In this section, you will learn to:
- Identify the impact of environmental modelling influences.
- Analyse individual responses to similar modelling/reinforcement.
- Analyse the effects of environmental differences and dysfunctional environments.
Supplementary materials relevant to this section:
- Reading B: Bandura: Social Learning Theory
- Reading C: Other Theories
- Reading D: Children’s Exposure to Domestic and Family Violence
While the importance of conditioning theories cannot be ignored, there are limitations to approaches that do not recognise the importance of internal events such as thoughts and feelings. Many psychologists argued that by ignoring the inner workings of the mind, we are missing a vital piece of the learning puzzle. As such, theorists began to move away from behavioural models to other approaches that take into account more complex cognitive processes involved in learning. We will explore two of these approaches – cognitivism and constructivism – in this section.
Cognitivism is an approach that emphasises the role of mental activity within the learning process. The way the person receives, stores, and interprets the information, as well as the context in which the person acquires the information (i.e., the environment in which the learning occurs), all influence the outcome. While both cognitivism and behaviourism propose that learning occurs through interaction with the environment, the cognitivism approach takes the view that people are active learners. That is, they do not simply receive what is in the environment passively but interact with it and influence it in return:
People choose, build and change their environments; they are not just shaped by them. And a person’s individual characteristics and behaviours affect the people around them, just as these people are influencing the person’s individual characteristics and future behaviours.
Sigelman De George, Cunial, & Rider, 2019, p. 66
reflect
Reflect on your understanding of behaviourism and cognitivism, and their differences.
If a counsellor thinks that clients are passive learners who are simply shaped by their environments and behave automatically in response to the stimuli in their environments, how might that impact on their approach or techniques in working with clients? If a counsellor believes that clients are active learners who build and change their environments, and who can influence their own learning outcomes, how might this impact on their approach or techniques in working with clients?
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
Albert Bandura is one famous proponent of the cognitivism approach. While Bandura acknowledges the importance of conditioning, he argues that human learning differs greatly from rat learning (conditioning theories often use animal models to test and demonstrate their concepts), with humans having more sophisticated cognitive abilities (Sigelman et al., 2019). Bandura’s theory was initially known as social learning theory, and it highlights the crucial role that learning from others plays in human development.
In a series of classic studies, Bandura demonstrated how children learn to imitate aggressive behaviour that they observe (Nevid, 2012). In one study, for example, children imitated the aggressive behaviour of characters on television, while in another, they imitated an adult they saw hitting a ‘Bobo’ doll. This demonstrates observational learning (also known as modelling).
“Bandura and his colleagues asked preschool boys and girls to watch an adult (the model) interact with a large Bobo doll, a doll that bounces back to its original upright position after being hit (Bandura, Ross & Ross, 1961). The experimenters randomly assigned some children to watch the adult model playing quietly and ignoring the Bobo doll and others to watch the adult model punching the Bobo doll in the nose, hitting it with a mallet, sitting on it and kicking it around the room.
[…]On a variety of dependent measures, Bandura and his colleagues found that previous exposure to the aggressive model triggered significantly more aggression against the Bobo doll than exposure to the non-aggressive model.
[…] In a later study, Bandura and his colleagues (Bandura et al., 1963) found essentially the same results when they displayed the aggressive models to children on film rather than in person.
Lilienfeld et al., 2019, p. 221
Nevid gives another example:
“In preschool, Jenny sees that the teacher praises Tina for picking up the blocks after playing with them. Tina’s behavior provides Jenny with a cue that she can use to guide her own behavior.
[…] Through observational learning, we become capable of behaviors even before we have had the chance to perform them ourselves.
[…] I expect I could learn the basics of making a soufflé by watching a chef demonstrate each step in the process. Whether you’d want to eat it is another matter, which only goes to underscore a limitation of learning by observation – practice and aptitude also count in developing and refining skilled behavior.”
Nevid, 2012, p. 189
In the extract, Jenny did not have to pick up blocks and receive praise (i.e., reinforcement) from her teacher to learn that this was the right thing to do; rather, she learnt this by observing a model. Similarly, the children in Bandura’s studies learnt to beat the Bobo doll by watching models – they did not need to receive instruction or be reinforced for doing so. In fact, research suggests that people can improve their performance on many tasks by watching others do them, without even realising they are learning (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk, 2013). However, as Nevid points out, thinking we can do something well just because we’ve seen someone else do it can be a serious mistake!
reflect
Can you think of a time when you learned something through modelling? How did you find it? Was it effective? What were the challenges?
