Vicarious Conditioning
Vicarious conditioning, also known as observational conditioning, refers to the psychological process through which individuals learn behaviors, attitudes, and emotions by observing others. This form of conditioning is rooted in operant conditioning principles, where behaviors are influenced by the consequences experienced by a model. Notably, vicarious conditioning can lead to both positive and negative associations. For instance, individuals may develop fears or phobias not through direct experiences but by witnessing others react fearfully to specific stimuli.
Psychologist Albert Bandura highlighted the importance of attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation in the learning process through vicarious conditioning. His famous Bobo doll experiment demonstrated that children are likely to imitate behaviors they observe, especially when they see the model being rewarded. Additionally, studies have shown that vicarious experiences can both instill fears, as seen in research with monkeys responding to observed fear, and help alleviate them, as in therapeutic contexts where individuals observe positive interactions with feared stimuli. Overall, vicarious conditioning emphasizes how social learning and observation shape emotional and behavioral responses in various contexts.
Vicarious Conditioning
Vicarious conditioning is the psychological term for learning behaviors, attitudes, and emotions by watching others experience them. It is also known as observational conditioning. It is a form of operant conditioning, or conditioning based on the premise that people naturally tend to behave in ways that increase the positive effects and decrease the negative effects of their actions. The behaviors or emotions that are learned through vicarious conditioning can be positive, but this type of conditioning has often been the source of negative associations. Psychologists have shown that some phobias are not the result of a direct personal experience but stem from watching others encounter a fear-inducing object or situation.
Observational or vicarious conditioning can also be used to diminish or eliminate behaviors, feelings, or attitudes. Seeing someone successfully deal with an experience or object that causes fear can help lessen that fear in the observer.
Process
Many forms of conditioning are dependent on either a reward or a punishment that encourages or deters a specific behavior. That does not appear to be the case with vicarious conditioning. Instead, the learning process is based on the learner having a model to follow. For instance, children might copy the behavior of a parent or older sibling, a trainee might follow the example of a skilled employee, or a rookie athlete might mimic the movements of a veteran player.
Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura researched the process of vicarious or observational modeling. He determined that there are several components in this process. These include the learner’s attentiveness to the model, the learner’s ability to remember the steps in the behavior, the learner’s ability to reproduce the behavior, and the learner’s motivation to want to perform the behavior.
In 1961, Bandura conducted an experiment to test the influence of vicarious conditioning. He created a video that showed adults hitting an inflatable doll named Bobo and calling it names. He then had three groups of children watch the recording with three different endings: one where the adult was rewarded for hitting and yelling at the doll, one where the adult was punished, and one where there were no consequences or rewards offered. The children who saw the video where the adult was rewarded were much more likely to hit and yell at the doll than the children who saw the videos where the adult was punished or received no consequences. From these Bobo doll tests, Bandura drew the conclusion that people do learn from observing the actions and experiences of others.
Conditioning and Phobias
Researchers have also tested the ability of people to develop attitudes and emotions based on their observations of other people’s experiences. In particular, they have noticed that both people and animals can develop fears or phobias simply by watching another person or animal’s fearful response to an object or situation.
One series of studies conducted by Northwestern University psychologist Susan Mineka and University of Wisconsin psychologist Michael Cook in the 1980s exposed lab-raised rhesus monkeys to a videotape of wild monkeys reacting to snakes with fear. They were also shown video of the same wild monkeys in an environment without snakes. Within half an hour, they showed the lab monkeys a similar video with additional images of artificial flowers and toy animals that looked like a snake, a crocodile, and a rabbit inserted into the film. The monkeys reacted with fear to the images of the snake and crocodile, even though they had never been in the presence of either animal. They did not have similar reactions to the flowers or rabbit, leading the research team to believe that their fear was a vicarious response to watching the reactions of the wild monkeys.
Similar studies with humans have shown that people can also become fearful of something simply by observing others expressing fear or experiencing something negative. Vicarious traumatization occurs when an individual takes on the stressful feelings of another individual who has been traumatized by an event. The first individual has not directly experienced any trauma, but they have often discussed the traumatic experience with the trauma survivor. Furthermore, certain social phobias can result from seeing another person treated in a negative manner. For instance, a boy who sees other students laughing at a classmate who made a mistake during a presentation may become fearful of making presentations because he worries he will be laughed at, too. This can occur even if the boy has never experienced such ridicule personally.
Other Applications
Not all outcomes from vicarious conditioning are negative. The observational or modeling techniques can be used to learn positive behaviors. This is the basis of the apprentice system, which helps people learn various trades by observing skilled professionals performing tasks on the job. In a similar manner, athletes and dancers can learn certain skills by watching performances by professionals in their respective fields.
Vicarious learning can also help to undo the effects of learned phobias. For instance, in one study conducted at Stanford University by Bandura and colleague Frances L. Menlove in the 1960s, researchers worked with children who had a significant fear of dogs. They divided the children into three groups and showed them videos. One video showed a person getting progressively friendlier with one dog. The second video showed a person interacting without fear with several different dogs of different sizes and temperaments. The final video did not have any animals in it. Both videos that included dogs lessened the children’s fears, but the video that showed a successful outcome with multiple dogs eased the children’s fears to the point where they were able to interact with dogs. This use of vicarious conditioning is known as vicarious extinction.
Bibliography
Bandura, Albert. "Vicarious Processes: A Case of No-Trial Learning." Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 2, 1965, pp. 1-55, doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60102-1. Accessed 25 Jan. 2025.
Heimberg, Richard G., et al., editors. Social Phobia: Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment. Guilford, 1995, pp. 138-144.
Skversky-Blocq, Yael, et al. "Watch and Learn: Vicarious Threat Learning across Human Development." Brain Sciences, vol. 11, no. 10, 2021, p. 1345, doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11101345. Accessed 25 Jan. 2025.
"Why You Hate Snakes." Psychology Today, 9 June 2016, www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199203/why-you-hate-snakes. Accessed 25 Jan. 2025.