Dan and Joel, both 4-year-olds, have seen all the Spiderman movies. Joel’s mother recently found the boys standing on the garage roof, ready to try jumping across to the next roof. What best accounts for the boys’ behavior? instinctive drift observational learning immediate reinforcement classical conditioning
The correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct answer is observational learning.
Explanation:
Observational learning, also known as modeling or social learning, occurs when individuals learn new behaviors by watching others. Psychologist Albert Bandura’s famous Bobo doll experiment demonstrated how children imitate aggressive behaviors they see modeled by adults. This theory suggests that people, especially young children, learn not only by direct experience but also by observing and imitating others, including characters in movies.
Dan and Joel’s behavior can be attributed to this form of learning. Having watched all the Spider-Man movies, they have repeatedly seen Spider-Man swinging from buildings and performing daring stunts. Their young minds, highly influenced by visual media, likely processed these actions as attainable, fun, and heroic. Because they admire Spider-Man, they attempt to emulate his actions in real life, standing on the garage roof in preparation to jump.
Observational learning involves four key processes:
- Attention – The boys paid attention to Spider-Man’s actions in the movies.
- Retention – They remembered the actions they saw.
- Reproduction – They attempted to physically replicate the behavior.
- Motivation – Their admiration of Spider-Man provided motivation to imitate him.
Unlike immediate reinforcement or classical conditioning, which rely on direct rewards or stimulus-response associations, observational learning occurs simply by watching others. The boys were not reinforced for climbing the roof, nor were they conditioned with repeated stimuli. Similarly, instinctive drift does not apply because their behavior is not a return to innate tendencies.
This scenario highlights the power of media in shaping children’s behaviors, emphasizing the importance of supervision and discussions about real-world consequences.