If you watched someone bake a cake, could you replicate their behaviour from observation alone? What about a task such as riding a bicycle? Is observation enough?
According to social cognitive theory, observational learning uses four cognitive processes:
- Attention. To learn through observation, you must pay attention to another person’s behavior and its consequences.
- Retention. You may not have occasion to use an observed response for weeks, months, or even years. Thus, you must store a mental representation of what you have witnessed in your memory.
- Reproduction. Enacting a modelled response depends on your ability to reproduce the response by converting your stored mental images into overt behavior. This step may not be easy for some responses. For example, most people cannot execute a breathtaking wind-mill dunk after watching Derrick Rose do it in a basketball game.
- Motivation. Finally, you are unlikely to produce an observed response unless you are motivated to do so. Your motivation depends on whether you encounter a situation in which you believe that the response is likely to pay off for you.
Weiten, 2013, p. 257
Observational learning is particularly important within families and children’s other social contexts (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2013). Parents and other family members are usually the first models a child will encounter. While early social learning can teach children appropriate behaviour, it can also lead to a number of inappropriate and unhealthy behaviours and ideas. In cases of domestic and family violence (DFV), for example, research suggests that children are introduced to ways of behaving in childhood that can inform how they act in their later relationships. Observational learning can explain how this happens. It also highlights the role of the environment in development, including how families, peers, schools, and broader communities shape the learning and growth of individuals (Sigelman et al., 2019).
Other important concepts in social cognitive theory include (Sigelman et al., 2019):
- Latent learning: Learning occurs, but is not evident from the person’s response. For example, Jenny might learn that picking up the blocks is appreciated by the teacher, but may not show this by picking up the blocks. Similarly, although not all the children in Bandura’s experiments behaved aggressively towards the Bobo doll, if they were asked to reproduce the violent behaviour they had seen modelled they could, indicating that they had learned as effectively as those who showed aggressive behaviour without being asked.
- Vicarious reinforcement or punishment: Learners become more or less likely to perform a behaviour based upon whether they have observed consequences happen to others. For example, in Bandura’s ‘Bobo doll’ studies, children who saw the aggressive model rewarded for their violent behaviour behaved more aggressively towards the Bobo doll than did those children who had seen the model punished.
- Self-efficacy: A belief in one’s ability to “effectively produce desired outcomes in a particular area of life” (p. 66).
reflect
While some of these theories may seem a little abstract, they are important for several reasons, including that they help us understand how clients think and act as they do and provide ideas for assisting clients in making changes in their lives.
Think about your own life. Could you use any of the theories you have learned about so far to help explain your own behaviour? What about the things that you think and believe?
Bandura's Social Learning Theory - Simplest Explanation Ever
Let's close this topic by reviewing Bandura's groundbreaking insights into the intricacies of human learning. As behaviourists once theorised, are our minds shaped solely by reinforcement and punishment? Or does learning encompass a more complex realm? This video explores Bandura's Social Learning Theory, unravelling how children and individuals absorb knowledge through rewards and penalties and a nuanced interplay of observation, cognition, and emulation.
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Applications for Counselling
Watching other people can help clients learn new ways of coping with problematic behaviours or issues (Ivey, D’Andrea, & Ivey, 2012). Counsellors use social learning to assist clients in making changes, including helping clients identify positive models to learn from and using modelling in sessions, such as demonstrating positive behaviour. Through this process, the client not only learns how to perform a behaviour but may also have the opportunity to observe the potential consequences of different behaviours.
In the counselling context, social learning often occurs through demonstration; for example, if a client is having difficulty using a particular communication skill, the counsellor can model it. Role-playing is another method of learning from and with others that is easily integrated into the counselling setting. The counsellor might play the role of the client while the client plays the role of a person they have trouble communicating with. For example, the client can then see different options for communication and explore how these could play out in a real conversation (Sharf, 2015).
