Social cognitive theory of learning

Social cognition is the study of how individuals process social information. The theory of social cognition emphasizes the individual; their behavior and their environment are all factors which influence their behavior. Individual's process social information different, the encoding, storage, retrieval and application of this information in social situations has become the focal point of social psychology in general. Since the rise of cognitive psychology in the late 1960s and 70s, social cognition has become the mainstream approach to social psychology. The focus of this particular paper is to understand social cognition and in particular it's related theory of learning. The implicit impact of social cognition upon how individuals learn and process information is fundamental to understanding how to create curriculums that will engender greater education for youths and adults alike. Therefore this research is particularly interesting in the current field of study.

Inherent to the concept of social cognition is reciprocal causation. This term simply defined means that the environment, an individual's behavior and an individual's perception or internal process affects each other in a reciprocal fashion. The environment can include the physical and social environment that an individual surrounds them with. This extends to both the cultural environment and social environment. The people that an individual sees everyday, his or her family, as well as every other factor that he encounters on a daily basis are all part of the broad category of environment. Behavior is simply the person's response or action. Behavior can be sparked by a myriad of contextual events and it's reactionary in nature. Finally, perception includes a person's internal mental processes such as motivation, attention, self-regulation, and self-efficacy. All of these concepts combined means that there are many different alternatives that could engender different responses as these three aspects interact together. There are many examples of when these three aspects will influence each other. Perception for instance, influences the environment consistently since what an individual pays attention to selects the stimuli in the environment that are registered. Conversely, the environment influences perception through reinforcing or punishing behavior, this type of reinforcement can lead to a change in an individual's motivation or self-efficacy. Behavior similarly affects the environment, because a behavior can lead to a change in the environment those results in a new situation. The interconnectivity of these three qualities defined in reciprocal causation lies at the root of social cognition theory of learning.

The social cognition learning model as become increasingly popular assessment method for understanding how learning takes place within youth. This model asserts that culture is one of the prime determinants for individual development. Humans are unique in that they have created culture, and every human being develops in the context of a particular culture. Therefore an individual's learning development will be affected in both large and small ways by the culture that they grew up in. The broad term of culture is all encompassing in that it applies to family culture, social culture, environmental culture, etc. This theory is a mirror of the reciprocal causation theory, by utilizing it in the context of education. The culture of an individual leads to changes to all three sensory aspects, thus shaping individual perception, environment and behavior. Culture makes two categories of contributions to an individual's intellectual development. First culture leads children to the actual content of their thinking process, or essentially it shapes their knowledge. Second, the surrounding cultural environment of an individual provides them with the process and means of their thinking, what are called the "tools of intellectual adaptation." The social cognition learning model asserts that culture teaches individuals both what to think and how to think. Cognitive development results in a dialectical process where individuals learn through problem solving experiences shared with others, including parents, peers and siblings. The learning process engendered by a child through the cultural environment will manifest itself in many different ways, with one of the foundational methods being the use of language. The completion of a child's intellectual development occurs through interactions with surrounding cultures and social agents. Individuals such as parents and peers contribute significantly to the development of an individual's intellectual development.

The social cognition learning model differs substantially from the traditional theory of behaviorism. Behaviorism theory asserts that human learning should only focus on the objectively observable behaviors, and discount mental activities. Behaviorism defines the learning process as purely the acquisition of new behavior rather than an entire social and cultural approach towards integrating one's environment, behavior and perceptions. Within behaviorism, condition is the universal learning process that all humans and animals use to learn. Classic conditioning occurs when natural reflex responds to stimulus, or the biological "wiring" which causes certain stimulus to produce specific responses. At the same time, behavioral condition occurs when a response to a stimulus is reinforced through simple feedback systems. The behaviorism learning model differs substantially from social cognition learning model because it oversimplifies the learning process. Behaviorism asserts that learning occurs at a biological level and ignores the social aspect of the learning process. Social cognition asserts that an individual is much more complex that the mere reliance upon behavioral syntax and "positive negative reinforcement" to stimulate learning. Instead it occurs through a collaborative event as individuals understand and interpret their environment through interactions with their peers and adults.

The behaviorism model appears to simplify the understanding of our learning process by equating the human learning response to that of other animals.

One of the specific mechanisms articulated in both social cognition learning theory and in behaviorism is the concept of modeling. Modeling suggests that people learn by observing the behavior of others as well as the experiencing the consequences of their behavior. The modeling theory is the core component of the "positive negative reinforcement" technique articulated in behaviorism theory, although it is in fact much more complicated than simply a rewards and punishment-based system of learning. Simply explained however, if a behavior is reinforced, the behavior's frequency is likely to increase. If a behavior is punished, it will likely decrease (Ormrod, 2004). Reinforcement and punishment in modeling can occur through several different mechanisms. It can be directly reinforced or punished through an individual's behavior, or it could occur through a third party. Modeling is used within social cognition learning model to teach and reinforce positive lessons that are cultural and social in context. Individuals learn from an early age what is good and bad given their particular cultural affinity through modeling.

The implication of the social cognitive learning model is that changes must necessarily be made in the educational process to mirror and advantage the cultural environment that individuals occupy. Since individuals learn primarily through interaction, curricula should be designed to emphasize these interactions between the learners and the learning tasks. Adult mentoring at the same time becomes a crucial aspect of the instruction process. Instead of traditional methods of lecturing and teaching, the social cognitive learning model suggests that children can often perform tasks that they are incapable of completing on their own with assistance from adults. Therefore the use of scaffolding, or when an adult continually adjusts the level of his or her help as a response to the individual's level of performance, becomes the essential ingredient of the learning process. Scaffolding instills the independent learning skills that are necessary for problem solving in the future. Since the tools and the level of education changes with this approach to social cognition, assessment of their individual abilities must also correspond to a change from traditional evaluation processes. An accurate assessment model must incorporate both what an individual can do on their own, which defines their current level, but also what they can do with the help of others, which defines their level of potential development. An assessment method that targets both the level of actual development and level of potential development becomes critical to assessing the real strength of individuals in their learning process.

One of the results of the social cognitive learning process is that it creates self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to an individual's beliefs about their own ability to complete tasks. Individuals with very high self-efficacy are confident in their abilities to accomplish tasks, whereas low self-efficacy leads to skepticism over their own abilities. Self-efficacy is different from self-esteem, because it does not have to do with how an individual feels about themselves but rather their own abilities. Self-efficacy becomes an important part of the social cognition model because by utilizing such a model, adults can create greater self-efficacy. By showing individuals how to learn through scaffolding, adults increase the likelihood of self-efficacy. There are several different methods by which self-efficacy learning occurs. The most obvious is through a learner's previous successes and failures. Successful experiences with related tasks will increase self-efficacy while failures will lower them. Outside factors can also become a very important reinforcement mechanism. Praise and encouragement from others leads to higher self-efficacy, while condemnation will lower them. Learning from observation of others is also a highlight of social cognitive learning. Since we observe the responses of our peers and friends, we are very much attuned to how we interact with others, and how their succeed or fail. The theory of self-efficacy is fundamental to understanding social cognitive learning, because it implies that the process of using this theory creates greater confidence. Since individuals learn from their cultural environment, it is imperative to construct a positive enforcing messages through the educational process to ensure that individuals feel that they can accomplish any and all given tasks.