Humans learn a great deal by interacting with others. This is called "social learning". Besides interacting with others, humans also learn by observing others and learning from the actions of others. That is called observational learning.
Julian Rotter
Rotter argued that you can only understand human behavior if you sit down and get to know their personality and take their environment into consideration. There are four main elements to Rotter's theory: behavior potential, expectancy, reinforcement value and the psychological situation. Rotten also came up with locus of control.
- behavior potential is that probability that a certain behavior will happen at a certain time and place. Say that a teacher gave extra credit on a test, the probability is high that the students will do the extra credit then and there.
- expectancy is when a students behavior is similar to the outcome. For example, I am horrible at math so when I have to do math I expect to do poorly.
- reinforcement value is reinforcement that is placed on different outcomes. The more an individual likes something the higher the reinforcement value it has.
- psychological situation is how a person response and acts to different things around them based on how they perceive the situations that are pertinent to them.
- locus of control is how much control an individual has over a set of events. This can be internal or external. Internal locus of control: the individual feels like they have much control over a situation. External locus of control: the individual does not feel as if they have much control.
Albert Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory
Recognized for modeling, observational learning, vicarious learning, self efficacy and learning contracts.