Counsellors often combine principles of modelling based on a social cognitive theory with behavioural principles, such as rehearsal (where the client repeatedly practices the skill) and reinforcement. This sequence of modelling, rehearsal, and reinforcement can be effective in helping clients learn new behaviours and is frequently used for developing assertiveness or other social skills and in helping clients confront feared situations (Jinks, 2012):
The process begins by the client and therapist discussing the behaviour the client would like to achieve, and trying to develop a clear picture of what it might look like. Examples of behaviours which could be addressed in this way are dealing more assertively with colleagues at work, sharing feelings more openly, public speaking, and managing conflict or aggression. The more specific the client can be about what they want to be able to do, and to what standard, the better. (An important check here is to explore any possible negative consequences of a change that the client is considering, and this may need to be returned to when the client is ready to begin putting changes into practice).
The client then observes a model of the desired behaviour. They may have identified an external role model, who behaves as they would like to in a given situation, and can be observed. Alternatively the modelling may fall to the therapist, who can role-play a situation demonstrating the behaviour the client wishes to be able to achieve. The client should be asked to give feedback on the extent to which the therapist’s performance reflects what they see as desirable and achievable, and the role play modified until the client is satisfied with what they are seeing. The client may also develop some useful insight during the process by taking the other role in the role-play.
The client then rehearses in role-play with the counsellor (or in some other situation if appropriate) until they are able to achieve a performance that they are happy with and feel they can reproduce in the real situation.
It is important if the behaviour is to be sustained, that ongoing reinforcement for the new behaviour be explored with the client and social reinforcers identified – ways in which the new behaviour will be rewarded by the client’s social circumstances and environment. If the client is more consciously able to recognise the benefits of the changes they are making, the new behaviours are more likely to be sustained.
Jinks, 2012, p. 93
reflect
So far, you have learned about applications of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social cognitive theory in counselling work. Reflect on how you might integrate these approaches into your work with a client who wants to change problematic behaviour. How might you use these theories to support a client in understanding the development of their behaviour? What could you do to help them to make a positive change?
Notably, each theory will have its strength and weakness, and it is important that you think critically about them and consider which is or are more relevant for a particular client.
Read
Reading B – Bandura: Social Learning Theory compares the underlying principles of these three theories and looks at the strengths and weaknesses of Bandura’s social cognitive theory. You will see how each theory offers different explanations (can identify different solutions) for a particular problematic behaviour.
Bandura's Observational Learning Explained
This video discusses Bandura’s experiment with his bobo doll – a very common learning tool to explain observational learning.
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Other learning theories have also sought to explore the importance of context when explaining learning. Theorists like Piaget (whose theory of cognitive development you learnt about in module 4) believe that learning is not only a cognitive process but also an active, constructive one. The constructivist approach takes the position that “humans actively create their own understandings of the world from their experiences, as opposed to being born with innate ideas or being programmed by the environment” (Sigelman et al., 2019, p. 73). Not only do we actively construct our understanding about the world, we also continuously build upon this foundation as we revise and adapt our ideas according to our experiences and social interactions with others. Hence the context in which learning occurs has a major influence on what and how we learn.
There are several developmental theories that take context into account in this way. Two particularly famous ones are Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (not to be confused with Bandura’s social cognitive theory!) and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory.
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky has been influential for many decades. He promoted the idea that development and learning need to be considered in context. Like Piaget, Vygotsky believed that we actively construct knowledge of the world; however, he emphasised that learning is influenced by the sociocultural environment within which it occurs and viewed social interaction as our primary source of learning (Lilienfeld et al., 2019).
Vygotsky also argued that specific values and skills are conveyed to people raised within particular cultures. One of the key strengths of Vygotsky’s work, in fact, was his recognition that ways of thinking, cognitive skills, values, and behaviours differ between cultures and are transmitted from one generation to the next within each culture. For example, a child in urban Australia would grow up with different values, as well as different cognitive and behavioural skills, to a child who grows up on an outback ranch. These two will be different again from a child raised in Mali. And so on.
