Over the years, various theories have been proposed and developed to explain the learning process and the nature of human behavior. These theories differ in their explanations on how individuals acquire new behavior. This paper outlines the basic tenets of social cognitive and behaviorist theories. The concepts and terminologies in the two approaches will be applied in the case study to explain the reasons for the behavior as well as resolve the problems presented.
Social Cognitive theory is Bandura’s theory that highlights that human learning occurs in the social environment ( Bandura, 2014). He asserts human beings acquire necessary skills, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs by observing others. The appropriateness and usefulness of specific behaviors are determined by the consequences of the modeled behaviour if the modeled behavior has positive or negative outcome individuals might choose to emulate or not emulate.
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The social cognitive theory works on various tenets. One of the principles is the motivational processes and self-efficacy. According to Weegar & Pacis (2012), not all learned human behavior is utilized. Performance is influenced by three major types of incentive motivators; direct, vicarious, and self-produced. Individuals are likely to model specific actions if they produce positive and valued outcomes as compared to they have unrewarding or punishing effects. In retrospect, individuals are highly motivated by the successes of others, but they are demotivated in pursuing behavior that will result in aversive consequences.
The social cognitive theory also emphasizes the concept of collective agency compared to human agency. According to Peel (2005), individuals are social beings who work with others to produce outcomes that they find favorable. Moreover, they operate depending on how they see a particular group operating as long as they share certain beliefs and rules.
Social cognitive theorists also believe in the concept of self- regulation. Self-regulation refers to thoughts and actions that are adopted by an individual to help them achieve their personal goals ( Bandura, 2014). In the absence of self-regulation, individuals are not likely to maintain behavior until its reinforced. Self-regulation is very critical in the learning process as it helps an individual avoid tendencies that have negative implications. Similarly, when an individual is unable to control his or her behavior, they must be ready to face the consequences. In most cases, they can be health-related or not health-related depending on the type of behavior.
Behaviourism theory was developed in 1870 by an American psychologist who believed that the consciousness perspective does not influence behavior, but repeated actions do. The behaviorist psychologist dthought that psychology should be seen as a science that deals with observable behaviors. This means that all behavior is learned in the environment as opposed to inner psychic processes ( Dalen et al., 2015). In contrast with the concept of introspection, behaviorism emphasizes more on the theories of observable behavior that invoke a stimulus and predict response.
The stimulus-response (S-R) concept of behaviorism works by manipulating the independent variable to study the dependent variable. Stimulus refers to any change in the environment such as, an event or situation that might affect behavior. The response, on the other hand, refers to the reaction that will take place ether mental or behavioral. According to Dalen et al. (2015), all behavior no matter how complicated it is can be reduced to a simple stimulus-response association. To explain the idea of conditioning, Watson asserted that human beings are born tabula rasa, and any behavior is learned from the environment through the process of conditioning. However, any behavior can be unlearnt depending on the willingness of the individual to change.
Behaviorists' theorists such as Skinner believe in the concept that past behavior always determines how an individual will behave in future. Three types of consequences define the behavior: it has no result, the probability of the behavior happening, and if the effect is positive or negative. In summary, learning occurs through manipulation of positive reinforcement and punishments.
Applying the Concepts
According to Bandura, observational learning occurs in the form of modeling leading to an individual acquiring new skills and new behavior patterns. Dena as the oldest child grew up helping her mother in the kitchen making baked foods. She mastered the skills to the extent that the skills became ingrained in her memory. Bandura posits that we learn by first internalizing information in our memories. This is the reason that Dena has not forgotten her cooking skills utilizing them even after acquiring her own home. Instead of the skills strengthening other behaviors, they have facilitated her into adopting unhealthy lifestyle leading to diseases such as diabetes and obesity. Besides, the family is suffering from food sensitivities that never existed before.
