Observational Learning Essay

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Total Length: 1205 words ( 4 double-spaced pages)

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Observational learning is a form social leaning where learning occurs by observing the behavior of others. This is a powerful method for learning and most of what children learn is by observing their parents or other adults (Fryling, Johnston, & Hayes, 2011). Observational learning can take place at any time in a person's life, but it mostly tends to be the most common learning method during childhood. It also plays a vital role in the socialization process, as children will learn how to behave and respond by observing their parents. The articles selected comprise of 7 primary sources and 3 secondary sources, which means that the 7 articles are all research articles. The other 3 comprise of 1 literature review, and 2 practice articles. The content covered is mostly on behavioral learning and how it can be used to change behavior or learn new behavior. The research is not only conducted on humans but also on rats in order to demonstrate the learning behaviors.

Literature Review

In order to identify the appropriate literature, we made use of numerous search strategies that employed different keywords. We conducted the search using Ovid SP and PubMed. The key words used were observational learning, behavior change, social cognitive theory, and effect of observational learning. The main challenge that we faced was that identifying appropriate articles was difficult because some of the abstracts were not clear on what the article covered.

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This forced us to review our keywords and delve deeper in our search. We managed to locate articles that we feel were able to cover the topic and the results were positive. The selection process was a learning opportunity as it taught us the vital skills necessary for selecting and appraising articles for literature review.

From the articles that we have selected it is clear that the theory is not used for human subjects, but also for animals. This means that it is possible to train both humans and animals in order for them to learn a new habit or change a particular behavior. What is encouraging is that the results of all the researches demonstrated that the participants modified or they learnt a new skill (Cordovani & Cordovani, 2016). Learning is at the heart of this theory and this has been clearly shown within the articles selected. Participants have managed to pick up new skills by observing or learn something bad all by observation (Fryling et al., 2011; Grierson, Roberts, & Welsher, 2017). According to Harris et al. (2017) the participants in the intervention were able to pick up the good and also the bad habits all through observation. What this demonstrates is that observational learning is not only used for good behavior, but can also be used to learn bad behaviors. This is reaffirmed by Dunne, D'Souza, and O'Doherty.....

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