Vygotsky proposed that optimal learning takes place in the zone of proximal development, the “gap between what a learner can accomplish independently and what they can accomplish with the guidance and encouragement of a more skilled partner” (Sigelman et al., 2019, p. 229). In the zone of proximal development, a learner can perform at a higher level than they can do on their own, with the benefit of instruction and scaffolding (Lilienfeld, 2019). In this context, the construction term ‘scaffolding’ describes the structure and assistance given to support a person’s learning, which is gradually removed as the learner becomes more competent. To take a simple example, imagine a parent teaching a child how to cook a simple recipe. The parent might start by lining up all the ingredients and equipment, and physically helping the child measure out the ingredients and mix them together. Over time, the child will be able to do these things with verbal instructions only and will later learn to gather, measure, and mix the ingredients on their own. This is the process of scaffolding at work.
Vygotsky’s ideas are often applied to the teaching of children, with parents, siblings, peers, and teachers providing scaffolding, information, and encouragement. But the same principles can be used to encourage adult learning and behaviour change in counselling. Before we explore the application of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, however, let’s look at another popular developmental theory that also sheds light on the importance of ‘context’.
Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development in Social Relationships
Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Development argues that community and language play a central part in learning. Vygotsky believed that children develop independently of specific stages as a result of social interactions.
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Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory
According to Urie Bronfenbrenner, each person has a genetic, biological, and psychological make up that is important to shaping their development, but that this is far from the only influence. Rather, development must be viewed in relation to different, interacting structures known as systems.
The individual (with their genetic, biological, and psychological make up) impacts upon and is impacted by these systems, while the systems also influence each other (Sigelman et al., 2019).
- A microsystem is an immediate physical and social environment in which the person interacts face-to-face with other people and influences and is affected by them. The primary microsystem for a firstborn infant, for example, is likely to be the family – perhaps infant, mother and father, all reciprocally influencing one another. The developing child may also experience other microsystems, such as a childcare centre or grandmother’s house. We have much evidence that the family environment is an important influence on development and have come to appreciate the importance of peers, educational settings and neighbourhood environments.
- The mesosystem consists of the interrelationships or linkages between two or more microsystems. For example, teenagers who experience stressful events such as arguments in the family (one microsystem) report poorer attendance and greater difficulty learning at school (a second microsystem) for a couple of days afterwards; similarly, problems at school spill over to the family, possibly because adolescents take their bad moods home with them (Flook & Fuligni, 2008). In any developing person, what happens in one microsystem can have implications, good or bad, for what happens in another microsystem.
- The exosystem consists of linkages involving social settings that individuals do not experience directly, but that can still influence their development. For example, children can be affected by how their parents’ day at work went, or by a decision by the government to modify the school curriculum and assessment practices.
- The macrosystem is the larger cultural context in which the microsystem, mesosystem and exosystem are embedded. For Bronfenbrenner, modern Western culture was not a very family-friendly environment:
In today’s world, parents find themselves at the mercy of a society which imposes pressures and priorities that allow neither time nor place for meaningful activities and relations between children and adults, which downgrade the role of parents and the functions of parenthood, and which prevent the parent from doing things he or she wants to do.
Bronfenbrenner, 1974, cited in Gestwicki, 2010, p. 60
- In addition to microsystems, mesosystems, exosystems and macrosystems, Bronfenbrenner introduced the concept of the chronosystem to capture the idea that changes in people and their environments occur in a timeframe (chrono means time) and unfold in particular patterns or sequences over a person’s lifetime. Another way to think about this is that we cannot study development by taking still photos; we must use video to understand how one event leads to another and how societal changes intertwine with changes in people’s lives. For example, an economic crisis may result in a husband’s job loss, causing marital conflict, and in turn leading to divorce and to changes in their children’s lives and family relationships. Each of us, then, functions in particular microsystems linked through the mesosystem and embedded in the larger contexts of the exosystem and the macrosystem, all in the continual flux of the chronosystem.
Adapted from Sigelman et al., 2019, pp. 12-14
Note that Bronfenbrenner did not view these systems as static, but as ever-changing (Hoffnung et al., 2016). The relationships between individuals and their environmental systems change constantly, particularly with critical life events (e.g., loss, birth of a child, moving). In this process, it is not just a matter of one system influencing another but of mutual influence. Let’s consider an example of how this theory can be applied to understanding a teenager’s misbehaviour at school. (Note that the systems are all being discussed as they relate to Josh. For example, for Josh, the father’s workplace is an exosystem; for Josh’s father, however, his workplace is a microsystem.)
