Social Cognitive theory.
Modelling and Operant Conditioning
Attitude & Media
Unit 3 - Part 3
Discussion:
How classical conditioning
in advertisements work?
Social Cognitive theory & Media
● Social cognitive theory provides a conceptual framework to analyze the
determinants and psychosocial mechanisms through which symbolic
communication influences human thought, affect and action.
● Communications systems operate through two pathways
○ In the direct pathway, they promote changes by informing, enabling,
motivating, and guiding participants.
○ In the socially mediated pathway, media influences link participants
to social networks and community settings that provide natural
incentives and continued personalized guidance, for desired change.
Social Cognitive theory & Media
● Brings in an ‘agentic perspective’
○ People are self-organizing, proactive, self-reflecting, and self-regulating, opposed to
reactive organisms shaped and shepherded by environmental events or inner forces.
○ Personal agency operates within a broad network of socio-structural influences.
○ Through symbols, people give meaning, form, and continuity to their experiences.
○ The self-regulation of motivation, affect, and action operates partly through internal
standards and evaluative reactions to one’s own behavior
○ Motivational effects do not stem from the standards themselves, but from the
evaluative self-investment in activities and positive and negative reactions to one’s
performances.
Social Cognitive theory & Media
● Self-reflection - capability to reflect upon oneself and the adequacy of one’s thoughts and
actions
● Observational learning is governed by four subfunctions
○ Attentional processes determine what is selectively observed in the profusion of
modeling influences and what information is extracted from ongoing modeled events.
○ Cognitive representational processes: Retention is aided by symbolic
transformations of modeled information into memory codes and cognitive rehearsal
of the coded information.
○ Behavioral production process: symbolic conceptions are translated into
appropriate courses of action.
○ Motivational process: people do not perform everything they learn. Performance of
observationally learned behavior is influenced by - direct, vicarious, and self-
produced motivators.
Social Cognitive theory & Media
● Ball-Rokeach (1972) attached special significance to evaluative reactions and
social justifications presented in the media, particularly in conflicts of power.
● Struggles to legitimize and gain support for one’s values and causes and to
discredit those of one’s opponents are now waged more and more through the
electronic media (Ball-Rokeach, 1972; Bandura, 1990; Bassiouni, 1981).
● Under conditions of displacement of responsibility, people view their actions
as springing from the dictates of others rather than being their personal
responsibility.
● Viewers’ punitiveness is enhanced by exposure to media productions that
morally justify injurious conduct, blame and dehumanize victims, displace or
diffuse personal responsibility, and sanitize destructive consequences. - (GOT,
Mirzapur, White Tiger)
Social Cognitive theory & Media
● Social Construction of reality - Televised representations of social realities reflect
ideological bents in their portrayal of human nature, social relations, and the norms and
structure of society
● More particularized (measure of content, not duration of viewing) measures of exposure
to the televised fare show that heavy television viewing shapes viewers’ beliefs and
conceptions of reality - in current scenario same can be said for internet content
● The fashion and taste industries rely heavily on the social prompting power of modeling.
● modeling influences serve diverse functions— as tutors, motivators, inhibitors,
disinhibitors, social prompters, emotion arousers, and shapers of values and conceptions
of reality.
A light-hearted talk on effects of social media - try to
interpret how you can use social cognitive theory
here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oLe2stRSbw
Operant conditioning & modelling
● Effect of likes and comments on social media post, on our behavior
● Effect of observing others being bullied on broadcast or social media
● But it always gives you just short of the needed amount - keeping the need
alive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLnUGtVQgOE
● How do online games work, based on operant conditioning?
● Some alternative ways (other than operant conditioning) of making online
games engaging - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWtvrPTbQ_c
