The Big Daddy of Social Learning

Associated with Albert Bandura's work in the 1960s, social learning theory explains how people learn new behaviors, values, and attitudes. While mostly related to early development in children, social learning theory occurs at times when most people don't even realize that it is happening. There are many examples that could have been chosen to show the social learning theory but I believe there are none best than the movie Big Daddy.

The premise of movie is based on this young boy Julian McGrath (Dylan and Cole Sprouse) who is left in the care of his father after his mother passes away. When his father, Kevin Gerrity (John Stewart), could not take care of him because he is out of the country, Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) decides to raise the boy on his own.

By dissecting key scenes in Big Daddy, it is easy to tell that this movie is a perfect example of social learning theory because of the many scenes that show Sonny trying to teach Julian how to live in both a non-traditional method and a firm parenting method with easily identifiable cognitive responses from Julian.

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What is the Social Learning Theory? Before beginning to dissect scenes from the movie it is important to establish a clear understanding of the social learning theory. The social learning theory is a theory of learning and social behavior, which states that new behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others. A popular example would be young children mimicking their older siblings around the house and striving to be exactly like that older sibling.

The key tenets of social learning theory are that learning is not purely behavioral but is actually a cognitive process that takes place in a social setting. This means that by simply observing their current situation and surroundings someone is able to pick up on things and is able to understand based on what they are seeing. Social learning also requires attention to the object or person being observed, remembering or retention of the observed behavior, the ability to replicate the behavior, and a motivation to act the same way.

For example, that same child might see a sibling receive a reward for good behavior in a public setting and imitate the sibling in the hope of getting a reward, too. Modeling is also a key part of the social learning theory because it allows learning to occur without any noticeable change in behavior. Being able to extract information from observations and make decisions based on the performance of the behavior such as a child seeing a sibling behave poorly and get away with it and trying to replicate that behavior thinking that they will not get in trouble either.

It is important to the person observing the behaviors is not a passive recipient of the information and that other factors can all influences the observer such as cognition, environment, and reinforced behavior. Four Phases of Social LearningOne of the major focus for the social learning theory and arguably the entire basis relies on the premise that the observer is able to pay attention for a short amount of time and has enough awareness of their surroundings to understand what is happening.

How the observer perceives and understands the events in their surroundings is directly affected by their perceptual abilities, cognitive abilities, and the characteristics of the events themselves. In this way, social factors contribute to attention and the prestige of different models affects the relevance and functional value of observation and therefore affects attention. In order to reproduce an observed behavior, observers must be able to remember the features of the behavior.

Again, this process is influenced by observer characteristics (cognitive capabilities, cognitive rehearsal) and event characteristics. Bandura describes the visual and verbal aspects of cognitive learning as the most important parts in terms of the retention process. The reproduction aspect of the social learning theory is the most difficult because the observer needs to have the ability and cognitive skill to perform the actions that they are seeing.

In some cases in which behaviors are modeled after self-observation, an observer requires some form of effective feedback in order to enhance their cognitive abilities and improve their performance based on their models. All of these aspects lead up to the decision of the observer to replicate the observed behavior.

The motivation to reproduce a behavior or action is dependent on the observers understanding of the expectations and understanding of the consequences that come with replicating the action. Environment and other social factors can also consequently affect the decision to reproduce behaviors. These are the four phases of the social learning theory that must occur for it to be effective. Limitations of the Social Learning Theory With a heavy emphasis on how the observer's environment affects them and directs their learning, this theory is weak when it comes to the observer's own actions.

Putting the focus on how setting influences behavior places more weight on the people and community that the observer is part of, and not enough weight on how the observer handles and processes new information. It neglects the observer's accountability and may go too far in stating that society directs how the individual behaves and acts. Unlike stage models of the observer's development, social learning theory doesn't hinge upon a distinct progression of learning and growth that is chronological or age dependent.

The view of this theory as neglecting to consider the observer's development, across all of the domains, is a potential weakness. Although not every observer matures at an identical rate, some of the standard milestones and markers may still occur regardless of the environmental setting. Breaking Down Big DaddyBig Daddy is a story of a young boy, Julian, and a man, Sonny Koufax, who has taken on the role of Julian's father.

Julian is only five years old and if a very reserved child. That coupled with the fact that Sonny doesn't want to be the one in charge of him leads to Sonny giving Julian complete freedom as a part of his parental approach. In the scenes we see in the video, Sonny drops a stick on a path so that when people on rollerblades are coming down the path they will hit the stick and fall. Once Julian sees this he immediately finds the action to be funny and repeats this action with a group of people rollerblading through cones causing someone to fall and triggering positive reinforcement from Sonny.

It's clear that Julian is able to pay attention and replicate the action of putting the stick down because he chooses to do this on his own in a separate scene. Julian's motivation to replicate this action derived from the sense of enjoyment and happiness he experienced the first time he saw it with Sonny. His actions are then reinforced when Sonny applauds and says, "That's my boy!". Another scene we see in the clip is when Julian is struggling to use the bathroom and Sonny encourages him to pee in public on the door.

Although afraid at first, Julian observes Sonny pee on the door and believes that this is socially acceptable. We see later in the film that Julian has been replicating and actively replicating this behavior as he begins to pee into a plant in his classroom while Sonny is speaking to his teacher about his poor hygiene and scholastic shortcomings. If it weren't for Sonny showing him to pee on the door earlier in the movie Julian most likely wouldn't have reproduced this behavior.

There are some positive displays of the social learning theory in this clip as well. Julian is struggling to tie his shoes for a little and Sonny takes initiative and shows Julian how to tie his shoes properly using the "Loop and Swoop" method. The evidence that Julian was paying attention and was able to reproduce this behavior comes later in the film when Sonny is speaking to the social worker and Julian ecstatically runs up to Sonny saying, "Look I did it! Loop, swoop, and pull!".

This shows their cognitive ability of Julian in that even though he was only shown how to tie his shoes once early in the film even down the road he was able to replicate it and do it on his own. The Big PictureThe social learning theory is important because it should make people more aware of how their actions can influence the people around them. People tend to forget how easy it is for children to pick up on things that see or hear which are main aspects of the film Big Daddy; so using the knowledge of the social learning theory should enable parents to become more aware of what they are doing around their young children.

Big Daddy is a perfect example of what children are capable of learning in a short amount of time and with minimum exposure to certain behaviors. As children they may not be fully aware of every single repercussion that comes from their actions but only that the action can lead to a smile or a laugh or even a tear. Social learning theory should be used as a teaching point for young parents and even older siblings to provide their youth with proper examples of how society functions and help them make their own decisions about what is right and what is wrong.

Reference

• SheetBandura, Albert (1963). Social learning and personality development. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Bandura, Albert (1971). "Social Learning Theory" (PDF).
• General Learning Corporation. Retrieved 25 December 2013.Big Daddy (1999). (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142342/Latimer, S. (Director). (2015, January 15).
• Social Learning Big Daddy[Video file]. Retrieved February 4, 2018, from HYPERLINK "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhe6p3Xkzt0" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhe6p3Xkzt0Loop, E. (n.d.).
• Social Learning Theory Strengths & Weaknesses. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://classroom.synonym.com/social-learning-theory-strengths-weaknesses-6592126.html

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