Case Study
Josh’s family (microsystem) is moving to another state because Josh’s father is being promoted (exosystem). With an industry that is booming (macrosystem), the company is doing really well and starting up a new branch. Josh, however, is very unhappy about the decision to move. This will mean losing contact with his friends and having to change schools (microsystems). He protests against the change and behaves aggressively towards his parents at home (microsystem).
Feeling stressed about Josh’s behaviour, his father struggles to concentrate at work (exosystem); this results in his being criticised for underperforming. Josh’s father feels even more frustrated and gets into an argument with Josh that night (microsystem). Feeling helpless, Josh acts out in school (microsystem) and is sent to see the school counsellor.
As you can see, changes in each system impact on the other systems, and on the implications of the changes in the various systems. In this case, the economic conditions (macrosystem) influence both exosystems and microsystems, while these also influence each other. There are also changes in the mesosystem (remember, the mesosystem refers to the interaction of microsystems), such as when things at home (one microsystem) impact on Josh’s behaviour at school (another microsystem). As you might imagine, if the school counsellor doesn’t take the various systems at work into account, their understanding of Josh’s situation, and therefore their ability to effectively counsel him, will be severely limited. By contrast, if the counsellor considers the various systems at play, they will understand Josh better and be more likely to select techniques and strategies that are helpful and relevant to Josh’s particular circumstances.
Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems: 5 Forces Impacting Our Lives
Watch the following video about Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems and answer the questions that follow.
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Applications for Counselling
The concepts within constructivist theories, such as Bronfenbrenner’s and Vygotsky’s, have been applied across a wide range of settings. Importantly for us, they can assist counsellors in understanding how an individual interacts with and learns from their environment. To understand a client’s development, counsellors need to consider environments that influence the client now and, in many cases, those that have influenced them in the past. For instance, Reading C highlights the importance of considering personality development within family, historical, and cultural contexts. Such considerations are also important when helping clients formulate programs for behavioural change. Recognition of environmental influences can help clients develop and sustain newly acquired behaviours, identify models and other resources to support them in changing, and troubleshoot potential barriers to change.
Read
Reading C – Other Theories provides an overview of other theories that a practitioner can consider when trying to understand a client’s development. It also examines various contexts that should be taken into account when working with clients to understand their personality development.
Vygotsky’s emphasis on culture in cognitive development is also relevant for counsellors. Counsellors need to be able to work with members of distinct cultural groups and respect cultural differences, not just in terms of differences in behaviour, habits, and preferences, but also in values, ways of thinking, and how people understand the world. It is ineffective to try to counsel a client using a frame of reference that is not relevant to the client or when the counsellor cannot bridge cultural gaps. Counsellors also need to acknowledge and respect different practices and values. For example, child-rearing practice varies markedly across cultures, but sometimes practices that are not harmful are nonetheless subject to negative judgements when viewed by people of another culture. Knowledge about cultural variations in ways of understanding and acting in the world can help counsellors differentiate between practices that are harmful and those that are merely different (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010).
reflect
A crucial component in developing a positive therapeutic alliance is the counsellor’s ability to demonstrate an understanding of the client’s perspective and experiences, despite how different they might be from the counsellor’s.
How do you think Bronfenbrenner’s and Vygotsky’s theories and their contextual emphasis could help a counsellor in this process?
What might some of the consequences be if a counsellor fails to recognise the influence of the environment in seeking to understand a client’s situation and the challenges they face? What about when trying to help a client develop strategies for change?
The constructivist concepts of scaffolding and the zone of proximal development (i.e., learning through support, instruction, and doing together) are also relevant to counselling. For example, a client who wants to learn to use a relaxation strategy independently might first be taught how to use it by the counsellor and be guided through the practice during sessions, and so learn how to conduct the practice by themselves. To take another example, a client may struggle to speak up for themselves, but through supportive training, may learn to do so in sessions and then in other contexts. As learning appears to be at its most effective when it occurs in the context in which the skill is to be used, the counsellor may help the client to practice the skill during a role-play of the context that they want to use it in, to further increase the likelihood they will be able to apply the strategy in real-world situations.
Check your understanding of the content so far!
