Albert Bandura Essays - Psychological Theories, Behavioural Sciences

Albert Bandura Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925 in the small farming community of Mundare, Canada. He was educated in a small school with minimal resources, yet a remarkable success rate. He received his bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of British Colombia in 1949. Bandura went on to the University of Iowa, where he received his Ph.D. in 1952. It was there that he came under the influence of the behaviorist tradition and learning theory. He has since developed his social learning or cognitive theory and his ideas of observational learning and modeling, for which he made a place for himself in the history of Psychology. Yet his theory is still related to behaviorism because it addresses the element of learning (attention, memory, drive) that are included in both behavioral and social theories. ?Behaviorism is the view that only observable, overt activities that can be measured scientifically should be studied by Psychology. Behaviorists believe that internal events, such as thoughts, images, feelings, and intentions are immeasurable, and so should not be part of Psychology? (Baron, 1998, p.7). The scientific or experimental methods are ways in which we are able to measure such observable activities. The scientific method involves the construction of theories for explaining various events or processes. The theories contain predictions, or hypotheses that are then tested by further research and observation. The theory is then accepted only if the new observations are consistent with the theory. The experimental method is a research method in which one or more variables are manipulated (called the independent variable) in order to see the effects it has on another variable (the dependent variable). In summary, it says that one's environment causes one's behavior. Bandura found this theory to be true, but also added that behavior causes environment as well. In the argument over whether the person or the situation is most responsible for the behavior, Bandura argues for reciprocal determinism, in which a person's behavior is based on an evaluation of the situation. That behavior changes the situation, requiring a new evaluation and a new behavior decision, and so on. The points of this analysis are first, that we cannot easily separate the effects on behavior of person and situation, and second, that the individual's own behavior is a contributor to the situation, which in turn affects his or her behavior. This theory is, of course, more interest in how the person affects behavior. Bandura argues that we can best conceive personality as a set of internal evaluating and interpretation processes (social learning person variables) that mediate our interaction with the outside world, and indeed with our own inner thoughts and feelings. Such variables include competency and self-efficacy, self-regulatory systems and plans, subjective values, encoding strategies and personal constructs, and expectancies. It is important to understand that they are interdependent processes: Changes in any one may have effects on the others. (Bandura and Mischel) Behaviorism was important to Bandura in that its weaknesses became his research foundation. Bandura believed that behaviorism limited the possibilities in a laboratory setting because such settings deal with direct learning, where a learner responds to the observer. Bandura proposed that complex behaviors are affected by behavior, the environment, and internal events that influence perceptions and actions. ?Since the late 1960's, behaviorism has given the way to the ?cognitive revolution,? of which Bandura is considered a part. Cognitive psychology retains the experimentally-oriented flavor of behaviorism, without artificially restraining the researcher to external behaviors, when the mental life if clients and subjects is so obviously important? (Boeree, 1998, p.6). As Bandura began to look at personality as an interaction among the environment, behavior, and the person's psychological (cognitive) processes, he adds imagery and language in order to theorize more effectively about two things that many people would consider the ?strong suit? of the human species: observational learning (modeling) and self-regulation. Of the hundreds of studies Bandura has conducted, one group stands out well above the others-the bobo doll studies. The bobo doll was an inflatable balloon creature (depicted as a clown) with a weight in the bottom that makes it pop back up when you knock him down. Bandura made a film in which a model would aggressively punch the doll

Caddy and Benjys Metamorphosis Essays

Caddy and Benjys Metamorphosis Essays Caddy and Benjys Metamorphosis Essay Caddy and Benjys Metamorphosis Essay Essay Topic: The Metamorphosis The Sound and the Fury Change is perhaps the most inevitable experience human beings can live through. By means of his novel The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner creates a microcosm of the Southern Aristocratic Society of post Civil War America by constructing the county of Yoknapatawpha. Faulkner represents archetypes of southern aristocratic figures and through them experiences change by means of the decay and corruption of the southern moral code these figures have once aggressively believed in. In the first section, change is evident in different proportions through Benjys induction to alcohol and his alcoholic experience and through Caddys physical image change portrayed by means of her wearing a dress and how this leads to a lack of tree smell recognized by Benjy and that solemnly in these pages can prove to be important to Benjy. Particularly on pages 40 and 41 of the first part of this novel, through the use of flashbacks, a clear naivetà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ motif and sensory diction, Faulkner demonstrates a slight corruption and change of Benjy and Caddy through Benjys narration. Faulkners first literary technique choice when choosing to establish change in the characters of Benjy and Caddy is flashbacks. By utilizing this device, he allows himself to showcase different scenarios in which change is also occurring, in this case a negative change of decay and corruption, and hence strengthen the readers interpretation of the significance of this change. The use of this literary technique becomes most evident when Faulkner suddenly turns from and I couldnt smell trees anymore and I began to cry, a scene in which he is describing Benjys introduction to alcohol by TP when Benjy through crying demonstrates to the reader he is unhappy and/or unsatisfied with something. From and I began to cry, Faulkner in italics skips to another moment in Benjys life, evident to the lack of connection to the former scene. In this new scene that begins with Benjy, Caddy said, Benjy. Caddy is the character experiencing change when she dresses herself differently and is reprimanded by her brothers. The evident change of scenes through flashbacks allows Faulkner to present various cases of the same problem and/or event and through this strengthen the readers interpretation. He could have chose to do this through different manners but with the use of flashbacks, he lacks the formality of commencing a new paragraph and having to include context and any other information since he just initiates his new idea as seen. Faulkner, in this same passage, develops change through the motif of naivetà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ as he molds this change into a negative connotation. Using the innate ingenuity of humans, he shows how his characters in situations that differ in magnitude lose this condition. He begins expanding on this motif with Benjy and how he together with TP experiences a drinking episode. In this drinking episode, Benjy states that he begins making a sound and by solely stating It made the sound, by making the sound and throat made a sound, he proves himself unaware of the situation he is undergoing and hence nave to it. To all who have some knowledge of drinking can easily deduct that Benjy has the hiccups from all the drinking he has been through but since he is inexperienced he shows himself oblivious. This shows a signification of Benjy from being non-alcoholic to alcoholic, a behavioral change. Caddy also experiences change as she chooses to dress up by wearing a dress and is reprimanded by Jason with the comment You think youre grown up, dont you. You think youre better than anybody else, dont you. Prissy. Jasons comment tells the reader that Caddy wearing a dress is out of habit and unusual therefore a change in her life. Caddys change and Jasons reaction shows the naivetà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ of Jason towards the natural tendency of life of developing A very predominant technique in this section is the notable presence of diction directly related to the senses. Benjys connection to his senses is evident in this section as he hears sound, feels sound, smells trees and sees the effects of alcohol on T.P. Perhaps Faulkners greatest narration of change happens through Benjy who clearly cannot interpret his surroundings or happenings in his body like when it starts making a sound he cannot identify or comprehend. Through hearing a sound and feeling it at the same time, both garnered through the senses he is able to notice change. As he sees Caddy and smells her noticing he couldnt smell trees anymore change is once more perceptible and once more gained through his senses. It is through Benjys senses together with his inability to interpret them in this section that Faulkner implicitly develops a negative change in his characters. Although Yoknapatawpha may only be an imaginary representation of a Southern reality, the universal theme of change is present. Faulkner in this section of the novel is able to stress change through many techniques, the most predominant being flashbacks, the motif of naivetà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ and his diction. Through two characters, Benjy and Caddy, he is able to show that the innate nature of characters suffers influence and inevitably change as does Benjy and Caddy in this passage. Change is truly the most inevitable experience humans beings face.