Question

Who do you think is more complete in describing what it takes for the grade school child to develop mastery and competence, Erik Erikson (Industry versus Inferiority) or Albert Bandura (Social Learning Theory and Self-Efficacy)? Defend your answer.

Describe Erikson's stage briefly.

Describe Bandura's concepts briefly.

Compare and contrast them.

Decide which is more complete and tell why.

Answer 1

Albert Bandura's Social Learning theory and Self-Efficacy is more complete in describing of developing of Mastery and competency in grade school child. Erikson's theory of psychosocial development is only able to explain what is achieved by an individual in each stage, theory does not completely explain how each stage is achieved. In Erikson’s stage of Industry vs. Inferiority, he tells us that the child achieves new skills through the help of teachers and peers, by mixing with them, trying to impress them, and by being encouraged by them. But this stage does not explain the deeper process of how the child achieves these skills.

THEORIES OF ERIKSON AND BANDURA

Stages of Erik Erikson theory of psychosocial development:

1. Trust vs. Mistrust (0-18 months) - Resolution of uncertainty through caregivers. Success - trust and hope.
2. Autonomy vs. Shame (18 months-3 years) - Exploring and developing of new capabilities in a failure tolerant environment with support from parents. Success - autonomy and will.
3. Initiative vs. Guilt (3-5 years) - Takes initiative for activities with peers and asks questions. Success- Initiative and purpose.
4. Industry vs. Inferiority (5-12 years) - Becomes industrious with help of peers and teachers. New skills are acquired by trying to mix with peers. Success - Competency and Industry.
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion (12-18 years) - Learn roles to it into society and develop their own identity, beliefs, etc. through interaction. Success - Identity and Fidelity.
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (18-40 years) - Sharing relationship and intimacy with others leading to family life. Success - Intimacy and love.
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (40-65 years) - Settle down, establish career and family, and raise family and productivity to give back to society. Success - Generativity and care.
8. Integrity vs. Despair (65 and above) - Slow down, retire and explore life, look back and contemplate. Success - Integrity and wisdom.

Bandura's Theories:

Albert Bandura's theory of social learning tries to view behavior as a consequence of observational and imitational learning. Albert says that the person being observed and imitated are called as models. He says people, especially children, observe and imitate behaviors similar to their models (parents, peers, adults).

In the theory of social learning, learning takes place in 2 steps -

1. Children observe and encode the targeted behavior from their models, irrespective of gender appropriateness.

2. Then at a later time, they imitate the observed behavior in the same situation.

This learning is dependent on the following factors:

1. Child is likely to imitate and observe people whom it perceives as similar to him/her.

2. The imitation is reinforced or extinguished by reinforcements (rewards, punishments, etc.).

3. The learning will also be dependent on the observed consequences of the targeted behavior (if the behavior is observed as rewarding, it will be copied)

Albert Bandura also developed Social Cognitive Theory, which tries to explain how an individual’s environment, cognitive and personal factors interact to determine motivation and determination, resulting in human functioning. This theory has 4 processes of goal realization, which ultimately leads to self-efficacy in the 4th stage. The stages are:

1. Self-Observation: One observes self to motivate and evaluate. Individual observes his/her own behavior continuously (regularity) and at the time it occurs (proximity).
2. Self-Evaluation: After observing self, one has to evaluate self. The evaluation take place by comparing current performance to desired performance or goal. A goal or desired model has great effect on self-evaluation and motivation. Goals are set by observing others and comparing with them (normative standard) or by fixing a standard (absolute standard).
3. Self-Reaction: This implies one's reaction to goals and current performance. If the goal is deemed as being valuable, the individual will motivate self to reach it, leading to self-efficacy. The individual will motivate to work harder, re-evaluate self, and calibrate their plans in order to achieve the goal or standard that they have fixed.
4. Self-Efficacy: This refers to judgement regarding one's ability to perform the task or to reach the goal. Through this process and motivation, one increases his/her persistence, perseverance and efforts to achieve the desired goal or standard.

COMPARISON AND CONTRASTING

Both theories are very similar in many ways, as both theories seem to agree that learning is social. The difference between both theories are the way it is learned and the impact of environment and other factors on learning. In Bandura's theories, learning is directly affected by social interactions and observation. Bandura implies that learning is both direct as well as indirect. Direct like Erikson describes, by mixing, acquiring skills, by learning through teaching, etc. Indirect by observing, imitating and internalizing. Bandura also says that rewards, and characteristics also impact learning. Rewarding behaviors are learned fast and behaviors that child perceives as having similar characteristics to him/her are learned. Social interactions according to Bandura is cause the for learning and also for achieving self-efficacy. Erikson's stages mainly focus on psychosocial correlates and he believes as development taking place due to maturation (both genetic as well as social factors are important). Erikson believes that a person learns and matures by overcoming crisis of each stages.

WHICH IS COMPLETE?

Bandura's theories seem more complete in terms of explaining why a person is motivated to achieve learning or goals as compared to Erikson's stages. Erikson's stages explain what goals or virtue is achieved at each stage of life. But it fails to explain why the person achieves it, what is the driving force behind it. Bandura explains that the driving force for achieving goal is motivation. It is initiated through self-evaluation and the goal is achieved by self-efficacy. Even though Erikson’s theory has very similar view to Bandura's theories, but in the end environment plays a great big role in determination of all that we have achieved or all that we can achieve.