Social Learning, Cognition, and Personality Development

Abstract

Social learning theory views the course of human development in terms of children's socialization experiences and acquisition of self-regulation. Children's development of personality characteristics, such as dependency and aggression, as well as their skill in academics, sports, arts, or professions are assumed to emerge from learning experiences embedded within the social milieu of their family, peers, gender, and culture. Social learning theory defines children's socialization in terms of specific social learning experiences, such as modeling, tuition, and reinforcement, and the cognitions, emotions, and behavior that emerge from these formative experiences. Children's personal reactions were explained historically using personality constructs, such as identification, conditioning, or drive reduction, but are explained contemporaneously in cognitive terms, such as self-efficacy beliefs and various self-regulatory processes. Self-regulation is essential to children's development because socialization involves giving up immediately pleasurable activities or familiar methods of coping to achieve delayed benefits. A key source of motivation underlying children's self-regulatory development is their perception of self-efficacy. There is evidence that psychosocial influences of families and peers, such as parental goals and peer pressures, affect children's self-efficacy beliefs, aspirations, and levels of self-regulation. Children's self-regulatory processes and beliefs, in turn, causally affect their emotional, moral, and academic development.