Reinforcement and Punishment with Modeling

In the Social Cognitive Theory, people are often reinforced for modeling the behavior of others. Bandura has suggested that the environment also reinforces and punishes modeling. There are several possible ways a person is reinforced or punished through modeling and the environment:

1. The observer is reinforced by the model. People often reinforce others that copy wat they do and adults often reinforce children for culturally appropriate behaviors.
2. The observer is reinforced by a thrid person. The observer might be modeling the actions of someone else and is reinforced by this person.
3. The imitated behavior itself leads to reinforcing consequences. There are many behaviors that learned through observation that will produce satisying (reinforcing) results.
4. Consequences of the model’s behavior affect the observers behavior vicariously. When a person observes a model making a particular response, they may also observe the consequence(s) of the response. If the model in reinforced for the response, the observer may show an increase in that response (Ormrod, 2008, pp. 120-21).

Reference
Ormrod, J.E (2008). Human Learning (5th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.