliefs about observed behavior and/or cognitive processing, and research methods.
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What is self-efficacy and how does it compare to Erikson’s psychosocial theory?
- Self-efficacy is the measure of the belief in one’s own ability to complete tasks and reach goals
- *review psychosocial section*
What were the mechanisms of development for learning theorists?
- Focus on on the process of change
- Three main factors: physical maturation,experience with the social world, and cognitive development
What are learning theorist positions on human nature?
- Mechanistic view of human behavior
- The mechanistic model, however,does not accurately represent modern social learning theory, in which“people are self-organizing, proactive, self-reflective, and self-regulating”
- People actively operate on the environment, just as the environment acts on them
- Emphasizes the influence of social contexts on children
What are learning theorist positions on qualitative vs. quantitative development?
- Views development primarily as a process of quantitative change, in which learning episodes gradually accumulate over time
- Observational learning may change somewhat qualitatively when symbolic representation of others’ behaviors becomes possible, and when changing from one set of rules to different ones
What are learning theorist positions on nature vs. nurture?
- Emphasize nurture more than does Freud and much more than does Piaget, the interactionist
- Social learning theorists do not follow the militant environmentalism of traditional learning theory, which viewed the young mind in the way British empiricist John Locke viewed it
- The biologically based ability to learn from experience, especially the advanced capability for observational learning, allows humans to adapt to demands of the environment
What are learning theorist positions on what develops?
- Because what is developed depends greatly on what the environment, learning theorists propose few universal behaviors are in every culture
- Whereas Piaget, with certainty,would predict that all physically normal children in the world would develop concepts of object permanence, causality, and conservation
- And Freud would predict universal concern with sexuality and aggression
- Social learning theory appears to be almost content-free
How might learning theory be applied in the real world?
- Social learning theory has addressed a variety of social problems involving children, for example, aggression. Does watching violence on television make children aggressive?
- Social learning theory also has been useful for helping dysfunctional families - certain behaviors habitually lead to certain other behaviors through a system of reinforcement
- Bandura implemented several programs to improve personal and collective self-efficacy to bring about social change
What are the strengths of learning theory?
- Strengths are its focus on the situational, social,and emotional influences on behavior and its testability
- Learning researchers have defined terms clearly, stated hypotheses precisely, and kept unobservable, intervening variables to a minimum
What are the weaknesses of learning theory?
- Inadequate account of cognitive development and an inadequate description of development in natural settings
- Observational learning and patterns of reinforcement need to be tied systematically to social–ecological variables, such as both parents working outside the home, diversity in what constitutes a family, urbanization, racial discrimination, and changing sex roles
What is the domain-specific approach to socialization?
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How does this conceptualization of socialization influence those who work with children, such as parents, educators, clinicians?
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What impact does this approach have on future research?
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