The Social Communication Theory Of Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory

Introduction The media, ever since it was created, has achieved breakthrough over the past decades. In this modern day, we now have a wide variety of media ranging from newspaper to radio and television to social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). People rely on these medias a lot, using it as a source of both information and entertainment proving once again that we are indeed living in the 21st century wherein media plays an important role in our daily life. The media also serves as the foundation of knowledge and have significant influence on our attitude towards the conflict. Everyday, there are events that are being broadcasted and televised on television and radio. We cannot deny that the mass media have a great contribution

In his famous Bobo doll experiment, children observed the people around them behaving in various ways. The children observed an adult acting aggressively toward the Bobo doll. When they had a chance to play, they began to imitate the violent acts they had previously observed. Bandura determined three (3) basic models of observational learning: live model, verbal instructional model and symbolic model. Live model involves an individual demonstrating or showing a behavior. Verbal instructional model includes descriptions and explanations of a behavior. Finally, symbolic model involves real or fictional characters displaying behaviors in television programs, books, video games and other types of media. Bandura noted that reinforcement can also influence learning and behavior, be it external or internal and positive or negative. He described intrinsic reinforcement as a form of internal reward, such as satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment from praises or approval (Cherry, 2016). Children can also learn new information without demonstrating new behaviors. They do not automatically observe and imitate the behavior of a model. The child also take into consideration of what happens to other people before deciding to whether mimic someone’s behavior or not. This is known as vicarious reinforcement. Bandura proposed four (4) steps that are involved in the observational learning and modeling or mediational process: attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. Children will emulate a behavior if it grabs their attention. In order to learn, a child must be paying attention. Therefore, attention is important to know if a behavior has an influence to others copying it. Retention is how good the behavior was remembered. The ability to store information is also a significant part in the learning process. Yet, the