Social Learning- A Process of Socialization

Last week I mentioned there are two learning perspectives that apply to the process of socialization. I mentioned they are behaviorism and social learning and discussed behaviorism. Today lets talk about the second process of socialization-social learning.

Social learning addresses the concerns of a child's culture, values and social influences that behaviorism doesn't. Albert Bandura a psychologist at Stanford University places a big emphasis on the role of cognition in the socialization process. He believes it's so important he changed his theory to a social-cognitive approach instead of a social learning approach. Bandura believes the cognitive processes are at work as people observe models, learn pieces of behavior and mentally put those pieces together to form behavior patterns. He believes children become particular in behaviors that they choose to initiate which develops an internal guideline for behavior as well as becoming one of the main factors of the social learning theory which is self-efficacy.

Children's socialization can be defined as the processes where individuals are taught skills, behavior patterns, values and motivations needed for sufficient roles in the culture they grow up in. Socialization occurs over time and through interactions with others. It's attained by communication in effective, convincing situations. During socialization a child learns how to communicate and interact with others. The relationship between socialization and a child's development is progressive. It's a continual process and changes throughout a person's life. During the early childhood years is when children begin to acquire language and learn how to interact with other people. As they grow they learn how to socialize at a party and how to socialize at school. Children learn how you socialize in these situations is different and what's acceptable in each situation.

Social conflicts require negotiation in a give and take manner. Success negotiation involves children being able to guess what will appeal to others and being able to work out an agreement where all children's needs are met. Children can benefit from help in negotiation and comprise. For example, if one child wants to do a project one way and another child has a different idea of how to do the project it can help them to talk it out with an adult. The adult can help one child listen while the other explains why the project should be done with their ideas and then reverse it. The adult can then give suggestions they hadn't thought about or because the adult gave them the time to listen to one another they came to a comprise on their own that may include ideas from the way both children wanted to do the project.

It's important in teaching social skills and using the behaviorism theory or the social learning theory not to accept a child's negative cycles. Accepting negative cycles and not teaching a child to defend themselves can lead to Stockholm syndrome which is when victims begin to identify with and defend their abuser. I've discussed negative cycles in earlier posts if anyone wants to read or reread those posts. Those posts are dated September 3 and 10, 2016.