Behavioral Models

Behavioral models transmit a variety of information to the learner.  For many people, a simple example might be the choice of silverware in a nice resteraunt.  Not used to a choice among 3 spoons and 4 forks, we wait for a host, partner, or some model who is seen as knowledgeable to choose first.  Then we pattern our own behavior on this model.

Another example is terrorism.  The first hijacking or an airliner occurred in 1961, with a hijacking to Cuba.  This model created a new terrorist approach that eventually reached 71 countries over the next 14 years.



Not all modeling teaches new beahvior.  Sometimes, the result of the model is to strengthen or weaken a learner's restraints against the performance of a particular behavior.  This is the basis of many drug education programs such as DARE.  In this program, some new skills are taught, but the major goal is to stregthen children's restraint against drug use by using positive models (police officers) from the community.  Similarly, peer pressure may not teach new behaviors (although it may) as much as it lessens an individuals restraint against a variety of behaviors.

Another outcome of modeling is to transmit new patterns of behavior, such as language or political practices.  Often, the change in speech patterns parents see among teens is not new language, but a reconstruction of old patterns and accepted practices.  Similarly, a change in political philosophy from social liberalism to libertarin is more a change in thought (and perception) than in overt beahvior.
 


Types of models

    Strictly speaking a model is any stimulus array so organized that an observer can extract and act on the main information conveyed by environmental events without needing to first perform a behavior overtly.  Essentially, this translates as- a model is something that an individual observes or experiences that allows the individual to pass judgement on the desireability of a behavior without actually having to engage n that behavior. So, if an individual watches someone steal a purse, and can pass judgement on the outcome that behavior has on the purse stealer, the purse stealer becomes a model.  One obvious problem is that the judgement passed may be based on incomplete information.  That is, the youth who sees the purse being stolen and watches the theif escape may not recognize the variety of additional factors which may result from this action.  Rather, the youth sees the purse stolen, sees the theif escape, and assumes this is an easy way to obtain money wthout consequence.
 
A model can be:
    1) Live: any live person
    2) Verbal descriptions: instructions
    3) Symbolic: pictorial representation- mass media provides the greatest source of
        modeling in America today.


 

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