Social-Emotional Learning: What Is SEL and Why SEL Matters
This topic will start with an introductory video that delves into a fundamental aspect of personal growth and success – Social-Emotional Learning, or SEL. This video explores the concept of Social-Emotional Learning, its profound significance, and how it shapes our journey towards achieving success and fulfilment.
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As the theories we have covered so far in this section suggest, most learning takes place within a social context. There are many social contexts that offer opportunities for learning – both positive and negative. The relative influence of these contexts may change as people develop. For example, the primary learning environment for a toddler is the family, then potentially day-care, while an adolescent is exposed to a wider variety of learning environments, including family and school, friends and other peers, as well as clubs, activity groups, sports teams, and other spaces within their communities. All of these learning environments exert various conditioning and social learning effects, which may result in different outcomes depending on the other environmental influences at play, as well as the person’s age, genetic endowment, and so on. The impact of these experiences from childhood can continue across the lifespan, resulting in learned patterns of behaviour that are repeated and potentially passed to new generations unless a process of ‘unlearning’ occurs.
The magic of Social Learning
Step into the world of Dr Ashley Lowe-Simmons, LCSW-C, FSW – a dedicated wife, mother, and servant leader whose life mirrors a boxing match, facing challenges round after round. A powerful speaker at a TEDx event, Dr Ashley's struggles, including being a single Black mother, fueled her passion for aiding families in similar situations. With an unwavering focus on motherhood, financial literacy, and mental well-being, she aims to empower Black and Hispanic single mothers with the resources and support they need to achieve their family aspirations.
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As you can see, there are many influences on a person’s developmental and behavioural trajectory. We will focus on two particularly powerful influences: the family and the broader environment.
Family
Family relationships usually contribute positively to human development. Parents are the first models a child will encounter, as well as the source of many conditioning factors. Parents often teach their children appropriate, healthy, and positive behaviours through their instructions, modelling, reinforcement, and appropriate use of punishment. Adult modelling of prosocial behaviour, for example, has been found to influence altruism in children (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). Put simply, a functional family is one that offers developmentally, emotionally, socially, and culturally appropriate learning opportunities.
All families experience times of stress and difficulty, but in a healthy family, the family adapts to changing needs and recovers from crisis situations to resume positive functioning (Amatea & Watson, 2017). A prominent example is parental separation, which can be a time of crisis associated with significant stress and potential negative effects on children (e.g. behavioural problems). Nevertheless, most families resume healthy functioning within two years after the event (Sigelman & Rider, 2018). Positive adjustment to parental separation is more likely in families where separated parents both have adequate financial support; remain consistent in using positive parenting strategies; engage in minimal conflict with each other; kept changes to a minimum; and have good personal support or resources. As you might imagine, while a brief period of difficulty will sometimes, in interaction with other factors, have a lasting negative impact, in most cases, it is the general quality of the family environment that is important.
However, children in the same family may have very different reactions to a particular family environment or to changes within it. Consider a child who has spent the first several years of their life being an only child, receiving all their parents’ attention. A new sibling changes the older child’s family environment significantly, and their development is influenced by this and flow-on changes. But while the additional family member changes the older child’s family environment and the level of attention they receive, the new child doesn’t have any experience of such a change to adapt to. They will both, however, experience life as a sibling, with the pros and cons this brings. As family size increases, for example, parents have less time to spend with each child individually. In addition, children from large families may have fewer financial and material resources, as these have to be spread further (Rettew, 2013). On the other hand, children with siblings generally have more interactions with other children and siblings become sources of social learning for each other. They can be very positive influences and sources of support.
Other differences in experience will be present, too, which could mean that individual responses to the same stimuli differ, and personality differences also mean that the same influence can have different impacts. In some cases, aspects of an environment that are positive for one person may not be for another. For example, an extroverted child may be more comfortable, happier, and healthier in a socially active household than their introverted sibling.
reflect
Consider your own family situation and the environment you grew up in. Who are the main influences in your family? If you have siblings, would you agree that you and your siblings have had both similar and different learning experiences within the family?
