Self Control and Learning by

Observation
Coping
 Alleviating stress using Emotional, Cognitive and
Behavioral methods
Coping
 Problem-Focused Coping
 Alleviating
stress directly
by changing the stressor or
how we interact with the
stressor
 Eg. Changing study habits to
better suit our personal
learning style
Coping
 Emotion-focused coping
 Alleviate stress by removing
yourself from the stressor and
dealing with emotional needs
related to stressor
 Eg. Taking a break from
studying to spend time with
friends or go get some exercise
Learned Helplessness
 Hopelessness and passive resignation learned when
unable to avoid repeated detrimental effects
 Can lead to depression, higher stress levels and poor
health
Learned Helplessness
Perception of Control
 External locus of control: perception that outside forces
beyond our own control determine out fate
 More prone to health complications and learned helplessness
 Internal Locus of Control: perception that we control our
own fate
 Lessprone to stress and associated with higher levels of
academic and work achievements
Self-Control
 The ability to control
impulses and delay short-
term gratification
 Similarto a muscle and
Becomes more easily
exerted if used regularly
 Also prone to fatigue
Learning by Observation
Definition: Learning by observing others.

Modeling: process of observing and imitating a

specific behavior.
Albert Bandura
 Canadian.
 Born 1925 in Northern Alberta.
 B.A. in Psychology from UBC 1949.
 Continues to work at Stanford U.
 Was president of the APA 1973.
 Behavioral Psychologist.
Bandura’s View
“Learning would be exceedingly laborious not to mention
hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effect of
their own actions to inform them what to do”
Brain & Observation
Miror Neurons: frontal lobe neurons that fire when
performing certain actions or when observing another
doing so.
The Brain’s mirroring of another’s action may enable
imitation, language learning and empathy.
The Good
Prosocial behavior: positive constructive,
helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial
behavior.

Ex. Charity, volunteering, helping & general good

behavior & deeds.
The Bad … Television
Television is blamed for being a bad role
model for people.
This is mostly because of the amount of
violence and loose morals.
Television
How do they study the effects of T.V. on Children?
 Researchers go to remote places without T.V., observe the children and
return again once they receive TV
 These studies have huge problems with their methodology.
 Problems in population size, recruiting factors, cultural differences,
socioeconomic factors etc.
 Longitudinal studies are always problematic and the actual amount of T.V.
watched is normally unknown.
Television is bad…..
 TV raises the aggression levels in children (Josephson,
1987)
 Women who watched violent TV as children were found to
have “punched, beaten, or choked another adult over four
times the rate of other women” (Huesmann et al., 2003 )
 “television violence is as strongly correlated with
aggressive behavior as any other behavioral variable that
has been measured” (Murray, 2003 )
Television is not so bad . . .
 there is little evidence to suggest that a heavier diet of TV violence is linked
to concurrent levels of antisocial behavior (Gunter, 2000)
 in only rare and artificial circumstances that a stimulus such as television
would modify one’s behavior (Ashworth et al., 1985).
 70% of the subjects felt that television broadens the minds of children and
exposes them to new ideas and concepts and generally increases their
overall knowledge (Bybee et al. 1985).
Some critical considerations: Television
Think about certain research issues:

Researchers are selecting the violent content shown to

participants and the children are watching something they may
would not pick for themselves.
As a result it creates an artificial form of aggression.

Television violence may momentarily increase aggression, but

long term effects have not been found when it has been
introduced to a new population.
Some critical considerations: Television
Think about certain research issues:

This outcome was not expected as the idea of television creating

aggressive children is both widespread and common.

Like all people, some children are prone to being aggressive and
violent naturally and factors such as society, socioeconomic
class and relationships with parents should be examined
before placing all of the blame on television.
Applying Psychology: Systematic
Desensitization
Applying Psychology: Flooding