According to Skinner one of the behaviorist theorists, past behavior always influences the future behavior. Dena has grown up eating all types of baked foods, but they have never had any effect on her. Since taking the foods had no consequences, Dena adopted her new skills in her new family as it assumed it would not have any consequences. However, the result is negative, as it has resulted in food sensitivities to the rest of the family, weight gain, and diabetes. She is unable to unlearn the behavior as the behavior had positive consequences.
Resolving the Problem
To fix Dena's problem, behaviorally based programs involving the following strategies; self-monitoring, modeling, stimulus control and reinforcement would play an essential role in helping her unlearn her behaviors as well as adopt healthy eating. Modeling is one of the behavioral strategies that can enhance her adopt a healthy lifestyle as well as reduce her caloric intake hence losing weight. A mastery model such as someone who was overweight at one point, but now has a healthy body weight can be used to help Dena achieve her weight targets. This is by observing the weight loss journey of the other person performing the weight loss program successfully. According to Stacey et al. (2015), individuals are likely to retain information conveyed by modeled events into rules. Finding Dena a model for has undergone weight loss will influence her weight loss journey plus healthy eating.
Conventionally, the psychotherapeutic process starts with examining the behavior of the client. The focus is there identifying the current stimulus and the response relationship. Since unhealthy eating habits bring the disruptive processes, stimulus control will help in Dena adopting the best behaviors. Stimulus control involves modifying specific acts or cues that prompt a particular behavior. Cues in most cases are cognitive, physiological or external. Dena's stimulus cues are cognitive; she admits that she does not have an off-button when it comes to sweets. Besides, she cannot comes to terms with making any other type of food except baking. Moreover, the cues are externally gained from learning from her mother. Since all behavior is determined and therefore, any abnormal behavior is because of faulty learning. To help Dena cope with the problem, she must need to learn the correct behavior. Besides, she cannot comes to terms with making any other type of food except baking. Stimulus control cues such as teaching her to make healthy foods will help in promoting targeted behavior of weight loss as well as adopting a healthy lifestyle
Cognitive behavioral strategies are mostly designed to teach and equip individuals with new skills that help them modify abnormal behaviors ( Hayes, 2016). To help Dena overcome her bad behaviors, the counselor should come up with a list that highlights the positive and negative implications of taking baked foods. Since the benefits outweigh the costs, Dena will most likely begin the interventions that will be recommended. Moreover, cognitive restructuring entails using positive talks and thoughts that support the targeted behavior. Instead of Dena alluding that all she can think is making brownies, the talk can be reframed into “I can learn to make all green smoothies and will learn to tell the difference between all types of kales." This kind of positive talk will motivate Dena in facilitating the needed changes.
In conclusion, various behaviors that are learned in the environment can have serious implication on the health of individuals. However, behavioral and social cognitive strategies are very useful in promoting individual health behavior changes. This is by helping individuals unlearn the behavior, develop a positive mind and controlling stimulus that support negative behaviors.
References
Bandura, A. (2014). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In Handbook of moral behavior and development (pp. 69-128). Psychology Press.
Dalen, J., Brody, J. L., Staples, J. K., & Sedillo, D. (2015). A conceptual framework for the expansion of behavioral interventions for youth obesity: a family-based mindful eating approach. Childhood Obesity , 11 (5), 577-584.
Hayes, S. C. (2016). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Relational Frame Theory, and the Third Wave of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies–Republished Article. Behavior therapy , 47 (6), 869-885.
Peel, D. (2005). The significance of behavioral learning theory to the development of active coaching practice. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring , 3 (1), 18-28.
Stacey, F. G., James, E. L., Chapman, K., Courneya, K. S., & Lubans, D. R. (2015). A systematic review and meta-analysis of social cognitive theory-based physical activity and nutrition behavior change interventions for cancer survivors. Journal of Cancer Survivorship , 9 (2), 305-338.
Weegar, M. A., & Pacis, D. (2012). A Comparison of two theories of learning-behaviorism and constructivism as applied to face-to-face and online learning. In Proceedings e-leader conference, Manila .