Dysfunctional Family Environments
Just as a child can learn positive ideas and behaviours from watching their parents and siblings, they can also learn unhealthy and anti-social behaviours and beliefs. Dysfunctional families are characterised by unhealthy patterns of interaction (unhelpful conflict behaviours, ineffective communication strategies, violence, etc.) and have little ability to handle stressors or adapt to crises (Amatea & Watson, 2017). According to Sabatino (2013), children raised in dysfunctional families are at higher risk of difficulties in their adult lives, including forming and maintaining relationships, self-esteem, and trusting others. Shapiro, Friedberg, and Bardenstein (2012) suggest that this is due to modelling negative or socially unacceptable behaviours. While these behaviours may ‘work’ within the dysfunctional family unit (functioning to get the child or parent what they want, for example), they are inappropriate and have a range of negative effects.
Domestic and family violence (DFV) can be viewed as an extreme form of dysfunction in which one family member abuses another, creating a damaging environment. Among other serious issues, this provides harmful learning experiences. For example, through conditioning and modelling, some children impacted by DFV will experience negative outcomes such as mental health problems, behavioural difficulties, and problems in later relationships. Research also suggests that children who grow up in violent families are likelier to learn aggressive behaviours and that some will become violent themselves (Franzoi, 2011). Observational learning provides one explanation as to how this can happen:
Abusive parents provide children with a veritable classroom for learning specific forms of abusive behaviors, particular attitudes, and distinct cognitions that justify violence.
Barnett, Miller-Perrin, & Perrin, 2011, p. 50
As Barnett and colleagues (2011) point out, children learn behaviours from not only their parent’s modelling but also their values and habits of thought. For example, a parent with violence-supportive attitudes may inculcate those attitudes in the child.
As well as modelling and observational learning, children in dysfunctional families may be conditioned to behave aggressively:
For instance, in some families, aggressive behavior is reinforced with respect and access to tangible rewards. Children who adapt to such reinforcement contingencies get in trouble when they go to school, where aggressive behavior is generally punished.
Shapiro et al., 2012, p. 114
However, it is important to note that many people who experience abuse do not go on to abuse others, and many people who use violence were not subjected to child abuse or other forms of DFV themselves (Campo, 2015). And, of course, there is a wide range of other negative effects of such exposure, some of which last a lifetime. DFV can result in a wide range of serious problems, including illnesses, injuries, and even death; malnutrition and health problems due to neglect; sexually transmitted infection in cases of sexual abuse; psychological disorders; and relationship difficulties (Jeffries, 2016). And it is not only children who are direct targets of abusive behaviour who suffer; serious psychological damage is caused to children who live in a household or family where DFV occurs, even when they are not targets or direct witnesses of it.
Childhood Trauma
This video dives into a critical aspect of child development that demands our attention and understanding - the profound impact of neglect on young minds. This exploration uncovers the distressing connection between childhood neglect and its enduring effects on emotional and cognitive well-being.
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Peer Relationships
While the child’s first learning environment is the home, and their first models are their parents and siblings, the family is not the children's only source of social learning. Children do much of their socialisation with peers at school and with whom they engage in activities, such as bands, sports teams, communities of worship, and so on. Here they are taught what behaviours are acceptable and what is expected from them in these contexts, and these environments also influence the young person’s developing sense of self (Scully, Barbour, & Roberts-King, 2015).
Learning how to function within a peer group is one of the most significant accomplishments in a young person’s life. As well as learning specific behaviours (Sigelman et al., 2019), these relationships offer opportunities for learning problem-solving, perspective-taking, and empathy (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). Peers become increasingly important as children grow older, with adolescents particularly dependent on their peers for information, support, and developing their sense of identity, and support. Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2013) suggest that “adolescents have a strong ‘herd’ drive and desire to be accepted by their peers” (p. 359). Indeed, peer rejection has been found to predict later mental health problems.
Peer affiliations in the adolescent stage may mitigate or reduce family and parental influences (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). Peers can influence an adolescent’s social activities, study habits, dress, sexual behaviour, use of drugs, vocational pursuits, and hobbies, for example (Sigelman et al., 2019). Some research indicates that an adolescent’s peers have such an impact on them that they can be a stronger indication of whether an adolescent will be involved in juvenile delinquency than their parents and families (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2013). Peer influence is far from all negative, however, despite what some people think about teenagers! Peers regularly teach and reinforce pro-social behaviours and good habits. Supportive, healthy friendships and romantic relationships can help protect young people from the effects of dysfunctional family environments (Sigelman et al., 2019).
