Brittany Dickson

Dr. Allen

PS-1113 General Psychology

1 July 2019

Observational Learning

Observational learning is all around us in every aspect of life whether you have realized it

or not. After learning what observational learning was, I immediately thought of my little baby

boy that is only 6 months old and how much this is going to be a part of his life and how his

father and I are going to be the ones to influence that. Babies learn through observational

learning and they learn best through the four parts to observational learning; attention, retention,

motor reproduction and reinforcement. King (2017) described observational learning as

“learning that occurs through observing and imitating another’s behavior”.

Observational learning has been very present in my life, and I didn’t even notice it until

learning about this lesson. When I was a little girl, I watched my older sister get in trouble a lot

for letting her grades drop dramatically in school. My parents would always get ground her until

she could get her grades back up to where they wanted them to be. Just watching my parents

punish her made me realize I needed to do well in school, so I didn’t get grounded like she did.

Just from observing something so little, I learned so much about what not to do in school. With

that being said, I tried hard and really payed attention in school which I then proceeded to make

good grades no matter what the circumstance was.

I have a six-month-old son and I started to introduce him to baby food around 5 months

old because I thought he was ready to try something new. When I started to feed him, he just

couldn’t seem to get the idea of eating the food off the spoon, he was so confused and a little
overwhelmed. I decided to take a little break from trying to feed him food because at that point I

didn’t think he was ready yet and I didn’t want to push him. I decided to reattempt about a week

later to feed him, but I decided to show him how I ate the food off the spoon and emphasized

how good the sweet potatoes were. From that day forward he has been eating baby food like a

champ and now can almost feed himself with the spoon.

Observational behavior isn’t always positive like the two examples above. There can be

negative observational behaviors as well that come from observational behavior. When I was

younger, I had very close friends that had older siblings that didn’t always make the best

decisions when around their younger siblings. My friend may have been young, but she was

watching what her older siblings were doing because they were her role models. Whose older

siblings aren’t. As the years went on, my friend and I got older and she started to act just like her

older siblings. That is when I distanced myself because I knew my parents wouldn’t condone that

behavior. She obtained the same terrible habits, and to this day continues those habits because

not only did she see that when she was younger, but because her older siblings are still doing it to

this day, so she is following what she sees because that’s what she has been observing since a

little girl.

Observational learning is an extremely effective way to learn because it incorporates

those four parts of learning; attention, retention, motor reproduction, and reinforcement which I

think really helps what you’ve observed stick in your brain a little better. This specific type of

learning can have such an impact on someone’s life, especially those who are small and still

learning, but it can also help those who have been through life a little but need a little extra help.

Observational learning can help improve behavior in not only children but adults, it can help

individuals become more social by watching other interact and adapting those similar traits, it
can also help one’s problem solve. Just like the doctors say, watch one, do one, teach one.

Observational learning is in our world more than we know it and it is so powerful.

 Reference

King, L.A. (2017). The Science of Psychology: An Appreciative View (4TH ed.). New York:
McGraw-Hill.