Negative modeling: what is it and how does it work?
Observing others is essential during development because it is the way we learn how to guide our own behavior.
This idea is the one that lies in the concept of modeling, explained in greater depth by Albert Bandura. People do actions and whoever observes them introduces them into their behavioural repertoire. Observing others is something fundamental during development since it is the way we learn how to guide our own behavior.
This idea is the one that lies in the concept of modeling, explained in greater depth by Albert Bandura. People do actions and whoever observes them introduces them into their behavioural repertoire .
However, not all behavior is good. Sometimes unwanted actions are imitated, and this is the idea that would be related to the concept of negative modeling , explained in more detail in this article.
Negative modeling, what is it?
Within Albert Bandura’s proposal of social learning, negative modelling is understood as the fact of imitating other people’s behaviours that are not considered appropriate to be a socially adjusted individual .
They are usually behaviours that involve some kind of harm to others or to oneself, but with enough social pressure to imitate it believing that it can involve some kind of benefit.
Theoretical framework on which it is based
The term modelling, in a more general and neutral vision, refers to the process of observational learning in which the behaviour of an individual or group of individuals serves as a stimulus for thinking , attitudes and behaviour of other people.
Within psychology, the study of imitation has been virtually ignored until 1941 when Miller and Dollard tried to address it from a behavioral perspective. Later, in 1963, Albert Bandura proposed a theory on behavioral imitation to try to explain personality development through social learning. Over time, the term ‘imitation’ was progressively replaced by ‘modelling’ within the academic field.
According to Bandura himself, most human behavior is the result of having observed it in others and having acquired it through modeling. Thus, a person, by seeing how others behave, gets an idea of what repertoires of behavior to carry out and using them as a guide. The influence of the behaviour of others on oneself can depend on several factors, such as the status attributed to the reference subject or the degree of kinship.
Broadly speaking, the process of imitation begins with the observation of a behaviour. Later, the person who observes it feels identified with the person who is doing it and proceeds to imitate it. If the action involves some kind of short-term benefit or reward, it is more likely that he will assimilate it into his behavioural repertoire.
Examples of negative modeling
As already indicated, negative modelling is understood to be the imitation of behaviour considered undesirable or inappropriate because it involves some damage both to the person who performs it and to third parties.
The ability to imitate other people is something very adaptive for the human species , since it offers us a great diversity of behaviours that we can know in advance will have some kind of benefit, since it is logical to think that if others carry it out it is because it has allowed them to gain something by doing it.
However, not all that glitters is gold. Many times, without knowing it, actions and ways of doing things that are not adaptive in the long run are imitated. Young people, especially children, are more sensitive to learning bad habits, mainly because they do not yet possess the ability to discern between right and wrong. To understand this further, let’s look at some detailed examples of negative modelling put into practice .
1. Violent entertainment
The media have a great influence on our actions, thoughts and skills.
The mass media is constantly bombarded with films and series in which scenes of murder, assault and robbery appear.
It is also possible to see in more than one film that addictions are implicitly promoted, such as alcohol consumption and, although it is more regulated nowadays, the scenes in which someone appears smoking are not at all surprising.
All this can have a great influence on the mind of the child or adolescent who has witnessed scenes where this violent content appears, and may believe that imitating their favourite actors makes them ‘cool’.
In the most extreme cases, having enjoyed this type of content may be behind fights at school, aggression towards parents or misconduct, clearly unwanted behaviour.
However, it is important to qualify what has just been said at this point. All entertainment, whether in the form of films, series or video games, should not be demonised. It is the responsibility of parents to monitor what their children are exposed to.
2. Domestic violence
Domestic violence is unfortunately a social scourge. Whether it is the husband who assaults his wife or the parents who abuse their children, this type of violence contributes to the person being shaped in a very negative way .
He may carry out these same aggressions towards his partner and children as an adult, or he may imitate his abused mother and become a submissive person unable to free himself from his chains.
3. Racism and xenophobia
Although there is currently a very critical conception of racism, especially of its biological aspect, there is still a lot of work to be done and it is not uncommon to hear discriminatory comments on the basis of race .
A child raised in an environment where misconceptions about people of a particular ethnicity or nationality abound is very likely to end up doing the same thing and being believed.
Not only are the racist comments that the child will make unwanted, but behind them he will inherit all the discriminatory thinking that his parents have taught him.
4. Culture of plagiarism
This example may seem a bit far-fetched, but it is certainly a very widespread type of behavior in our society to plagiarize the works of others, behavior that is clearly undesirable and harmful if discovered.
If the child who goes to class learns to copy and paste what is written in his textbook because his teacher has told him so, even though it may seem harmless, it contributes to the assimilation of the culture of plagiarism and of not generating new ideas.
Surprisingly, nowadays, it is worth the redundancy that a politician or a social reference copied a work while studying a degree or a master. In turn, these same famous people do not receive the appropriate legal consequences.
All this, promoted by the educational field itself and, more generally, the media and the legal system, favours the belief that copying what has cost others so much to create is something legitimate .
Bibliographic references:
- Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
- Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Bandura, A. Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through the imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575-582.