Interaction And Intensity of Influences
As we have learned from Bronfenbrenner, we need to consider not just the environmental influences themselves but how these influences interact. Let’s take the example of conduct problems. Imagine that a young person lives in a home where their parents use aggressive, coercive communication and behavioural control techniques. When the child acts out (and even when they don’t), the parents shout, threaten, and hit the child. The parents learn that this temporarily controls the child’s behaviour, and the child learns how to engage in coercive behaviour. The child might then use similarly aggressive tactics at school, which can lead to poor academic performance and rejection by their peers, with the possible exception of other young people who similarly engage in anti-social behaviour, and who thereby encourage such behaviour still further (Sigelman et al., 2019). Or the child might show distress as a result of the abuse, prompting a caring teacher to find out what is happening and refer the child and their family for appropriate help.
reflect
Reflect on your own experience. Do you agree that your peers significantly influenced your behaviours and learning when you were an adolescent? What impact do you think your peers have on you now? How might this knowledge help you better understand your clients?
Factors such as the strength and duration of exposure to a particular influence also affect how much impact it will have on the person. Using the same example, if the young person lived with their parents until age three and then moved in with their grandparents, who use positive communication and parenting strategies, the influence of the parents’ negative communication styles may be considerably less than if the young person remained in the parental home. Similarly, if the child were being transferred to another school with fewer peers behaving coercively, they would be subject to less modelling and reinforcement of anti-social behaviours among their peer group. Furthermore, the parents’ behaviours will most likely have a stronger influence if they shout, threaten, and hit the child regularly, compared to an occasional instance of yelling at the child.
This does not mean that occasional instances of abuse or other types of harm are not serious – they are and need to be treated as such! Instead, it is simply to highlight that the impact of particular influences may differ because of a whole range of factors, including the individual’s unique makeup, the type and intensity of the experiences, the other influences on the person, and the interactions of all these factors.
Read
Reading D – Children’s Exposure to Domestic and Family Violence presents findings from Australian and international research into the effects of DFV on children exposed to it. As you work through the reading, identify the social learning theories and concepts mentioned and how Australian expert Monica Campo uses these theories to explore some of the effects of DFV. Consider, too, how the intensity, duration, and interaction with other forms of child abuse appear to influence the impact of DFV upon those exposed to it as children.
Let’s consider another critical example you are already familiar with from your last module: poverty. Poverty can impact the health of a family and its members, with potentially long-lasting effects on children’s health, cognitive, and social-emotional outcomes, particularly when it is long-term (Warren, 2017). While a family that has a brief period of financial difficulty may well ‘bounce back’ and not suffer lasting harm, for those living in financial strife over a significant period, the effects can be profound.
Apart from having fewer resources to provide adequate nutrition, medical care, and stimulating activities, financial adversity can negatively impact parents’ mental health and the quality of the parenting they provide. Poverty makes it more likely that parents will be less responsive and more punitive, for example. (It is important to note that this does not mean that all parents living in poverty are less responsive and more punitive than those with more financial resources or that those with more financial resources are always more responsive and less punitive. These findings reflect averages across groups, with many differences in how parents of all socio-economic strata behave.) Such effects are detrimental to children’s development, as we would expect.
The effects of persistent poverty in the early years can be particularly troubling: “While single episodes of poverty and financial disadvantage may be ‘smoothed over’ using savings or credit, a financial disadvantage that continues for several years is likely to have a much more detrimental influence on children’s outcomes” (Warren, 2017, p.22). As such, the negative effects of poverty or financial instability on children’s development and social learning will vary depending on the timing and duration of such experiences and other factors within themselves and their environments (remember Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory)
Check your understanding of the content so far!
In this section, you have learnt about social learning theories, including Bandura’s social cognitive theory, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. As well as considering how others can teach us through instruction, support, and modelling, we have learnt about how our environments interact to shape our learning, behaviour, and life outcomes. As you have seen, even people from the same families, who are subject to similar treatment and influences, may turn out very differently. As a counsellor, you will need to consider these factors carefully in seeking to understand your clients and the ways they have learned to think and act as they do. In the next section, we will explore how both conditioning and social learning theories can be used to help clients make positive changes.
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